Hellenistic Inter-state Political Ethics and the Emergence of the Jewish State

In Hellenistic Inter-state Political Ethics and the Emergence of the Jewish State, Doron Mendels offers ethicists, historians, and general readers an accessible analysis of inter-state codes that developed and went hand-in-hand with the increasing political dominance of the Roman Republic’s in eastern Mediterranean affairs during the years 200-168 BCE. These codes, though “virtual,” can be readily inferred from historiographic sources such as Livy, Roman Annalists, Polybius, and 1 and 2 Maccabees. By drawing attention to shared underpinnings from primary sources that account for how dominant, subjugated, allied and inimical political units could comprehend and interact, Mendels puts the rise of Jewish nationalism during the Maccabean Wars into a perspective that has all too often eluded historians and those who engage in socio-political ethics. In this book readers are treated to insights into flexible yet stable unwritten scripts that give rise to a world whose legacy remains with us today. * Loren T. Stuckenbruck, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany *
Doron Mendels’ reading of Livy’s History of Rome and 1-2 Maccabees demonstrates in an exemplary manner how an original and imaginative historian may put fresh wine into old wineskins. He surprises us first with the discovery of an inter-state ethical code created by the Romans at the beginning of the second century BC, before moving on to the conclusion, that Judea was a “normal” case of implementing this code. What strikes me as a historian of modern times above all, is the relevance of Mendels’ reinterpretation of these historical sources of ancient history for the better understanding of contemporary circumstances, including those concerning the Middle-East. * Moshe Zimmermann, Professor Emeritus, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel *
Professor Doron Mendels' new book, Hellenistic Inter-state Political Ethics and the Emergence of the Jewish State, makes a seminal contribution to a number of fields, including classical studies, ancient history, and political thought. His study traces the gradual emergence in the years extending roughly from 200-168 BCE of an inter-state ethical system, an unwritten or virtual code governing the relations among states in the ancient Hellenistic world. In the first part of this book, Mendels brilliantly elaborates his argument by drawing on ancient historians, above all on Livy, who alluded to this ethical code in his histories. He then shifts his focus in the second part of the book to the ancient Jewish state and to accounts of its relations with other states in this period. Through a reading of books one and two of Maccabees, he analyzes the role of this ethical code in organizing relations between the Jewish state, Rome, and the Hellenistic empires. His original argument concerning the lasting significance of this code up through the modern period is presented in very readable and engaging form, and it lends to this book a contemporary relevance and a clear importance for scholars in a wide number of fields. * Jeffrey Andrew Barash, Professor Emeritus, Université de Picardie, Amiens, France *
Doron Mendels presents us with a new dimension of the Hellenistic world in which ethical inter-state systems played a significant role while influencing each other, the Jewish state being part of this process. * Alexander Yakobson, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel *