Idumeans: Josephos on the Edomites’ origins and relations with Judeans (late first century CE)
Citation with stable link: Philip A. Harland, 'Idumeans: Josephos on the Edomites’ origins and relations with Judeans (late first century CE),' Ethnic Relations and Migration in the Ancient World, last modified May 4, 2024, https://philipharland.com/Blog/?p=10534.
Ancient author: Josephos, Judean Antiquities, Against Apion, and Judean War, various passages identified below (link).
Comments: In contrast to Josephos’ consistently negative portrayal of Chutheans or Samaritans to the north of Jerusalem (Josephos’ home-town), his characterization of Idumeans (or: Idumaeans) to the south may best be described as ambivalent. On the one hand, building on his main origin story with Jacob and Esau, various narratives (some building on biblical accounts) emphasize the close relationship and common descent (syggeneis) shared by both Idumeans (or Edomites as descendants of Esau) and Judeans / Jews (as descendents of Jacob, Esau’s brother). Frequently, either Josephos or characters in his stories refer to this close relationship and membership in a common kin-group (including characters like the high priests and the Idumeans themselves in a crucial moment leading to all out war). This goes along with a somewhat neutral or even positive portrayal of this people at many points. It is important to notice that Josephos will never admit such kinship between Samaritans and Judeans, by the way (even though Samaritan characters will do so emphatically at times).
On the other hand, Idumeans are presented as quite out of control, unpredictable, rebellious, and even thoroughly blood-stained and savage, particularly though not solely in connection with their role in supporting the struggle against the Romans in the Roman-Judean war (66-70 CE, or 73 CE for some hold-outs). In fact, when Josephos enumerates who was most to blame for horrendous behaviours leading to Roman intervention and ultimately the destruction of the temple, the Idumeans were worse than sicarii (dagger-men) and only a little less bad than the “wicked” people that Josephos calls “zealots” or “enthusiasts” or “emulators” (zēlōtai, i.e. emulators of the worst and most violent behaviours), and sometimes “bandits.”
But, as you will see in reading the narratives collected here (including those from Judean Antiquities), Josephos engages in negative characterizations or stereotyping of Idumeans in connection with various other incidents are well. For instance, when Josephos draws on the biblical account of Solomon’s abhorent “foreign” marriages, Idumean women are included in this category (despite other references to common kinship). While Hyrkanos I successfully has the Idumeans adopt (or renew) Judean ancestral customs among the Idumeans, the Idumean king Qostobaros reverses any advances on this front and heads in the other direction. The Roman client king Herod, who is characterized as half-Judean and half-Idumean, is also guilty of leading himself and others away from Judean ancestral customs, according to Josephos.
Josephos’ narratives about Idumeans constitute the most substantial material we have for characterizations of this people in the Hellenistic and Roman eras, so it is worthwhile collecting together as many of their appearances in his stories as we can find. The historian Ptolemy’s work on Herod has not survived, except for brief citations by others. But one such citation does briefly deal with the difference between Judeans and Idumeans in connection with Hyrkanos’ subjection (link). Beyond that, we are fortunate to gain momentary glimpses into Idumean groups living abroad in Egypt from epigraphic and papyrological evidence, on which go to this link.
Works consulted: Aryeh Kasher, Jews, Idumaeans, and Ancient Arabs (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1988); Michał Marciak, “Idumea and the Idumeans in Josephus’ Story of Hellenistic-Early Roman Palestine (‘Ant.’ XII-XX),” Aevum 91 (2017): 171–93 (link).
This post is part of the Biblical peoples redux series:
Descendents of Noah’s sons Shem, Japheth and Ham in Josephos and Pseudo-Philo (link)
Ishmaelites (Arabians) in Jubilees, Molon and Josephos (link)
Edomites (Idumeans) in Josephos (link)
Amalekites in Josephos and Philo (link)
Canaanites (Phoenicians) in Jubilees (link) and in Wisdom of Solomon (link)
Kushites (Ethiopians) in Artapanos, Josephos and others (link)
Midianites and Moabites (Arabians) in Philo and Josephos (link)
Chutheans or Samaritans in Josephos (link) and in biographies of Jesus
