What was the origin of the slander that Jews worshiped the head of an ass, in particular?(Solved)

rakovsky

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In Josephus' defense of Judaism, Against Apion, he defended against the slander that Jews worshiped a donkey/ass. In many ancient cultures, some major deities were associated with specific animals. I understand that certainly the Jews did not worship a donkey idol or a donkey's head because the Torah banned idolatry. So my basic question that I want to ask is: Why did some pagans make the slander that Jews, and later Christians, worshiped the head of an ass in particular, as opposed to that of another animal?

Archeologists uncovered a ritually sacrificed donkey from 2700 BC in the ancient Canaanite village of Gath. Besides reporting the discovery, in its article "Canaanites Imported Sacrificial Animals From Egypt, Archaeologists Find", Haaretz interpreted the command on redeeming donkeys in Exodus 13:13 to imply that donkeys were sacrificed in pre-Judaic times. The article noted: "In the Old Testament, the son of the founding father of the city Shechem is named hamor, which means donkey in Hebrew (Gen. 33:18-43:31). Moreover, a donkey is given the power to talk by [the LORD] in the story of Balaam (Num. 22)."

Further, the Encyclopedia Britannica reports:
During the rule of the Hyksos invaders (c. 1630–1521 BCE), Seth was worshipped at their capital, Avaris, in the northeastern Nile River delta, and was identified with the Canaanite storm god Baal.
(Encyclopedia Britannica, Seth | Egyptian god)

In the Late Period of Egyptian culture (712-323 BC), the god Seth was depicted as a donkey or having a donkey's head, according to Wikipedia's article on the god Seth. The Egyptian priest Manetho, who lived in Ptolemaic Egypt in the early 3rd century BC, was one of the first writers whom I found claiming that the Jews worshiped an ass/donkey. Perhaps Manetho and others confused Jewish religion with the earlier donkey rituals or worship of the Canaanites?
 
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lismore

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Persecution of Jews is usually illogical, the participants driven by a diabolically inspired hatred because of the promises the one true God has made to the Jews. Another example is the 'blood libel' thrown by medieval Roman Catholics at the Jews:

Blood libel - Wikipedia

Utterly illogical, the Law of Moses forbade the Jews from eating anything with blood in it. But then, not having access to the scriptures in the vernacular how would Medieval folks know that?
 
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yeshuaslavejeff

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Utterly illogical, the Law of Moses forbade the Jews from eating anything with blood in it. But then, not having access to the scriptures in the vernacular how would Medieval folks know that?
Same way Simon barjona knew JESUS IS MESSIAH, Son of Living ELohim.
 
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pinacled

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In Josephus' defense of Judaism, Against Apion, he defended against the slander that Jews worshiped a donkey/ass. In many ancient cultures, some major deities were associated with specific animals. I understand that certainly the Jews did not worship a donkey idol or a donkey's head because the Torah banned idolatry. So my basic question that I want to ask is: Why did some pagans make the slander that Jews, and later Christians, worshiped the head of an ass in particular, as opposed to that of another animal?

Archeologists uncovered a ritually sacrificed donkey from 2700 BC in the ancient Canaanite village of Gath. Besides reporting the discovery, in its article "Canaanites Imported Sacrificial Animals From Egypt, Archaeologists Find", Haaretz interpreted the command on redeeming donkeys in Exodus 13:13 to imply that donkeys were sacrificed in pre-Judaic times. The article noted: "In the Old Testament, the son of the founding father of the city Shechem is named hamor, which means donkey in Hebrew (Gen. 33:18-43:31). Moreover, a donkey is given the power to talk by god in the story of Balaam (Num. 22)."

Further, the Encyclopedia Britannica reports:


In the Late Period of Egyptian culture (712-323 BC), the god Seth was depicted as a donkey or having a donkey's head, according to Wikipedia's article on the god Seth. The Egyptian priest Manetho, who lived in Ptolemaic Egypt in the early 3rd century BC, was one of the first writers whom I found claiming that the Jews worshiped an ass/donkey. Perhaps Manetho and others confused Jewish religion with the earlier donkey rituals or worship of the Canaanites?
[ Moreover, a donkey is given the power to talk by god in the story of Balaam (Num. 22)." ]

In the above bracketed statement you chose to use lower case g in reference to the Power and Will of The All Mighty..

If you are not messianic I suggest reading the s.o.p. of this sub forum.
 
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rakovsky

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In the above bracketed statement you chose to use lower case g in reference to the Power and Will of The All Mighty..

If you are not messianic I suggest reading the s.o.p. of this sub forum.
Thanks, Pinacled. I fixed it. It was a typo or I was quoting Haaretz. You are right about reading the SOP. I made an introduction for myself there: You must read and agree before posting in this forum

One reason that I wanted to ask the question here is because Messianic believers might be more familiar with, or more able to evaluate, potential Jewish historic cultural links, like those with the Canaanites or the Canaanites' rituals. Personally, I believe that Josephus, who defended against the calumny, was a First Century Torah-observant believer in Yeshua for a number of reasons, such as his complimentary passage on John the Baptist, his Testimonium Flavianum that talks about Yeshua's miracles, and his sympathetic writing about Yeshua's brother James. But I know that scholars tend to think that he wasn't.
 
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pinacled

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Thanks, Pinacled. I fixed it. It was a typo or I was quoting Haaretz. You are right about reading the SOP. I made an introduction for myself there: You must read and agree before posting in this forum

One reason that I wanted to ask the question here is because Messianic believers might be more familiar with, or more able to evaluate, potential Jewish historic cultural links, like those with the Canaanites or the Canaanites' rituals. Personally, I believe that Josephus, who defended against the calumny, was a First Century Torah-observant believer in Yeshua for a number of reasons, such as his complimentary passage on John the Baptist, his Testimonium Flavianum that talks about Yeshua's miracles, and his sympathetic writing about Yeshua's brother James. But I know that scholars tend to think that he wasn't.
If you were citing any written material its best to associate such with brackets or a heading that credits the material to an author.

As for slander and slurs from antisemitic rhetoric and ole elihu(ha'satan).

Why bother repeating such filth.?
Especially if it is a few thousand yr old hearsay account from a more current authors account from a supposed historian?
 
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pinacled

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Thanks, Pinacled. I fixed it. It was a typo or I was quoting Haaretz. You are right about reading the SOP. I made an introduction for myself there: You must read and agree before posting in this forum

One reason that I wanted to ask the question here is because Messianic believers might be more familiar with, or more able to evaluate, potential Jewish historic cultural links, like those with the Canaanites or the Canaanites' rituals. Personally, I believe that Josephus, who defended against the calumny, was a First Century Torah-observant believer in Yeshua for a number of reasons, such as his complimentary passage on John the Baptist, his Testimonium Flavianum that talks about Yeshua's miracles, and his sympathetic writing about Yeshua's brother James. But I know that scholars tend to think that he wasn't.
Gossip has no place in fellowship offerings.
What I strongly suggest that you focus on in the spirit for now are the 5 books of Torah and 5 witness books of the Brit hadas(sh)ah.

Blessings Always
 
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rakovsky

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One reason why I wanted to ask about this is because it looks like there were some cultural bases for the link with donkeys, like the archaeological results at Gath, but I couldn't find any clear explanation for the link. Do you think that they were basing their claim in part on the ancient Canaanites' rituals? That is my best guess at this point, but I'm not trying to advocate a certain theory. And sure, at least a majority of the pagan writers were trying to slander and weren't interested in whether it were true. Some of them, like the conqueror Antiochus Epiphanus who claimed to have found a man on a donkey in the temple, must have known it was false.

I did find that worship of donkeys is called "onolatry". Robert Ravens-seger, in "The ass worship controversy" (which rejects the calumny), relates a story from Pythagoras (570 – 495 BC), which doesn't seem intended in a calumnous way:
One, Hermippus of Smyrna, wrote of one Calliphon of Crotona, who was a disciple of Pythagoras. Hermippus, wrote Josephus, recorded that after Calliphon had died, he went with Pythagoras, "and admonished him not to pass a certain spot, on which an ass had collapsed . . . ." Josephus quotes Hermippus as saying that he was thus following the precepts of the Jews and Thracians. Josephus quotes Hermippus as saying that he was thus following the precepts of the Jews and Thracians. Perhaps from a very early date, in the minds of pagan religious and intellectuals, there was felt to be a special reverence for the ass in Judaism. This account of Hermippus, written as it was in the third century B.C.E., may be one of the earliest pagan references to the Hebrew cult of the ass. Calliphon may have heard that the Jews worshipped the ass, and admonished Pythagoras to show respect for it as well.
What might have happened is that some Greeks and Egyptians confused Canaanite Sethian/Baal worship practices with Jewish customs. There were some Jews who observed Canaanite customs in violation of the Torah, according to the reports in the Tanakh.

One of my problems with connecting the calumny with the Canaanite practice is the time difference. Didn't Canaanite Baal and donkey worship die out long before Pythagoras' time in the late 6th century BC?

The later continuation of donkey worship that comes to mind is the Sethian Gnostic Christians, who combined elements of Christianity with Gnosticism and Seth worship. According to one modern theory, the graffiti depiction of a crucified donkey at the Palatine Hill actually refers to Sethian Gnostic worship.
 
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TreWalker

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According to our Jewish sages the donkey is a figure of the adversary (satan). Rabbi Shapira speaks of it here from 2:00:00_2:10:00.

A very good and long Yom Kippur teaching.

Try studying the donkey driver in the zohar. And please note this about the aforementioned SOP;
Literature: While we believe that the Bible is the Word of G-d, we also believe that it can be educational and informative to study other Jewish Literature such as the Mishnah Torah, Talmud etc. We believe, as Yeshua taught, that this does not overrule the Torah, nor is on equal basis with Torah, but it can be used to clarify ambiguous passages in the Bible.

Keep up the good work rakovsky!
 
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rakovsky

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Utterly illogical, the Law of Moses forbade the Jews from eating anything with blood in it. But then, not having access to the scriptures in the vernacular how would Medieval folks know that?
Lismore,
You are right - the Torah's ban on eating blood is a major disproof of the blood libel.
To answer your question, without having the scriptures in the vernacular, some medieval folks might still know about the ban on eating blood for a few reasons, one being that the ban on eating blood foods has actually been a prominent feature of the Jewish community's observance, and medieval people might have had enough contact or familiarity with their observances to know about the ban. I am not debating you, just trying to answer your question about how they might have in some cases.
Peace-Shalom.
 
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rakovsky

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As for slander and slurs from antisemitic rhetoric and ole elihu(ha'satan).

Why bother repeating such filth.?
Especially if it is a few thousand yr old hearsay account from a more current authors account from a supposed historian?
Pinacled,
I understand your sensitivity. It is not something that I aim to harp on. I brought it up because I was aiming to understand the early writings of Torah-Observant believers, and I didn't understand why the pagan critics would choose a donkey in particular.

According to the Talmud, the command to redeem donkeys in Exodus 13 that I mentioned earlier is based on Moses' appreciation for the donkeys:
For they [the asses] supported Israel in the time of the Exodus, for there was not even one in Israel who did not take with him ninety Lybian asses loaded with silver and gold of Egypt. (B. Berakhot 5b, see also Exodus 12:35-36)
 
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rakovsky

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According to our Jewish sages the donkey is a figure of the adversary (satan). Rabbi Shapira speaks of it here from 2:00:00_2:10:00.

A very good and long Yom Kippur teaching.

Try studying the donkey driver in the zohar. And please note this about the aforementioned SOP;
Literature: While we believe that the Bible is the Word of G-d, we also believe that it can be educational and informative to study other Jewish Literature such as the Mishnah Torah, Talmud etc. We believe, as Yeshua taught, that this does not overrule the Torah, nor is on equal basis with Torah, but it can be used to clarify ambiguous passages in the Bible.

Keep up the good work rakovsky!
That is a good explanation from the Literature section, TreWalker.
I appreciate your support also. I find that the forums are a good place to work out tough issues, and I find the input from Messianic believers helpful.

Finding that Josephus was a Torah Observant believer or sympathizer was one of the neatest discoveries for me in reading his works. I think that he includes cryptic allusions to the Christian story in his works. eg. in his autobiography he talks about his time learning from a hermit who used immersions named Banus (meaning bather), which I think alludes to John the Baptist. He (Joseph Bar Mattiyah) has a story about how he got the Roman commander to take down three of his friends from crosses, one of whom lived, which recalls Joseph of Arimathea getting Jesus down from the cross with the two others. He also tells how he started making a speech, jumped down from a parapet and escaped with his guard James when his opponents tried to kill him, which recalls the story of how James gave a speech at Jerusalem's Temple, was knocked down from the Temple and stoned. One of the features of early believers' writings was to make these kinds of cryptic allusions to the Christian story, like in the Martyrdom of Polycarp.
 
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rakovsky

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My guess is that the pagan critics got their idea from Seth worship.

Josephus writes in Against Apion about Manetho's description connecting the Hyksos with the Seth-worshiping city of Avaris:
Then Manetho continues as follows (I quote his account verbatim): "When the men in the stone-quarries had suffered hardships for a considerable time, they begged the king to assign to them as a dwelling-place and a refuge the deserted city of the Shepherds, Auaris, and he consented. According to religious tradition88 this city was from earliest times dedicated to Typhôn..." ...
But let us now examine99 the most ridiculous part of the whole story. Although he had learned these facts, and co
nceived a dread of the future, the king did not, even then, expel from his land those cripples of whose taint he had previously been bidden to purge Egypt, but instead, at their request, he gave them as their city (Manetho says) the former habitation of the Shepherds, Auaris, as it was called.

LOEB's FOOTNOTE #12:
The Hyksôs brought with them from Asia their tribal god, which was assimilated by the Egyptian to Sêth, the god of foreign parts, of the desert, and of the enemy.

SOURCE: LacusCurtius • Manetho's History of Egypt — Book II
The god Typhon is also known as the god Seth.

But actually I have not been able to find anything by Manetho - including in Josephus' citations- specifying that Jews worshipped donkeys. Manetho just seems to make other criticisms. It looks like he didnt specify that one.
 
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rakovsky

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The Jewish Encyclopedia article on the topic basically confirms my theory and concludes that it came from Levantine peoples' and Sethian gnostics' Seth worship associated with donkeys:
ASS-WORSHIP - JewishEncyclopedia.com

I feel like this answers the Question in the OP.
Peace - Shalom.
 
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