By October 11, 2016 Read More →

May 11, 218 B.C.E. Jewish Divorce

Octadrachm Ptolemy IVPapyrus Enteuxeis 23; CPJUD. I 128

A papyrus, containing the complaint of a woman married to a Jewish man. She had addressed her case (May 11, 218 B.C.E.) to the king:

To King Ptolemy greeting from Helladote, daughter of Philonides.

I am being wronged by Jonathas, the Jew … He has agreed by a written contract [in accordance with the civic] law of the Jews to hold me [as wife]. Now he wants to renounce [and claims for] 100 drachmas, and also the house: he does not give me my due, and shuts me out of my house … and absolutely wrongs me in every respect.

I beg you therefore, my king, to order Diophanes, the strategus, to write to … the epistates of Samareia not to let [me be wronged, but] to send Jonathas to Diophanes in order [that he may inquire into the case]. For by this means [I shall no longer be wronged, but having sought your protection, I shall obtain justice].

Farewell.

[Verso:] Year 4, Dios 3, Phamenoth 27.

Helladote daughter of Philonides concerning dowry and …”

Helladote, to judge from her name and patronymic, seems to be Greek. Since she had become the spouse of a Jew “according to the civic law of the Jews,” she must have been integrated into the community of her husband.

He repudiated his spouse in the traditional manner sanctioned by Deuteronomy 24:1, the basis of Jewish divorce law. That ruling was in flagrant contradiction with current Greek matrimonial custom, which recognized the equality of husband and wife in divorce proceedings. The numerous marriage contracts preserved in the papyri we possess contain clauses providing for divorce with the torts attributed to one or the other spouse, and, later on, even by mutual consent. The husband promised formally not to repudiate, literally not to “throw out” (me ekballein) his wife. Now Helladote had well and truly been “thrown out.” The incompatibility between Jewish law and Greek practice was precisely the cause of Helladote’s outrage and the prime motive for her complaint.

Thanks to this misadventure, we have been able to learn a most important fact: Jewish law, that is, the Greek Torah, had truly become a “civic law,” politikos nomos, among other “civic laws” applicable to Greek-speaking immigrants. Henceforth, the Septuagint had its place among the other “civic laws” as the “civic law” for the Jews of Egypt.  We have still to learn what use the Jews would make of their newfound liberty to live according to the Law of their forefathers.

In Lady Helladote’s complaint, the “Law of the Jews” seems to have served as the legal basis for her marriage as well as her divorce. But two hundred years later, a Jewish couple from Alexandria, in defiance of the biblical ruling, were to put an end to their union by mutual consent (Berlin Papyrus IV, 1102; CPJud. II, 144).

Source: Joseph Mélèze Modrzejewski. The Jews of Egypt. (p. 111-112)

Posted in: Jews of Egypt

Comments are closed.