Aristotle, the Phoenicians and the Jews

As I have argued elsewhere (1); it is reasonable to partially equate the Phoenicians and the jews historically before the expansion for Rome into Egypt, Syria and Palestine in the first century BC.

I have occasionally seen detractors claim I am wrong and that the jews and the Phoenicians are not to be equated, but true to type they never both to explain why this is so.

Personally I suspect (from the wording of their comments) that they don't like the idea that the Israelites of old are by enlarge the ancestors of modern jewry and forget that the genetic data - as well as primary sources like the Nuremberg Chronicle - has indicated that jewry are closely related to the Arabs. (2) In spite of nearly two centuries worth of Diaspora in Europe as both MacDonald (3) and Duke have correctly averred. (4)

However that may be - it is important to state that - as I have argued elsewhere, (5) Aristotle probably did not meet any jews in his lifetime. Although there is a legend -allegedly from the works of Clearchus of Soli and transmitted through the ever partisan Josephus - that he had a jewish student, which gets dredged up from time to time. Nor does Aristotle mention jews in his works, but he does mention the Phoenicians whom he refers to as being 'war-like'. (6)

This we may reasonably suppose could be applied to the jews as much as the Phoenicians. Since we know that they had close contact with one another (7) and also that Judaism - such as it then was - was derived heavily from Phoenician and Syrian polytheistic religious belief systems. (8)

Evidence for this can be found in the fact that the Tanakh refers to this war-like proclivity among the jews with the first Book of Kings recording the jews (allegedly) killed 100,000 Syrians in an offensive battle. (9)

This suggests that Aristotle's point that the Phoenicians were 'war-like' could equally be applied to the jews since Aristotle himself would not likely have known the difference between the two.

After all the Phoenicians were the great civilization (not the Israelites contrary to the claims of the Tanakh), while the ancestors of modern jewry were effectively a tribe of goat-herders who were more interested in initiating religious massacres against more traditional theists (following the Phoenician/Canaanite polytheist religious system as opposed to the puritanical cult of Yahweh) than educating themselves with such comparative novelties as philosophy and critical intellectual speculation.

Therefore it is reasonable to suppose that when Aristotle referred to the Phoenicians as being 'war-like'; he could be seen to also be referring to the jews in the same breath.

References

(1) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/homer-the-phoenicians-and-the-jews

(2) For a recent-ish nuanced analysis see Ellen Levy-Coffman, 2005, 'A Mosaic of People: The Jewish Story and a Reassessment of the DNA Evidence', Journal of Genetic Genealogy, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 12-33

(3) http://www.redicecreations.com/radio/2014/09/RIR-140929.php

(4) http://davidduke.com/hear-drs-david-duke-kevin-macdonald-khazar-theory/

(5) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/clearchus-of-soli-aristotle-and-the

(6) Arist., Pol. 1324B

(7) Cf. 2. Chron. 2:14

(8) For example see Patrick Miller Jr., 1973, 'The Divine Warrior in Early Israel', 1st Edition, Harvard University Press: Cambridge; John Day, 2002, 'Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan', 2nd Edition, Sheffield Academic Press: New York and Mark Smith, 2001, 'The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts', 1st Edition, Oxford University Press: New York

(9) 1 Kings 20:29-30

(10) E.g. 2 Kings 10:19-27