On the apology of sacrifice in the Letter of Aristeas

The article attempts to answer the question of what role in the development of Jewish theological concepts did the text of §170 of the Letter of Aristeas play, which contains the teaching about sacrifices. This work is a Greek-language pseudepigraph, written, according to researchers, in the 2nd century BC in Egypt by a certain Jew who received a Hellenistic education. It tells about the circumstances of the translation of the text of the Pentateuch into Greek by 72 interpreters at the court of the Egyptian monarch Ptolemy II Philadelphus. In my article I show that § 170 of the Letters of Aristeas, which allegedly conveys the teachings of the high priest Eleazar, there was made, as far as is known, the first attempt in Jewish history to provide a philosophical foundation for the practice of sacrifice. In the research literature relating to both the Letter of Aristeas and the history of the ancient Jewish ritual, this fact was almost unnoticed. The article shows that the author of the Letter of Aristeas accepts the postulate that ethics is more important than observance of sacrificial rites, which was substantiated in the prophetic ancient Israeli literature, but uses it not for criticism, but for an apology for the institution of sacrifice. In his opinion, the institute aims to teach ethical guidance to the participants in the ritual process. The victim itself plays the role of a symbol, a “sign” through which ethical teaching is given.