Elias Bickerman (July 7, 1897 O.S. – August 31, 1981), also spelled as Bickermann or Bikerman, was a leading scholar of Greco-Roman history and the

Hellenistic world In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the Roma ...

Biography

Bickerman was born in Kishinev, then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, to a secular Jewish family. He left Russia during the

Bolshevik revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It was led by Vladimir L ...

and the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

for Germany, where he received education from German classicists and Hellenists. Due to the rise of the Nazi Party to power and his Jewish heritage, he fled to France. He soon had to abandon that country as well after the

Battle of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembour ...

. From 1942, he lived in the United States. His research interests extended to Judaism and some aspects of Iranian history. For most of his career, he was Professor of Ancient History at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, New York.

Work

Bickerman's scholarship of the

Maccabean revolt The Maccabean Revolt () was a Jewish rebellion led by the Maccabees against the Seleucid Empire and against Hellenistic influence on Jewish life. The main phase of the revolt lasted from 167 to 160 BCE and ended with the Seleucids in control of ...

was highly influential. Rather than the more traditionalist reading of an evil Seleucid king fighting a unified Jewish opposition, Bickerman emphasized that much of the conflict was in internal Jewish tensions in Judea of the era. He showed that the Hasmonean leadership were not as anti-Hellenist as often portrayed, at least after gaining a measure of autonomy. He also made strong cases for the authenticity of documents found in the book of

2 Maccabees 2 Maccabees, also known as the Second Book of Maccabees, Second Maccabees, and abbreviated as 2 Macc., is a deuterocanonical book which recounts the persecution of Jews under King Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the Maccabean Revolt against him. It ...

, showing that they matched other Seleucid documents of the era, had correct titles, and were in general plausible. A partial list of books includes: *''The God of the Maccabees'' (Berlin, 1937; English translation, 1979) *''Institutions des Séleucides'' (Paris, 1938) *''From Ezra to the Last of the Maccabees'' (New York, 1962) *''Studies in Jewish and Christian History'' (3 volumes, Leiden, 1976–1986) *''Religion and Politics in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods'' (Como, 1985) *''The Jews in the Greek Age'' (Cambridge, Mass., 1990)

Footnotes and references

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bickerman, Elias Joseph 1897 births 1981 deaths Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States 20th-century American historians Classical scholars Corresponding fellows of the British Academy Columbia University faculty Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Germany Burials at Har HaMenuchot