This article studies the use of τὰ πράγματα in Jewish literature written in Ptolemaic and early Imperial Egypt. While there was no Greek term for “empire” that aligns with the modern sense of an empire as a territorial polity, τὰ πράγματα most closely resembles our modern notion of empire. First, we analyze the range of meanings of πράγματα in Ptolemaic documents and literature. Next, we examine the uses of this concept in Jewish sources from Ptolemaic Egypt. Then, we investigate the shifting understandings of πράγματα in the Jewish sources from Roman Egypt. We conclude that Jewish texts have much more complex views of empire than the descriptors pro- or anti-empire allow. This approach redirects our attention from empire as a static and tangible entity to a dynamic suite of practices through which power is exercised and derived.

本文研究了托勒密和早期帝国埃及时期犹太文学中τὰπράγματα的使用。尽管没有希腊语中的“帝国”一词与现代帝国的领土政治意识相吻合，但τὰπράγματα最类似于我们现代的帝国概念。首先，我们分析了托勒密文件和文献中“πράγματα”的含义范围。接下来，我们从托勒密埃及的犹太文献中考察了这一概念的使用。然后，我们研究了来自罗马埃及的犹太人对πράγματα的转变理解。我们得出的结论是，犹太文字对帝国的看法要比赞成或反对帝国的描述者复杂得多。这种方法将我们的注意力从作为一个静态有形实体的帝国转移到了一套动态的实践中，通过它来行使和衍生权力。