Apilforoa
IIIE
Apiou
JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
commenting upon Num. xv. 31, Sifre (Num. 112) sj»ys: "For the word of the Lord lie 1ms dcspiseil Sadducce: and his commandment he hatli the Apikoros." The firel mention of Epicureans in relation to Judaism is found in Josephus, "Ant." x. 11, S • Those Hliii read the prophecies of Daniel may thence illscover how the Epicureans aiv In ern>r who ca.st I'rovlilence out tills is till'
broken;
this,
o( hiiMiuii life ami do not believe that (iod takes care of the alTali> of the world, nor that the unlvei-se Is Koverned and held bv that blesswl and Iniiiiorlal beine. but say that the world Is larricd aloiit! of It.s own acconl. without a ruler and prortder; which, were It ilcsUtute of a guide to conduct, as they ln!a«lne. It woulil be like ships without pilots which we see drowned by
the winds, or like chariots without drivers which are overturned —so would the world be diLshed to pieces by its belnii carried without a providence and so perish and come to naujtlit."
Undoubtedly this is the orieinal meaning of ApiSee also Frankel, "^lonatssc-hrift," 18.52, p. koros. 212, who limls Epieureanism to have affected Judaism in the time of Antigonus of Soko. The Talmudic authorities of the third and fourth centuries cither did not know the real meaniuir of the term or extended it intentionally. Meaning of Some sjiy: "Apikoros is one who dethe Term spises a nibbi.or who insults his neighbor in the presence of a rabbi, or one in Talmudic Lit- who says, What good did the rat) bis do to us? They study Bible and eratiire. Hishuah inTl? |for their own pleasure or for their own benetit].'" Another opinion sees the type of the Apikoros in the school of Ben;iamin the Piiysician, who taught: "What good did They have neither permitu-d Ilie rabbis do" to usV the raven nor prohibited the dove." evidently meaning that their whole work was of little consequence. Another opinion sees an Apikoros in a man who sjieaks of the rabbis disrespectfully as "these rabbis," or addresses his teacher by his name instead of calling him " Habbi " (Sanh. 99/». WOa). In the Tosefta (Sanh., ed. Zuckennaudel, xiii. 5, p. 4;i) the term is evidently used in the stricter sense of the materialist where it is .said: "The Minim [Ju(hro Christians], the apostates, the informers, and the Apikorsim are punished in hell forever." The sjvme passage, with slight clianges, is found in the Tiilmud (R. II. 1T<(): and froni it the doctrine of the eternity of hell for' the Apikorsim is taken into the codes "of Alfasi Uid l"C. ed. Vienna, 2(19/') aiirl of Maimonides (" Yad ha-Hazakah. Ililkot Teshubah," iii. .5; see also Lampronti,"Pahad Yizhak." .<.(. DJn'J, who upholds the belief in the eternity of hell against Leon di !Modena). The ^Midrash sees a type of the Apikoros in the snake (Gen. R. xix. ). In Talmud Yerushalmi (Sanh. x. 27(0, Korah appears as a type of the Apikoros by He asks Moses whether a his ridicule of the Law. blue garment requires fringes; and when Moses answers ill the affirmative. Korah says: " Ilow ridiculous One blue cord stiffiees to comply with the Law, while a garment which is all blue does not " (see also Num. H. xviii. 2 and Tan., Korah. 2. where the '
!
word "Apikoros," however, does not occtir). The " Shulhan Aruk " defines Apikoros as one who '
does not believe in the divine origin of the Law and in prophecy (" Yoreli De'ah," ^ 1.>S, 2). The liiws concerning such an unbeliever are very strict. He may be killed directly, or his death may be caused indirectly (i/>.). A scroll of the Law, otherwise a sacred object, if written by an Apikoros, shall In KabbizL- be burned {ib. S 281. 1 ). A rabbi of recical Codes, ognized standing can not be excommunicated, even if he be a sinner; but if he read a book written by one of the Apikorsim his immunity ceases {ib. S. 334, 42). A man suspected of being an Apikoros is not permitted to read the
666
prayers before the congregation ("Oral.t Hayyini," 53, 18). If an Apikoros saysa benediction, it is not permitted to respond with "Amen" (ib. ^ 215, 2). The later nibbis extend tli<' term "Apikoros" still Moses C'hages, further than the Talmudic rabbis. in his " Leket ha Keniah " l" Yoieh De'ah, ]>. 1U3'(, inveighs against those who Amsterdam, 1(197 thus blindly the authority of the medierefuse to acceiU val rabbis: "Satan enters through a needle's eye and teaches people first to refuse obedience to the rabbis tj
"
1.
of their age, and having become accustomed to this, they reject what displea.ses them even of the words of grciit men like Miiimonides. saving. 'He was also merely a man of tlish and IiIdikI anil subject to error like one of us; but it is a lundamcMtal principle of our religion that every one who denies the authority of a religious work, great or small, is called an Apikoros.'" Similarly, Eliezer Papo (rabbi in Silistria, Bulgaria, at the beginning of the nineteenth century) says in his vi'i-y popular textbook of religious ethics, "Pele Yo'ez," j). 18//, Vienna, 1876: " One who doubts or ridicules one word of the Torah or of the rabliinieal authors is an .pikoros in the fullest sense, an infidel who has thrown off the joke; and there is no hope for him." Lampronti, I'ahnil ri?i|KiJ](, s.v. Dni|i'DN ; 'Erek MilUii. s.v.: HambUTBer. R. IS. T. suppleunder Eiiikurilcr.
Bini.ioijRAPHv: Itapoport,
ment
I.,
D.
APION
A
Greek grammarian and sophist of Alexandria, noted for his bitter hatred of the Jews; born in the Great (Dasis of Egypt between 211 and 30 li.C died probably at Rome between 45 and 48. As
Joel ("Augriff'e des Ileidenthums," etc., ]i. 8) jioints out. his name, derived from the Egyptian bull-god He wa.s surApi.s. indicates his Egyjitian origin. naniedalso Pleistonikides, or son of Pleistonikes(S'iidas. and in his epitaph in "Corpus Inscript. Gra'C." iii., aiirienila 474'.?/i). "the man of many victories"; Apion himalso Moehlhos (" the inclustriousone ").
claimed to have been born in Alexandria (see "Judeu uud Grieehen vor d. Jlakkabaiselien Erhebung." p. 172). but it seems that he was only brought thither when very young, and educated in the house of Didymns tiie Great, the grammarian (born 03 B.C.. died about 1). He was a pupil of the centenarian Euphranor. while A|iollonius, son of Archibius. was his pu]iil rallier than his When Theon. head of the Homeric gramteacher. mar school iU Alexandria, died. Apion succeeded him in that position, preferring, however, the fanciful etymological method of Didymusand the allegorical one of Krates to the rigid traditional system of Aristarehus. But it waschietly asan itinerant lecturer on Homer that he gained his great pojiularity (Seneca, In this capiieity he traveletl "Eiiistolie." p. 8H). through Greece and Italy, first during the reign of Tiberius, who, disdaining his unscholarly manner, self
Willrich.
called
him the "World's
Drum"
{ci/mbalum iinnuli).
Rome
his charlatan nwihodfi (ritiimi osfcntationis, Gellius, " Noctes AtticiE," v. 14) failed to impress the people favorably. It was in the tumultuous and excitable city of Alexandria, chiefly under Caligula, that his opportunity fur using hissujierficial knowledge to advantage came to him. He utilized both tongue and pen in appealing to the prejudices of the
In
populace, and sedulously fanned the flame f)f discord during the conflict that broke out between the Jews
and .Tew-haters perial decree to
in Alexandria,
have his image
upon Caligula's imand worshiped
set uji
by the Jews as well as the rest of the people. xVjiion labored against the Jews with growing success, and his fellow citizens appointed him at the head of the delegation to the emperor Caligula in the year 40 to
