DEMETRIUS. - Alexandrian chronographer, Hellenistic Jew, from the time of Ptolemy IV (222-205 B.C.). He wrote a chronography from Moses to his own time, entitled On the Kings [who reigned] in Judea (Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, I, 21: PG 8, 878), based on complicated combinations that exploit hints from the Bible. He is among the sources of Josephus, especially for the Jewish Antiquities.

He fixes, for example, the date of birth for each son of Jacob. Besides this, three other fragments of D. have been preserved by Eusebius, Praeparatio evangelica, IX, 21: history of Jacob, from his departure to Mesopotamia until his death; 29, 1-3: genealogy of Zipporah, wife of Moses, from Abraham and Keturah; 29, 15: story of the bitter water (Ex. 15, 22 ff.); PG 21, 714-22, 738 ff., 746. Eusebius draws them from the collection of Alexander Polyhistor (80-40 B.C.). D. already uses the Greek version of the Pentateuch, known as the Septuagint.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: E. Schürer, Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes, 3rd ed., III, Leipzig 1899, pp. 346, 349-51; I, ibid. 1901, p. 81.

Francesco Spadafora

@incollection{ec4_demetrio_3, author = {Spadafora, Francesco}, title = {Demetrio}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IV}, pages = {1395}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/demetrio-3} }

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Demetrius

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