What Sukkot Meant to Jews and Gentiles in Greco-Roman Antiquity

Sukkot was a festival of paramount importance to Jews in Greco-Roman antiquity, and was well-known to non-Jews. In fact, its processions with festive palm branches (lulavim) reminded pagans of Bacchic rituals with the thyrsos carried by the votaries of Dionysus/Bacchus and used in his festivals.

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"What Sukkot Meant to Jews and Gentiles in Greco-Roman Antiquity" (n.d.). TheTorah.com. Retrieved November 8, 2026, from https://www.thetorah.com/article/what-sukkot-meant-to-jews-and-gentiles-in-greco-roman-antiquity

Prof. René Bloch
What Sukkot Meant to Jews and Gentiles in Greco-Roman Antiquity

Sukkot, Hoshana Rabbah 2013 at the Hurva Synagogue, Jerusalem. Wikimedia 

Published: September 21, 2018

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Last Updated: October 28, 2026

  1. This is a revised version of an article printed in German in the Swiss Jewish weekly Tachles from October 4, 2017.

  2. In Mishnaic times, but also already in Tanakh: 1 Kings 8.2, 2 Chron 7.8.

  3. Jubilees 16.31.

  4. In Ethiopic, the word used here for tents can also mean “booths” or “huts.” Similarly, the word regularly used in Greek for “sukkah” (skēnē) can mean either “tent” or “booth”.

  5. Jubilees’ prescription to wear crowns or wreaths is unique. See, Jeffrey L. Rubenstein, The History of Sukkot in the Second Temple and Rabbinic Periods (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995), 53. But see below also Tacitus’ comment on Jewish priests wearing wreaths.

  6. Lev 23.40 (ושמחתם); Deut 16.14 (ושמחת בחגך); on Plutarch’s description of Jewish revelry during Sukkot see below.

  7. Philo, On Special Laws 2.208, transl. H. Colson, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1937). See, Isaak Heinemann, Philons griechische und jüdische Bildung: Kulturvergleichende Untersuchungen zu Philons Darstellung der jüdischen Gesetze (Hildesheim: Olms, 1962), 134-135.

  8. Philo, Against Flaccus 116-17, transl. (slightly adjusted) H. Colson, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1941).

  9. Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaicarum 254. Nepia could also be read as a Greek word meaning “child”.

  10. Editor’s note: For an example of Hellenistic Jews and Christians grappling with the meaning of kashrut laws, see Joshua Garroway, “The Earliest Explanation for Kosher,” TheTorah (2016)

  11. Plutarchus, Quaestiones Convivales 4.6.2 (671 D-E). Translation, adjusted, by P.A. Clement and H.B. Hoffleit, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969).

  12. Ibid. (672 A).

  13. Cf. the critical edition by François Fuhrmann, Plutarque. Œuvres Morales. Propos de Table, Livres IV-VI (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1978). For a thorough discussion of the Plutarch passage and its potential sources cf. Adolph Büchler, “La fête des cabanes chez Plutarque et Tacite,” Revue des Etudes Juives 37 (1898): 181-202 (accessible under http://www.sefarim.fr). Cf. also the comments in Menahem Stern, Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism. Vol. One: From Herodotus to Plutarch (Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1974), 545-562.

  14. See Fritz Graf, “Interpretatio, II: Religion”. In: Brill’s New Pauly, vol. 6 (2005) 869-871.

  15. Büchler (loc. cit., p. 193) and later Raffaello Del Re, “Plutarco e gli Ebrei,” La Rassegna Mensile di Israel 19 (1953): 496, tried to solve this problem by adding meta (“after”) at the beginning of the sentence. The translation would then read as follows: “After the so-called Fast, at the height of the vintage, they set out tables of all sorts of fruit (…).” Several modern editors follow this emendation.

  16. Del Re (op.cit.) 496-97; Stern (op.cit.) 561.

  17. Tacitus, Histories 5.5, transl. C.H. Moore, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1931).

  18. See René Bloch, Antike Vorstellungen vom Judentum: Der Judenexkurs des Tacitus im Rahmen der griechisch-römischen Ethnographie (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2002).

  19. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 13.372.

Prof. René Bloch is Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Bern (Switzerland), where he holds a joint appointment in the Institute of Jewish Studies and the Institute of Classics. He obtained his Ph.D. (Dr. phil.) as well… Read More