Could pri etz hadar be something else?

It is often said that there is no Jewish source that argues with the indentification of pri etz hadar with an esrog, or citron. However this is not entirely correct.

There does appear to be one passage in Josephus that identifies the fruit of the beautiful tree with persea, an avocado like fruit common in Egypt. There are, however, several other passages in Josephus' own writings that clearly contradict this one passage.

Josephus (Antiquities 13.13.5) writes,
"As to Alexander, his own people were seditious against him; for at a
festival , which was then celebrated, when
he stood upon the alter, and was going to sacrifice, the nation rose
upon him and pelted him with citrons--the laws of the Jews required
that at the feast of tabernacles everyone should
have branches of the palm tree and citron tree....".

In Ant. 3.245 he says that it is perseia, an avocado like fruit but in Ant. 13.372 he says that it is a citron.

M. Feldman writes: I forwarded this to my father, Dr. Louis Feldman, who responded as follows:

We, of course, do not know what the prevailing view was in
Josephus' time, since no one took a survey of the population to
determine this and since the overwhelming majority of what was
written in that period has not survived.  However, it seems to me
very unlikely that Josephus' view reflected the view of his time
period.  In the first place, if it was the prevailing  view, no one
ever quotes these passages or, for that matter, any other passage in
Josephus during that time period.  In fact, the first citation of any
passage from Josephus in any author is found in Theophilus of
Antioch, a Christian, who died after 181; and he does not cite this
view at all.  No Jew, whether in the Talmudic corpus or anywhere
else, ever cites Josephus until Sefer Josippon in the tenth century,
and that,of course, is a praraphrase of the Jewish War, not our
view.  The fact that the rabbis never mention Josephus at all  would
seem to indicate that they did not have much regard for him.  His
autobiography indicates how extremely unpopular he was, whatever the
reason may have been.  The only Jewish writer, more of
a contemporary
(actually somewhat earlier)....  Of course,
Philo is not mentioned by Chazal or by any Jewish writer other than
Josephus until Azariah dei Rossi in the 16th century. (http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol03/v03n152.shtml#14)

I would suggest the following: Dr. L. Feldman has written  elsewhere that Josephus never fully mastered Greek and Latin. Isn't it possible that he may have simply been mistaken in his choice of a correct Greek word on this occasion, or we may be facing a textual corruption? In addition, persea may look somewhat like certain types of citrons and he may simply be attempting to convey a sense of its appearance to his Gentile readers (suggested by R. Micha Berger). 

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Comments

[HL]

The Talmud in gemara Succot talks about an "ethiopian esrog" and the inference is that it is a somewhat different species and/or possibly even a dark color. Therefore it is possible that different species were used in some communities until the minhag was universalized.

[Joe in Australia]

There is no doubt that the Jews of Josephus' day used citrons (etrogim) as their "pri etz hadar". There are plenty of coins and other illustrations of etrogim in conjunction with a lulav.

[HaNavon]

AVOCADO LIKE FRUIT?! how could Josephus say this??? the avocado is from the NEW WORLD, Josephus never even heard of the avocado!

[David]

This is not an entirely accurate description of the find. The evidence points to it being from the Persian period, post exilic and the beginning of the '2nd' temple.

[Ephraim]

Forget Josephus, and rabbinic tradition for that matter. The Torah could not be referring to the citron because citrus fruits were not indigenous to Canaan/Israel. What is more, "ethrogh" is not a pure Hebrew word, but derives from Persian. Hence, it is not found in the Hebrew Bible. "Pri-etz hadar" means the fruit of a fair tree," and seeing as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I think the Torah leaves it to our choice.

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