The Maccabean claims about the common origins of Spartans and Judaeans seem implausible today but at the time, Judaeans were not known as covetous, usurious, or duplicitous in trade. They show up as ordinary economic actors in Babylonian and Achaemenid documents. Ptolemy and the Persians knew them, at least in Egypt, as reliable mercenaries. Most of the Hellenistic commentaries depicted them as weird religious types who weren't always friendly to outsiders. Something changes during the Hasmonean period when Judaism is centralized and democratized. Then you start to see "antisemitic" claims, like Apollonius Molon's claim that Judaeans were atheists. But you still don't see the traditional covetous and duplicitous stereotypes until later in the Roman era. Josephus explicitly says that Judaeans aren't a maritime people interested in foreign trade. At some point all the stereotypes about Phoenicians you see in Homer - that they're deceptive thieves and scheming merchants - come to characterize Judaeans. I wonder if this is why Ron Unz believes Punics migrated to Judaea after the Romans ousted them from North Africa and Sicily etc., and skinsuited the Judaean religion.