A BROAD-MINDED AND NOBLE PATRIOTISM
In spite of all their prejudice, thinking Jews could not help but see
that the Greeks, in spite of their heathen religion, had brought with
them many of the blessings of civilization. Many articles of everyday
comfort were introduced into Canaan for the first time by the Greeks,
for example, new varieties of food, such as pumpkins, vinegar,
asparagus, and various kinds of cheese. From the Greeks also the Jews
learned to preserve fish by salting them. This made possible the
splendid fishing business by the Sea of Galilee. In the time of Jesus
we find this lake surrounded by flourishing towns. Most of the men in
these towns supported themselves and their families by fishing. The
fish were salted and the salt fish sold in the inland towns. They were
even exported to foreign countries. The Greeks probably also
introduced poultry and hens' eggs to the farmers and housewives of
Canaan.
=New articles of dress and furniture.=--These same newcomers brought
with them a greater variety of fabrics and garments, such as Cilician
goat's-hair cloth, out of which coarse cloaks and curtains, as well as
tents, were made; also felt for hats and sandals. The Greeks also
introduced the custom of carrying handkerchiefs. Many new kinds of
household utensils came into Jewish homes as a result of the example
of their Greek associates, for example, arm chairs, mirrors, table
cloths, plates, and cups. Hemp and hempen cords and ropes came from
the Greeks. From this same source came the custom of placing food at
meals on dining tables, like ours, while the diners, unlike ourselves,
lay on couches with their heads toward the table. It may also have
been the Greeks--although possibly it was the Persians--who first
brought coined money into Canaan, so that in making each purchase it
was not necessary to weigh the silver or the gold.
All these useful and beautiful things helped to win over sensible
people among the Jews to look with favor on their new neighbors. And
when Jewish travelers found themselves stopping at new and more
comfortable inns managed by Greek innkeepers, and went to bathe in the
public baths which were erected in the larger cities by the Greek
authorities, they were sure to spread the idea that even Jews might
learn something from the Greeks.
BROAD-MINDED PATRIOTS AMONG THE JEWS
Fortunately there were some among the Jews who could appreciate the
good and beautiful things in Greek civilization without being disloyal
to their own race and their own religion; and, on the other hand,
could be proud of the great teachings of the prophets without hating
and despising men of other races. They had learned well the lesson of
that great prophet whom we call the Second Isaiah, that Jehovah chose
Israel, not as his special "pet" or favorite, but as his servant to
teach all nations about the true God and his righteous rule. Such men
realized that the Greeks and Egyptians and other foreigners were
Jehovah's children like themselves, and that instead of despising them
they ought to make friends with them and try to teach them the
religion of Jehovah.
=Jewish religious books written for Greeks.=--It was by men of this
broad spirit that a number of books were written for the sake of
winning Greeks to the Jewish religion. These books were written in the
Greek language and explained to Greek readers the law of Moses and the
teachings of the prophets. Among the most important of these books was
the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. This translation
was made, indeed, chiefly for the benefit of Jews living in Greek
countries who had forgotten the old Hebrew tongue. But the translators
also had in mind the great non-Jewish Greek world.
And the new translation, sometimes called the Septuagint (that is, the
book of the seventy translators who are said to have worked on it),
found its way into the hands of many a Greek reader who learned from
it for the first time something about the religion of Jehovah.
The author of the story of Jonah, in the Bible, was another Jew of
this broad spirit. He had traveled in Egypt. He had seen the vices and
sins of the heathen. And he had tried to tell them of the just and
merciful laws of the one God of all the world, Jehovah. Many of his
fellow Jews criticised him for this. "Why do you have anything to do
with these Gentile dogs?" they asked. It was in answer to this
question that he wrote about Jonah, the prophet whom Jehovah had sent
to preach to the wicked heathen city of Nineveh. He had tried to avoid
obeying the command, but at last had gone; and when the Ninevites
listened to his preaching and repented and turned to Jehovah he was
angry. And Jehovah said unto him, "Should not I have regard for
Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand
persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left
hand?" (That is, six score thousand little children.)
Jonah in this story is a type of the Jewish people. As Jehovah sent
Jonah to preach to the Ninevites, so he would send the Jews to teach
the nations of his love. What a pity to be so narrow-minded, so
blinded by pride of race, as to have no sympathy or good will for any
other race of men! This is the lesson the author of the book meant to
teach.
Probably very few of the Jews who heard this man, or read his book,
understood or appreciated him. But there were enough of them who cared
for him to preserve his book, so that it became a part of their sacred
writings; and perhaps more than any other book in the Old Testament it
prepared the way for a broadening of the dreams and plans of Abraham
and Moses and the prophets to include not only Jews but all
mankind--that broadening which we call Christianity.
STUDY TOPICS
1. Read Isaiah 19. 19-24.
2. What do you think this writer would have thought of our American
habit of calling names at foreigners?
3. What advice would these writers have given us, in regard to our
"Japanese" problem?
4. If you have time, look into the book of Jonah.