Hellenistic Influence upon the Jews of the Dispersion
[LITERATURE.—Stade, _Op. cit._, vol. II (1888); Schürer, II, ii.
pp. 219-327, German ed. III, pp. 1-188; Bertholet, _Die Stellung
dev Israeliten und Juden zu den Fremden_ (1890); Reinach,
_Textes d’auteurs Grecs et Romains relatifs au Judaisme_ (1895);
Willrich, _Juden und Griechen vor der makkabäischen Erhebung_
(1895); Swete, _Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek_
(1900); M. Friedländer, _Die religiösen Bewegungen_ ..., pp.
235-264 (1905); by the same author, _Geschichte der jüdischen
Apologetik als Vorgeschichte des Christentums_ (1903); Bousset,
_Die Religion des Judentums im neutestamentlichen Zeitalter_
(1903); Harnack, _The Mission and Expansion of Christianity_, I,
pp. 1-36 (1908); Bertholet, _Das religionsgeschichtliche Problem
des Spätjudenthums_ (1909); Oesterley and Box, _The Religion and
Worship of the Synagogue_, pp. 114-120 (1911); Wendland, _Op.
cit._, pp. 192-211; and the following articles, Ramsay, “The Jews
in the Græco-Asiatic Cities,” in the _Expositor_ (January, 1902);
“Diaspora” in the _Jewish Encycl._; “Dispersion” in Hastings’
_Dict. of the Bible_ (extra volume) and the _Encycl. Bibl._]
I. THE DISPERSION
A preliminary matter to be dealt with is the Dispersion of the Jews,
its origin and extent; after which we can turn our attention to the
special characteristics of the Dispersion Jews, and the influence of
Hellenism upon them.
The first beginnings of the Dispersion on a large scale are to be
seen in the deportation to Assyria of 27,290 of the inhabitants of
Samaria by Sargon in B.C. 722. In 2 Kings xvii. 23 it is said:
“So Israel was carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto
this day” (cp. 2 Kings xvii. 6; xviii. 11). The general reference
to this occurrence given in the Old Testament is supplemented by
an inscription of Sargon’s in which it is said: “I besieged and
captured Samerina (Samaria): 27,290 people dwelling in the midst of
it I carried off. Fifty chariots I collected among them, and allowed
them to have the rest of their goods.”[56] A further deportation
on a larger scale took place when Nebuchadnezzar carried captive
to Babylon the bulk of the nation of Judah in B.C. 597; this was
supplemented by further deportations in B.C. 586 and 582 (see 2
Kings xxiv. 14-16; xxv. 11, 21; Jer. lii. 15, 28-30). Some five or
six thousand exiles returned to Palestine in B.C. 430; but about a
century later, in the reign of Artaxerxes III (Ochus),[57] there was
another deportation, a number of Jews being transported to Hyrcania,
on the Caspian Sea, and Babylonia.[58] The great majority of these
exiles and their descendants were content to remain in their new
homes, and many settlements of Jews arose in Babylonia, the centre
of the Eastern Dispersion; from these centres they emigrated in all
directions, and in course of time the chief centre of the Dispersion
came to be Egypt, and of these Egyptian settlements Alexandria
became the most important. The earliest mention which we have of
Jews settling in Egypt is in one of the Aramaic _papyri_ found a few
years ago in Elephantiné[59]; these _papyri_ consist of official
documents—decrees of the Persian government and public ordinances
of the Jewish colony settled there—as well as private papers, such
as business letters, account books, records of debt, lists of names
and personal correspondence; some literary pieces were also found
in the collection. In one of these _papyri_—a petition addressed by
the Jewish soldiery stationed at Elephantiné to the governor of the
Jewish colony—it is stated that the forefathers of the petitioners
had been settled there and had built a temple to their God Jahu
(Jehovah) “since the days of the kings of Egypt.” The reference
is, in all probability, to the Jewish mercenaries in the army of
Psametik I (B.C. 663-609) of which mention is made in the _Letter of
Aristeas_, 12, 13. It was the successor of Psametik I, Pharoah Necho
II, who in B.C. 609 overran Syria and, having subdued Judah, exiled
Jehoahaz to Egypt (2 Kings xxiii. 29, 34). Not long after, in B.C.
586, Johanan, the son of Kareah, led a number of Jews, among whom was
the prophet Jeremiah, into Egypt (Jer. xlii., xliii.); and, according
to Jeremiah xliv. 1, there were Jewish settlements in Migdol,
Tahpanes, Noph (i.e. Memphis), as well as in the district of Pathros
in Upper Egypt (Isa. xi. 11).
These _data_ show that in comparatively early times there were
Jewish settlements in Egypt. But of great interest and importance is
the evidence of the Elephantiné _papyri_, mentioned just now; they
witness to the presence of Jews in Egypt during the fifth century
B.C.[60] The Jewish colony settled in Syene was a military one;
the _papyri_ tell us that the organization was much the same as in
other parts of the Persian Empire; there was a governor,[61] with
whom were associated the priests, who represented the colony in
all dealings with the suzerain power; he sends regular remittances
to the central government, and receives instructions in all things
concerning the colony from the satrap of the province. Side by side
with the civil organization is the military _régime_; the force is
divided into companies called after the names of their officers; the
soldiers of the garrison each have a small possession of land; their
office is hereditary; when not engaged in war they seem to have led
a comfortable and pleasant life concerning which the _papyri_ give
a number of details. Though the colony was not a large one, in all
probability not amounting to more than a hundred souls, the fact
of its existence is not without importance for the study of the
Dispersion.[62]
When the Persian Empire was conquered by Alexander the Great, many
Jews emigrated from Persia to the west, and settled down in the
centres of Greek civilization; nor did it take very long before there
was scarcely any part of the civilized world of those days in which
Jewish settlements did not exist. “The greatly enlarged channels of
commerce, especially by sea-routes, attracted many from the interior
to the coasts. The newly-founded Grecian cities, rendered attractive
by all the achievements of Greek art and civilization, became
favourite resorts. Henceforth, trade relations, the desire to see the
world, soon also political considerations and (we may well suppose)
a certain conscious or unconscious craving for culture, became
operative in promoting the dispersion of the Jews over the civilized
world.”[63] About the middle of the second century B.C. the
_Sybilline Oracles_ (iii. 271) bear witness to the wide dispersion
of the Jews in saying that “every land and every sea is full of
thee”; the language is hyperbolic, but testifies, nevertheless, to
the ubiquity of the Jews at this time. Somewhat later Strabo (_circa_
B.C. 60-A.D. 20) gives the following evidence: “These Jews are
already gotten into all cities, and it is hard to find a place in the
habitable earth that has not admitted this tribe of men, and is not
possessed by it.”[64]
The most important centre from every point of view, not only of the
Egyptian, but of the whole Dispersion, was Alexandria. As we have
seen, the nucleus of a Jewish population had existed in Egypt for
centuries before the time of Alexander. When Alexandria was founded
Jewish settlers were at once attracted to it because equal privileges
with all other citizens were accorded them; reference is made to this
in later times in an edict of Tiberius in which it is said: “Since I
am assured that the Jews of Alexandria, called _Alexandrians_, have
been joint inhabitants in the earliest times with the Alexandrians,
and have obtained from their kings equal privileges with them, as is
evident from the public records that are in their possession, and
the edicts themselves; and that after Alexandria had been subjected
to our empire by Augustus, their rights and privileges have been
preserved by those presidents who have at divers times been sent
thither; and that no dispute had been raised about those rights
and privileges.... I will, therefore, that the nation of the Jews
be not deprived of their rights and privileges ... but that those
rights and privileges which they formerly enjoyed be preserved to
them....”[65] In another place Josephus tells us that the Jews of
Alexandria had set apart for them “a particular place, that they
might live without being polluted [by the Gentiles], and were thereby
not so much intermixed with foreigners as before”; this was done
by the successors of Alexander.[66] On the other hand, Philo says
that the Jews lived in all parts of the city in his day[67]; the
earlier exclusiveness of the Jews would naturally be, to some extent,
broken down in course of time when living in Gentile surroundings,
especially in such a centre as Alexandria, where Jews of wealth and
social position lived who would desire to avail themselves of the
high culture enjoyed by their Gentile fellow-citizens.
Although Alexandria was by far the most important centre of the
Dispersion, not only in Egypt but in the whole civilized world of
those days, there were many other smaller settlements of Jews in that
country; Philo says that the one million Jews who dwelt in Egypt
were to be found in every part of it from Libya to the Ethiopian
frontier.[68] Of the many other lands in which Jews were settled we
cannot speak here; it must suffice to say that no country was without
them.[69]
II. HELLENISTIC INFLUENCE ON RELIGION
It has been pointed out above that among the Greeks themselves the
effect of the new spirit due to the Hellenistic Movement was very
great upon the men and women of the cultured classes, but that upon
the masses it did not exercise much influence. To a large extent this
is also true of the Jews of the Dispersion; for greatly as they
were influenced by the Greek spirit, the point must be emphasized
that this applies, primarily and mainly, to the cultured classes,
_literati_, philosophers and the like. No doubt, indirectly, other
classes were to a greater or less extent also affected, but so far
as the fundamental doctrines of Judaism were concerned, the bulk of
the Jews of the Dispersion were, in the main, true to the traditions
of their fathers in spite of their Greek surroundings, and in spite
of the fact that in other respects they were entirely under the sway
of the Greek spirit. Not only did they pay annually the half-shekel
to the Temple authorities in Jerusalem for the maintenance of the
sacrificial system, but as a rule circumcision was insisted upon, the
sanctity of the Sabbath was observed, and the great festivals were
regularly celebrated. Vast numbers made pilgrimages to Jerusalem to
keep the three principal feasts, Tabernacles, Passover and Weeks.[70]
Even Philo, who in mind and character was far more of a Greek
philosopher than a Jewish Rabbi, insists on the need of observing the
distinctive marks of Judaism.[71] It is necessary to point this out
by way of preface, otherwise from what we have to say further upon
the subject the reader might be led to suppose that, at all events,
the more cultured among the Jews of the Dispersion, and especially
those of Alexandria, lost touch with Judaism altogether; this, no
doubt, happened in many cases, but as compared with the many that
remained Jews in religion, these were the exceptions. Nevertheless,
in the case of great numbers, traditional Judaism became transformed.
To begin with, utterly unlike the intolerant attitude of the
Palestinian Jews towards the Gentiles, the Jews of the Dispersion
looked upon the larger world of their surroundings with interest and
sympathy; their religious interests were not so entirely absorbed
in their own view of things that they could not see and appreciate
the excellence of Greek thought and philosophy; their minds were
open to receive and to be influenced by what was good and true,
wherever it was to be found. The Dispersion Jew was a Jew at heart,
though not according to the Pharisaic standard, and convinced of
the pre-eminence of his own faith, but he was none the less ready
to render due justice to the opinions and convictions of his Greek
neighbours; the interesting evidence regarding this given in the
_Letter of Aristeas_[72] (121, 122) is worth quoting here: “Regarding
discussions and explanations of the Law they possessed great
aptitude. They struck just the right balance, for they discarded
the hard literalness of the letter, and were modest with regard to
their own wisdom, and were ready to hold argument, to listen to the
opinions of others, and to consider thoroughly every question that
might be raised.” This broad-mindedness was one of the results of
unfettered contact with the outer world. But a result, as remarkable
as it was important, followed; for in comparing his religion with the
various beliefs of the Gentiles, the Jew of the Dispersion became
convinced, in a way which hitherto had not been possible, that both
in faith and practice Judaism was, in so far as its fundamentals were
concerned, immeasurably purer and truer, in most respects, though
not in all, than anything that the Gentiles could offer. He felt,
therefore, that he had something to say and give to the world which
concerned all men. Hence arose those missionary efforts, so contrary
to the spirit of exclusiveness which characterized traditional
Judaism, but which were crowned with a considerable measure of
success. Yet a grave and subtle danger lurked here for the Jew of the
Dispersion; in his desire to make Judaism as attractive as possible
to the Gentiles, he presented it with such modifications that it
could no longer be called genuine Judaism. Under the influence of
the Hellenistic spirit the rigidity of the Law was smoothed down,
and some Jewish beliefs appeared in a somewhat modified form[73];
many converts did not do more than keep the dietary laws and observe
the Sabbath; and this was acquiesced in. The reaction of this upon
those who thus presented a form of Judaism which was to some extent
spurious, cannot well have been without its consequences, since
their action must necessarily have affected their own faith in their
religion and their ideas upon the importance of their religious
rites.[74]
If, as we have seen, syncretism affected Palestinian Judaism we shall
expect the same to have been the case with Hellenistic Judaism; this
was, indeed, so, and to a much greater extent. Thus, their conception
of God was enriched with new ideas from both Platonic and, to a
greater degree, from Stoic philosophy, e.g., the doctrine of Divine
Immanence, to which we shall refer in dealing with the signs of
Greek influence in Jewish religious literature (Chapter V), where
we shall see also that the Jewish conceptions of the nature of man
was greatly influenced by Greek philosophical teaching. Again, the
Dispersion Jews commended their Scriptures to the heathen world by
means of interpreting them allegorically; the real sense of Scripture
would often be entirely explained away by this method. This, too,
shows the influence of the Hellenistic spirit, for this method of
interpretation was borrowed from the Stoics who had been in the habit
of allegorizing the Greek myths.
Finally, it is worth pointing out that even in Palestine, as
indications in some later Old Testament and other books show, there
had for generations been a tendency towards mitigating the importance
of the sacrificial system; the effect of this is likely to have
been proportionately great among the Jews of the Dispersion, who
would, moreover, have found difficulties in observing many other
precepts of the Law. The result would have been to make them all
the more susceptible to the foreign cults and philosophical systems
which met them on every side; how great that susceptibility was has
been illustrated in an extraordinary manner by the recently found
_papyri_ referred to above. No one, as Bertholet has truly remarked,
can understand the religion of the Jews—and this applies to the Jews
of the Dispersion even more than to those of Palestine—“without a
full intelligence of their astonishing faculty of assimilation; this
assimilation even going the length of actively supporting heathen
cults or, as the recently discovered _papyri_ of Assouan have
informed us, of swearing by an Egyptian goddess.”[75]
III. THE SEPTUAGINT
One of the results of the Hellenistic Movement, the importance of
which cannot be exaggerated, was the Græco-Jewish literature to which
it gave birth. It is impossible to deal here with the whole mass of
that literature,[76] even in the most cursory manner, nor is this
necessary for our present purpose.[77] We must restrict ourselves in
this section to a brief mention of what Schürer calls “the foundation
of all Judæo-Hellenistic culture,” namely, the Greek translation of
the Hebrew Scriptures, which was the special possession of the Jews
of the Dispersion.
The name of this Greek Version of the Bible owes its origin to the
legend contained in the so-called _Letter of Aristeas_, in which
an account is given of how Ptolemy II (Philadelphus)[78] desired
to have a Greek translation of the Hebrew Book of the Law (i.e.,
the Pentateuch), and sent to Eleazar, the high-priest in Jerusalem,
asking him to send competent scholars to Alexandria who would be
able to undertake the task of translation. The high-priest, the
account continues, readily responded to this request, and despatched
seventy-two learned Jews, each of the twelve tribes being represented
by six of them. Ptolemy received them with great honour on their
arrival in Alexandria, and entertained them hospitably during the
whole of their sojourn. The seventy-two went into retirement to the
island of Pharos, opposite Alexandria, where they laboured at the
translation. This took seventy-two days; the translation was then
delivered to the king, who thereupon ordered the books to be placed
in the royal library. The translators, after having been presented
with rich gifts, returned to Judæa. This is the legend to which the
name _Septuagint_ (“Seventy”) owes its origin, a name which has clung
to it in spite of its being now generally recognized that the _Letter
of Aristeas_ is unhistorical so far as this story is concerned. Who
the translators of the Hebrew Bible into Greek were is not known.
That the various parts of the Septuagint were not only translated by
different authors, but also belong to different ages, is certain.
It is quite probable that, so far as the Pentateuch is concerned,
the _Letter of Aristeas_ contains a true tradition in ascribing
its translation into Greek to about B.C. 280.[79] As to the rest
of the books, though the evidence is fragmentary, it may be safely
stated that most of them, if not all, were translated before the
beginning of the Christian era. Ryle has shown that there is evidence
for believing that Philo (about B.C. 20-A.D. 50) utilized all the
books of the Greek Old Testament, with the exception of Esther,
Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs and Daniel.[80]
This great product of Hellenistic influence upon the Jews is seen to
be all the more significant when it is realized that in the fifth
century B.C. the Aramaic language, as the recently found Elephantiné
_papyri_ show, was the language spoken by the Jews of Egypt; and not
only was this the ordinarily spoken language, but it was also that
in which literary works were written.[81] Yet in the course of not
much more than a century this was displaced by Greek; and even in
the synagogues Greek was the language used. For some time, no doubt,
though apparently not for very long, the Hebrew Scriptures were
translated by word of mouth into Aramaic in the synagogues of the
Dispersion; but when this language fell into disuse Greek had to be
used; and ultimately it was found necessary to have the Scriptures
themselves in Greek.[82]
So far as we are here concerned, the great importance of the Greek
Old Testament lies in the fact that it has given us the books of the
Apocrypha. These will be dealt with separately in Part II, so that
it will not be necessary to say anything about them now further than
that the general purpose for which they were written was to expand
some of the already existing books of the Hebrew Scriptures, or
to add to their number. Some, such as the books of the Maccabees,
continue the record of the nation’s history; others are expansions
of canonical books, such as the Prayer of Manasses, the Additions to
Daniel, Baruch and the Epistle of Jeremy, and the Rest of Esther;
while Ecclesiasticus and the Book of Wisdom are additions to the
Wisdom Literature of the Jews.
As regards the importance and far-reaching influence of the
Septuagint, we cannot do better than quote the words in which
Deissmann has so succinctly, and yet so adequately, expressed this:
“Take the Septuagint in your hand, and you have before you the
book that was the Bible of the Jews of the Dispersion and of the
proselytes from the heathen; the Bible of Philo the philosopher,
Paul the Apostle, and the earliest Christian missions; the Bible of
the whole Greek-speaking Christian world; the mother of influential
daughter-versions; the mother of the Greek New Testament.”[83]
IV. PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA
[LITERATURE.—Siegfried, _Philo von Alexandria als Ausleger des
Alten Testamentes_ (1875); O. Holtzmann in Stade’s _Geschichte
des Volkes Israel_, II, pp. 521-551 (1888); Schürer, II, iii.
pp. 321-381, German ed., III, pp. 633-716; Krüger, _Philo und
Josephus als Apologeten des Judentums_ (1906); Windisch, _Die
Frömmigkeit Philo’s_ ..., pp. 4-95 (1909). See also J. H. A.
Hart’s series of articles entitled “Philo of Alexandria” in the
_Jewish Quarterly Review_, vols. xvii. xviii. xix., these deal
with the writings of Philo; Lauterbach’s article on Philo in the
_Jewish Encycl._, X, pp. 6-18.]
As the Septuagint is, from our present point of view, the most
important product of the Hellenistic Movement, so among Græco-Jewish
writers is Philo the most remarkable whom this Movement brought
forth. No Jew was so immersed in the spirit of Greek wisdom, nor did
more to try and harmonize Greek and Hebrew thought.
The large number of his works which have come down to us owe their
preservation to the popularity they enjoyed among the early Church
Fathers, for by the Jewish leaders Philo was not regarded as
orthodox, his works were therefore unacceptable to them; some of the
Church writers even went so far as to speak of him as a Christian.
Scarcely anything is known with certainty about his life. He must
have been born about B.C. 20 or thereabouts, for he took part in an
embassy to Caligula in A.D. 40, when already somewhat advanced in
years; he refers to this in his work, _De Legatione ad Cajum_, §
28[84]; it is also mentioned by Josephus,[85] who speaks of Philo as
“a man eminent on all accounts, brother to Alexander the Alabarch,
and one not unskilful in philosophy.” This is practically all that is
known of him apart from what his works reveal of the man; but they do
not contain any biographical details.
Philo was a true Jew; he had an unbounded veneration for the Old
Testament Scriptures, and especially for Moses and the Pentateuch;
most of his works are concerned with this latter. Not only did he
look upon the Hebrew Scriptures as having been verbally inspired, but
he also believed this to have been the case with them in their Greek
form. His veneration for the Jewish Scriptures, on the one hand,
and his love for the philosophy of the Greeks on the other, led him
to the conviction that both contained and witnessed to one and the
same truth. He believed that the Greek philosophers had used the Old
Testament writings, and these he explained on the allegorical system
with such freedom that he was able to extract from them any meaning
he desired; by this means his own philosophical system became a
combination of Greek philosophy and Jewish theology.[86]
Regarding the philosophy of Philo, his conception of God forms
naturally the starting-point. Here he holds, on the one hand, that
so absolute is the perfection of God, so transcendent is the divine
majesty, and therefore so far removed from all that human thought is
capable of, that God is simply inconceivable; man can really know
no more than that God is; he cannot know _what_ God is. But, on the
other hand, since He is perfectly good and all-powerful, since He is
the Creator and Upholder of the world, the Final Cause of all that is
or ever can be, it follows that there must be a ceaseless activity
on His part; the world of His creation must occupy His thought and
action. These twofold conceptions of God—the thought of His being
outside of and above the world, immeasurably superior to it, and
the thought that He is active in the world—are clearly incompatible
one with the other. The way in which Philo sought to get over the
obvious contradiction here involved, was by assuming the existence of
intermediate beings. His teaching on this subject was not new, but
it had never before been so thoroughly and systematically treated.
These intermediate beings Philo called “powers” (_dunameis_); they
are properties of God, and yet His servants fulfilling His will
in the world. All these powers are comprehended in one, namely,
the “Logos,” or Word of God; the “Logos” is also spoken of as the
wisdom and reason of God, and the means whereby the world was
created.[87] But both in respect of the “powers” just mentioned, and
of the “Logos” itself, there is uncertainty as to the personality
attached to them; this was bound to be the case, for if there was
to be even the semblance of a solution of the opposing conceptions
concerning God referred to above, Philo had to conceive of the
“Logos” as less than a personal being distinct from God, and more
than an impersonal divine attribute; and the same applies to the
other “powers.” Otherwise it would be inconceivable that God could
be personally present and active in the world, while in His nature
He was wholly superior to it, and, on account of His transcendent
holiness, could not come into immediate and direct contact with it.
The “Logos” is, further, according to Philo, the mediator, and the
advocate, of men, and the expiator of sins; he speaks of it as the
“high-priest”; in such cases it is difficult to get away from the
thought of personality attaching to the “Logos.” On the other hand,
it is conceived of as distinctly impersonal when described as “the
idea of ideas,” and the “archetypal idea.”[88] Most striking of all
is the fact that in a number of passages Philo gives the “Logos” the
title of “first-born son,” and “only-begotten”; but the significance
of such titles depends, of course, upon the passages in which they
occur.[89]
In his doctrine of sin Philo teaches that evil is inherent in matter;
hence the body, with which the soul is connected, is the source of
sin in man. The subjugation of the passions is the one and only way
to virtue; but this can only be brought about by means of God’s
help, for He is the Author of whatever is good in man. Therefore the
highest virtue can only be attained by a close communion with God.
Knowledge is excellent; but even the closest attachment to wisdom
is less excellent than walking with God, for only so can man receive
the fulness of divine illumination. Philo teaches that this divine
illumination is accorded to man while in a state of unconsciousness;
so that while he lays much stress on the freedom of the will, this
highest state to which man can attain is solely attributable to
divine grace.
These doctrines of Philo, and we have only referred to the more
important, are to a great extent due to Greek influence; Platonism,
Pythagoreanism, Stoicism and Cynicism have all contributed to Philo’s
philosophical system; but to show this in detail would be out of
place here, for it would take us too far afield. We must content
ourselves with stating the fact; for detailed proof recourse must
be had to those works which treat specifically of Philo and of his
teaching.[90]
SUMMARY
In dealing with Hellenistic influence upon the Jews of the Dispersion
it was necessary to make some reference first to the Dispersion
itself and its extent during the period under consideration. It began
as early as the end of the eighth century B.C. with the fall of the
northern kingdom, and the deportation to Assyria of many thousands of
Israelites which followed. The fall of the southern kingdom was the
cause of a further step in the process of dispersion. The communities
which consequently came into existence in Babylonia formed centres
from which the Jews emigrated in all directions. We have the evidence
of the Old Testament that such centres existed in Egypt by the middle
of the sixth century B.C., if not earlier. Contemporary documentary
evidence, which has recently come to light, shows that a colony of
Jews was settled at Elephantiné during the fifth century B.C. After
the conquests of Alexander, many Jews emigrated from the east to
western centres of Greek civilization, and various writers testify
to the ubiquity of the Jews. Alexandria was the most important centre
of the Dispersion from every point of view.
The cultured Jews were more influenced by the Hellenistic Movement
than the masses; both, however, held in the main to the fundamental
tenets of traditional Judaism. Nevertheless, apart from these, and
in spite of their observance, traditional Judaism became largely
transformed. The tolerant attitude of the Dispersion Jews towards the
Gentiles was in marked contrast to that of the Jews of Palestine.
Unlike these latter, again, a vigorous missionary propaganda was
carried on by the Jews of the Dispersion. There lay here, however,
a subtle danger; for the desire to make Judaism attractive to the
Gentiles resulted in requiring but scanty observance of its practices
from them; this reacted unfavourably upon the Jews themselves.
Further, a strongly syncretistic attitude characterized the Jews of
the Dispersion; even their conception of God was influenced by the
teaching of the Greek philosophers. The allegorization of Scripture
was another mark of Hellenistic influence. The recently found Assouan
_papyri_ offer a striking example of the astonishing faculty of
assimilation possessed by the Jews.
One of the most important products of the Hellenistic Movement
was the Septuagint, for which we have to thank the Jews of the
Dispersion. The origin of the name of this Greek Version of the
Hebrew Scriptures is to be found in a legend contained in the _Letter
of Aristeas_. In all probability the entire books of the Hebrew Canon
were translated into Greek by the beginning of the Christian era.
The most important point about the Septuagint, so far as we are here
concerned, is that it has given us the books of the Apocrypha.
Among Græco-Jewish writers none can compare in importance with Philo
of Alexandria. His great aim was to try to harmonize Hebrew and
Greek thought. The preservation of the large number of his works is
due to their popularity among the early Church Fathers. By the Jewish
leaders he was not regarded as orthodox. Scarcely anything is known
of the life of Philo excepting what can be gained from his works, and
this is little enough.
In the short account given of the philosophy of Philo it is seen that
this is permeated with the spirit of the Greek philosophers.