language, and subsequently played the same réle as Latin did in the Middle Ages. See, further, Driver, LOT® 503 ff.
Along with the idioms just discussed, we have to take into account, for NT times, also the Greek laneuage. The factors we noticed as favouring the introduction of Greek culture paved the way also for the language of Greece. The clearest evidence of this is afforded by the very numerous Greek words adopted into the languages of the Jews. A few of these are found even in the Book of Daniel, notably such as are names of musical instruments (Driver, J.c. 501). In all probability jr»s of Ca 3° must also be considered Greek (= ¢opeiov), and perhaps we should assign to the same category some other terms in the Song of Songs (/.c. 449n.)._ In the Book of Ecclesi- astes, again, we have Heb. renderings of Gr. forms of expression, such as 2» nivy=ed mpar- rev, Ypwn non=t¢’ pAlw, etc. In the post-Biblical literature we encounter a large number of Greek loan-words, especially in the domain of political administration, or of commerce, or of public institutions.* It is characteristic, further, that, whereas on some of the later coins of the Hasmonzeans we find Hebrew legends side by side with the Greek, the coins of the Herod family bear only Greek inscriptions. It may be held as certain that every Jew who made any claim to higher culture, and therefore in particular every one who was brought into contact with the court, understood and spoke Greek. Traders also must be assumed to have had a certain acquaintance with this tongue. And those Jews who lived in the immediate vicinity of districts where Greek was spoken would doubtless acquire the habit from their youth of using the Greek as well-as the Aramaic language. But how far it was customary elsewhere to learn Greek, and how far the know- ledge of this language had penetrated among the general body of the people, cannot be determined with certainty. According to Sétd ix. 14, during the war with Quietus [so read instead of ‘with Titus ’] in 115-117, it was forbidden that any one should teach his son Greek. From this we may infer that until then this had been a usual practice even within strict circles. It was also an import- ant circumstance that Jerusalem, upon the occasion of the great festivals, was the rallying-poimt not only of the Palestinian Jews, but of those whose homes were in all other lands. Only a very small proportion of the latter can have been acquainted with Hebrew or Aramaic. And at times some of these, instead of returning to their homes, would settle in Jerusalem. It may also be supposed that the choice of the Alexandrian Jew, Boethus, to be high priest would draw a number of Alex- andrians to Jerusalem (cf. Jos. Ant. XV. ix. 3). Special synagogues were built at Jerusalem for the use of those foreigners who did not understand the language of the country (Ac 6°; Tos. Megilla iii. 6). Proselytes also would come from other lands to settle in Jerusalem. In this way some knowledge of Greek may be presumed to have been ditfused in Judeea as well. In Jn 12° we hear of Greeks ("E\\nves, 7.¢. either Jews of the Dia- spora [?] or proselytes) who asked Philip to intro- duce them to Jesus—a circumstance which implies that this disciple at least understood Greek. That the same was the case with Jesus Himself cannot be
* As examples may be cited: NITDN erapxos, vba Bouvard, pq. cuvedpiov, NOP zaraywp, bain xpocBorn, NPDp xkanros, DD T1e%, nopoxop nore rAEwTe, |*PI13D TULYOOHELOY, 353 Bocroeverov, yor dyesovov. Less numerous are the Latin loan-words, the majority of which, moreover, came in through the Greek: ¢.g. “Dp decumani, apdppp disciplina. Cf. S. Krauss, Griechische und Lateinische Lehnworter im Talnud, Midrasch und Targum, 1-2 (1898-99).
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48 NEW TESTAMENT TIMES
NEW TESTAMENT TIMES
proved with complete certainty from His conversa- tions with Pilate, for the services of an interpreter may have been utilized, although this is not ex- pressly mentioned in the narrative. We may compare the occasion when Josephus (BJ V. ix. 2) represents Titus as delivering an address to the people of Jerusalem, although we learn afterwards (VI. ii. 5) that on such occasions he availed him- self of the help of Josephus as interpreter. From the last cited passage it is evident, at all events, that the mass of the people in the Jewish capital did not understand Greek.*
ili, POLITICAL CoNSTITUTION.—The Greek rule, under which the Jews were brought by Alexander the Great, did not in general press very heavily upon subject peoples, who were left in the enjoy- ment of no small measure of self-government. The foreign domination confined itself mainly to the taxation of the provinces. So high, however, were these taxes at times, and such was the rapacity of some of those entrusted with the col- lecting of them, that there was scope here for op- pression enough. In the Ptolemaic period Josephus (Ant. XII. iv. 3) tells us that the imposts were farmed out to the highest bidder, who could then claim military aid in recovering them. In the Seleucid period, on the other hand, the taxes were collected by officers of the king (1 Mac 1%). The internal administration, however, was in the hands of the native authorities, which meant for the Jews that henceforward, as before, they were governed by the high priest and the council associated with him (yepovola, Jos. Ant. XII. ili. 3). This council was originally an assembly of the heads of families (Neh 5”); but, after the high priest obtained the right of presiding over it, it came to be composed increasingly of members of the temple aristocracy (see art. SANHEDRIN in vol. iv.). The succession of legitimate high priests (the ‘anointed’ of Dn 9*t-) was violently interrupted under Antiochus Epiphanes. But after the Hasmonzans by their valour and address had raised the Jewish people to the rank of a Power that had to be reckoned with politically, the Syrian king nominated Jona- than high priest, and thus ruler of the nation of the Jews. The grateful people afterwards handed over this dignity to the last of the Maccabee brothers as a hereditary prerogative: he was to take charge of the sanctuary, appoint the officials, etc., and in his name all instruments were to be executed (1 Mac 144), Through the conquests which the Hasmonzeans succeeded in making, the sphere of authority of the high priests (or, as they soon came to call themselves, kings) and of the Sanhedrin was materially enlarged. An im- portant epoch for the internal administration was the reign of queen Alexandra, under whom the Pharisees succeeded in gaining a footing in the Sanhedrin and an influence upon the legislation.