While the Jews scattered all over the world thus held fast to the religion of their fathers, and that in the legal form it had received through the Restoration under Ezra, they had become in other respectsGreeks. Greek culture asserted its suprem- acy in a decisive fashion here, as elsewhere. In
Asia Minor, Greece, Egypt, Cyrenaica, nay even at Rome, Greek was the mother tongue of the Jews. All the relics of writing that have come down to us from the Diaspora during the last centuries B.C. and the first centuries A.D. are in Greek. This is true especially of the tomb- inscriptions, whose evidence is of importance be- cause they are concerned not only with the rich and noble, but with the poor and humble (see above, §i., for the most important materials under this head). These tomb-inscriptions are at the same time a faithful mirror of the stage of culture that prevailed in the communities. The Greek of the tomb-inscriptions at Rome is barbarous, and shows, what might otherwise have been supposed, that the Jews here remained for the most part at a low social level. In other places the inscriptions of various kinds that have survived reveal a higher degree of culture.
It was in Egypt that the Jews most thoroughly assimilated the Greek culture. Here, as is shown by the case of Philo, they read the Greek poets and philosophers; Homer, Sophocles, and Euri- pides; Plato, Aristotle, and Zeno. All this could not, as a matter of course, be without far-reaching influence upon their whole intellectual life. Their conception of the world and of life, in spite of their adherence to legal Judaism, was powerfully influenced in its contents by Greek culture. The literature produced by Hellenistic, especially Alex- andrian, Judaism is, in consequence, of an ex- tremely varied character. It serves, on the one hand, religious ends, the defence and propagation of Judaism (Apologetics and Propaganda); and, on the other hand, it follows Greek models in History, Poetry, and Philosophy. So far as poetical art is concerned, it was indeed somewhat meagrely represented. The extant fragments of Greek dramas and Greek epics treating of biblical subjects can scarcely be said to be marked by any high poetic strain (see the fragments of a drama treating of the story of the Exodus from Egypt by the tragedian Ezekiel ap. Euseb. Prep. Evang. ix. 28, 29; and the fragments of an epic on the history of Jerusalem by the elder Philo ap. Euseb. ib, ix. 20, 24, 37). In philosophy, however, the Jews made very notable achievements. Greek philosophy had indeed advanced far on the way towards monotheism. It had also, as represented by many of its teachers, an ethical cast. Hence the Jews discovered here many elements which were capable of assimilation by them. These they adopted with remarkable powers of adapta- tion ; and in this way, by combining the religious world-conception of the Old Testament with the philosophic world-conception of the Greeks, they created a new unique philosophy of religion which was as much Jewish as Greek. <A clear picture of this is given us by the writings of the Alexandrian Philo, which have come down to us in great numbers. i
The adoption of Greek culture enabled the Jews again for their part to exercise an influence on their heathen environments. From all that we know, they carried on a vigorous and successful propaganda. Those whom they gained over were either formally received into the communities by circumcision, or they attached themselves to them in a loose form ‘as God-fearing’ (ceBduervor, poBov- evo Tov Gedy), forming a kind of appendage to the communities (see art. PROSELYTE in vol. iy.). This Jewish propaganda served in great measure as a preliminary to Christianity. In general the Jewish Diaspora, as was remarked at the beginning of the present article, paved the way along which the first preachers of the gospel went forth into the world, and in many ways laid the foundation of the rapid success of their preaching.
RELIGION OF GREECE
[Additional Note to § i. (5).—The early settle- ment of Jews in Alexandria is confirmed also by an inscription, discovered in 1902 in the neigh- bourhood of Alexandria, which reads thus: ‘Yxép Baoidéws Iroreuatov cat Baoiloons Bepevixns dderpis kal yuvakds Kal rOv réxveav Thy mpocervxhy 6 "Iovdator (see REJ xlv. [1902] p. 162). The inscription refers in all probability to Ptolemy m1. Euergetes (247-222 B.c.)].
Litgrature.—Remond, Versuch einer Gesch. der Ausbreit. des Judenthums von Cyrus bis auf den ganzlichen Untergang des Jiidischen Staats, Leipzig, 1789; Gieseler, Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte, Bd. i. Abth. 1 (4 Aufl. 1844), p. 53 f.; Winer, RWB2, art. ‘ Exil’ Gi. 357-360), and ‘Zerstreuung’ (ii. 727-730), also the articles on particular cities, e.g. ‘ Alexandria,’ ‘ Anti- ochia,’ ‘Cyrene,’ ‘Rom,’ etc.; J. G. Miller, art. ‘Alexandrin- ische Juden’ in Herzog’s RE1 i. [1854] 235-239; Reuss, art. “Hellenisten,’ 7b.1 v. 701-705, 2v. 738-741; Lutterbeck, Die Neutest. Lehrbegriffe, i. [1852] 99-120 ; Frankel, ‘ Die Diaspora zur Zeit des zweiten Tempels’ in Monatsschr. fiir Gesch. wnd Wissensch. des Judenthums, 1853, pp. 409-429, 449-463, also the same author's art. ‘Die Juden unter den ersten rdmischen Kaisern,’ ib. 1854, pp. 401-418, 439-450; Jost, Gesch. der Israeliten, ii. 239-344, Gesch. des Judenthums und seiner Secten, i. 336ff., 344-361, 367-379; Herzfeld, Gesch. des Volkes Jisrael, iii. 425-579, Handelsgeschichte der Juden des Alter- thums, 1879 ; Gritz, Gesch. der Juden4, iii. [1888] 24-49 ; Cham- pagny, Rome et la Judée au temps de la chute de Néron, i. [Paris, 1865] 107-154; Ewald, Gesch. des Volkes Israel, iv. 305 ff., v. 108ff., vi. 396ff.; Holtzmann in Weber-Holtzmann’s Gesch. des Volkes Israel, ii. 38-52, 253-273 ; Hausrath, Neutest. Zeit- geschichte?, ii. 91-145, iii. 383-392; Neubauer, La Géographie du Talmud, 1868, pp. 289-419; Friedlinder, Darstellungen aus der Sittengesch. Roms, iii. [1871] 504-517, also ‘de Judzorum Coloniis,’ Regimonti Pr., 1876 [Progr.]; Deutsch, art. ‘Dispersion’ in Kitto’s Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature; Westcott, art. ‘Dispersion’ in Smith’s DB2; Weizsicker, art. ‘Zerstreuung’ in Schenkel’s Bibellexicon, v. 712-716 ; Hindekoper, Judaism at Rome B.c. 76 to a.D. 140, New York, 1876 (cf. Theol. Literatur- zeitung, 1877, col. 163); Hamburger, RE fiir Bibel und Talmud, Abth. li. (1883), arts. ‘Zehn Staémme,’ ‘ Zerstreuung,’ also ‘ Alex- andria,’ ‘Antiochia,’ ‘Rom,’ etc., further, art. ‘ Ausbreitung des Judenthums’ in Supplementhbd. iii. [1892] 9-24 ; Mommsen, Rom. Gesch. v. [1885] 489-499 ; Pressel, Die Zerstrewung des Volkes Israel, 1889 ; Renan, Histoire du peuple d Israel, v.[1893] 221-247 ; M. Friedlander, Das Judenthum in der vorchristlichen griech- ischen Welt, 1897; Reinach, art. ‘Judxi’ in Daremberg-Saglio’s Dictionnaire des Antiquités grecques et romaines; Schurer, GJV 2, iii. [1898] 1-102 [HJ P, 1. ii. 219-327], where a number of points are discussed in fuller detail. E. ScHURER.