This Greek culture, however, was but a veneer ; it was only on the surface, and had only a temporary existence. Underneath, the old Oriental civilization still persisted, and came to the surface after a short time — more especially in the 3rd cent. A.D. We find many of the artificial Greek names of localities disappear and the old place-names reappear ; we find the vernacular, so far spoken only by illiterate country folk,* recapture the cities and create a national literature. The cosmopolitan feeling of the Hellenistic period was replaced by an outburst of nationalistic enthusiasm, which made it easy for Muhammadanism to over-run all these Eastern pro- vinces and sweep away the last remainders of the Hellenistic civilization.
In the meantime, Hellenism had not only assimi- lated many Oriental notions and beliefs : it had opened the West itself to Oriental influence. This is in fact what is usually called Hellenism — that mixture of Greek and Oriental civilization which characterizes the culture of the last centuries B.C. and the first centuries A.D. We have already seen how it influenced Greek language, literature, art, science, etc. The most significant feature was re- ligious syncretism. Not only were the Oriental gods called by Greek names (Amnion and Baal became Zeus ; Melkart, Herakles ; Astarte, Aphro- dite ; Thoth, Hermes, etc.) — what is usually called theocrasy — but the Oriental gods themselves under their own names Avere introduced into the West and worshipped by Greeks and Romans with no less fervour than by their own countrymen. But it was not the plain Egyptian cult of Isis, or the Phoenician cult of Adonis, or the Phrygian cult of the Magna Mater and Attis, or the Persian cult of Mithra that made so many proselytes among the Greeks and Romans : on their way to the West these cults had been transformed into Greek Mysteries, and it was in this form that they proved
* When St. Paul arrived at Lystra, the people there spoke AuKaoi'icTTi.' (Ac 1411), but St. Paiil preached in Greek and was understood.
SO attractive. The Greek notion of a Mystery — i.e. the idea of a community of initiated believers who sought to enter into union with the god for the purpose of obtaining divine immortality — took hold of these Oriental cults, whose myths were ex- cellently adapted for this purpose, and whose strange rites lent themselves to the sacramental methods of such a communion. Moreover, the Orient had produced a priestly wisdom which was easily trans- formed into a Greek gnosis : Hellenism identified the objects of this speculation with its philosophical notions, hellenizing even their strange names into psychological terms.
It is the special character of this Oriental Hellen- ism that one can scarcely distinguish its separate elements : they are borrowed from all parts of the Eastern world, and so mixed up with Greek elements that the whole mass appears as a homogeneous unity in substance and form. Many of its features may be explained as readily from the Greek as from the Oriental point of view.
3. Jewish Hellenism.— Into this melting-pot of Oriental and Greek civilization Judaism was thrown in diflerent ways.
(a) Babylon, where the largest number of Jews was settled, felt the Greek influence, after the Persian period, but only for a comparatively short time. Thus some Greek elements, besides the Persian ones, may have been introduced even here.
(b) Palestine itself, the native soil of Judaism, came under the political and cultural influence of the Ptolemys of Egypt and the Seleucids of Syria, and this influence became so strong that we find the religious leaders of the Jewish people, the priestly aristocracy, calling their sons by Greek names (Menelaus [Menahem] or Jason [Joshua, Jesus]), and making them practise athletics according to the Greek usage. They came very near to a hellen- izing of their religion as well, until the ill-timed attempt of Antiochus Epiphanes in 168 B.C. to introduce Greek idol-worship in place of the Jewish cult caused a reaction, when the Maccabees re- volted and succeeded in delivering their country from the political domination of the Seleucids. They were less successful, and probably less zealous, in their attempt at getting rid of Hellenistic civil- ization. To learn the Greek language, to be in touch with the Western culture, was still an aim of most cultured Jews. All the time, until the destruction of Jerusalem, two tendencies were at work side by side : the tendency to isolate Judaism by prohibiting all relations with Hellenistic sur- roundings, and the tendency to give Judaism more influence by encouraging Jewish boys to learn the Greek language and to assimilate Greek ideas. It is rather difficult to estimate the exact measure of the Hellenistic influence on this Palestinian Juda- ism ; but that it was great there can be no doubt. We see it in the vocabulary of Rabbinical Aramaic which includes terms like SLad-qKi), Kan'jywp, etc., ; we see it further in many notions of Jewish psychology and even eschatology : it is Hellenistic individual- ism which distinguishes later from earlier Jewish theories.
(c) The Greek Diaspora. — The real Jewish Hellen- ism, however, was to be found among the colonies of Jews scattered all over the Grseco-Roman world, the so-called Diaspora.* These Jews, who in some places — as, e.g., Alexandria and the Cyrenaica — formed a third of the population and had a power- ful organization, had opened their minds to the spirit of Greek civilization. They not only spoke