* Besides the Jewish Diaspora there was a smaller Samaritan one, which developed the same Hellenistic tendencies — a Greek translation of the Bible, a poem on the history of Sichem, chronicles, etc. (Schiirer, GJV'* iii. [Leipzig, 1909]. 51, 481 ff.; P. Glaue and A. Rahlfs, Fragmente einer griech. Lfbersetzung des Samaritan. Pentateuchs [A'GG, 1911, 167 ff.]).
550
HELLENISM
HELLENISM
the Greek language in addition to their vernacular ; it loas tlieir vernacular: they used it in Divine service, when they gathered in the synagogues to worship the God of Israel ; tliey had the Holy Scriptures, the Law of their God, translated into Greek ; they had writers among themselves who liad as great a mastery of the Greek language as any Greek author ; they produced poems on the liistory of the Jewish people in the style of Homer, and even dramatized the Scriptures after the model of Euripides. They made a real study of Greek philosophy, and themselves contributed to the development of philosophical thought. While the unknown author of the Book of Wisdom under the name of Solomon sets forth the Jewish wisdom as it was influenced by Greek ideas, Philo, the famous Jewish philosopher, finds in Greek philosophy the real meaning of the Jewish Scriptures. He is, of course, a Jew, and he remains so ; his heart belongs to his people and to its religion, but his head is filled with Greek notions and speculations, and it is from the Greek philosophers that he derives what he sets forth as the teaching of the ideal law -giver, Rloses.
This Jewish Hellenism of the Diaspora was in fact Judaism, akin to the true Palestinian Judaism in substance, but it was a special kind of Judaism. Its horizon was widened, and its strictness weak- ened. Starting from an earlier form of Judaism, it did not share in the specific Kabbinical develop- ment of later Palestinian Judaism ; on the other hand, it developed in its own way. Many things were possible to these Hellenistic Jews which would have been intolerable to the Palestinian Rabbis ; and many things were uncertain to the former regarding which there was no question among the latter.
Hellenistic Judaism, therefore, was regarded by pious Palestinians as a Judaism of lower rank, a semi-heretical second-class Judaism. Nevertheless, it was a very influential pioneer of Judaism among the Greeks and Romans. The broader views proved to be more attractive to the heathen. They took the moral injunctions from the Law without being compelled to take circumcision and other strange rites ; they accepted these moral views, together with the great hope of the Jewish people, from the Greek Bible. They had thus the guarantee of an old revelation transmitted in a most venerable book, and yet it sounded quite modern when inter- preted by men like Philo. The language of this book was, of course, Oriental, but was this not in itself a sign of something Divine or an evidence of venerable age ? Thus many a heathen became an adherent of this broad Judaism, being admitted as a worshipper and supporting the Jewish congrega- tion by means of his wealth, and lending it his influence. It was for the benefit of such faithful proselj^tes that the Jews composed a moral cate- chism in poetical form under tlie name of Phoky- lides, or wrote the Sibylline Oracles, embodying the iaope of the Jewish people, or interpolated hints to Jewish believers into the works of the famous Greek authors. This Jewish propaganda succeeded in gathering around tlie synagogues of the Diaspora numbers of proselytes who approached Judaism in various degrees.
Comparatively few Jews were led by contact with Hellenism to apostasy, like Philo's nephew Tiberius Alexander. For the most part tlie Jew remained a Jew, faithful to his people and its re- ligion even amidst Hellenistic surroimdings ; and the hatred which the average Greek population felt for this strange element in their midst caused the Jews to cling together even more. The ideal of many Jews of the Diaspora was to go to Jerusa- lem, not only for a short pilgrimage, but with the purpose of staying there and being buried there at
their death. Thus a considerable colony of Hellen- istic Jews from all parts of the world settled in Jerusalem : they had their own synagogues ; they retained the habit of speaking Greek, and nourished their peculiar notions about the Law and the uni- versalism of salvation. It is from these circles of Hellenistic Jews in Jerusalem that the name ' Hellenist ' is derived (Ac 6' D^s).
See C. Siegfried, 'Bedeutung und Schicksal des Hellenismus im judischen Vo\k,' in J PTh, 18S6, p. 228 ff. ; E. Schiirer, GJV* iii. [Leipzig, 1909] ; W. Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums im neutest. Zeilalter'^, Berlin, 1906 ; O. Holtzmann, Neutest. Zeitgeschichte^, Tubingen, 1906 ; W. Staerk, Neutest. Zeitge- schichte, Leipzig, 1907, also ' Judentum und Hellenismus,' in Das Christentum, do. 1908 ; A. Deissmann, 'Die Hellenisieiung des semit. Monotlieisnius,' in Neue Jahrbucherfiir das kiass. Alter- turn, 1903, p. 161 B. ; M. Friedlander, Die religiosen Beweg- unpen innerhalb des Judentums im Zeitalter Jesu, Berlin, 1905 ; F. Buhl, art. ' Hellenisten ' in PRE^ vii. 623-627 ; cf. art. Philo.
4. Hellenism in primitive Christianity. — The
gospel of Jesus was a Divine message to Israel ; Jesus Himself had confined His ministry to the lost sheep of the house of Israel ; it was only occa- sionally that He dealt with pagans such as the centurion of Capernaum or the Syrophcenician woman ; it is an exceptional case also when we read in Jn 12^" that there were certain Greeks who wished to see Jesus. The primitive community which arose in Jerusalem after Jesus' Death and Resurrection was a purely Jewish one. But it is remarkable that very soon, if not from the very first, Hellenistic Jews joined this community of Galiljeans. The very tendency of the gospel, uni- versalistic as it was, appealed to these broad- minded people, and they were ready to deduce the consequences.