II. Jewish. — For some time the Jewish Church in Alexandria was in close dependence on that of Jeru- salem. Both were subject to the civil power of the first Ptolemies, and both acknowledged the high-priest as their religious head. The persecution of Ptolemy Philopator (B.C. 217) occasioned the first political sep- aration between the two bodies. From that time the Jews of Palestine attached themselves to the fortunes of Syria [see Antiochus the Great] ; and the same policy which alienated the Palestinian part}' gave unitv and decision to the Jews of Alexandria. The Septuagint translation, which strengthened the barrier of language between Palestine and Egypt, and the temple of Leontopolis (B.C. 161), which subjected the Egyptian Jews to the charge of schism, widened the breach which was thus opened. But the division, though marked, was not complete. At the beginning of the Christian asra the Egyptian Jews still paid the contributions to the temple-service (Kaphall, Hist, of Jews, ii, 72). Jerusalem, though its name was fash- ioned to a Greek shape, was still the Holy City, the metropolis, not of a country but of a people ^ItpoiroXtg, Pliilo, In Flacc. § 7 ; Leg. ad Cai. § 3G), and the Alex- andrians had a synagogue there (Acts vi, 9). The in- ternal administration of the Alexandrine Church was independent of the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem ; but re- spect survived submission.
There were, however, other causes which tended to produce at Alexandria a distinct form of the Jewish character and faith. The religion and philosophy of that restless city produced an effect upon the people more powerful than the influence of politics or com- merce. Alexander himself symbolized the spirit with which he wished to animate his new capital by found- ing a temple of Isis side by side with the temples of the Grecian gods (Arr. iii, 1). The creeds of the East and West were to coexist in friendly union ; and in after-times the mixed worship of Serapis (comp. Gib- bon, c. xxviii ; Smith, Diet, of Class. Geogr. i, 98) was characteristic of the Greek kingdom of Egypt (August. £>• Civ. Dei, xviii, 5; S. maximus ^Egi/ptiorum Dew). This catholicity of worship was further combined with the spread of universal learning. The same monarchs who favored the worship of Serapis (Clem. Al. Protr. iv, § 48) founded and embellished the museum and library; and part of the library was deposited in the Serapeum. The new faith and the new literature led to a common issue, and the Egyptian Jews necessarily imbibed the spirit which prevailed around them.
The Jews were, indeed, peculiarly susceptible of the influences to which they were exposed. They pre- sented from tha first a capacity for Eastern or Western development. To the faith and conservatism of the Oriental they united the activity and energy of the Greek. The mere presence of Hellenic culture could not fail to call into play their powers of speculation, which were hardly repressed by the traditional legal- ism of Palestine (comp. Jost, Gesch. d. Judenth. p. 293 sq.l : and the unchanging element of divine revelation, which they always retained, enabled them to harmon- ize new thought with old belief. But while the inter- course of the Jew and Greek would have produced the same general consequences in an}' case, Alexandria was peculiarly adapted to ensure their full effect. The result of the contact of Judaism with the many creeds wdiich were current there must have been speedy and powerful. The earliest Greek fragment of Jewish writing which has been preserved (about 160 B.C.) [see Aristobulus] contains large Orphic quotations, which had been already moulded into a Jewish form (comp. Jost, Gesch. d. Judenth. p. 370) ; and the at- tempt thus made to connect the most ancient Hellenic traditions with the law was often repeated afterward. Nor was this done in the spirit of bold forgery. Or-
pheus, Musajus, and the Sibyls appeared to stand in some remote period anterior to the corruptions of poly- theism, as the witnesses of a primeval revelation and of the teaching of nature, and thus it seemed excusa- ble to attribute to them a knowledge of the Mosaic doctrines. The third book of the Sibyllines (cir. B.C. 150) is the most valuable relic of this pseudo-Hellenic literature, and shows how far the conception of Juda- ism was enlarged to meet the wider views of the re-« ligious condition of heathendom which was opened by a more intimate knowledge of Greek thought ; though the later Apocalypse of Ezra [see Esdras, 4] exhibits
: a marked reaction toward the extreme exclusiveness
: of former times.
But the indirect influence of Greek literature and
' philosophy produced still greater effects upon the Alexandrine Jews than the open conflict and combi- nation of religious dogmas. The literary school of Alexandria was essentially critical and not creative. For the first time men labored to collect, revise, and classify all the records of the past. Poets trusted to their learning rather than to their imagination. Lan- guage became a study ; and the legends of early my- thology were transformed into philosophic mysteries. The Jews took a vigorous share in these new studies. The caution against writing, wdiich became a settled law in Palestine, found no favor in Egypt. Numerous authors adapted the history of the Patriarchs, of Moses, and of the Kings to classical models (Euseb. Prop. Ev. ix, 17-39. Eupolemus, Artapanus [?], Demetrius, Aristajus, Cleodemus or Malchas, "a prophet'-). A poem which bears the name of Phocylides gives in verse various precepts of Leviticus (Daniel, sec. LXX, Apolog. p. 512 sq. Roma;, 1772); and several large fragments of a "tragedy" in which Ezekiel (cir. B.C. 110) dramatized the Exodus have been preserved by Eusebius (1. c), who also quotes numerous passages in heroic verse from the elder Philo and Theodotus. This classicalism of style was a symptom and a cause of classicalism of thought. The same Aristobulus who gave currency to the J udreo-Orphic verses endeavored to show that the Pentateuch was the real source of Greek philosophy (Euseb. Prcep. Ev. xiii, 12; Clem. Al. Strom, vi, 98).