RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Heliograbalus Hellenistic Greek
in Alexandria, but also in other centers of Jewish life abroad, the very rich Jewish-Greek literature, of which sufficient remains have been preserved to enable a very fair estimate of it to be made. A farther stimulus to the production of this literature were the correspondences and coincidences found by Jews in Greek writings with their own ideas, and an essential relationship felt to exist was embodied in Jewish allegorical exegesis. Greek was seized as a vehicle by which to convey to others the Judaic sense of the superiority of their own law and to glorify Judaism even by interpolation of existing writings.
The basis of Hellenistic literature was the translation of the Old Testament into Greek (see Bible
Versions, A, I. 1, § 1; Hellenistic
Results Greek), which, upon its comple-
in tion, became the Bible of the Jews
Literature, of the Dispersion as well as that of
the early Christians. Similarly, extracanonical Palestinian writings, like that of Sirach and the Psalms of Solomon, were made accessible to Greek-speaking Jews through translations. Through these translations a certain freedom in handling the Scriptures was attained. The literature which arose upon the basis of the Septuagint embraced three departments: history, philosophy, and poetry. The task of the Jewish historians was to show the significance of Moses for the entire world as the originator of all sciences and arts. The retelling of the Old Testament story by Philo was in the interest of an ethical-philosophical tendency. And other writers had the purpose of setting forth the newer developments of history in the Jewish world, as did Jason of Cyrene the period of the Maccabees, and Josephus the story of the fall of Jerusalem. Jewish apologetics also received assistance from Josephus, who attempted to prove the high antiquity of the Jewish nation, and hence its equality at least with other peoples. Similarly, the narrative of Aristeas had the object of showing the regard with which a heathen people honored the Jewish law. Naturally the philosophy which sprang up in this region was eclectic. On the border-land between the Palestinian wisdom literature and Greek philosophy stood the Wisdom of Solomon, influenced by Plato and the Stoics. The newer treatment set forth a moral theory of the rule of reason under the influence of Stoicism, as in IV Maccabees. And the results of the philosophic eclecticism have gained a not unworthy place in the history of philosophy. A third class of Jewish- Greek writers took the Greek poets as models and entered the domain of the drama and epic poetry. Thus there are fragments of a poem on the history of Jerusalem and of a drama on the Exodus. But the most noteworthy efforts in this direction were those which interpolated the Sibylline Oracles and other Greek productions, using them as a propaganda for the Jewish religion.
After the fall of the Jewish State the exclusive tendency of the strict Palestinian school began to work, and is well exemplified in the new translation of the Old Testament by Aquila in order to suppress the Septuagint and to support the pure Palestinian text and canon. The tendency against the union of Jewish and Gentile learning grew ever stronger,
until finally the Hellenistic literature was forgotten. The consequence would have been the entire loss of this body of literature had it not been rescued and preserved by the Christians whose linguistic affinities were with the Greek. (F. Buhl.)
Bibliography: Schiirer, Geschichte, ii. 21-175, iii. 1-135, 304-562, Eng. transl., II. i.— iii. ; J. Freudenthal, Die Flavius Josephus beigelegte Schrift: Ueber die Herrschaft der Vernunft, Breslau, 1869; idem, Alexander Polyhistor, ib. 1875; M. Heinze, Geschichtliche Darstellung der judischalexandrinischen Religionsphilosophie, Leipsic, 1872; C. Siegfried, Philo von Alexandrien, Jena, 1875; idem, in ZWT, xviii (1875), 465 sqq.; idem, in JPT, i (1886), 228 sqq.; J. G. Droysen, Geschichte des Hellenismus, Gotha, 1877-78; G. Karpeles, Geschichte der jildischen Literatur, i. 135 sqq., Berlin, 1886; H. Bois, Les Origines de la philosophic judeo-alexandrine, Paris, 1890; E. Hatch, Influence of Greek Ideas on the Christian Church, London, 1890; F. Susemihl, Geschichte der griechischen Literatur in der Alexandrinerzeit, Leipsic, 1891; J. P. Mahaffy, Greek Life and Thought from the Age of Alexander, London, 1891-92; M. Friedlander, Das Judenthum in der vorchristlichen griechischen Welt, Gottingen, 1897; idem, Der vorchristliche judische Gnosticismus, Vienna, 1898; L. Hahn, Romanismus und Hellenismus biz auf die Zeit Justinians, Leipsic, 1907; P. Kriiger, Hellenismus und Judentum im neutestamentlichen Zeitalter, ib., 1908; DB, ii. 260-263; EB, ii. 2006-13; JE, vi. 335-340.