Hellenistic Judaism

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Hellenistic Judaism was a form of

Hellenistic culture. Until the early Muslim conquests of the eastern Mediterranean, the main centers of Hellenistic Judaism were Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in Syria (now in southern Turkey), the two main Greek urban settlements of the Middle East and North Africa, both founded in the end of the fourth century BCE in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great. Hellenistic Judaism also existed in Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period, where there was a conflict between Hellenizers
and traditionalists.

The major literary product of the contact between Second Temple Judaism and Hellenistic culture is the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible from Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic to Koine Greek, specifically, Jewish Koine Greek. Mentionable are also the philosophic and ethical treatises of Philo and the historiographical works of the other Hellenistic Jewish authors.[1][2]

The decline of Hellenistic Judaism started in the second century and its causes are still not fully understood. It may be that it was eventually marginalized by, partially absorbed into, or progressively became the Koine-speaking core of Early Christianity centered on Antioch and its traditions, such as the Melkite Greek Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch.

Background

Map of Alexander's empire, extending east and south of ancient Macedonia.

The conquests of Alexander in the late fourth century BCE spread Greek culture and colonization—a process of cultural change called Hellenization—over non-Greek lands, including the Levant. This gave rise to the Hellenistic period, which sought to create a common or universal culture in the Alexandrian empire based on that of fifth-century Athens, along with a fusion of Near Eastern cultures.[3] The period is characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization which established Greek cities and kingdoms in Asia and Africa,[4] the most famous being Alexandria in Egypt. New cities established composed of colonists from different parts of the Greek world, and not from a specific metropolis ("mother city") as before.[4]

Mosaic floor of a Jewish Synagogue Aegina (300 CE).

These Jews living in countries west of the Levant formed the Hellenistic diaspora. The Egyptian diaspora is the most well-known of these.[5] It witnessed close ties. Indeed, there was firm economic integration of Judea with the Ptolemaic Kingdom that ruled from Alexandria, while there were friendly relations between the royal court and the leaders of the Jewish community. This was a diaspora of choice, not of imposition. Information is less robust regarding diasporas in other territories. It suggests that the situation was by and large the same as it was in Egypt.[6]

Jewish life in both Judea and the diaspora was influenced by the culture and language of Hellenism. The Greeks viewed Jewish culture favorably, while Hellenism gained adherents among the Jews. While Hellenism has sometimes been presented (under the influence of 2 Maccabees, itself notably a work in Koine Greek) as a threat of assimilation diametrically opposed to Jewish tradition,

Adaptation to Hellenic culture did not require compromise of Jewish precepts or conscience. When a Greek gymnasium was introduced into Jerusalem, it was installed by a Jewish High Priest. And other priests soon engaged in wrestling matches in the palaestra. They plainly did not reckon such activities as undermining their priestly duties.

— Erich S. Gruen[7]: 73–74 

Later historians would sometimes depict Hellenism and Judaism uniquely incompatible, likely due to the influence of the persecution of Antiochus IV. However, it does not appear that most Jews in the Hellenistic era considered Greek rulers any worse or different from Persian or Babylonian ones. Writings of Hellenized Jews such as

Philo of Alexandria show no particular belief that Jewish and Greek culture are incompatible; as another example, the Letter of Aristeas holds up Jews and Judaism in a favorable light by the standards of Greek culture. The one major difference that even the most Hellenized Jews did not appear to compromise on was the prohibition on polytheism; this still separated Hellenistic Jews from wider Greek culture in refusing to honor shrines, temples, gods etc. that did not pertain to the God of Israel.[8]

Hellenistic rulers of Judea

Under the suzerainty of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and later the Seleucid Empire, Judea witnessed a period of peace and protection of its institutions.[9] For their aid against his Ptolemaic enemies, Antiochus III the Great promised his Jewish subjects a reduction in taxes and funds to repair the city of Jerusalem and the Second Temple.[9]

Relations deteriorated under Antiochus's successor

Hasmonean kingdom, which lasted from 141 BCE to 63 BCE. The Hasmonean Dynasty eventually disintegrated due to a civil war
.

Hellenization of Jewish society

Overall, Jewish society was divided between conservative factions and pro-Hellenist factions.[10] Pro-Hellenist Jews were generally upper-class or minorities living in Gentile-majority communities. They lived in towns that were far from Jerusalem and heavily connected with Greek trading networks.[11]

The most significant literary achievement of Hellenistic Judaism was the development of the

Greek Apocalypse of Baruch. Some scholars consider Paul the Apostle to be a Hellenist Jew, even though he claimed to be a Pharisee (Acts 23:6).[12]

Philo of Alexandria defended Judaism as a monotheistic philosophy that anticipated the tenets of Hellenistic philosophy. He also popularized metaphors such as "circumcision of the heart" to Greek audiences.[13]

Hellenization was evident in the religious Jewish establishment:

'Ḥoni' became 'Menelaus'; 'Joshua' became 'Jason' or 'Jesus' [Ἰησοῦς]. The Hellenic influence pervaded everything, and even in the very strongholds of Judaism it modified the organization of the state, the laws, and public affairs, art, science, and industry, affecting even the ordinary things of life and the common associations of the people [...] The inscription forbidding strangers to advance beyond a certain point in the Temple was in Greek; and was probably made necessary by the presence of numerous Jews from Greek-speaking countries at the time of the festivals (comp. the "murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews,"

Hellenistic Jewish diasporas

For 2000 years, Jews lived in Greece and created the

destruction of the Second Temple.[17] However, their presence dates back to 300-250 BCE, according to existing inscriptions.[18] Greek philosophers such as Clearchus of Soli were impressed by Jews and believed they were descendants of Indian philosophers.[19]

Elsewhere, Jews in Alexandria created a "unique fusion of Greek and Jewish culture".[10]

Absorption into early Christianity

Joshua. Fresco from Dura-Europos synagogue.

The reasons for the decline of Hellenistic Judaism are obscure. It may be that it was marginalized by, absorbed into, or became

circumcision made Christianity a more attractive option for interested pagans than Rabbinic Judaism, which required ritual circumcision for converts (see Brit milah). See also Circumcision controversy in early Christianity[22][23] and the Abrogation of Old Covenant laws
.

The attractiveness of Christianity may, however, have suffered a setback with its being explicitly outlawed in the 80s CE by Domitian as a "Jewish superstition", while Judaism retained its privileges as long as members paid the fiscus Judaicus.

The opening verse of

Acts 6 points to the problematic cultural divisions between Hellenized Jews and Aramaic-speaking Israelites in Jerusalem, a disunion that reverberated within the emerging Christian community itself:

it speaks of "Hellenists" and "Hebrews." The existence of these two distinct groups characterizes the earliest Christian community in Jerusalem. The Hebrews were Jewish Christians who spoke almost exclusively Aramaic, and the Hellenists were also Jewish Christians whose mother tongue was Greek. They were Greek-speaking Jews of the Diaspora, who returned to settle in Jerusalem. To identify them, Luke uses the term Hellenistai. When he had in mind Greeks, gentiles, non-Jews who spoke Greek and lived according to the Greek fashion, then he used the word Hellenes (Acts 21.28). As the very context of Acts 6 makes clear, the Hellenistai are not Hellenes.[24]

Some historians believe that a sizeable proportion of the Hellenized Jewish communities of Southern Turkey (

Alexandretta and neighboring cities) and Syria/Lebanon converted progressively to the Greco-Roman branch of Christianity that eventually constituted the "Melkite" (or "Imperial") Hellenistic churches of the MENA area:

As Christian Judaism originated at Jerusalem, so Gentile Christianity started at Antioch, then the leading center of the Hellenistic East, with Peter and Paul as its apostles. From Antioch it spread to the various cities and provinces of Syria, among the Hellenistic Syrians as well as among the Hellenistic Jews who, as a result of the great rebellions against the Romans in A.D. 70 and 130, were driven out from Jerusalem and Palestine into Syria.[25]

Legacy

Widespread influence beyond Second Temple Judaism

Both

First synagogues in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East

The word synagogue itself comes from

Antiochian Greek Orthodox
churches.

Mishnaic and Talmudic concepts

Many of the Jewish sages who compiled the

Johanan ben Zakai, the first Jewish sage attributed the title of rabbi and Rabbi Meir, the son of proselyte Anatolian Greek
converts to Early Rabbinical Judaism.

Even Israeli rabbis of Babylonian Jewish descent such as Hillel the Elder whose parents were Aramaic-speaking Jewish migrants from Babylonia (hence the nickname "Ha-Bavli"), had to learn Greek language and Greek philosophy in order to be conversant with sophisticated rabbinical language – many of the theological innovations introduced by Hillel had Greek names, most famously the Talmudic notion of Prozbul, from Koine Greek προσβολή, "to deliver":

Unlike literary Hebrew, popular Aramaic or Hebrew constantly adopted new Greek loanwords, as is shown by the language of the Mishnaic and Talmudic literature. While it reflects the situation at a later period, its origins go back well before the Christian era. The collection of the loanwords in the Mishna to be found in Schürer shows the areas in which Hellenistic influence first became visible- military matters, state administration and legislature, trade and commerce, clothing and household utensils, and not least in building. The so-called copper scroll with its utopian list of treasures also contains a series of Greek loanwords. When towards the end of the first century BCE, Hillel in practice repealed the regulation of the remission of debts in the sabbath year (Deut. 15.1-11) by the possibility of a special reservation on the part of the creditor, this reservation was given a Greek name introduced into Palestinian legal language- perōzebbōl = προσβολή, a sign that even at that time legal language was shot through with Greek.

— Martin Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism (1974)

Influence on Levantine Byzantine traditions

The unique combination of

ethnocultural traits inhered from the fusion of a Greek-Macedonian cultural base, Hellenistic Judaism and Roman civilization
gave birth to the distinctly Antiochian "Middle Eastern-Roman" Christian traditions of Cilicia (Southeastern Turkey) and Syria/Lebanon:

"The mixture of Roman, Greek, and Jewish elements admirably adapted Antioch for the great part it played in the early history of Christianity. The city was the cradle of the church".[27]

Some typically

Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch in the Hatay Province of Southern Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Northern Israel, and in the Greek-Levantine Christian diasporas of Brazil, Mexico, the United States and Canada
.

But many of the surviving liturgical traditions of these communities rooted in Hellenistic Judaism and, more generally,

Roman Catholic
) gentile theologians who sought to 'bring back' Levantine Greek Orthodox and Greek-Catholic communities into the European Christian fold: some ancient Judeo-Greek traditions were thus deliberately abolished or reduced in the process.

Members of these communities still call themselves "

Rûm" (literally "Roman"; usually referred to as "Byzantine" in English) and referring to Greeks in Turkish, Persian and Levantine Arabic. In that context, the term Rûm is preferred over Yāvāni or Ionani (literally "Ionian"), also referring to Greeks in Ancient Hebrew, Sanskrit and Classical Arabic
.

Individual Hellenized Jews

Hellenistic and Hasmonean Period

Herodian and Roman Period

Late Antiquity and Early Medieval Era

See also

References

  1. ^ Walter, N. Jüdisch-hellenistische Literatur vor Philon von Alexandrien (unter Ausschluss der Historiker), ANRW II: 20.1.67-120
  2. .
  3. ^ Roy M. MacLeod, The Library Of Alexandria: Centre Of Learning In The Ancient World
  4. ^ a b Ulrich Wilcken, Griechische Geschichte im Rahmen der Alterumsgeschichte.
  5. ^ "Syracuse University. "The Jewish Diaspora in the Hellenistic Period"". Archived from the original on 2012-01-30. Retrieved 2013-09-11.
  6. .
  7. ^ Gruen, Erich S. (1997). "Fact and Fiction: Jewish Legends in a Hellenistic Context". Hellenistic Constructs: Essays in Culture, History, and Historiography. University of California Press. pp. 72 ff.
  8. .
  9. ^ a b c Gruen, Erich S. (1993). "Hellenism and Persecution: Antiochus IV and the Jews". In Green, Peter (ed.). Hellenistic History and Culture. University of California Press. pp. 238 ff.
  10. ^ .
  11. ^ a b Grabbe 2010, p. 10–16
  12. ^ "Saul of Tarsus: Not a Hebrew Scholar; a Hellenist" Archived 2009-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, Jewish Encyclopedia
  13. ^ E. g., Leviticus 26:41, Ezekiel 44:7
  14. Jewish Encyclopedia
    , Quote: from 'Range of Hellenic Influence' and 'Reaction Against Hellenic Influence' sections
  15. ^ The Holocaust in Greece: Ioannina. URL accessed April 15, 2006. Archived October 20, 2004, at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ "Language". Jewish Community of Rhodes - Official Website. Retrieved 2024-01-20.
  17. .
  18. .
  19. ^ Josephus, Flavius. Contra Apionem, I.176-183. Retrieved 6/16/2012 from http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=J.+Ap.+1.176&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0215.
  20. ^ Acts 16:1–3
  21. ^ McGarvey on Acts 16 Archived 2012-10-16 at the Wayback Machine: "Yet we see him in the case before us, circumcising Timothy with his own hand, and this 'on account of certain Jews who were in those quarters. '"
  22. ^ 1 Corinthians 7:18
  23. ^ "making themselves foreskins"; I Macc. i. 15; Josephus, "Ant." xii. 5, § 1; Assumptio Mosis, viii.; I Cor. vii. 18;, Tosef.; Talmud tractes Shabbat xv. 9; Yevamot 72a, b; Yerushalmi Peah i. 16b; Yevamot viii. 9a; [1] Archived 2020-05-08 at the Wayback Machine; Catholic Encyclopedia: Circumcision Archived 2013-01-16 at the Wayback Machine: "To this epispastic operation performed on the athletes to conceal the marks of circumcision St. Paul alludes, me epispastho (1 Corinthians 7:18)."
  24. ^ " Conflict and Diversity in the Earliest Christian Community" Archived 2013-05-10 at the Wayback Machine, Fr. V. Kesich, O.C.A.
  25. ^ "History of Christianity in Syria" Archived 2013-01-17 at the Wayback Machine, Catholic Encyclopedia
  26. ^ Daniel Boyarin. "Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism", Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999, p. 15.
  27. ^ "Antioch," Encyclopaedia Biblica, Vol. I, p. 186 (p. 125 of 612 in online .pdf file.
  28. Jewish Encyclopedia
  29. ^ "Artapanus | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2024-02-19.
  30. ^ "Cleodemus | Jewish historian | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2024-02-19.
  31. , retrieved 2024-02-19
  32. , retrieved 2024-02-19
  33. ^ Nehemiah xii. 11
  34. Jewish Antiquities
    xi. 8, § 7
  35. ^ I Macc. xii. 7, 8, 20
  36. Talmud Bavli
    , Kiddushin, 71a
  37. ^ Philippe Bobichon (ed.), Justin Martyr, Dialogue avec Tryphon, édition critique, introduction, texte grec, traduction, commentaires, appendices, indices, (Coll. Paradosis nos. 47, vol. I-II.) Editions Universitaires de Fribourg Suisse, (1125 pp.), 2003

Further reading

Foreign language

  • hrsg. von W.G. Kümmel und H. Lichtenberger (1973), Jüdische Schriften aus hellenistisch römischer Zeit (in German), Gütersloh{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Delling, Gerhard (1987), Die Begegnung zwischen Hellenismus und Judentum Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt (in German), vol. Bd. II 20.1

English

  • Borgen, Peder. Early Christianity and Hellenistic Judaism. Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark, 1996.
  • Cohen, Getzel M. The Hellenistic Settlements in Syria, the Red Sea Basin, and North Africa. Hellenistic Culture and Society 46. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
  • Gruen, Erich S. Constructs of Identity In Hellenistic Judaism: Essays On Early Jewish Literature and History. Boston: De Gruyter, 2016.
  • Mirguet, Françoise. An Early History of Compassion: Emotion and Imagination In Hellenistic Judaism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
  • Neusner, Jacob, and William Scott Green, eds. Dictionary of Judaism in the Biblical Period: 450 BCE to 600 CE. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan Library Reference, 1996.
  • Tcherikover, Victor (1975), Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews, New York: Atheneum
  • The Jewish Encyclopedia

External links