Hellenism

HELLENISM: Properly, the spirit and culture of the Greeks, spread among Eastern peoples as a con sequence of the short but brilliant

Difuusion carer of Alexander the .Great. The

of Greek independent states which arose out of

Language the ruins of his empire were bound

and together by Greek speech and culture,

Learning. for all who received the Greek language came into possession of a specially rich literature. This does not mean that the Greek language superseded the local dialects over this area, but that, especially in the large cities, the people used the Greek along with their own tongues. To those who had literary inclinations the wide diffu sion of Greek had large results, since it enabled them to express themselves in the lingua franca of the

world and to attain a world-wide celebrity denied them under the old conditions of writing in their mother tongue only. The fostering centers of this influence were the courts of the different princes, where writers, artiste, and high officers collected, and where temples, theaters, gymnasia, and baths in the Greek style were erected and had their in fluence upon the culture of the land. Nevertheless, the resulting culture was different from the Greek original. The golden age of Greek literature had passed. The new peoples had to learn Greek, a fact which gave to the result a somewhat pedantic character. Moreover, along with this went a mixing

of the vernacular and the acquired speech (see Hellenistic Greek). This was in part uncon scious, in part the result of an effort by the Oriental# to emphasize their national characteristics, to prove their higher antiquity, and demonstrate its meaning for the development of culture, to tell their myths and stories after the ruling methods. The Jews,

both of Palestine and of the Diaspora, were among

the peoples drawn into this movement, which is of importance for theology, and also had other important bearings. The Jews were conscious of possessing a heritage at least equal to anything Greek, for the protection of which they must strive with all their powers.. Their faith in one Holy God, his promises to them, and above all their law, they regarded as superior to.all earthly wisdom, and for this they strove to win a larger domain by uniting in its service Greek philosophy and Greek literature, thus assuming the attitude of teachers of the world (see PRosrLYTF.6). Greek influence, however, had not the same results in Palestine as among the Jews of the Diaspora, and this fact must be distinguished in the discussion.

Exact details are lacking of the way in which Alexander came into possession of Palestine, but it

is clear that his treatment of its inhabGreek itants was gentle and that they were Influence undisturbed by the developments

on which immediately followed. 7 he es Palestinian tablishment of Greek cities all about Judaism. them afforded to the Jews opportunity

to become acquainted with Greek forms of culture, of which Jewish commerce took advantage. Greek culture found in Palestine congenial soil in the temple aristocracy, and Jesus Sirach speaks appreciatively of Greek medical science and of Greek music. Indeed, the Jewish aristocraoy appeared ready to give up all Jewish customs and to depart from its prohibitions. A high priest sent gifts to Greek games, Jews took Greek names, in Jerusalem a place was prepared for Greek celebraLions, the mark of circumcision was disguised or obliterated, and Judaism seemed destined to disappear entirely in Greek culture. The violence of the Seleucidm aroused the Maccabees, and for a time checked the movement. But the later Maccabees espoused the Greek cause, Aristobolus was named "the friend of the Greeks," while John Hyrcanus was named with honor in Athens because of his friendliness to Greeks in Palestine. This tendency developed still further under Herod the Great, who raised Greek temples in the non-Jewish parts of his realm, built the Temple in Jerusalem in a style partly Greek, and erected in the same city or near it a theater, amphitheater, and a hippodrome, while the language received large accessions of Greek words. And yet it is to be noted that there was an inner circle of Judaism which remained unaffected by this tendency, and in the discussions over the law there was an exclusiveness which held at a distance all foreign modes of thought and expression.

An essentially different condition existed among the Jews of the Dispersion. The fact that they had

unlearned their old tongue made a Greek fundamental distinction, though neverInfluence thele,-j they held fast to their Judaism.

on the They had gained the ability to live Judaism amid foreign surroundings after the

of the manner of their own faith. But Diaspora. they could not but be impressed with

the brilliancy of Greek literature, and be urged to the attempt to combine the forces of their own faith with it. Out of this grew, especially

211

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; Results Hellenistic Greek), which, upon its comple intion, became the Bible of the Jews Literature. of the Dispersion as well as that of the early Christians. Similarly, extmcanonical 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 JewishGreek 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: achUrer, Geschichte, ii. 21-175, ill. 1-135, 304-bB2, Eng. transl., II. i.-iii.; J. Freudenthal, Die Flavius Jossphus beigeleota Schrift: Usbsr die Herrschaft der Vernunft, Breslau, 1889; idem, Alexander Polyhistor, ib. 1875; M. Heinse, Geschichtliche Darstellung der yiadiSchaleznndrinischen Religionsphilosophie, Leipsic, 1872; C. Siegfried, Philo von Alezandrien, Jena, 1875; idem, in ZWT, xviii (1875), 485 sqq.; idem, in JPT, i (1888), 228 sqq.; J. G. Droysen, Geschichte des Heilenismus, Gotha, 1877-78; G. Kwpeles, Geschichte der iadisden Literatur, i. 135 sqq., Berlin, 1888; H. Bois, Les Origines de la philosophic judgo-alexandrine, Paris, 1890; E. Hatch, Influence of Greek Ideas on the Christian Church, London, 1890; F. Susemihl, Geschichte der priedhischsn Literatur in der Alexandrinerseit, Leipsic, 1891; J. P. Mahaffy, Greek Life and Thought from the Age of Alexander, London, 1891-92; M. Friedländer, Das Judardhum in der vorchrisaichen prischieden Welt, Göttingen, 1897; idem, Der vorchristliche ffidircheGnoeticismus, Vienna, 1898; L. Rahn, Romanismus and Hellenisrnua bis auf die Zest Justinians, Leipsic, 1907; P. Krüger, Hellenismus and Judentum im neuteatamendichen Zeitalter, ib., 1908; DB, ii. 280-283; EB, ii. 2008-13; JR, vi. 335-340.