04-05-2007, 03:23 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->http://www.adath-shalom.ca/greek_influence.htm#tab1
3.1 Under the Hellenistic Monarchies (332-167 BCE)
The first major Jewish contact with Greek culture was when Judah was ruled by the Ptolemies. The Jews in Judah did not meet Greek scientists, philosophers or historians. <b>The Jews met mercenaries, tax collectors, petty officials, money lenders and merchants who penetrated even the most obscure village[15]. </b> <b>Jews outside Judah proper, who lived near Greek cities, also had to suffer the generally rapacious colonists.</b>
<b>Under Persian rule, Judah had been a theocracy under the rule of the high priest with the Torah recognized, by the Persians, as the law of the land. </b><b>This situation continued under the Ptolemies and Seleucids. Although 40 âGreekâ cities were founded in Palestine, none were within the autonomous province of Judah. </b><b>Eventually,[16] one faction of the Jewish ruling class, led by priests, attempted, with royal support, to abolish the Torah as the royal law of Judah and to refound Judah as the territory of a new polis â Antioch of Jerusalem. </b> It is possible that such a transformation would have conferred on the ruling class a right to exploit Jewish peasants without restraint, perhaps<b> trading privileges within the empire and certainly social acceptance as Greeks within the vast Hellenistic world. </b>
<b>This led to the Hasmonean revolt which put an end to religious Hellenization in the sense of abandoning the Torah for a Greek life style. </b><b>It also led to an explosion of new varieties of Judaism â Apocalyptic Judaism, Hasidim (not to be confused with the modern mystical variety), Essenes, Sadducees, Pharisees and no doubt others. </b>
In the wake of the success of the Hasmonean revolt cultural and linguistic Hellenization in Eretz Israel continued apace until, <b>by the third or fourth century CE, Greek was probably the majority language of the country.</b>
âThe motivation of the Hasmonean revolt has often been misunderstood. It has been contended that this revolt came in protest to the process of Hellenization in Judaea, but this was patently not the case. <b>The Maccabees revolted in response to the persecutions imposed by the king and, according to Bickerman and others at least, at the instigation of radical Jewish Hellenizers. </b> The fact is that the Hasmoneans themselves quickly adopted Hellenistic mores; they instituted holidays celebrating military victories (Nicanor Day on the 13th of Adar) as did the Greeks, and signed treaties with Rome and forged close alliances with the upper strata of Jerusalem society. The latterâs Hellenized proclivities â like those of the Hasmoneans themselves ⦠are attested by names such as Alexander, Diodorus, Appolonius, Eupolemus, Antiochus, Numenius, Jason, Antipater, and Aeneas. â[17]<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
3.1 Under the Hellenistic Monarchies (332-167 BCE)
The first major Jewish contact with Greek culture was when Judah was ruled by the Ptolemies. The Jews in Judah did not meet Greek scientists, philosophers or historians. <b>The Jews met mercenaries, tax collectors, petty officials, money lenders and merchants who penetrated even the most obscure village[15]. </b> <b>Jews outside Judah proper, who lived near Greek cities, also had to suffer the generally rapacious colonists.</b>
<b>Under Persian rule, Judah had been a theocracy under the rule of the high priest with the Torah recognized, by the Persians, as the law of the land. </b><b>This situation continued under the Ptolemies and Seleucids. Although 40 âGreekâ cities were founded in Palestine, none were within the autonomous province of Judah. </b><b>Eventually,[16] one faction of the Jewish ruling class, led by priests, attempted, with royal support, to abolish the Torah as the royal law of Judah and to refound Judah as the territory of a new polis â Antioch of Jerusalem. </b> It is possible that such a transformation would have conferred on the ruling class a right to exploit Jewish peasants without restraint, perhaps<b> trading privileges within the empire and certainly social acceptance as Greeks within the vast Hellenistic world. </b>
<b>This led to the Hasmonean revolt which put an end to religious Hellenization in the sense of abandoning the Torah for a Greek life style. </b><b>It also led to an explosion of new varieties of Judaism â Apocalyptic Judaism, Hasidim (not to be confused with the modern mystical variety), Essenes, Sadducees, Pharisees and no doubt others. </b>
In the wake of the success of the Hasmonean revolt cultural and linguistic Hellenization in Eretz Israel continued apace until, <b>by the third or fourth century CE, Greek was probably the majority language of the country.</b>
âThe motivation of the Hasmonean revolt has often been misunderstood. It has been contended that this revolt came in protest to the process of Hellenization in Judaea, but this was patently not the case. <b>The Maccabees revolted in response to the persecutions imposed by the king and, according to Bickerman and others at least, at the instigation of radical Jewish Hellenizers. </b> The fact is that the Hasmoneans themselves quickly adopted Hellenistic mores; they instituted holidays celebrating military victories (Nicanor Day on the 13th of Adar) as did the Greeks, and signed treaties with Rome and forged close alliances with the upper strata of Jerusalem society. The latterâs Hellenized proclivities â like those of the Hasmoneans themselves ⦠are attested by names such as Alexander, Diodorus, Appolonius, Eupolemus, Antiochus, Numenius, Jason, Antipater, and Aeneas. â[17]<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->