ABSTRACT
. It was one thing to bring Hellenism into Judea; it was quite another to bring the Jews face to face with its power and charm in the great capitals of Syria and Egypt. Both Antioch and Alexandria were embodiments of an advanced Hellenization. Both gave to the Jews the rights of citizens, and in both was found that broader type of Judaism which, while holding to the sacredness of the law and the necessity of the temple-worship, was open to the better qualities of the heathen life about it. The subtle influence of daily association took the edge from sharp prejudice, and especially in Egypt conservatism was not proof against the energetic speculativeness of Greek thought. Unfortunately data are wanting for estimating with any degree of fulness the social life of the Syrian capital. As compared with Alexandria, its interest in literary pursuits was meagre and unproductive. In all the luxuries of life, however, it was foremost. Glimpses which are given us of the court life during the struggles of Judas and Jonathan reveal a dissoluteness which must have had a deadening effect upon the city. Enjoyment was the main occupation of its inhabitants when they were not engaged in the repeated quarrels about the throne. By virtue of the rights given to them at the beginning, the Jews formed a separate community in the city and had their own organization. They were thus apart, while still within, the circle of influences which modified, in various degrees, their inherited conceptions. In Antioch, as well as in Alexandria, they profited by all the opportunities given them for trade, and were a thriving, industrious, well-to-do class. Their synagogue was one of the ornaments of the city. They were compelled to adopt the Greek language from the very necessities of their environment and thus had opened to them the literary stores of Greece. It is this double relationship, — on one side, to that part of the city which belonged exclusively to them as Jews, and, on the other, to the city at large, which was the embodiment of a complex social and religious life, — that explains both the tenacity and the pliancy of the Judaism of the dispersion.
