ABSTRACT
The priests and the scribes provided authoritative religious literature for the people. During the Greek and Maccabean periods, foreign ideas and modes of thought made an influx into Judaism and laid the basis for the rise of the postexilic Jewish parties. The Hellenistic influence on Judaism reached its height at Alexandria in Egypt rather than in Palestine. Because the Magi of that period had a fanatically high regard for fire as a symbol of deity, they prohibited its religious use by all non-Zoroastrians. At the beginning of the middle ages, the situation of the Jewish people was profoundly affected by the impact upon them of two religions, Christianity and Islam. Two figures, Nehemiah and Ezra, were prominent in reviving and completing the restoration of Jerusalem and its spiritual life. Then, at the urging of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the rebuilding was resumed. The calendar of Jewish festivals and fasts had undergone development and reinterpretation.
