ABSTRACT
The triumphal campaign of Alexander the Great brought to an end the Persian Empire. Judea was hereby incorporated into the Greek world-empire, and from henceforward in conjunction with the whole civilization of the East it became subject to the influences of the Greek culture of which it had hitherto assimilated very little. The Jews gladly accepted the Ptolemies as overlords inasmuch as they showed a far greater understanding of the Jewish religion and its peculiarities than did the Greek Seleucids. Greek education was accepted by many Jewish homes and families. Literary productions as well as institutions and personalities are always the surest indications of intellectual life. The Sadducees and the Hasmoneans seem constantly to have grown closer together. They were the representatives of the Hellenistic Illumination, " children of the earth", children of this world who would know nothing of the Beyond and of the resurrection.
