ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the slow fading of the allure of Hellenism among Jews in the Roman Empire, as Greek anti-Judaism spread in the 1st and 2nd century CE. Greek influence on Jewish life was extensive. Spoken Hebrew had declined over the centuries and most Jews spoke Greek and/or Aramaic, which were essential in trade and public life. The Greeks established schools, but these were mostly for the aristocratic minority. The Jewish upper classes generally educated their children in Greek culture, while the common people tended to be loyal to Judaism and its teachers. The Roman Empire roused widespread outrage among the Jews by trying to impose Hellenism upon them. Greek hostility to Judaism, particularly that of Greek imperial ex-slaves (freedmen) in the Roman government, further prevented full Jewish integration into the empire and inhibited Jewish acceptance of Hellenistic culture. In this atmosphere of cultural conflict, anti-Semitism emerged for the first time in history. It had a number of causes: Roman xenophobia towards the Jews as a cohesive, non-conformist group threatening imperial unity; a general fear of orientalization in Rome; Jewish rejection of Roman gods, which was seen as disloyal and subversive; anti-Jewish propaganda in Egypt; and the view that the Jews were dangerous as they attracted proselytes. The Jews, faced with Greek anti-Judaism, could not view the culture of their enemies as a desirable ideal, preferable in many ways to Jewish culture. The breakdown of Greek/Jewish relations contributed to the decline of Hellenistic Judaism and the influence of the Greek Bible, the Septuagint. After the Roman defeat of the Bar-Kokhba revolt in 132–135 CE, the rabbis and the educational system they created defined Jewish life until modern times.
