Hellenistic Judaism

The Hellenistic Judaism was a movement in the Greek-speaking Jewish diaspora that sought to translate the Hebrew- Jewish religion of the people in the language and culture of Hellenism and thus as a religion to establish beyond a single ethnic group.

Writings

The main sources are found in the writings of Philo of Alexandria and Flavius ​​Josephus in the 1st century AD as individual authors. In addition, the so-called Apocrypha are very revealing of the history and theology of Hellenistic Judaism. Worthy of mention are the so-called Pseudepigrapha.

History

Through the eventful history of the Fertile Crescent, the Israelites were defeated military multiple on the Syro- Palestinian land bridge. Then each of the population were deported. It was found in the Babylonian Exile of 587-538 BC that Judaism could also continue to exist regardless of the country of Israel, and the sanctuary in Jerusalem.

After the edict of Cyrus 538 BC did not come back all the Israelites, the Jews in the Diaspora ( " dispersion " ) was born. In the time of the Diadochi there were repeated conflicts between the Jews with their struggle for autonomy and those Hellenistic rulers, which again led to the persecution of Jews. The books of the Maccabees tell the tale. This ensured that Jewish communities not only held in Babylon, but all founded in the Mediterranean.

Since the 3rd century BC, the Diaspora community in Egypt grew rapidly. One of the most important centers of Alexandria was in the Nile Delta. The Jews felt like the Greeks as colonists and therefore also sought the civil rights of the Greeks, to participate in the municipal privileges. They succeeded, not completely, but they enjoyed a privileged legal status of a religio licita with limited municipal self-government. However, they withdrew so that the hatred of the largely disenfranchised Egyptian rural population. For the Jewish community continued to be valid Jerusalem and its temple as a religious center. To the chagrin of the local authorities they paid the temple tax there.

In Alexandria the Jews tried to formulate his belief in the Greek language and in the context of Greek philosophy. The most important milestone here is the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, the Septuagint.

At the same time the Jews had to defend against the allegations to be an eastern superstition and a primitive nomad religion. An important intermediary between the Jewish law and Greek thought was, according to precursors such as Aristobulus and Pseudo- Aristeas, at the beginning of the 1st century AD Philo of Alexandria. He put the Judaism represented as a venerable religion, which by their monotheism better with the Aristotelian or Platonic philosophy agree polytheistic than the Olympus. The sometimes difficult -to-place laws tried Philo as moral and virtuous represent concepts that were known to the Greeks and positive connotations. So Philo spoke about a " circumcision of the heart " that curtails the vices and appetites, for the sake of self-control and the promotion of virtue.

Another important author was at the end of this century, the Jewish general and historian Joseph ben Mathitjahu, later known as Flavius ​​Josephus. He also had the goal of Judaism to defend against ancient prejudices and represent it as virtuous religion. His history of Judaism from its beginnings up to his presence, he wrote in terms of a Hellenistic- enlightened way of thinking.

In addition, various writings have survived, the ethical and moral character also appear speculative -apocalyptic (eg the spell poem of Pseudo- Phocylides ) or. In some cases both are mixed together. It can be seen that the Hellenization of Judaism was not without controversy. Many authors considered these trade-offs with the zeitgeist for a falling away from the true faith and expected a judgment of God upon his people.

Among the non-Jewish contemporaries Hellenistic Judaism reaped not only criticism, but also won a large number of sympathizers ( so-called Eusebes or Godly ) and crossings ( so-called proselytes ), even in affluent and educated circles. The threshold for the transfer for women was lower than for men ( from under hygienic conditions at that time also quite obvious reasons ) in front of a curtailment shrank and remained sympathizer status.

It is not entirely clear how the Hellenistic Judaism lost its importance and ultimately went down. The emergence of Christianity, which also represents a synthesis of Judaism and Hellenism, probably played an important role. Not by chance was calculated from the nor Jewish theologisierten " Yeshua the Messiah " the Hellenized "Jesus Christ." Anyway, is narrated in the book of Acts that Christian missionaries as Paul often worked in sympathizers and Proselytenkreisen. The absence of circumcision, which was within Christianity prevailed against some resistors, certainly proved a success factor.

The official Judaism of his hand, distanced himself from his increasingly Hellenistic branches, prohibited the use of the Septuagint and retreated all the way back to its Hebrew and Aramaic traditions. So we are practically handed all Hellenistic- Jewish writings only in Christian manuscripts and codices.

Maybe a part of Hellenistic Judaism has risen in Gnosticism, which has a lot added to Hellenistic- Jewish ideas and further processed.

Theology

Important in Hellenistic Judaism is the commitment to the "One God" ( theos heis εἷς θεὸς ). So you tried the one hand, the central commandment of Jewish monotheism ( 1 bid and Shema ) to gain a hearing and on the other to connect to Platonic and Aristotelian metaphysics, which also do not deal with many gods, but by a divine idea or an unmoved mover.

An equally central role in Jewish- Hellenistic thought played the reason (logos) and wisdom ( sophia ), which are not interpreted as human characteristics, but as emanations ( impact ) of God.

In addition, the Ethics was characterized by relatively abstract virtue and morality. This first one encountered hostile, defaming Judaism as fundamentally immoral or misanthropic, but on the other hand you also made the rich ritual and national regulations Jewish Torah for Hellenistic ordinary citizens to understand and practical.