Hellenistic Judaism

Hellenistic Judaism was a form of Judaism in classical

antiquity that combined Jewish religious tradition with
elements of Greek culture. Until the fall of the Western
Roman Empire and the early Muslim conquests of the
eastern Mediterranean, the main centers of Hellenistic
Judaism were Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in Syria (now
in southern Turkey), the two main Greek urban settlements
of the Middle East and North Africa region, both founded at
the end of the fourth century BCE in the wake of the
conquests of Alexander the Great. Hellenistic Judaism also
existed in Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period,
where there was conflict between Hellenizers and
traditionalists (sometimes called Judaizers).

The major literary product of the contact of Second Temple

Judaism and Hellenistic culture is the Septuagint
translation of the Hebrew Bible from Biblical Hebrew and
Biblical Aramaic to Koine Greek, specifically, Jewish Koiné
Greek. Mentionable are also the philosophic and ethical
treatises of Philo and the historiographical works of the
other Hellenistic Jewish authors.[1][2]
The decline of Hellenistic Judaism started in the second
century and its causes are still not fully understood. It may
be that it was eventually marginalized by, partially absorbed
into or became progressively the Koine-speaking core of
Early Christianity centered on Antioch and its traditions,
such as the Melkite Greek Catholic Church and the Greek
Orthodox Church of Antioch.

Hellenism

Map of Alexander's empire, extending east and south of ancient Macedonia.

The conquests of Alexander in the late fourth century BCE

spread Greek culture and colonization—a process of cultural
change called Hellenization—over non-Greek lands,
including the Levant. This gave rise to the Hellenistic period,
which sought to create a common or universal culture in the
Alexandrian empire based on that of fifth-century Athens,
along with a fusion of Near Eastern cultures.[3] The period is
characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization which
established Greek cities and kingdoms in Asia and Africa,[4]
the most famous being Alexandria in Egypt. New cities were
established composed of colonists who came from
different parts of the Greek world, and not from a specific
metropolis ("mother city") as before.[4]

Mosaic floor of a Jewish Synagogue Aegina (300 BCE).

These Jews living in countries west of the Levant formed

the Hellenistic diaspora. The Egyptian diaspora is the most
well-known of these.[5] It witnessed close ties, indeed the
firm economic integration, of Judea with the Ptolemaic
Kingdom ruled from Alexandria, and the friendly relations
which existed between the royal court and the leaders of the
Jewish community. This was a diaspora of choice, not of
imposition. Information is less robust regarding diasporas
in other territories. It suggests that the situation was by and
large the same as it was in Egypt.[6]

Jewish life in both Judea and the diaspora was influenced

by the culture and language of Hellenism. The Greeks
viewed Jewish culture favorably, while vice versa, Hellenism
gained adherents among the Jews. While Hellenism has
sometimes been presented (under the influence of 2
Maccabees, itself notably a work in Koine Greek), as a
threat of assimilation diametrically opposed to Jewish
tradition,
 Adaptation to Hellenic culture did not require
compromise of Jewish precepts or conscience. When
a Greek gymnasium was introduced into Jerusalem,
it was installed by a Jewish High Priest. And other
priests soon engaged in wrestling matches in the
palaestra. They plainly did not reckon such activities
as undermining their priestly duties.

— Erich S. Gruen[7]:73–74

The main religious issue dividing Hellenized Jews from

traditional Jews was the application of biblical laws in a
Hellenistic (or Roman or other non-Jewish) empire.[8]

Hellenistic rulers of Judea Edit

Under the suzerainty of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and later

the Seleucid Empire, Judea witnessed a period of peace and
protection of its institutions.[9] For their aid against his
Ptolemaic enemies, Antiochus III the Great promised his
Jewish subjects a reduction in taxes and funds to repair the
city of Jerusalem and the Second Temple.[9]

Relations deteriorated under Antiochus's successor

Seleucus IV Philopator, and then, for reasons not fully
understood, his successor Antiochus IV Epiphanes
drastically overturned the previous policy of respect and
protection, banning key Jewish religious rites and traditions
in Judea (though not among the diaspora) and sparking a
traditionalist revolt against Greek rule.[9] Out of this revolt
was formed an independent Jewish kingdom known as the
Hasmonean dynasty, which lasted from 165 BCE to 63 BCE.
The Hasmonean Dynasty eventually disintegrated due to
civil war, which coincided with civil wars in Rome.

Hasmonean civil war

The Hasmonean civil war began when the High Priest
Hyrcanus II (a supporter of the Pharisees) was overthrown
by his younger brother, Aristobulus II (a supporter of the
Sadducees). A third faction, consisting primarily of
Idumeans from Maresha, led by Antipater and his son
Herod, re-installed Hyrcanus, who, according to Josephus,
was merely Antipater's puppet. In 47 BCE, Antigonus, a
nephew of Hyrcanus II and son of Aristobulus II, asked
Julius Caesar for permission to overthrow Antipater. Caesar
ignored him, and in 42 BCE Antigonus, with the aid of the
Parthians, defeated Herod. Antigonus ruled for only three
years, until Herod, with the aid of Rome, overthrew him and
had him executed. Antigonus was the last Hasmonean ruler.

In�uence
The major literary product of the contact of Judaism and
Hellenistic culture is the Septuagint, as well as the Book of
Wisdom, Sirach, apocrypha and pseudepigraphic
apocalyptic literature (such as the Assumption of Moses,
the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, the Book of
Baruch, the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch, etc.) dating to the
period. Important sources are Philo of Alexandria and
Flavius Josephus. Some scholars[10] consider Paul of
Tarsus to be a Hellenist as well, even though he himself
claimed to be a Pharisee (Acts 23:6).

Philo of Alexandria was an important apologist of Judaism,

presenting it as a tradition of venerable antiquity that, far
from being a barbarian cult of an oriental nomadic tribe,
with its doctrine of monotheism had anticipated tenets of
Hellenistic philosophy. Philo could draw on Jewish tradition
to use customs which Greeks thought as primitive or exotic
as the basis for metaphors: such as "circumcision of the
heart" in the pursuit of virtue.[11] Consequently, Hellenistic
Judaism emphasized monotheistic doctrine (heis theos),
and represented reason (logos) and wisdom (sophia) as
emanations from God.

Beyond Tarsus, Alexandretta, Antioch and Northwestern

Syria (the main "Cilician and Asiatic" centers of Hellenistic
Judaism in the Levant), the second half of the Second
Temple period witnessed an acceleration of Hellenization in
Israel itself, with Jewish high priests and aristocrats alike
adopting Greek names:
 'Ḥoni' became 'Menelaus'; 'Joshua' became 'Jason' or
'Jesus' [Ἰησοῦς]. The Hellenic in�uence pervaded
everything, and even in the very strongholds of
Judaism it modi�ed the organization of the state, the
laws, and public a�airs, art, science, and industry,
a�ecting even the ordinary things of life and the
common associations of the people […] The
inscription forbidding strangers to advance beyond a
certain point in the Temple was in Greek; and was
probably made necessary by the presence of
numerous Jews from Greek-speaking countries at the
time of the festivals (comp. the "murmuring of the
Grecians against the Hebrews," Acts vi. 1). The
co�ers in the Temple which contained the shekel
contributions were marked with Greek letters (Sheḳ.
iii. 2). It is therefore no wonder that there were
synagogues of the Libertines, Cyrenians,
Alexandrians, [Cilicia]]ns, and Asiatics in the Holy
City itself (Acts vi. 9).[12]

'There is neither Jew nor Greek'

Ethnic, cultural, and social tensions within the Hellenistic
Jewish world were partly overcome by the emergence of a
new, typically Antiochian, Middle-Eastern Greek doctrine
(doxa), either by

1. established, autochthonous Hellenized Cilician-

Western Syrian Jews (themselves descendants of
Babylonian Jewish migrants who had long adopted
various elements of Greek culture and civilization while
retaining a generally conservative, strict attachment to
Halakha),
2. heathen, 'Classical' Greeks, Macedonian Greeks and
Greco-Syrian gentiles, or
3. the local, autochthonous descendants of Greek or
Greco-Syrian converts to mainstream Judaism –
known as proselytes (Greek: προσήλυτος/proselytes)
and Greek-speaking Jews born of mixed marriages.

Their efforts were probably facilitated by the arrival of a

fourth wave of Greek-speaking newcomers to
Cilicia/Southern Turkey and Northwestern Syria: Cypriot
Jews and 'Cyrenian' (Libyan) Jewish migrants of non-
Egyptian North African Jewish origin, as well as gentile
Roman settlers from Italy—many of whom already spoke
fluent Koine Greek and/or sent their children to Greek
schools. Some scholars believe that, at the time, these
Cypriot and Cyrenian North African Jewish migrants, such
as Simon of Cyrene, were generally less affluent than the
autochthonous Cilician-Syrian Jews and practiced a more
'liberal' form of Judaism, more propitious for the formation
of a new canon:
 [North African] Cyrenian Jews were of su�cient
importance in those days to have their name
associated with a synagogue at Jerusalem (Acts
6:9). And when the persecution arose about Stephen
[a Hellenized Syrian-Cilician Jew], some of these
Jews of Cyrene who had been converted at
Jerusalem, were scattered abroad and came with
others to Antioch and [initially] preached the word
"unto the Jews only" (Acts 11:19, 20 the King James
Version), and one of them, Lucius, became a prophet
in the early church there [the nascent Greek
'Orthodox' community of Antioch].

— International Standard Bible Encyclopedia[13]

But Paul, himself a strict conservative[14] Hellenist convert

to Christianity, was later threatened by religiously
conservative Jewish Hellenists as seen in the New
Testament Acts 9 verse 29: "And he spoke boldly in the
name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Hellenists,
but they attempted to kill him."

These subtle, progressive socio-cultural shifts and tensions

are somehow summarized succinctly in Chapter 3 of the
Epistle of Paul to the Galatians:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond

 nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are
all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are
ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the
promise.[15]

Decline of the Hellenistai and partial

conversion to Christianity

Joshua. Fresco from Dura-Europos synagogue.

The reasons for the decline of Hellenistic Judaism are

obscure. It may be that it was marginalized by, absorbed
into, or became Early Christianity (see the Gospel according
to the Hebrews). The Epistles of Paul and the Acts of the
Apostles report that, after his initial focus on the conversion
of Hellenized Jews across Anatolia, Macedonia, Thrace and
Northern Syria without criticizing their laws and traditions,
[16][17] Paul the Apostle eventually preferred to evangelize
communities of Greek and Macedonian proselytes and
Godfearers, or Greek circles sympathetic to Judaism: the
Apostolic Decree allowing converts to forego circumcision
made Christianity a more attractive option for interested
pagans than Rabbinic Judaism, which required ritual
circumcision for converts (see Brit milah). See also
Circumcision controversy in early Christianity[18][19] and the
Abrogation of Old Covenant laws.

The attractiveness of Christianity may, however, have

suffered a setback with its being explicitly outlawed in the
80s CE by Domitian as a "Jewish superstition", while
Judaism retained its privileges as long as members paid the
fiscus Judaicus.

The opening verse of Acts 6 points to the problematic

cultural divisions between Hellenized Jews and Aramaic-
speaking Israelites in Jerusalem, a disunion that
reverberated within the emerging Christian community
itself:

it speaks of "Hellenists" and "Hebrews." The existence

of these two distinct groups characterizes the earliest
Christian community in Jerusalem. The Hebrews
were Jewish Christians who spoke almost exclusively
Aramaic, and the Hellenists were also Jewish
Christians whose mother tongue was Greek. They
were Greek-speaking Jews of the Diaspora, who
 returned to settle in Jerusalem. To identify them,
Luke uses the term Hellenistai. When he had in mind
Greeks, gentiles, non-Jews who spoke Greek and
lived according to the Greek fashion, then he used
the word Hellenes (Acts 21.28). As the very context
of Acts 6 makes clear, the Hellenistai are not
Hellenes.[20]

Some historians believe that a sizeable proportion of the

Hellenized Jewish communities of Southern Turkey
(Antioch, Alexandretta and neighboring cities) and
Syria/Lebanon converted progressively to the Greco-Roman
branch of Christianity that eventually constituted the
"Melkite" (or "Imperial") Hellenistic churches of the MENA
area:

As Jewish Christianity originated at Jerusalem, so

Gentile Christianity started at Antioch, then the
leading center of the Hellenistic East, with Peter and
Paul as its apostles. From Antioch it spread to the
various cities and provinces of Syria, among the
Hellenistic Syrians as well as among the Hellenistic
Jews who, as a result of the great rebellions against
the Romans in A.D. 70 and 130, were driven out
from Jerusalem and Palestine into Syria.[21]
Cultural legacy

Widespread influence beyond Second Temple

Judaism
Edit

Both Early Christianity and Early Rabbinical Judaism were

far less 'orthodox' and less theologically homogeneous than
they are today; and both were significantly influenced by
Hellenistic religion and borrowed allegories and concepts
from Classical Hellenistic philosophy and the works of
Greek-speaking Jewish authors of the end of the Second
Temple period before the two schools of thought eventually
affirmed their respective 'norms' and doctrines, notably by
diverging increasingly on key issues such as the status of
'purity laws', the validity of Judeo-Christian messianic
beliefs, and, more importantly, the use of Koiné Greek and
Latin as liturgical languages replacing Biblical
Hebrew[22]...etc.

First synagogues in Europe, North Africa, and the

Middle East
Edit

The word synagogue itself comes from Jewish Koiné Greek,

a language spoken by Hellenized Jews across Southeastern
Europe (Macedonia, Thrace, Northern Greece), North Africa
and the Middle East after the 3rd century BCE. Many
synagogues were built by the Hellenistai or adherents of
Hellenistic Judaism in the Greek Isles, Cilicia, Northwestern
and Eastern Syria and Northern Israel as early as the first
century BCE- notably in Delos, Antioch, Alexandretta, Galilee
and Dura-Europos: because of the mosaics and frescos
representing heroic figures and Biblical characters (viewed
as potentially conductive of "image worship" by later
generations of Jewish scholars and rabbis), many of these
early synagogues were at first mistaken for heathen Greek
temples or Antiochian Greek Orthodox churches.

Mishnaic and Talmudic concepts Edit

Many of the Jewish sages who compiled the Mishnah and

earliest versions of the Talmud were Hellenized Jews,
including Johanan ben Zakai, the first Jewish sage
attributed the title of rabbi and Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes, the
son of Proselyte Anatolian Greek converts to Early
Rabbinical Judaism.

Even Israeli rabbis of Babylonian Jewish descent such as

Hillel the Elder whose parents were Aramaic-speaking
Jewish migrants from Babylonia (hence the nickname "Ha-
Bavli"), had to learn Greek language and Greek philosophy in
order to be conversant with sophisticated rabbinical
language – many of the theological innovations introduced
by Hillel had Greek names, most famously the Talmudic
notion of Prozbul, from Koine Greek προσβολή, "to deliver":

Unlike literary Hebrew, popular Aramaic or Hebrew

 constantly adopted new Greek loanwords, as is
shown by the language of the Mishnaic and
Talmudic literature. While it re�ects the situation at
a later period, its origins go back well before the
Christian era. The collection of the loanwords in the
Mishna to be found in Schürer shows the areas in
which Hellenistic in�uence �rst became visible-
military matters, state administration and legislature,
trade and commerce, clothing and household
utensils, and not least in building. The so-called
copper scroll with its utopian list of treasures also
contains a series of Greek loanwords. When towards
the end of the �rst century BCE, Hillel in practice
repealed the regulation of the remission of debts in
the sabbath year (Deut. 15.1-11) by the possibility
of a special reservation on the part of the creditor,
this reservation was given a Greek name introduced
into Palestinian legal language- perōzebbōl =
προσβολή, a sign that even at that time legal
language was shot through with Greek.

— Martin Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism

(1974)

Influence on Levantine Byzantine traditions Edit

The unique combination of ethnocultural traits inhered from
the fusion of a Greek-Macedonian cultural base, Hellenistic
Judaism and Roman civilization gave birth to the distinctly
Antiochian “Middle Eastern-Roman” Christian traditions of
Cilicia (Southeastern Turkey) and Syria/Lebanon:

"The mixture of Roman, Greek, and Jewish elements

admirably adapted Antioch for the great part it
played in the early history of Christianity. The city
was the cradle of the church".[23]

Some typically Grecian "Ancient Synagogal" priestly rites

and hymns have survived partially to the present, notably in
the distinct church services of the followers of the Melkite
Greek Catholic church and its sister-church the Greek
Orthodox Church of Antioch in the Hatay Province of
Southern Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Northern Israel, and in the
Greek-Levantine Christian diasporas of Brazil, Mexico, the
United States and Canada.

But many of the surviving liturgical traditions of these

communities rooted in Hellenistic Judaism and, more
generally, Second Temple Greco-Jewish Septuagint culture,
were expunged progressively in the late medieval and
modern eras by both Phanariot European-Greek
(Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople) and Vatican
(Roman Catholic) gentile theologians who sought to 'bring
back' Levantine Greek Orthodox and Greek-Catholic
communities into the European Christian fold: some ancient
Judeo-Greek traditions were thus deliberately abolished or
reduced in the process.

Members of these communities still call themselves "Rûm"

(literally "Roman"; usually referred to as "Byzantine" in
English) and referring to Greeks in Turkish, Persian and
Levantine Arabic. In that context, the term Rûm is preferred
over Yāvāni or Ionani (literally "Ionian"), also referring to
Greeks in Ancient Hebrew, Sanskrit and Classical Arabic.

Individual Hellenized Jews

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Hellenistic and Hasmonean Period Edit

Andronicus ben Meshullam, Egyptian Jewish scholar of

the 2nd century BCE. One of the first known advocates of
early Pharisaic (proto-Rabbinical) 'orthodoxy' against the
Samaritans.
Antigonus of Sokho, also known as Antigonos of Socho,
was the first scholar of whom Pharisee (proto-Rabbinical)
tradition has preserved not only the name but also an
important theological doctrine. He flourished about the
first half of the third century BCE. According to the
Mishnah, he was the disciple and successor of Simon the
Just. Antigonus is also the first noted Jew to have a
Greek name, a fact commonly discussed by scholars
regarding the extent of Hellenic influence on Judaism
following the conquest of Judaea by Alexander the Great.
Antigonus II Mattathias (known in Hebrew as Matityahu)
was the last Hasmonean king of Judea. Antigonus was
executed in 37 BCE, after a reign of three years during
which he led the national struggle of the Jews for
independence from the Romans.
Alexander of Judaea, or Alexander Maccabeus, was the
eldest son of Aristobulus II, king of Judaea[24]
Jason of the Oniad family, High Priest in the Temple in
Jerusalem from 175 to 172 BCE
Menelaus, High Priest in Jerusalem from 171 BCE to
about 161 BCE
Mariamne I, Jewish princess of the Hasmonean dynasty,
was the second wife of Herod the Great.
Onias I (Hellenized form of Hebrew name ((Greek: Ὀνίας)
from (Hebrew: Honiyya) was the son of Jaddua
mentioned in Nehemiah.[25] According to Josephus, this
Jaddua is said to have been a contemporary of Alexander
the Great.[26] I Maccabees regards Onias as a
contemporary of the Spartan king Areus I (309-265
BCE).[27] Onias I is thought to be the father or grandfather
of Simon the Just.
Ben Sira, also known as Yesu'a son of Sirach, leading 2nd
 century BCE Jewish scholar and theologian who lived in
Jerusalem and Alexandria, author of the Wisdom of
Sirach, or "Book of Ecclesiasticus".
Simeon the Just or Simeon the Righteous (Hebrew: ‫שמעון‬
‫ הצדיק‬Shimon HaTzaddik) was a Jewish High Priest
during the time of the Second Temple.
Simon Thassi (died 135 BCE) was the second son of king
Mattathias and the first prince of the Jewish Hasmonean
Dynasty. He was also a general (Doric Greek: στραταγός,
stratagos; literally meaning "army leader") in the Greco-
Syrian Seleucid army of Antiochus VI

Herodian and Roman Period Edit

Andrew the Apostle (Greek: Ἀνδρέας, translit. Andreas;

from the early 1st century – mid to late 1st century CE),
Galileean-Hauranian Jew, called in the Greek Orthodox
tradition Prōtoklētos (Πρωτόκλητος), or the 'First-called',
believed to have preached in Southeastern Europe
(Northern Greece) as well as possibly in Southern Russia
(Scythia). Patron saint of Ukraine and Scotland
Titus Flavius Josephus, was the first Jewish historian.
Initially a Jewish military leader during the First Jewish-
Roman War, he famously switched sides and became a
Roman citizen and acclaimed Romano-Jewish academic.
He popularized the idea that Judaism was similar in many
ways to Greek philosophy
Justus of Tiberias, Jewish historian born in Tiberias, "a
highly Hellenistic Galilean city", he was a secretary to
governor Herod Agrippa II and rival of Titus Flavius
Josephus
Julianos (Hellenized form of a Roman name) and Pappos
(from Koine Greek pappa or papas 'patriarch' or 'elder')
born circa 80 CE in the city of Lod (Hebrew: ‫ ;לוֹד‬Greco-
Latin: Lydda, Diospolis, Ancient Greek: Λύδδα /
∆ιόσπολις – city of Zeus), one of the main centers of
Hellenistic culture in central Israel. Julianos and Pappos
led the Jewish resistance movement against the Roman
army in Israel during the Kitos War, 115-117 CE (their
Hebrew names were Shamayah and Ahiyah respectively)
Lukuas, also called Andreas, Libyan Jew born circa 70 CE,
was one of the main leaders the Jewish resistance
movement against the Roman army in North Africa and
Egypt during the Kitos War, 115-117 CE
Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes, 'Rabbi Meir the miracle maker', a
famous Jewish sage who lived in Galilee in the time of
the Mishna, is thought to be the son of Anatolian Greek
(Talmud, Tractate Kilayim) gentile proselyte converts to
Pharisaic Judaism (folk etymologies and mistranslations
connected him, wrongly, to the family of Emperor Nero).
He was the son-in-law of Haninah ben Teradion, himself a
Hellenized Jewish aristocrat and leading rabbinical figure
in late 1st century CE Jewish theology
Philo of Alexandria (Greek: Φίλων, Philōn; c. 20 BCE – c.
50 CE), also called Philo Judaeus, of Alexandria, in the
Roman province of Egypt, first Jewish philosopher
Saul of Tarsus or Sha'ul Tarsi known as Paul the Apostle
Simon of Cyrene (Hebrew: ‫שמעון‬, lit. 'hearkening';
'listening', Standard Hebrew Šimʿon, Tiberian Hebrew
Šimʿôn), Libyan Jew born at the end of the 1st century
BCE; lived in Jerusalem around 30 CE. Believed to have
been "forced [by Roman soldiers] to bear the cross of
Jesus after the crucifixtion". His home town, Cyrene, in
Northeastern Libya, was a Greek colony, with a large
Jewish community where 100,000 Judean Jews had been
deported and forced to settle during the reign of Ptolemy
Soter (323–285 BCE), the Greco-Macedonian ruler of
Egypt, following his invasion of Israel.
Rabbi Tarfon (Hebrew: ‫רבי טרפון‬, from the Greek Τρύφων
Tryphon), a kohen,[28] was a member of the third
generation of the Mishnah sages, who lived in the period
between the destruction of the Second Temple (70 CE)
and the fall of Betar (135 CE). Thought to be originally
from the region of Lod (Hebrew: ‫ ;לוֹד‬Greco-Latin: Lydda,
Diospolis, Ancient Greek: Λύδδα / ∆ιόσπολις – city of
Zeus), one of the main centers of Hellenistic culture in
central Israel, R. Tarfon was one of the most vociferous
Jewish critics of Early Christianity
Rabbi Haninah ben Teradion, prominent Galilean Jewish
scholar and teacher. His father's name (Teradion) is
thought to be of Judeo-Greek origin. Also, 'Hananiah' (or
 'Haninah') was a popular name amongst the Hellenized
Jews of Syria and Northern Israel (pronounced 'Ananias'
in Greek). He was a leading figure in late 1st century CE
Jewish theology and one of the Ten Martyrs murdered by
the Romans for ignoring the ban on teaching Torah
Saint Timothy (Greek: Τιμόθεος, translit. Timótheos,
lit. 'honouring God' or 'honored by God') born in Lycaonia
(Southeastern Turkey) of Greek father and Hellenized
Jewish mother, seconded Paul in his missions to Asia
Minor and Southeastern Europe (Thrace, Macedonia,
Greece)
Trypho the Jew, thought to be a 2nd-century CE rabbi
opposed to Christian apologist Justin Martyr, whose
Dialogue with Trypho is paradoxically "equally influenced
by Greek and Rabbinic thought"[29]

Late Antiquity and Early Medieval Era Edit

Rav Pappa (Hebrew: ‫רב פפא‬, from Koine Greek pappa or

papas 'patriarch' or 'elder' – originally 'father') (ca. 300 –
died 375) was a Jewish Talmudist who lived in Babylonia,
at a time when Judeo-Aramaic culture was regaining the
upper hand against classical Hellenistic Judaism, notably
amongst Jewish communities in Babylonia which
reverted progressively to the pre-Hellenistic Aramaic
culture
Kalonymos family (Kαλώνυμος in Greek), first known
rabbinical dynasty of Northern Italy and Central Europe:
 notable members include Ithiel I, author of Jewish prayer
books (born circa 780 CE) and Kalonymus Ben
Meshullam born in France circa 1000, spiritual leader of
the Jewish community of Mainz in Western Germany
The Radhanites: an influential group of Jewish merchants
and financiers active in France, Germany, Central Europe,
Central Asia and China in the Early Middle Ages – thought
to have revolutionized the world economy and
contributed to the creation of the 'Medieval Silk Road'
long before Italian and Byzantine merchants. Cecil Roth
and Claude Cahen, among others, claim their name may
have come originally from the Rhône River valley in
France, which is Rhodanus in Latin and Rhodanos
(Ῥοδανός) in Greek, as the center of Radhanite activity
was probably in France where their trade routes began.

See also
Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch
Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem
History of Judaism
Greek Jews
History of the Jews in the Roman Empire
Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period
Jewish apocrypha
Jewish Christianity
List of events in early Christianity
 Origins of Christianity
Paul the Apostle and Judaism
Romaniote Jews

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2. Barr, James (1989). "Chapter 3 - Hebrew, Aramaic and
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ISBN 9781139055123.
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(eds.). The Cambridge history of Judaism (1. publ. ed.).
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doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521219297.005 .
ISBN 9781139055123.
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Legends in a Hellenistic Context". Hellenistic Constructs:
Essays in Culture, History, and Historiography. University
of California Press. pp. 72 ff.
8. "Hellenism" , Jewish Encyclopedia, Quote: "Post-exilic
Judaism was largely recruited from those returned
exiles who regarded it as their chief task to preserve
their religion uncontaminated, a task that required the
strict separation of the congregation both from all
foreign peoples (Ezra x. 11; Neh. ix. 2) and from the
Jewish inhabitants of Palestine who did not strictly
observe the Law (Ezra vi. 22; Neh. x. 29). "
9. Gruen, Erich S. (1993). "Hellenism and Persecution:
Antiochus IV and the Jews". In Green, Peter (ed.).
Hellenistic History and Culture. University of California
Press. pp. 238 ff.
10. "Saul of Tarsus: Not a Hebrew Scholar; a Hellenist" ,
Jewish Encyclopedia
11. E. g., Leviticus 26:41, Ezekiel 44:7
12. "Hellenism" , Jewish Encyclopedia, Quote: from 'Range
of Hellenic Influence' and 'Reaction Against Hellenic
Influence' sections
13. Kyle, M. G. "Cyrene". International Standard Bible
Encyclopedia. via "Topical Bible: Cyrene" . Bible Hub.
14. Holy Bible. pp. Acts Ch.22 v.3.
15. Galatians 3:15-16, 28-29
16. Acts 16:1–3
17. McGarvey on Acts 16 : "Yet we see him in the case
before us, circumcising Timothy with his own hand, and
this 'on account of certain Jews who were in those
quarters. '"
18. 1 Corinthians 7:18
19. "making themselves foreskins"; I Macc. i. 15; Josephus,
"Ant." xii. 5, § 1; Assumptio Mosis, viii.; I Cor. vii. 18;,
Tosef.; Talmud tractes Shabbat xv. 9; Yevamot 72a, b;
Yerushalmi Peah i. 16b; Yevamot viii. 9a; [1] ; Catholic
Encyclopedia: Circumcision : "To this epispastic
operation performed on the athletes to conceal the
marks of circumcision St. Paul alludes, me epispastho
(1 Corinthians 7:18)."
20. " Conflict and Diversity in the Earliest Christian
Community" Archived 2013-05-10 at the Wayback
Machine, Fr. V. Kesich, O.C.A.
21. "History of Christianity in Syria" , Catholic Encyclopedia
 22. Daniel Boyarin. "Dying for God: Martyrdom and the
Making of Christianity and Judaism" [Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 1999, p. 15.
23. "Antioch," Encyclopaedia Biblica, Vol. I, p. 186 (p. 125 of
612 in online .pdf file .
24. Alexander II of Judea at the Jewish Encyclopedia
25. Nehemiah xii. 11
26. Jewish Antiquities xi. 8, § 7
27. I Macc. xii. 7, 8, 20
28. Talmud Bavli, Kiddushin, 71a
29. Philippe Bobichon (ed.), Justin Martyr, Dialogue avec
Tryphon, édition critique, introduction, texte grec,
traduction, commentaires, appendices, indices, (Coll.
Paradosis nos. 47, vol. I-II.) Editions Universitaires de
Fribourg Suisse, (1125 pp.), 2003

Further reading

Foreign language Edit

hrsg. von W.G. Kümmel und H. Lichtenberger (1973),

Jüdische Schriften aus hellenistisch römischer Zeit (in
German), Gütersloh
Delling, Gerhard (1987), Die Begegnung zwischen
Hellenismus und Judentum Aufstieg und Niedergang der
römischen Welt (in German), Bd. II 20.1

English Edit
 Borgen, Peder. Early Christianity and Hellenistic Judaism.
Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark, 1996.
Cohen, Getzel M. The Hellenistic Settlements in Syria, the
Red Sea Basin, and North Africa. Hellenistic Culture and
Society 46. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
Gruen, Erich S. Constructs of Identity In Hellenistic
Judaism: Essays On Early Jewish Literature and History.
Boston: De Gruyter, 2016.
Mirguet, Françoise. An Early History of Compassion:
Emotion and Imagination In Hellenistic Judaism. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2017.
Neusner, Jacob, and William Scott Green, eds. Dictionary
of Judaism in the Biblical Period: 450 BCE to 600 CE. 2
vols. New York: Macmillan Library Reference, 1996.
Tcherikover, Victor (1975), Hellenistic Civilization and the
Jews, New York: Atheneum
The Jewish Encyclopedia

External links
Media related to Hellenistic Judaism at Wikimedia
Commons
Books that contain Bibliographies on the Hellenistic
Judaism - Oxford Bibliographies

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