Chapter 2
THE JEWISH DISPERSION IN THE WEST
THE HELLENISTS
ORIGIN OF HELLENIST LITERATURE IN THE GREEK TRANSLATION OF
THE BIBLE
CHARACTER OF THE SEPTUAGINT.
When we turn from the Jewish `dispersion' in the East to that in the West, we seem to breathe
quite a different atmosphere. Despite their intense nationalism, all unconsciously to themselves,
their mental characteristics and tendencies were in the opposite direction from those of their
brethren. With those of the East rested the future of Judaism; with them of the West, in a sense,
that of the world. The one represented old Israel, stretching forth its hands to where the dawn of
a new day was about to break. These Jews of the West are known by the term Hellenists -
from ελληνιζειν , to conform to the language and manners of the Greeks. 1
1. Indeed, the word Alnisti (or Alunistin) - `Greek' - actually occurs, as in Jer. Sot. 21 b, line 14 from
bottom. Böhl (Forsch. n. ein. Volksb. p. 7) quotes Philo (Leg. ad Caj. p. 1023) in proof that he regarded
the Eastern dispersion as a branch separate from the Palestinians. But the passage does not convey to
me the inference which he draws from it. Dr. Guillemard (Hebraisms in the Greek Test.) on Acts vi. 1,
agreeing with Dr. Roberts, argues that the term `Hellenist' indicated only principles, and not birthplace,
and that there were Hebrews and Hellenists in and out of Palestine. But this view is untenable.
Whatever their religious and social isolation, it was, in the nature of thing, impossible that the
Jewish communities in the West should remains unaffected by Grecian culture and modes of
thought; just as, on the other hand, the Greek world, despite popular hatred and the contempt
of the higher classes, could not wholly withdraw itself from Jewish influences. Witness here the
many converts to Judaism among the Gentiles;2 witness also the evident preparedness of the
lands of this `dispersion' for the new doctrine which was to come from Judea. Many causes
contributed to render the Jews of the West accessible to Greek influences. They had not a long
local history to look back upon, nor did they form a compact body, like their brethren in the
East. They were craftsmen, traders, merchants, settled for a time here or there - units might
combine into communities, but could not form one people. Then their position was not
favourable to the sway of traditionalism. Their occupations, the very reasons for their being in a
`strange land,' were purely secular. That lofty absorption of thought and life in the study of the
Law, written and oral, which characterised the East, was to the, something in the dim distance,
sacred, like the soil and the institutions of Palestine, but unattainable. In Palestine or Babylonia
numberless influences from his earliest years, all that he saw and heard, the very force of
circumstances, would tend to make an earnest Jew a disciple of the Rabbis; in the West it
would lead him to `hellenise.' It was, so to speak, `in the air'; and he could no more shut his
mind against Greek thought than he could withdraw his body from atmospheric influences. That
restless, searching, subtle Greek intellect would penetrate everywhere, and flash its light into the
innermost recesses of his home and Synagogue.
2. An account of this propaganda of Judaism and of its results will be given in another connection.