- On the other hand, the Graeco-Roman heathenism, through its language, philosophy, and
literature, exerted no inconsiderable influence to soften the fanatical bigotry of the higher and more
cultivated classes of the Jews. Generally the Jews of the dispersion, who spoke the Greek
language—the "Hellenists," as they were called—were much more liberal than the proper "Hebrews,"
or Palestinian Jews, who kept their mother tongue. This is evident in the Gentile missionaries,
Barnabas of Cyprus and Paul of Tarsus, and in the whole church of Antioch, in contrast with that
at Jerusalem. The Hellenistic form of Christianity was the natural bridge to the Gentile.
The most remarkable example of a transitional, though very fantastic and Gnostic-like
combination of Jewish and heathen elements meets us in the educated circles of the Egyptian
metropolis, Alexandria, and in the system of Philo, who was born about b.c. 20, and lived till after
a.d. 40, though he never came in contact with Christ or the apostles. This Jewish, divine sought to
harmonize the religion of Moses with the philosophy of Plato by the help of an ingenious but
arbitrary allegorical interpretation of the Old Testament; and from the books of Proverbs and of
Wisdom he deduced a doctrine of the Logos so strikingly like that of John’s Gospel, that many
expositors think it necessary to impute to the apostle an acquaintance with the writings, or at least
with the terminology of Philo. But Philo’s speculation is to the apostle’s "Word made flesh" as a
shadow to the body, or a dream to the reality. He leaves no room for an incarnation, but the
coincidence of his speculation with the great fact is very remarkable.^92
The Therapeutae or Worshippers, a mystic and ascetic sect in Egypt, akin to the Essenes in
Judaea, carried this Platonic Judaism into practical life; but were, of course, equally unsuccessful
in uniting the two religions in a vital and permanent way. Such a union could only be effected by
a new religion revealed from heaven.^93
Quite independent of the philosophical Judaism of Alexandria were the Samaritans, a mixed
race, which also combined, though in a different way, the elements of Jewish and Gentile religion.^94
They date from the period of the exile. They held to the Pentateuch, to circumcision, and to carnal
Messianic hopes; but they had a temple of their own on Mount Gerizim, and mortally hated the
proper Jews. Among these Christianity, as would appear from the interview of Jesus with the woman
of Samaria,^95 and the preaching of Philip,^96 found ready access, but, as among the Essenes and
Therapeutae fell easily into a heretical form. Simon Magus, for example, and some other Samaritan
arch-heretics, are represented by the early Christian writers as the principal originators of Gnosticism. - Thus was the way for Christianity prepared on every side, positively and negatively,
directly and indirectly, in theory and in practice, by truth and by error, by false belief and by
unbelief—those hostile brothers, which yet cannot live apart—by Jewish religion, by Grecian
(^92) The system of Philo has been very thoroughly investigated, both independently, and in connection with John’s Logos-doctrine
by Grossmann (1829). Gfrörer (1831), Dähne (1834), Lücke, Baur, Zeller, Dorner, Ueberweg, Ewald, J. G. Müller (Die Messian.
Erwartungen des Juden Philo, Basel, 1870), Keim, Lipsius, Hausrath, Schürer, etc. See the literature in Schürer, N. T. Zeitgesch.,
p. 648.
(^93) P. E. Lucius: Die Therapeuten und ihre Stellung in der Geschichte der Askese. Strassburg, 1880.
(^94) A remnant of the Samaritans (about 140 souls) still live in Nablous, the ancient Shechem, occupy a special quarter, have a
synagogue of their own, with a very ancient copy of the Pentateuch, and celebrate annually on the top of Mount Gerizim the
Jewish Passover, Pentecost, and Feast of Tabernacles. It is the only spot on earth where the paschal sacrifice is perpetuated
according to the Mosaic prescription in the twelfth chapter of Exodus. See Schaff, Through Bible Lands (N.York and Lond.
1878), pp. 314 sqq. and Hausrath, l.c. I. 17 sqq.
(^95) John 4.
(^96) Acts 8.
A.D. 1-100.