two of the five city districts had large numbers of Jews. Most Jews in
Alexandria were artisans, and a few were wealthy merchants. The Jews had
been granted the status of a politeuma(autonomous community) under the
Ptolemies. During this period, many Jews acquired citizenship. During the
reign of Ptolemaeus III Philadelphus, an open exchange between Jewish and
Greek culture unfolded, culminating with the publication of the Septuagint,
a Greek translation of the Torah. This exchange peaked during the first cen-
tury, as exemplified by the synthesis between Judaism and Greek philosophy.
Conditions deteriorated somewhat under Roman rule. The Romans
granted citizenship to the Greek residents of the city but defined the
Egyptians as a subject people, which meant their paying a poll tax.
Alexandrian Jews tried to obtain citizenship as Greeks, prompting anti-
Jewish propaganda. In 38 C.E., riots broke out against the Jews of Alexandria,
resulting in Jewish fatalities, the scourging of Jewish notables, and the defil-
ing of synagogues. In response, the Jews armed themselves and attacked their
assailants. Claudius, recently crowned emperor, restored order. He also
restored to Jews the national and religious privileges they had lost during the
period of the riots, but forbade them to claim citizenship.
Culturally, the Jews of Alexandria were among the most Hellenized Jews
in the world, but maintained strong ties to Jewish tradition. Emblematic of
the balance between Judaism and Hellenism were the works of Philo, the first
Jewish philosopher. Little is known about him. He came from a prominent
family and participated in the Jewish delegation to Caligula in 40 C.E. His
many works have been preserved, albeit by happenstance (they were preserved
by the early church fathers; Jews discovered him only much later). Philo was
not the first Jew to ask philosophical questions, or the first to study Greek
philosophy, but he was the first to systematically synthesize Jewish law and
lore with Greek wisdom. This synthesis would be the dominant mode of
Jewish philosophy until the seventeenth century, when Baruch Spinoza would
divorce Jewish thought from Greek philosophy.
Philo exemplified the exceptional impact of Hellenism on Jews. Other
peoples embraced Greek wisdom at the expense of their own traditions and
beliefs. For example, Hellenized Egyptians replaced their Egyptian gods such
as Ammon with Greek gods such as Zeus. Jews incorporated Greek wisdom
without giving up their own. In this respect, Philo’s sense of Jewishness
recalled the original encounter between Jews and Hellenistic culture.
Philo’s work embodied more than the coexistence between Jewish and
Hellenistic culture, and the blurred boundary between sectarian Jewish iden-
tities. In his thought, it is possible to detect both Sadducean and Pharisaic
tendencies. Like the Sadducees, he interpreted the Torah allegorically; like the
Pharisees, he believed in the immortality of the soul. Moreover, he was well
versed in the oral tradition of the Pharisees, and used it to interpret the Torah.
Philo played an important role in defending Judaism against its critics. In
42 The challenge of Hellenism