Early Judaism- A Comprehensive Overview

leaders, and representatives; Gentiles frequently remarked about Sabbath

services; inscriptions announced decisions of the membership; and the let-

ters and decrees of Roman spokesmen gave public sanction to Jewish prac-

tices, most of which took place in the synagogue. The impressive testimony

demonstrates the existence of thriving and vigorous Jewish communities,

self-assured in the exhibition of their traditions and their special character.

The Jews’ Participation in Social and Political Life

Explicit testimony on how Jews led their lives in the scattered cities of the

Diaspora is hard to come by. But most of the fragmentary indications,

clues, and indirect signs suggest circumstances in which they could both

partake of the social and cultural environment and maintain a separate

identity. These were not mutually exclusive alternatives.

One might note, for example, the gymnasium, that most Hellenic of

institutions. The gymnasium was a conspicuous feature of Greek educa-

tion, at least for the elite, in communities throughout the Mediterranean.

It catered to the corps of ephebes, the select youth of upper-echelon fami-

lies, the training ground for generations of Hellenic leadership in the ur-

ban centers of Greek migration. That institution would appear to be the

last place available to Jews. Yet unmistakable traces of their participation

in gymnasia do exist. Ephebic lists include Jews in places as different as Al-

exandria in Egypt, Cyrene in North Africa, Sardis in western Asia Minor,

Iasos in southwestern Asia Minor, and Korone in southern Greece. So even

the preeminent bastion of Hellenism, the gymnasium, was, at least in sev-

eral sites, open to Jews.

The fullest information on Jewish life abroad (and it is very skimpy)

comes from Egypt, where the papyri allow us to peer selectively into some

corners of social and economic experience. The evidence, reinforced by

some literary and epigraphic testimonia, shows that Jews served in the

Ptolemaic armies and police forces, reached officer rank, and received land

grants. Inscriptions in Aramaic and Greek from Alexandrian cemeteries

disclose Jews, evidently mercenary soldiers, buried alongside Greeks from

all parts of the Hellenic world. Jews had access to various levels of the ad-

ministration as tax-farmers and tax-collectors, as bankers and granary of-

ficials. They took part in commerce, shipping, finance, farming, and every

form of occupation. And they could even reach posts of prestige and im-

portance. Juridically, the Jews, like other Greek-speaking immigrants to

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Judaism in the Diaspora

EERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
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