Early Judaism- A Comprehensive Overview

lenders (Flacc.57). Alexander the Alabarch, Philo’s brother, belonged in the

highest stratum of Jewish society and held an important administrative

role probably connected with customs collection on the Nile. He was rich

enough to donate nine massive gates of silver and gold to the Jerusalem

Temple (Josephus,J.W.5.205). Philo himself no doubt received a thorough

training in a gymnasium, and his familiarity with theatrical and sporting

events suggests that he enjoyed the regular entertainments of Alexandrian

citizens.

Cases of local inhabitants being attracted to Judaism are also well at-

tested. According to Josephus, each city in Syria had its “Judaizers” (J.W.

2.463); at Damascus, many women had “submitted to the Jewish religion”

(J.W.2.559-61); at Antioch, the Jews were constantly attracting to their reli-

gious practices “a considerable body of Greeks, whom they had in some

measure made a part of themselves” (J.W.7.45). Attraction to Judaism may

have taken various forms, from a general interest and sympathy to real ad-

herence to Jewish practices. The statement of the New Testament that the

Pharisees “compass sea and land to make one proselyte” (Matt. 23:15) may

be exaggerated, but the testimony of later Jewish sources — which take

pride in the claim that some of the greatest Jewish figures descended from

proselytes — suggests a policy of acceptance.

Friendly relations, however, are not attested always and everywhere.

Josephus also reports that serious controversies and disputes arose be-

tween the Jews and their Greek neighbors in various places around the

Mediterranean. A reconstruction of these episodes and their causes is ex-

tremely difficult, since we get only the Jewish point of view. Even when

Josephus quotes non-Jewish documents, for example, his choice is always

subjective and leads him to cite only those texts attesting favorable deci-

sions concerning the Jews.

Controversies between Jews and Greeks

Mesopotamia

Jews arrived at Seleucia in the first part of the first centuryc.e., having es-

caped from Babylon, where they had been always “quarreling with the

Babylonians because of the contrariety of their laws” (Ant.18.371). In

Seleucia they got caught up in conflicts between Syrians and Greeks. An

armed attack against the Jews ensued in which an enormous number of

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Jews among Greeks and Romans

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