Lecture 3: The First Cultural Context—Judaism
Assimilation and Separation in the Diaspora
• Jews in the Diaspora experienced the same tension between the
desire to assimilate and the desire to separate that similar minority
groups often do.
o Assimilation was expressed by adoption of the majority
language, the change of names, and participation in shared
cultural pursuits (as at the gymnasium); thus, in Alexandria,
Jews read the Bible in Greek and interpreted it allegorically, as
Greek philosophers did Homer.o Separation was expressed by the maintenance of “holiness”
(difference) in assembly (the synagogue), in worship (the
Sabbath), and in ancestral identity markers (circumcision).• Gentiles, in turn, responded ambivalently to the presence of Jewish
communities in their midst.
o Many Gentiles were attracted to Judaism because of its
antiquity, moral teaching, and bloodless worship; some became
converts (proselytes), and others were “God-fearers” who
frequented synagogues but resisted full initiation.o Other Gentiles engaged in anti-Semitic attacks, accusing Jews
of a variety of crimes, including “atheism.” These crimes can
be summed up by the terms amixia (“failure to mingle”) or
misanthropia (“hatred of humans”).• Jews in the Diaspora responded to attacks by developing a wide-
ranging apologetic literature based on the Septuagint (the Greek
Bible), using a variety of genres (history, poetry, moral instruction)
to demonstrate that Jews were philanthropic (“lovers of humanity”).
o One of the most famous of these writers was Philo of
Alexandria, whose allegorical interpretations of Scripture were
influential on later Christians.o Many of the apologetic arguments used by Diaspora Jews
would be employed by Christians when they later faced
similar attacks.