Index

Back

Next

Alexander the Great brought the ancient world to an abrupt end, and initiated the spread of Greek culture, which underpins all Biblical Studies from this time onwards. He had been tutored as a boy by Aristotle, and exposed to the new philosophical ideas of Socrates and Plato, and to Aristotle's studies in the natural sciences based on human observation, reason and logic. New Greek mathematics and geometry by Euclid and Pythagoras, gave rise to beautiful new architecture, as well as music. Hippocrates studied the causes , cures and effects of disease, taking this away from the prerogative of the ancient priests, like the thinkers who had extracted 'truth' from the ancient religious myths, to debate as philosophy.

'Humanism' was beginning to develop, and the beauty of the human body excited both sculptors and artists, as well as spectators at 'the Games', originally held every four years in honour of Zeus of Mt Olympus, but increasingly more and more for their own sake as public entertainment.

The crowning glory of the new style of thinking was the development of the Greek language, the most beautiful of all in the world. It had a much enlarged vocabulary, enabling abstract ideas to be examined with great imagination, and scientific and mathematical thinking to be described with precision and definition. Drama and poetry developed, originally in religious ceremonies, but later purely for human entertainment, and the architects designed new amphitheatres for the performances. The first of these, built in 320 BCE held 13,000 people.

The 'down side' of Humanism, as always, was the weakening of religion. Philosophy had emptied the old religious myths of their 'truths', and left the empty tales of un-edifying sexual romps of gods and goddesses to be held up to ridicule and contempt. It was a real tragedy that these great thinkers did not meet Jewish monotheism until the Christians arrived. Greek religion degenerated over the years, down to the level of either 'superstition', - ('sacrifice, in case!'), or a date in the calendar for a public 'festival', meaning merely public entertainment.

Alexander was a man of this new age, but experienced the phenomenon in Egypt of being declared a god, in human form. The oracle of Amun was customary in the making of a new Pharaoh, but it was a new experience for a Greek, and it went to Alexander's head, especially when he had conquered the whole of the oriental empire of the Persians. He died very young, but his legacy, and that of Aristotle, has been fundamental to the world ever since.

The process of 'Hellenisation' followed after Alexander's death, when his empire was divided into three, the Greek Kingdoms of Egypt, Syria, and Macedonia. Everywhere was affected, even eventually Jerusalem and Judea. It happened for several reasons: first, because of the many Greek people Alexander found already living and settled throughout the Middle East where they had emigrated looking for employment; secondly because Alexander had appropriated all the vast treasure of the Persians, stored in Persepolis, and spent it on generous gifts to the colonials who met his armies, and in large estates to the soldiers as they were pensioned off; and thirdly because he initiated the founding of many new 'Greek' cities all through the area, where Greeks could live in elegance, enjoy the new debates, and the new entertainments. It was a culture of city-dwellers, to the detriment and disregard of the rural communities. The city-dwellers were supported by the sub-culture of slavery, on a scale not known before. No servants were employed! It was also a culture only for wealthy and educated MEN, for women and children were unimportant, unless, of course, they were wealthy widows or orphans. Trade flourished, and a chatty form of the Greek language, known as Koine Greek, became the universal means of communication in the world.

JERUSALEM AND JUDEA became part of Alexander's empire in 332 BCE, when he went from Tyre to Egypt. Very little change was apparent at first in Jerusalem, but there was a shift in the internal power struggles within the city. The strict Separatists lost their powerful backers, in the Persians, and the Assimilationists, the more aristocratic priests and gentry, began to assert themselves, and to look favourably at all the new fashions that were sweeping the world from the Greeks, - to the dismay of the Separatists, many of whom, among the Levites, gradually found life more congenial out in the countryside, away from Jerusalem.

After Alexander's death, Judea was acquired into the Greek kingdom of the Ptolemy family, They were shipbuilders, and needed the cedar trees of Lebanon, so kept control over the coastal area for the next 120 years. The beautiful new city of Alexandria soon became the largest, and most important city of the new world. It became a huge trading port, with the Pharos Lighthouse to guide sailors to harbour.

It soon had the largest University, and Library, ever known, where scholars from all parts were brought to translate their records, and books into Greek, including the Hebrew Scriptures which were translated into the 'Septuagint' version, and used by all Jews living outside Jerusalem. Alexandria soon became the multi-cultural and intellectual, cosmopolitan centre of the new world, outstripping all the cities of the Greek mainland. Many Jews settled there, but were still allowed to live separately, and according to their own Law and customs.

Jerusalem, under the Ptolemies, enjoyed a century of peace and calm prosperity. Life was good, - for the rich. Education in the Wisdom schools flourished; pilgrims flocked in, bringing their gifts to the Temple, and demonstrating their new fashions and ideas; and the priests, now in the ascendancy, were busy finalising their books, known to us as the Pentateuch, which quickly became definitive 'Scripture'. Deuteronomy, the great prophetic book, also had an unassailable place in the TORAH, the official 'Teaching' of Judaism, all of which was ascribed to the ancient figure of Moses. The prophetic books were nearing completion, but were still open to more editing, but it was the later Wisdom literature that finally flowered.

The Wisdom writers were busy in two main directions, - in producing good library books for the new, educated leisured class, and also continuing the development of Wisdom thought. The former group will receive attention next time; here, we will look at the two great Jewish Wisdom books which survived only in Alexandria, and are therefore to be found in the 'Apocrypha', a small group of religious texts lost to the collection in Jerusalem. The first is The Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach, who was an elderly Sage of Jerusalem in the closing years of the 3^rd century BCE, (the book is also known as Ecclesiasticus), and the second is The Wisdom of Solomon, though it was written long after his time, probably about 100 BCE, in Greek, in Alexandria. In these two books Wisdom in Israel reached its peak.

Through occasional autobiographical verses, we can glimpse the quality of life in Jerusalem in ben Sirach's day. It is a chatty, and often amusing book to read, if you can tolerate his attitude to women, and others whom he dislikes. Read Ecclus26.10-12!, for example, and 25.2, while 50.26-27 hints that the 'Samaritan Schism' of later years was already beginning in Shechem. Ecclus.51.13-30 describes his own training to be a Sage, his subsequent prosperity, enabling him to have his own School, in his own house, for students who did not have to pay fees. Ecclus.38.24 - 39.11 outlines a student's qualifications, necessary to become a Sage, - mainly leisure, and a private income, plus a lot of culture. Note his life's 'reward'! - to be remembered, by name, for many generations to come. - This reflects current Jewish thinking about Death, before 167 BCE.

Ecclus.7.29-31, 45.6-17, and 50.1-21, reflect Ben Sirach's admiration and respect for the priests of the Temple, the 'establishment' of 3^rd cent.Jerusalem. Temple liturgies were at the heart of life there. This may account for his book not surviving the Maccabean years in Jerusalem! It was his Grandson who took a copy, as he fled the troubles and emigrated to Alexandria, and who translated his Grandfather's Wisdom into Greek. Read the Prologue.

Ben Sirach's Wisdom: He wrote a hymn of praise to personified Wisdom, in 1.1-20.

'She' was created before the world by God, the only One who is wise, (v.8), and given as a gift to all the living, (v.10). The theme was developed in 14.20 - 15.10, with Wisdom described as the complete companion to a good life, - a mother, a wife, and a perfect hostess.

The jewel of the book is ch 24. Wisdom gives her own autobiography, sent by God to dwell among His people, Israel, where she flourished, and invites everyone to learn more and grow closer to God for themselves. In v.23, Wisdom is equated with the TORAH, the LAW.

In the later 'Wisdom of Solomon', a treatise 'about' Wisdom, Chs 6 - 9 are the highlights, in which her attributes are ampliphied, (almost a goddess, but not quite!). In 9.17, she is equated with 'your holy spirit from on high' Wisdom in Israel could go no further, and didn't.

Eventually King Antiochus III, the Great, of Syria, beat Egypt in 198 BCE, and took Jerusalem