certainly developed itself in ancient Israel out of its native. resources; but that in the new Jerusalem, where the two orders of the priests and the scribes seemed to have been finally reconciled and blended in the person of Ezra, an order of scribes should take up an independent position apart from the priesthood, should win high honour, and continue into every subsequent age, was certainly a consequence of the great repute in which learning and literary power stood among the Greeks and the various Greek courts of the day. In the same way, the influence of Greek knowledge and life showed itself in the greater prominence assumed by physicians whose practice was distinct from the treatment by the priests. Not in vain does the son of Sirach labour to prove that the physician is to be highly honoured, and that in conjunction with proper piety and hope for divine aid his help also is not to be despised.1 At how early a period and with what force special branches of Greek culture gained an entrance, we may trace clearly enough in the case of an art which had hitherto been the most easily diffused of all-that of music. The book of Daniel contains the first Greek words which made their way into the literary language of the period. But these words are nothing else than the names of Greek musical instruments; and we are justified in inferring from them that Greek music established itself at a very early date in Palestine. The same result, however, is reached from quite another direction. The old Hebrew music must have been resumed in the new temple of Zerubbabel, and pursued with great zeal. This is plain from the superscriptions of many of the Psalms, which were then collected afresh, and from the historical representations of the Chronicler. But the Greek translators of the Psalter evince only an imperfect and obscure knowledge of the art terms of the ancient music, which clearly proves that the whole of this ancient art suffered severely through the entrance of Greek music, and by degrees entirely disappeared.* ployed in quite another aspect as a name for certain high offices of state; of this usage excellent examples are found in many of the inscriptions in the Corp. Inscrr. Græc, vols. i.-iii. 1 Ecclus. xxxviii. 1-23. 2 There are the names aλThρlov and ovμpwvía so often repeated in Dan. iii.; but σaußúkn, 30, must not be rec koned with these, as it must have travelled from Asia to the Greeks; on the other hand, p must have derived its form from the Greek. On this see also Gött. Gel. Anz. 1861, p. 1094 sqq. 3 See the Dichter des A. Bs. i. p. 212 sqq. III. THE ASCENDENCY OF THE GREEKS. THE RULING POWERS OF THE AGE. But neither the entry of these isolated arts and aptitudes, nor the rivalry of merely literary achievements, could ensure permanence for the contact between the two religions and nationalities which had thus been set on foot. It was, in the first place, too limited. The Greek, both by its intrinsic nature and by the outward power with which it was surrounded, possessed too much strength, while, on the other hand, the Hebrew was too peculiar, and, in its ultimate essence, too sensitive and easily wounded. No peaceful mutual understanding, no emulous recognition and acceptance of the better and more perfect qualities which each respectively possessed, could be brought about. The efforts which had been made towards this consummation remained too weak. As the end of the first century of its dominion approached, the Greek element, it is true, chiefly through the ascendency of the most ungoverned worldly ambition and the vices of the majority of the Greek courts, underwent a rapid decline and became inwardly corrupt; yet, partly as representing the elegance, the art, and the rich knowledge, of the newest life, and partly as the imperial power of the age, it proved too seductive, and insinuated itself too easily on every side. Judaism, on the other hand, had certainly gained fresh strength in the centuries immediately preceding, but had not yet attained the perfect form to which its deepest endeavours impelled it. It had consequently appropriated as holy too much that was merely ancient and prescriptive. To the Greeks these practices were inevitably difficult of comprehension, and easily fell into disrepute; and although now revered with a sanctity hitherto unknown, yet in the long run they had too slight a foundation not to become objects of suspicion in their own circle and be felt as a burthen. The two nationalities (for with these the different religions were still peculiarly allied) had each their pre-eminent advantages and strong points, but they had also their grave defects and weaknesses. The impossibility of mutual comprehension and reconciliation on a deep enough basis tended to bring them into still closer collision, and consequently into an inevitable struggle; and if this should take place, the way was prepared for the complete triumph, at any rate provisionally, of the Greek. In all the broad east the Greek was now the solitary power of the day; and consequently, in the growing severity of the friction between the hostile elements, it gained a reiterated victory by means of those who, as the ambitious and the highly cultured, or as the powerful, of their time, were most directly exposed to the charms and seductions of the age. The blending of old Israelite and Greek literature, which we have already described,' was, however, innocent enough compared with other results which were ultimately involved in the tendency of the age. Many who wished to shine as writers, as learned or else as highly-educated persons, soon regarded it as quite in accordance with the spirit of the age to adopt Greek names in place of Hebrew, and thus follow a fashion which was then spreading right through Asia and Egypt. This practice of bearing Greek and subsequently also Latin names, either by the side of the old Hebrew, or without any other designation, became more and more firmly established in the course of the succeeding centuries, and made its way to some extent also among the common people. At first it went no further than dexterously giving a Greek form to the Hebrew sound; thus Jesus was turned into Jason, Eliakim into Alkimos, Manasseh perhaps into Menelaos, Hilkiah into Alexandros.2 A far worse consequence, however, was that many Judeans contracted a taste for the brilliant Greek festivals and bodily exercises, which rendered it difficult for them to maintain the usages and principles of their ancestral religion in the form in which they were expounded and scrupulously defended by the hagiocracy. When they desired to contend with Greeks on the Palæstra they made themselves ridiculous by their circumcision, the only usage derived from the most ancient times which they had still conscientiously preserved in countries of Greek civilisation. Little by little some of them attempted to grow an artificial foreskin. But in so doing they ran directly counter to a prejudice about the essentials of the true religion, which the age was still much too weak to overcome in the right way; and soon there was nothing which tended more to provoke the gravest apprehensions and the most serious disapprobation on the part of all those who regarded it as their highest duty to protect the ancient true religion. It was not, however, till 1 P. 260 sqq. 2 Jos. Ant. xviii. 5, 4. • The σaσμós is literally nothing as a מָשׁוּךְ more than the condition of a man with an artificial foreskin was called. We know the fact from 1 Macc. i. 15, Jos. Ant. xii. 5, 1, and the word from 1 Cor. vii. 18. The Mishnah does not legislate upon it, since Mish. Orla treats of other things; elsewhere, however, the Talmud speaks cursorily of the somewhat later that the full bearing of this controversy developed itself. 1. The High-Priests. As regards the ruling powers of the period, we have little more definite knowledge of the high-priests after Alexander than we have of their predecessors. In general terms, however, we may affirm that with the increasing power of the hagiocracy in Jerusalem itself1 their position also became more and more influential and important. Josephus only supplies us in passing with their names and the order of their succession, without in each case exactly specifying the duration of their government.2 Yet the principal outlines for our present purpose are not very obscure. 3 At the time of Alexander, Jaddûa was still in office, the last high-priest mentioned in the canonical Old Testament. He was succeeded by his son Onias I., who ruled till about 310 B.C., and Onias was followed by his son Simon I., till about 291 B.C. This Simon, according to Josephus, bore the surname of the Just. The Mishnah also extols a Simon the Just," not, however, as high-priest, but as one of the last great teachers belonging to the period of the formation of the canon, and preserves a saying of his very significant of the times, 'There are three things on which the world rests: the law, divine worship, and the practice of good works.' He belonged, therefore, to the school founded by Ezra, as was to be expected from the age in which he lived, and he carried out further the principles which it involved. At his death, his son Onias was too young to be his successor, and his office was filled by his brother Eleazar till the year The language about priests and sacrifices in Ecclus. vii. 29-31, xiv. 11, xxxii. 1-11, still resembles that formerly employed in the Persian period, p. 173 sq. be done is tolerably clear from the explanations already made, p. 123 sq. From a pure misunderstanding of the words in Euseb. Chron. ii. p. 235, Georg. Syncellus places Jesus, the son of Sirach, in this series as the thirteenth, with a duration of six years; he then collects the various opinions about the fourteenth and fifteenth, and assigns to the sixteenth only three years. 2 The succession of the high-priests from Onias I. to the extinction of his family may be gathered from Josephus, not without some trouble and the correction of an oversight, Ant. xi. ad fin., xii. 2, 5; 4, 1, 10; 5, 1; 9, 7; xiii. 3, 1; xx. 10, sq.; Bell. Jud. vii. 10, 2. As far as the mere succession of the highpriests is concerned, these scattered notices agree on the whole with one another, but of any closer and trustworthy chrono:; the magician Onias in Jos. logical data there is an almost incredible Ant. xiv. 2, 1 is called in the Mishnah, lack. This great deficiency wo Ta'anith, iii. 8. Yet later Jews also therefore supply as far as possible in write and pronounce it 1, Chônâv. other ways; and to what extent this can 5 Mass. Aboth. i. 2. must 8 P. 123 sq. 4 Onias is probably not but as the Pesh., throughout 2 Macc., writes 4 276 B.C.; the latter was also placed by the book of Aristeas1 in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus. From some cause now obscure (probably Onias was still too young) he was succeeded first by his uncle Manasseh till 250 B.C., upon whose death Simon's son, Onias II., held the high-priesthood till about the year 219.2 The relations with Egypt continued still unclouded, as is evident from the fact that on one occasion Ptolemy Euergetes (246-221), when returning from his victorious expedition against the Seleucidæ, offered rich sacrifices and gifts in Jerusalem. Yet under this Onias a series of events occurred which already reveals the profound moral corruption into which the Greek as well as the Jewish leaders were about rapidly to fall. We only know the story from Josephus, and it will be sufficient in this connection to touch upon it briefly. Onias became more and more indiscreet every year, until his ambition at length led him to withhold the yearly tribute of twenty talents. This drew down upon himself and the whole nation the grave indignation of King Euergetes, when his sister's son Joseph, son of Tobias, contrived by uncommon adroitness and activity to arrange everything amicably. The great services rendered by this Joseph to his people are highly extolled; but the picture of the means which he employed is by no means. pleasing. By attendance at the Egyptian court, by the wit and humour acceptable at such a place, but particularly by rich presents, he managed to obtain the privilege of farming the royal revenues over all Palestine. This he carried out rigorously to his own and the king's advantage, but not without severity, as in his treatment of Ascalon and Scythopolis, which gave Judean pride an opportunity for boasting that in this way at any rate it again ruled over the Philistines, Idumeans, and similar small nations around! He continued thus employed for twenty-two years; but the subsequent story of his sons, also called sons of Tobias,'5 unveils in the most shocking manner the further development of the deep corruption which everyone underwent who entered into any close connection 1 P. 251. 2 According to the assumption that Onias III. was deposed in the year 175, he himself reigned twenty-four years, and his predecessor, Simon II., twenty years. In this case, we can follow the Chron. Pasch., and assign to this Onias thirty-two years. According to Contr. Ap. ii. 5, he had even intentionally avoided all heathen temples on the way! Ant. xii. 4. Josephus probably de rived it from the great work of Nicolaus of Damascus, on which see below. The wife of Ptol. Euergetes bears the name of Cleopatra, but for this there is no historical ground; the Greek mediator between the king and Joseph was one Athênion. In other respects the whole narrative seems only too well founded, and it is significant enough that Josephus relates these stories as though he took a genuine pleasure in them! As we may infer from 2 Mace. iii. 11. |