3

of the Egyptian Judeans to Jerusalem. It continued, therefore, to be honourably regarded, and was very highly reverenced by some Hellenists, particularly by those who found in it a verbal fulfilment of Israel's prophecy. Late in the Roman age, when it was much easier to restore the stricter unity of the hagiocracy, Philo, who places the temple in Jerusalem above everything else, says not one word against that in Leontopolis. And it is certain that it contributed, together with other events, to strengthen afresh among the Hellenists also that stricter tendency of faith to which the whole age was now triumphantly inclining. The rising esteem in which the Judeans in Egypt and in the connected island of Cyprus came to be once more held after the foundation of this temple, is clear from many signs. In Egypt there then flourished the learned Aristobulus, who was highly reverenced in Palestine also. According to a statement which seems sufficiently worthy of credence, there was an Onias at the head of the troops who, after the death of Ptolemy Philomêtor in the year 145, resisted the advance of his brother Physcon from Cyrênê. The latter gained his end, it is true, by a compromise; but it continued to be a favourite story that the injustice of his cause had been made manifest by a divine token, for the elephants which he had prepared in Alexandria to trample on the captive Judeans had turned quite unexpectedly against their enemies, and killed a number of them. We may, however, reasonably suppose that this Onias was identical with the head of the Egyptian Judeans, whom we have already mentioned as the friend of Philomêtor. By his side, according to this statement, another Judean named Dositheus served as military captain under Philomêtor. Two sons of Onias, moreover, Hilkiah and Ananias, were in such favour with Cleopatra, the mother of Ptolemy Lathûrus, and with subsequent princes, that they entrusted to them important military offices, and chiefly relied on their Judean troops. And as in this period of decline

Of this a clear indication is to be found in the fact that the Hellenists wished to find this sanctuary expressly foretold in Is. xix. 18, and hence, instead of the unintelligible name ós 'Axepés, they adopted in preference the reading, which they cleverly changed in accordance with Is. i. 27, Tóλis 'Aσedék, i.e. the city of righteousness.' That this is the reading in the great majority of MSS. is shown by Holmes-Parsons.

2 In the Gemara to Avoda Sara fol. 52b a great deal is said about what was to be

done with priests or vessels which had served in the temple of Onias, or with the stones of the desecrated altar in Jerusalem, and they are all rejected; but these are only later scholastic views.

3 P. 259.

Jos. Contr. Ap. ii. 5; the story about the elephants is also important, on account of 3 Macc.; see below.

5 Jos. Ant. xiii. 10, 4, following the fragment of the unknown work of Strabo of Cappadocia; and xiii. 13, 1 sq., xiv. 6, 2; 8, 1.

Judean-Egyptian troops had often to defend the eastern frontier of Egypt, where, moreover, their temple stood, it seemed as if the ancient days of Israel's sojourn in Egypt had almost come again.'

What ultimately became of the Egyptian high-priestly house of Onias we cannot now tell. It was probably extinct in the Roman age, as there is no mention of it at the time of the destruction of this temple under Vespasian. After the disappearance of the Ptolemaic power and the beginning of the universal sovereignty of Rome, the tendency was to draw the threads of Judeanism in every quarter tighter and tighter in Jerusalem. But in spite of this, many peculiar customs retained their place among the Egyptian Hellenists, even in religion itself. One means of establishing the utmost similarity in all its external forms was supplied particularly by the feasts. Stress was laid on the most general participation possible in the great ancient feasts held every year in Jerusalem; and it was desired that the new and voluntary festivals which were introduced there and kept with high honour should be solemnised in other places also. There are, however, traces which show that the feast of Pûrîm was not long celebrated in Egypt; so that at a later period there was need of a special exhortation and fresh preparations for it.3 Many feasts, on the other hand, were established in Egypt, and particularly in the luxurious Alexandria, merely to give expression to local feelings and requirements. Among these, special mention may be made of one held on the island of Pharos, in commemoration of the glorious age under the early Ptolemies, when the Greek Bible arose, and to which the memory turned fondly as a contrast to the calamities of a later day. Of quite a peculiar character was the so-called Basket-feast, described by Philo in a little work recently discovered, but only in an imperfect form. At this feast the first-fruits were annually offered in spring and autumn, in accordance with the prescriptions in Deut. xxvi., but accompanied by special customs, so that even Philo found himself compelled to describe it. It was probably introduced after the establishment of the temple in Leontopolis, and may have corresponded in Egypt to the festival at the distribution of wood in Palestine."

1 Vol. i. p. 406 sq.

This is clearly shown by the second book of Maccabees.

See the subscription to the Greek book of Esther (already discussed, p. 233 note 1), according to which the persons there specified imported the book, i.e. into the Hellenistic community at Alexandria. A similar case has been mentioned on

p. 312.

4 Of this, according to the assertion of Philo, De Vit. Mos. ii. 7 there can be no doubt.—A similar feast is presupposed by the narrative in 3 Macc. vii. 19 sq., on which see below.

5 See Mai's edition (Milan, 1818), pp. 1-7.

P. 166.

IV. THE ELEVATION AND STRENGTH, AND THE WEAKNESS AND DISRUPTION, OF JUDEANISM.

The position and general life of the numerous Judeans scattered among the heathen attract, however, less and less attention in comparison with the question whether the new spiritual elevation and the development of circumstances which had been making such powerful progress in the centre of the holy land for the past sixty or seventy years, would be able to remove the deeper evils of the time and permanently hold their ground. The utmost which it was possible to attain within the Greek age, and, so far as this was the highest point in the career of the new Jerusalem, within the whole of the third stage of the history of Israel, was now attained. The tearful labours of the founders of the new Jerusalem, the fiery zeal of Ezra and his friends, with their trust in the Scriptures, the deep sufferings, the inexhaustible toils, and the victorious struggles of the Maccabees, had, in the slow but sure progress of time, at length formed a nation which seemed to stand among the other nations of the earth in free independence and honoured power, and in which the most glorious features of its nobler past were about to reappear in combination with new and permanent blessings of the higher life. For the ultimate and elevated goal, also, towards which the whole of Israel's long history through this age was continually approximating and aspiring with increasing power, much had been gained. Even at the beginning of this last great stage heathenism seemed to be for ever overcome; and yet, in the midst of its course, the nation was subjected to a grave temptation from an unexpected quarter to relapse into it. In Greece, heathenism had arrived at its most characteristic fulfilment, and now, instead of using rough force, it approached the ancient people of the true religion in the most seductive manner, with its perfected spiritual power. Accordingly, it was truly vanquished now in its most brilliant and alluring aspect, as the consummation of the beauty, art, and science of life. In spite of all the Greek arts, the eternal truths and powers of the ancient genuine religion were grasped with fresh and deep earnestness; nor was there ever again in the history of the new Jerusalem a period when men could waver between the two, or dream of the possibility of their outward combination. And if it was still necessary for the history of the development of the true religion to be linked pre-eminently

with that of a single nation, because, in spite of long and persistent efforts, it was, not yet consummated even in this one people, there was now exhibited for the admiration of the world the spectacle of a nation rising again with such genuine power that whatever further development its history might undergo, and whatever sacrifices it might demand, it felt itself strengthened anew to achieve on behalf of its religion even the most difficult and unexpected tasks, and even called afresh to them by God himself. At this point, then, we see the ultimate and highest flight to which Jahveism, conscious of victory, rises in its contest with heathenism of every kind. Under the heavy oppression of the age, the book of Daniel beholds the final judgment of the world threatening all heathenism sufficiently near at hand. The book of Enoch gives us a most profound glimpse into the inner disruption of the existing Judeanism, and exerts the whole irresistible weight of its celestial threats against the party of the indifferentists and free-minded; but the inexhaustible stream of its utterances against heathenism as the imperial power of the day possesses incomparably more force and grandeur. And when in the year 124 B.C. a new storm seemed impending from Egypt against the sovereignty of John, which, during its latter years had been marked internally by such prosperity and peace, we see the oldest and withal the most perfect and noblest of the Sibylline poets whose works have come down to us 3 rise up against heathenism with all the charm of artistic Greek utterance, but, at the same time, with all the earnestness and courage of the true religion. And these writers, with their fresh inspiration, were not alone: the active conversion of the heathen by special missionaries now begins to be pursued more vigorously, as will appear further on.

Infinite, however, as was the importance of the revival of the imperishable ancient truths and powers of the people with all their force, before the eyes of the great world and in high honour, it was only the old elements which thus triumphantly reappeared; and the time was not yet come for the great new era towards which the whole age was aspiring. The grand decisive end of all things which the book of Daniel had announced to this age, in the midst of its most strenuous efforts to reach its purest height, as quite near, was still postponed in its complete fulfilment. Even the glowing hopes for the speedy coming of

1 See in particular the book of Enoch, cc. xcii.-cv.

Ibid. cc. xxxvii.-liv. 6; lv. 3-lxxi.

$ P. 261.

See this subject further treated in the Abh. über die Sibyllenbücher, pp. 10–41.

the Messiah as the judge of the world and the founder of his own kingdom, which flow without ceasing from the book of Enoch, met with as little immediate realisation, in spite of repeated attempts actually to determine the date of the advent by divine indications, such as the expectations veiled in Greek within the mysterious Sybilline utterances. Much was indeed speedily enough fulfilled to this effect, and a divine judgment of sufficient severity to make even the unbelievers tremble as it passed over them was executed upon Antiochus Epiphanes, on the apostates, and on so many other ungodly elements of the age. But heathenism, on the whole, maintained its ground, and there was no sign even in Israel itself of any movement for removing the deeper imperfections which had clung to it from ancient times, and had not diminished in the vehement struggles of its latest days. Between heathenism and Jahveism, and, within the compass of the latter itself, between legality and illegality, there still existed hostility and desire of mutual destruction, which were at times scarcely restrained and quieted by outward force; and the means by which a higher accord and reconciliation could be brought about continued a subject only of longing and of hope. There was the more reason for this attitude on the part of the better minds of the day, as the age found its greatest strength and most brilliant triumph in nothing higher than the restoration and defence of the past.

From this cause an ineradicable feeling that everything which now existed or which might be newly founded would be only provisional, and that something higher was to be soon expected, penetrated even the most elevated and serene moments of this period. When the people conferred on their own Simon perpetual sovereignty,' they did so under the express limitation until a faithful prophet should arise' who should instruct the community more clearly and surely how the supreme dignity of the state was to be discharged and to whom it was due.2 Thus in the slow course of these centuries the Messianic hope penetrates once more without resistance through all their feelings, not merely in periods of deep distress and longing, but in those also of the highest exaltation and joy: without this outlook and expectation there is no pure satisfaction or tranquillity.-And consequently, the very elements which seemed for the time being about to establish themselves on such a firm and enduring basis, in

1 P. 336.

21 Macc. xiv. 41; cf. iv. 46, ix. 27; and Jahrbb. der Bibl. Wiss. iii. p. 231.