Hellenistic Judaism

After Alexander's conquest in −332, Jews lived for three centuries inside a Greek-speaking world. In Alexandria they formed a large, self-governing community with prayer houses called proseuchai; a dedication from Schedia under Ptolemy III is the oldest known inscription of a synagogue. Jewish writers worked in Greek: the Septuagint translated the Torah, Aristobulus argued that the Greek philosophers had learned from Moses, Ezekiel the Tragedian staged the Exodus as a Greek play, and the Wisdom of Solomon joined Jewish faith to Greek philosophy. The tradition culminated in Philo of Alexandria, who read the Torah through Plato.

In Judea the encounter divided society. In −175 the high priest Jason built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, and priests neglected the altar to join the games (2 Maccabees 4), tensions that exploded under Antiochus IV and the Maccabean Revolt. Yet Hellenism left lasting marks on Judaism itself: Greek loanwords fill the Mishnah, from sanhedrin to afikoman, and the Passover seder, with its reclining and its questions, echoes the Greek symposium.