CHAPTER II.THE EXPANSION OF JUDAISM.

FROM ANOTHER QUARTER, THE world received a preparation without which the great and rapid success of Christianity would have been impossible. Of all ancient religions, Judaism as represented by the Prophets was incomparably the best. No other religion had such a conception of God, his lofty and upright character, his majesty, his compassion, his fatherly love for men, his mercy, and at the same time, of the high demands for holy living which He made on all who would be his people and enjoy his protection. But this’ high conception of God was confined to one little people, inhabiting a small province and having little communication with the rest of the world. More than that, their foreign intercourse was so restricted by the many levitical rules and regulations that their religious influence on other nations was practically nothing. Everywhere else there was polytheism, varying in grade from its finest and noblest forms to the crassest, most degraded, and degrading. What advantage was it to the world that the Jews had a better religion, since the levitical law was a barrier that prevented all communication ? It looked as if the heathen were to be excluded from having any share in the religious truth in which Israel was so rich. The heirs of the Prophets were by no means inclined to share their holy inheritance with the unclean heathen about them.

But there can be no lasting monopoly in truth. Deep and wide as was the gulf that separated the heathen from the Jews, it could be bridged. In spite of the separation, many means of contact and channels of communication could be found. This leads us to the study of one of the most interesting and important subjects, the Jews in the Diaspora.

Abraham, their great forefather, was himself a wanderer, and in this respect he had many imitators among his children. For centuries the Jews had been spreading beyond Palestine. A constant stream of emigrants was overflowing its boundaries in all directions. At this time there was scarcely a city in all the world that did not have Jews among its inhabitants. There were great numbers of them in the lands of the Tigris and Euphrates. Asia Minor was overrun by them. Alexandria in Egypt was divided into five districts or wards, two of which were occupied by the Jews. In the Nile Delta, it was estimated that there were more than a million Jews. Along the coast of North Africa they were everywhere at home. The towns and cities of Macedonia and Greece contained Jewish colonies. In Rome there were probably thirty thousand of them. The Jew was ubiquitous.

But in their wanderings and long residence in foreign lands they had undergone a most important change. If a paradox be allowed, they were not only Jews, they had also become Greeks, and consequently were neither Jews nor Greeks. They produced a new culture, a new civilization, composed of the best elements of Judaism and of Hellenism. The civilization of the Jews was in many respects very narrow and limited, but in others lofty and imposing. Its ideal was the knowledge and perfect observance of the law of God as contained in the Old Testament. It was monotheistic and intensely religious. The Greek civilization was far wider and more varied. It was great in science, literature, and art. Its type was not religious and moral, but intellectual and aesthetic. This new Hellenistic civilization was a union of the two. It got its religion from Judaism, its philosophy and its learning from the Greeks.

These Hellenistic Jews had no thought of becoming anything else than Jews. They were not sensible of any change. They did not feel that there was any difference between them and their brethren in Palestine. They kept up their connection with the Holy Land. Every year thousands of them made pilgrimages to Jerusalem, which still remained for them the holy city, the only place where they could acceptably offer sacrifice. They regularly sent their yearly contributions to the temple, and, whenever it was possible, they went in person to attend one of the yearly feasts. Besides this they took their law with them, and wherever they went, they met every Sabbath to study it. Wherever there were Jews, there was a synagogue. So by all these means they kept in touch with their brethren and the traditions of their fathers.

On the other hand, they lived among heathen, and were compelled to associate more or less intimately with them. They were brought into close daily contact with those who were their superiors in refinement and culture. The Jewish mind has always shown a good deal of alertness and receptivity. And it was impossible that they should remain insensible to all the beauties of the culture about them. Especially the fine speculations and teachings of the philosophers attracted them, for they seemed to be in harmony with their scriptures, and even, indeed, to express the same truths seen from a different point of view.

They held to the truth of their religion; they tried to keep the law, but it was impossible for them to remain Pharisees. They honored their father Abraham, and their lawgiver Moses. But they came into contact with people who had not Abraham for their father, and were ignorant of the law of Moses, and yet possessed much truth, were virtuous and upright, pursued noble ends, and lived blameless lives. A problem was thrust on them which they had to solve. Will these good people be excluded from the kingdom of God simply because they are not Jews ? Their good sense in the end gave them the answer. It led them to distinguish between the truth, and the form in which the truth was expressed. Not the letter of the law was the important thing, but the religious and moral truth which it taught. To be a son of Abraham was a good thing, but truly to fear and honor God was far better. To observe the Mosaic distinctions of clean and unclean was important, but the necessary thing was to preserve a clean heart and live a pure life. In other words, here was a liberal movement among the Jews in the Diaspora which was entirely different from the Phariseeism of Palestine, and it need hardly be added, much superior to it ; for it was a movement from the letter to the spirit, from the form to the content, from a religion of rites and ceremonies to a religion of the heart.

One of the most imposing things in Jewish literature is the unshaken confidence that they have the one true God, who will not tolerate the worship of anything else. They learned this with great difficulty, but they learned it well, and it has been to them a source of unlimited strength which centuries of persecution and oppression have not exhausted. While appreciating the good that existed among the heathen, they never ceased to abominate their idolatry. Their zeal for God led them to become missionaries to the heathen about them. We do not think of the Jews as a missionary people, but they have had a most interesting missionary period. For some centuries Judaism made earnest efforts to become a universal religion, to convert the world. But she was finally driven from the mission field by Christianity, which proved to be a too powerful rival ; and at the same time Judaism drew back from the freer movement and settled down into a rigid, legal orthodoxy. In other words, Phariseeism prevailed over Hellenism.

The Judaism of Palestine was never attractive to the heathen, and hence was not a good missionary religion. To the heathen, many things in it were laughable, others offensive. Their refusal to eat swine’s flesh Jed Juvenal to speak of Palestine as the land “ where the long practiced clemency allowed the hogs to reach a ripe old age.” They observed the Sabbath, it was said, because they were lazy and wished to shirk work. Since they had no statues in their temples or synagogues, they were charged with the foolishness of worshiping the clouds. Above all, the heathen were offended that the Jews assumed a superiority and refused to associate with them because they were levitically unclean. So for many reasons the Jews were despised and even hated.

It would seem, then, that the Jew could hope for little success in his missionary efforts. But it must be remembered that the Jews in the Diaspora were the real missionaries, and that they were already undergoing a radical change in their attitude to the ceremonial law. Consequently their desire to make converts led them to present only the most attractive features of Judaism to the consideration of their hearers. They took from the old Testament a few great ideas, the essentials of their religion, and laid all emphasis on these.

In the first place, they held strongly to the truth that there is but one God. They thereby introduced into the natural world, into history, and into religion, the principle of unity. The heathen thought of the world as the playground of malicious gods and spirits, which were lying in wait for an opportunity to play some mad prank in the realm of nature, cross the plans and purposes of some other god, or inflict an injury on some unsuspecting and helpless mortal. To the thoughtful heathen it was a great relief to learn that there is but one all-wise and powerful God, who has made and controls the universe.

And then, the lofty conception of God which they presented was attractive. He was so great and majestic, so high and spiritual, that it was an offense even to try to represent Him by anything material. No picture or statue was allowed ; such things could only hinder and not help the mind in its attempt to conceive of Him and his greatness.

They made much of the doctrine of rewards and punishments in a future state. This God, so just and...