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60 Is Judaism the Religion of Moses?

Being under the persuasion of an all-encompassing Hellenistic culture, and with no real
teaching of the Law of Moses, even the most nationalistic Jew found himself of necessity practicing
many of the customs and habits of the Hellenistic Egyptians. There was little the people could do
about it under such environmental conditions. Hellenism was in all of Palestine, even in all the
known world. There was no way of escaping it. Instead of openly protesting against the new cul-
ture, the majority of Jews had to accept it, in one way or another.

It is valuable now to quote two scholars who are recognized among Jews and others alike as
pre-eminent historians, particularly for the period under discussion. Both of these men, Lauterbach
and Herford, were fully aware of the chaotic conditions which existed in the Egyptian period.

Lauterbach mentions: "During the seventy or eighty years of RELIGIOUS ANARCHY,
MANY NEW PRACTICES had been gradually adopted by the people" (Rabbinic Essays, p. 206).

Herford adds this: "In the absence of authoritative guidance, the people had gone their own
way; new customs had found a place amongst old religious usages ... new ideas had been formed
under the influence of Hellenism which had permeated the land for more than a century, and there
had been no one to point out the danger which thereby threatened the religious life of the people"
(Talmud and Apocrypha, pp. 64, 65).

There must have been a few Jews endeavoring, in a limited way, to observe the Sabbath and
perhaps the Sacred Festivals. But many of the Jews rejected the use of the Scripture and its teach-
ings. It is even certain that the unknown few who attempted to keep some semblance of God's Word
on their own, imbibed new customs "amongst old religious usages."

The people who had now been in contact with Greek culture ... ACQUIRED NEW IDEAS
AND BECAME FAMILIAR WITH NEW VIEWS OF LIFE, other than those which they
had been taught by their teachers in the name of the law of their fathers. The rich and influ-
ential classes accepted Greek ideas and followed Greek customs. The leaders of the people
were no longer guided by the laws of the fathers, nor was the life of the people controlled
solely by the laws and customs of the fathers as contained in the Torah" (Lauterbach, Rab-
binic Essays, p. 194).

Even Scattered Jews Affected

This condition of general religious anarchy among the Jews was not limited to Palestine.
The Hellenic culture had been spread WHEREVER THE JEWS LIVED -- throughout all of civi-
lized Asia and in many parts of Europe. It was especially thoroughly implanted in Egypt. Wher-
ever Jews were, they encountered Hellenism, its philosophies, ways of life and its religious customs
and beliefs. There was no way of escaping it!

New ideas and customs everywhere supplanted the ones they had been used to under the
Sopherim. The new luxuries and the extravagant habits of the Hellenists were attractive to the rich
and influential Jews and the acquiring of Hellenism's new manners for everyday living and public
communication became an economic necessity for the common Jews.

The Berean Voice July-August 2002