That America culturally is built upon the Judeo Christian ethic might be partly true, partly an amazing invention of total bullshit too. The greatest majority of what America is in reality derives from that other Hellenistic tradition that was already taking over in ancient Israel after the Macedonian Alexandrian conquests. The Hellenistic Jews were taking over, becoming the elite assimilating & spreading out into the empire until the violent fanatics (ancient Jewish Taliban) took over again in 150bc.
Organized sports competitions were always one of the great pursuits of the Greek polis in the Hellenized world after Alexander & before. People have this idea those ancient Hebrews were always some strict Moses/Bible followers when in fact there were 50% of the Jewish population in the cities were for more progressive change, much in favor of participation in the sports-games & Hellenized life. They built gymnasiums, theatres & believed in democratic civil discourse, sent teams of competitors to the Olympic Games , all this happened in right in Jerusalem.
(Try studying a little history sometime, you'll be glad you did, even the founder of Christianity Saul who later comes on the scene in Antioch & Corinth , is more likened to a Hellenized Jew, but he does a good job of disguising it )
Hellenistic Judaism
en.wikipedia.org
The conquests of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BCE spread Greek culture and colonization—a process of cultural change called Hellenization—over non-Greek lands, including the Levant. This gave rise to the Hellenistic age, which sought to create a common or universal culture in the Alexandrian empire based on that of 5th and 4th century BCE Athens (see also Age of Pericles), along with a fusion of Near Eastern cultures. [1] The period is characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization which established Greek cities and Kingdoms in Asia and Africa, [2] the most famous being Alexandria in Egypt. New cities were established composed of colonists who came from different parts of the Greek world, and not from a specific "mother city" (literally metropolis) as before
. [2] Jewish life in both Palestine and the diasapora was influenced by the culture and language of Hellenism, and in Palestine relations deteriorated between Hellenized Jews and traditionalists. For reasons not fully understood, the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes banned key Jewish religious rites and traditions in Palestine, causing traditionalists to revolt against the Greek ruler. Out of this revolt was formed an independent Jewish kingdom known as the Hasmonaean Dynasty, which lasted from 165 BCE to 63 BCE. The Hasmonean Dynasty eventually disintegrated in a civil war. The people, who did not want to continue to be governed by a Hellenized dynasty, appealed to Rome for intervention. The Romans conquered and annexed the country, calling it Iudaea province.
The cultural issues remained unresolved. The main issue separating the Hellenistic and orthodox Jews was the application of biblical laws in a Hellenistic culture. [3]
InfluenceThe major literary product of the contact of Judaism and Hellenistic culture is the Septuagint, as well as the so-called apocrypha and pseudepigraphic apocalyptic literature (such as the Assumption of Moses, the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, the Book of Baruch, the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch, etc.) dating to the period. Important sources are Philo of Alexandria and Flavius Josephus. Some scholars [4] consider Paul of Tarsus to be a Hellenist as well, even though he himself claimed to be a Pharisee (Acts 23:6).
Philo of Alexandria was an important apologete of Judaism, presenting it as a tradition of venerable antiquity that, far from being a barbarian cult of an oriental nomadic tribe, with its doctrine of monotheism had anticipated tenets of Hellenistic philosophy. Philo could draw on Jewish tradition to use customs which Greeks thought as primitive or exotic as the basis for metaphors: such as " circumcision of the heart" in the pursuit of virtue. [5] Consequently, Hellenistic Judaism emphasized monotheistic doctrine (heis theos), and represented reason ( logos) and wisdom ( sophia) as emanations from God.
Beyond Tarsus, Alexandretta, Antioch and Northwestern Syria (the main "Cilician and Asiatic" centers of Hellenistic Judaism in the Levant), the second half of the Second Temple period witnessed an acceleration of Hellenization in Israel itself, with Jewish high priests and aristocrats alike adopting Greek names:
“‘Honi’ became ‘Menelaus’; ‘Joshua’ became ‘Jason’ or ‘Jesus.’ The Hellenic influence pervaded everything, and even in the very strongholds of Judaism it modified the organization of the state, the laws, and public affairs, art, science, and industry, affecting even the ordinary things of life and the common associations of the people […] The inscription forbidding strangers to advance beyond a certain point in the Temple was in Greek; and was probably made necessary by the presence of numerous Jews from Greek-speaking countries at the time of the festivals (comp. the "murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, " Acts vi. 1). The coffers in the Temple which contained the shekel contributions were marked with Greek letters (She?. iii. 2). It is therefore no wonder that there were synagogues of the Libertines, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, Cilicians, and Asiatics in the Holy City itself ( Acts vi. 9). ” [6] |
