228 HELLENISTIC JUDAISM

V

JEWISH PBOPAGANDA *; ITS CAUSES

Philo asserts 2 that the Bible was translated into Greek
with the aim of propaganda, and, indeed, it is not impossible
that this motive was present in the minds of the authors of the
Septuagint.3 Be this as it may, however, there can be no
doubt that Hellenistic Judaism was thoroughly imbued with
the missionary spirit.

Indeed, this was not altogether a new thing. There are
passages in the Old Testament 4 which speak of " spreading
righteousness among the nations " and even "among the peoples
afar off," whilst there are others which give encouragement to
"the stranger who cleaves unto Jahvueh" so that he shall not
say, " Jahweh will separate me from His people" 5 The
Maccabsean leaders, John Hyrcanus, Aristobulus and Alex-
ander Jannseus, in waging their wars, paid as much attention
to propaganda as to conquest. For them, at least, the two
went together.6 The Pharisees of the time of Jesus were dis-
tinguished, according to Matthew xxiii. 15, by the zeal with
which they sought proselytes. Nevertheless, it would appear
that there were two tendencies in Israel, as regards missionary
propaganda7: the one favoured missions to the Gentiles and
proselytism, while the other was hostile to them. The more
generous attitude towards proselytes was certainly not the
more widespread, and as a rule the Palestinians regarded con-
verts as Jews of second rank. In the Diaspora, however, the
movement assumed quite a different complexion, both in the
eyes of the Jews and of the Gentiles.

In freeing themselves from the shackles of a narrow nation-
alism, the Jews arrived at the idea that they had received from
God the deposit of divine truth and that it was their mission to
propagate it. Each of them became, according to his means,
" an agent for monotheism and the Last Judgment." 8 They no
longer offered to the Gentiles an exclusive and unfriendly

1 Bibliography in XLVII, i, 253, n. 10 ; LXXV, iii, 150-88 (102-25,
3rd edit.); CCCXXIX, 628 ; CCLXVTI, v, n. viii, 74-96 (by Kirsopp Lake).

2 Vita Mosis, 2. 3 XLVH, i, 253 ff.
* Isa. xlii. 1-4; xlix. 1-6. 5 Isa. IvL 3.

6 XLVII, i, 253, n. 11, where references are given.

7 Israel Levy, in REJ, 1905, 28 ff. ; tf. CCLXV, 30, n. 1.

8 LXXI, v, 441.—On the evolution of the Gottes-Idee, as an instrument
of propaganda, cf. LXXV, iii, '114 ; " The one and only God, Lord of
heaven and earth, cannot he the God and Father of but one people,
preferring it to all others."