HELLENIZATION
Helen of Troy: Greek Legend. The beautiful wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta; the Trojan War was started because of her abduction by Paris to Troy.
Hellen: The legendary ancestor of the Hellenes, a son of Deucalion and Pyrrha.
Hellene: A Greek.
Hellenic: (1) of the Hellenes; Greek. (2) of the history, language, or culture of the ancient Greeks; specifically, from the late 8th century B.C. to the death of Alexander the Great (323 B.C.).
Hellenism: (1) a Greek phrase, idiom, or custom. (2) the character, thought, culture, or ethical system of ancient Greece. (3) adoption of the Greek language, culture, customs, etc.
Hellenist: (1) a non-Greek, especially a Jew of the Diaspora, who adopted the Greek language, customs, etc. (2) a specialist or expert in the Greek language and learning. (3) any of the Byzantine Greeks of the 15th century who helped revive classical learning in Europe.
Hellenistic: (1) of or characteristic of Hellenists or Hellenism. (2) of Greek history, language, and culture after the death of Alexander the Great (323 B.C.).
Hellenize: to make or become Greek, or Hellenistic, as in customs, ideals, form, or language.
I have stated before that Jesus was a Hellenized Jew. Of this there is no doubt, no debate. This is why Jesus went up against the Pharisees, the forerunners to today's rabbinical Judaism.
I believe that Hellenization was part of God's plan for the Jewish people. If this was not the case, Jesus would not have the stature that He did. Of course there are always going to be those who disagree, but as we continue our discussion on the type of Jew that Jesus was, the people who surrounded Him, who supported Him and those who opposed Him and eventually crucified Him, we will see that Hellenic Judaism was not for the everyday person on the street. It involved mysteries that to this day, are not reflected properly in organized Christianity, if at all.
"The lips of the wise disperse knowledge,
But the heart of the fool does not do so."
(Proverbs 15:7)
Let's jump back a bit in time and talk about the Septuagint. The Jews were forced to relocate from Jerusalem to Babylon, which is described in the Book of Jeremiah the Prophet in the Old Testament, but this was part of a much larger and long-term migration out of Palestine. This is referred to the dispersion, or diaspora, in Greek. Even though the Bible says that this scattering was God's punishment upon His chosen people for repeated disobedience and going back on their covenant with Him, the dispersion proved to be an important sociological development that made the rapid spread of the gospel of the New Testament possible in the first century A.D. So all along, we can see that even though man can affect the chain of events in the microcosm, or the immediate world, he cannot change the macrocosm, or God's ultimate plan for humanity.
Quoted commentary from "The Word in Life Study Bible" at Jeremiah 52:28-30:
"Beginning with Abraham, the Hebrews regarded Canaan was their God-given homeland. Yet none of them was ever compelled to live there for his entire life. During periods of economic hardship or political upheaval, many chose to leave and begin a new life in another country. In addition, some undoubtedly resettled for business reasons.
"But widespread dispersion of the Jews began as a result of forced relocation and captivity. The most significant events of this sort were the fall of Israel to the Assyrians (722 B.C.) and of Judah to the Babylonians (599-587 B.C.). Captives from the northern kingdom, numbered by the Assyrians at about 27,270, were taken to Mesopotamia, where they were apparently absorbed into their foreign surroundings. Meanwhile, their homeland was repopulated with outsiders (2 Kings 17:24)."
"As for the exiles of Judah, Scripture says that 4,600 captives were relocated to Babylon during three deportations (Jer. 52:28-30). It could be that this number includes only the prominent families. It probably does not include family members and servants, so the total number of deportees is believed to have been much higher. Of those exiles, 42,360 returned in Ezra's time, but the majority probably chose to remain in Babylon.
"These sojourners retained their distinctive Jewish identity and religious practices, establishing a community that flourished into the Middle Ages. Over time, its rabbis produced the Babylonian Talmud (Author's Note: The Talmud is also referred to as the Oral Law), a massive work which formed the basis for the laws and faith of Judaism."
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Please click here for Hellenization, Part 2