Hi Jonathan and all,
Jonathan - very much agree with what you say about mainstream Judaism being
influenced by Hellenism - Christianity is the offspring of those two streams
coming together. But one query - when you spell out your three stages, you
say:
> The rabbis started forming
> "schools" of disciples while the temple was still standing.
> I assume that the striking similarity to the "Academies" set up across
> the sea were not coincidental. The Jews and the Greeks already knew each
> other well as trading partners and adversaries. Contrary to the
> impression given by the Gospels, the rabbis (Pharisees) were frequently
> at loggerheads with Sadducee officialdom.
>
> With the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, it was rabbinical
> Judaism that survived...
It might be worth untangling a little of the chronology here. My
understanding is that the main impetus behind the development of the
rabbinic schools was less a Greek influence (which mainly came after
Alexander the Great's conquests) than the exile in Babylon and the first
destruction of a temple in Jerusalem (up to and including 587BCE). That
temple was then rebuilt before being destroyed by the Romans in 70CE, which
left the Rabbinic schools carrying the torch.
Is that right, or am I labouring under false pretences? Seems to me that the
Jewish thinkers were independently engaged with all the changes of the
so-called "Axial age", they weren't passive followers of the Greeks.
Sam
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