Ch. II.] Manners of the Israelites. 171 Jews was so great after their return, that the prophets, in foretelling it, have left us the most magnificent types of the Messiah's reign. The Greeks began then to be acquainted with the Jews in Egypt and Syria, whither they often travelled: and they made great use of this correspondence, if we may believe the most antient Christian authors, as Justin Martyr, and Clemens of Alexandria; for they assure us, that the Greek poets, lawgivers, and philosophers, learnt the best part of their doctrine from the Jews. Indeed Solon travelled into Egypt, and the laws, that he gave to the Athenians, were very like those of Moses. Pythagoras had been long in Egypt, and went to Babylon in the time of Cambyses: he had therefore seen the Jews, and might have conversed with them. Plato studied many years in Egypt, and makes Socrates speak so many excellent things, founded upon the principles taught by Moses, that he may justly be supposed to have known something of them. The best things which Plato teaches in his laws and commonwealth, the Jews really practised; as living by one's own industry, without luxury, without ambition, without having it in our power to undo ourselves or grow too rich, esteeming justice the greatest of all blessings, and avoiding all novelty and change. In the persons of Moses, David, and Solomon, we discover examples of the wise man, whom he wished for to govern a state and make it happy, which he scarcely hoped would ever come to pass. He mentions certain traditions of venerable antiquity, in several places, without supporting them with any proof, relating to the judgment of mankind mankind after death, and the state of the other life, which are manifestly doctrines of the true religion.* If Plato and the other Greeks had not learnt these truths immediately from the Jews, they had them at least from other people of the east, who being nearer the origin of mankind, and having writings more antient than the Greeks, had preserved many more traditions of the first men, though obscured and involved in fables. CHAP. III. The State of the Jews under the Macedonians. THE conquests of Alexander made the Jews much better known to the Greeks, to whom they became subject. Josephus brings proofs of it from the testimony of Clearchus, a disciple of Aristotle, and Hecatæus the Abderite.† They continued to live according to their own laws, under the protection of the Macedonian kings, as they had done under the Persians but as their country lay betwixt Syria and Egypt, they sometimes obeyed the king of one of those nations, and sometimes the king of the other, as they were strongest: and they were well or ill usedby them according to the humour or interest of their kings, or the credit of their enemies. Alexander the Great, being convinced of their * Plato de Repub. vi. et x. in fihe. Joseph. cont. App. ii. 2. affection affection and fidelity, gave them the provincé of Samaria, and exempted it from tribute; and, when he built Alexandria, settled some Jews in it, granting them the same privileges as the other citizens, till at last they also were called Macedonians. Indeed, the first of the Ptolemy's, having taken Jerusalem by surprise, carried great numbers of the Jews captives into Egypt, who were spread as far as Cyrene. But afterwards, finding how religious they were, and faithful to their oaths, he put some of them into his garrisons, and treated them so well, that it drew many more into that country.† It is said, that his son Philadelphus redeemed all the Jews that were slaves in his dominions, and sent great presents to Jerusalem to procure that translation which he got made of their law.‡ They were also favoured by several kings of Syria. Seleucus Nicanor gave them the right of citizens in the cities which he built in Asia Minor, and Cœlo-Syria, and even in Antioch his capital, with privileges that they also enjoyed under the Romans.§ Antiochus the Great, having received signal services from the Jews, granted considerable favours and immunities to the city of Jerusalem; and to secure Lydia and Phrygia, which were not quite sound in their allegiance, he established colonies of Jews there, giving them lands to cultivate and build on. The first privilege that the Jews always asked *Joseph. Ant. xii. 1 et cont. App. 1. i. c. 2. Aristeus's Hist. of the Septuag. upon upon these occasions, was liberty to exercise their religion and observe their law. But as for the rest, they could not avoid learning many Grecian customs, as they had Chaldean and others, and particularly the Greek tongue, which was then become common throughout all the east, and continued so as long as the Roman empire lasted there. Thence it was that many took Greek names, as Aristobulus, Philon, Andreas, and Philippus; or Hebrew names disguised with Greek terminations, as Jason for Jesus, Simon for Simeon, Hierosolyma for Jerusalem. It was probably about this time that the Jews passed the seas and settled in Europe. For they that understood the Greek tongue, and had resided among that people in Asia, Syria, and Egypt, might easily live in any part of the Grecian empire, even in Macedonia and Achaia, according as they found it more convenient, or they enjoyed greater liberty. Thus St. Paul found great numbers of them in all the cities of Greece, when he went to preach the gospel there, about two hundred and fifty years after the time of Antiochus the Great. These Jews were half Greeks, which the eastern Jews called Hellenists; and they gave the Gentiles the name of Hellenes, which properly signifies Greeks; whence it comes, that, in St. Paul's Epistles, Greek and Gentile signify the same thing.t The Jews could not be so mixed with the Greeks without the latter, who were very cu *Rom. i. 16. ii, 10, &c. rious at that time, getting some knowledge of their religion and laws, especially after the translation of the sacred books. Their wise men and true philosophers held them in great esteem, as we may learn by what Strabo wrote about them long after.* All admired the magnificence of their temple, and exact order of their ceremonies. Agrippa himself, son-in-law of Augustus, was astonished at it. But most of the Greeks at that time, I mean in the reign of the Macedonians, were not capable of relishing the customs and maxims of the Jews. They were too grave for the people whom the Asiatic. luxury had made effeminate, and whose sole employment was in trifles.† There were indeed a great number of philosophers; but most of them contented themselves with only discoursing upon virtue, and exercising themselves in disputation. All the rest of the Greeks were possessed with curiosity, and a fondness for polite literature: some applied themselves to rhetoric, others to poetry and music. Painters, sculptors, and architects were in great repute. Others spent all their time in gymnastic exercises, to form their bodies and make them good wrestlers. Others studied geometry, astronomy, and natural philo sophy. There were every where virtuosi, connoisseurs, curious, and idle people of all sorts. The manners of the Romans were at that time. much more solid. They applied themselves *Strabo, lib. xvi. + Ut primum positis nugari Græcia bellis Hor. 1. ii. Ep. i. 93. Romæ dulce diu fuit et solenne reclusâ Hor. ibid. 103. to |