The Greeks and the Jews (religious, civilization)

[verybadgnome]

This may seem like an odd question but were the well-known Greek Philosophers aware of and versed in what the Hebrew Prophets were preaching not so far away? I could see the language barrier not allowing any type of interaction between the two cultures. Still I would think any cross pollination of ideas would of had a big impact on the development of Western Civilization. Since there are hints of monotheism in Greek philosophy I do wonder if this was not due to some outside influence. Any ideas?

[Fred314X]

It probably isn't surprising, because most of the prophets lived well before the Golden Age of Greek philosophy. If they were well versed in other literatures, the Greek philosophers could easily have read some of the Prophetic writings.

[ovcatto]

Originally Posted by verybadgnome

This may seem like an odd question but were the well-known Greek Philosophers aware of and versed in what the Hebrew Prophets were preaching not so far away?

Alexander the Great conquered Judea in 334 B.C.E. and occupied the region for another 137 years until they were replaced by Rome, so being versed in the theology of the Jews would be a very natural occurrence and vice se versa.

Originally Posted by Fred314X

It probably isn't surprising, because most of the prophets lived well before the Golden Age of Greek philosophy. If they were well versed in other literatures, the Greek philosophers could easily have read some of the Prophetic writings.

?!? Plato, c. 428–427 BC so which prophets are you referring to because there he would have been a contemporary of Jeremiah!

[verybadgnome]

Originally Posted by Fred314X

It probably isn't surprising, because most of the prophets lived well before the Golden Age of Greek philosophy. If they were well versed in other literatures, the Greek philosophers could easily have read some of the Prophetic writings.

So you're saying that some of the Greeks could read Hebrew? That begs the question could the Jews of that time understood any of the Greek literature.

[count markovalley]

Originally Posted by verybadgnome

This may seem like an odd question but were the well-known Greek Philosophers aware of and versed in what the Hebrew Prophets were preaching not so far away? I could see the language barrier not allowing any type of interaction between the two cultures. Still I would think any cross pollination of ideas would of had a big impact on the development of Western Civilization. Since there are hints of monotheism in Greek philosophy I do wonder if this was not due to some outside influence. Any ideas?

In the year 582 A.D. the Very Christian Emporer Justinian closed the last of the ancient schools of philosophy.

The early church could not make the early religious and ethical imperatives found in the N.T. stick such as ; love everyone, give everything away , offer the otherside of the face to anyone who wants to slug you and so on.

And so the church had to quickly find the only reasonable set of ethics and moral behavior available to it at the time: namely the stoicism and those of the school of neoplatonism. and the morality as taught in the academy of aristotle.

This may answer your question as to how the christian church adapted the ancient of philosophy to its advantage.

[macnietspingal]

There were two periods when it all happened as far as I know. Both continue until today. It becomes interactive over the centuries.
I found this very nice summary for the earlier period. I think of 70CE this way myself, the Western World was by then as Josephus says "Antony, Cleopatra, Arab and Jew".
HELLENISM - JewishEncyclopedia.com

And the Golden Age of Islam and Moses Ben Maimon
MOSES BEN MAIMON - JewishEncyclopedia.com

[MelismaticEchoes]

There are plenty of Greek Jews

[Pruzhany]

Originally Posted by MelismaticEchoes

There are plenty of Greek Jews

What does the current 8000ish Jews living there now have to do with historical Greece?

History of the Jews in Greece - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia