<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2>LESSON V</h2>
<h3>THE JEWISH BACKGROUND OF CHRISTIANITY</h3>
<h4>II. THE JUDAISM OF THE DISPERSION</h4>
<p>The presentation of the lesson in class may be begun somewhat
in the manner suggested in the Student's Text Book. The student
should be made to appreciate the practical problem of a missionary
in a new city. Various solutions of the problem may be adopted.
The missionary may simply engage in conversation with individuals
in the street, or he may hire a room and advertise his preaching.
In any case the securing of an audience is usually no easy matter.
It is difficult to know how to begin.</p>
<p>The case might naturally have been the same with Paul and his
companions when, for example, after the journey up from Perga
they arrived at Pisidian Antioch. Complete strangers were
perhaps not much better received in those days than they are now.
How could the missionaries get a hearing for their message? In
some cases, they might simply take their stand in the market place
and talk to the passers-by. Paul tried that method in Athens.
It might do when nothing better offered. But fortunately there
was usually a far better opportunity. The synagogue offered an
audience. What is more, it offered just exactly the most promising
audience that could possibly have been secured.</p>
<p>The scene in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch is typical of
what happened again and again. The student should be made
to appreciate the remarkable liberality and informality of the
synagogue customs. There seem to have been no set preachers.
Any Jew who really had a message could be heard. He needed
only to go in and sit down. Acts 13:14. Paul and Barnabas
had no difficulty in making their fitness known. "Brethren," said
the rulers of the synagogue, "if ye have any word of exhortation
for the people, say on." Acts 13:15. They had a word of exhortation
indeed. "Jesus is the Messiah for whom you are waiting.
He has died for your sins. He has risen from the dead, and is
now alive to save you." It was a powerful word, and it bore fruit.</p>
<p>The native Jews, it is true, soon came out in opposition. The<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</SPAN></span>
reasons for their opposition are not far to seek. Jealousy was an
important factor. Christianity was evidently too radical a thing
to be simply a sect of Judaism. If allowed to continue, it would
destroy the prerogatives of Israel. It could not be controlled.
Its success was too great. On that next Sabbath in Pisidian
Antioch, "almost the whole city was gathered together to hear
the word of God." The Jewish mission had never had a success
like that. "When the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled
with jealousy." Christianity had taken away the heritage of
Israel.</p>
<p>In one way the Jewish opposition displayed genuine insight into
the situation. Christianity was really destined to be a fatal rival
to the older Judaism. What took place on a small scale at Antioch
was repeated on the larger stage of history. When the Christian
mission began, Judaism was a successful missionary religion. Soon
afterwards it had withdrawn hopelessly into its age-long isolation.
Various causes contributed to this result. The destruction of the
national life in Palestine and the increasing influence of the strict
rabbinical schools both had an important part. But at least one
factor in the process was the competition of the Christian Church.
Christianity offered the world everything that Judaism could offer,
and more. It offered the knowledge of the one God, and the lofty
morality, and the authoritative Book. In addition, it offered a
way of redemption—and the men of that time were preëminently
seekers after redemption—through the sacrifice of Christ. It
offered all these things, moreover, without requiring any relinquishment
of purely national characteristics. Christianity did not demand
union with any one race. It had a gospel for the world.</p>
<p>No wonder, then, that those who had been attracted by Judaism
now became adherents of Christianity. The Jews were filled with
envy. It was natural from their point of view, but it was a sad
mistake. Had they themselves accepted the gospel, the gospel
would have been to their glory. How glorious was the mission of
Israel! A blessing to the whole world! Far better than any
narrow particularism! But they were not willing to accept the
message. Nevertheless, despite their opposition, the Church
should not forget the debt which she owes to Israel. The dispersion
was like the Judaism of Palestine. In both cases the men themselves
were opposed to the gospel. But in both cases they had preserved
the deposit of divine truth. Judaism, despite itself, opened the
way for the Christian Church.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>One service which the dispersion rendered to Christianity has
been illustrated by the scene at Pisidian Antioch. That service
was the providing of an audience. Another service was the assurance
of legal protection. This may be illustrated by another
incident in The Acts—the appeal to Gallio. Acts 18:12-17.
There the opposition of the Jews appears in all its bitterness. No
doubt that opposition was a serious hindrance to the work of the
Church. Just because Christianity was regarded as a Jewish sect,
the Christians were subject to persecution by the Jewish authorities.
But persecutions by the Jews, annoying though they were, were
far less serious than opposition on the part of the Roman authorities.
And the latter was, at first, conspicuously absent. Gallio's decision
is a fair example of the general attitude of the Roman
magistrates. Christianity, as a Jewish sect, was allowed to go its
way. Judaism, despite itself, afforded the Church legal protection.</p>
<p>Beginning with these two striking scenes, the teacher may
proceed to the more general presentation of the lesson. In what
follows, the outline of the Student's Text Book will be supplemented
at one or two points.</p>
<h4>1. THE CAUSES AND EXTENT OF THE DISPERSION</h4>
<p>Deportations of Jews to foreign countries took place at various
times. The most famous of those deportations was carried out
by Nebuchadnezzar after his conquest of Judah, about 600 B. C.
Many of Nebuchadnezzar's captives did not join in the return under
the Persian monarchy, but remained permanently in the east and
formed the nucleus of the large Jewish population of Mesopotamia.
When Pompey conquered Palestine in the first century before
Christ, he carried many Jews as slaves to Rome. Afterwards they
were liberated, and formed a large Jewish colony at the capital of
the empire. These are merely examples. Part of the dispersion
was due to forcible exile.</p>
<p>Other causes have been mentioned in the Student's Text Book.
It is a question, however, whether all of these causes combined are
sufficient to account for the extraordinary growth of the dispersion.
Schürer believes that the vastness of the Jewish population presupposes
the merging of large bodies of proselytes into the Jewish
people. He also believes, however, that these thoroughgoing conversions
were less numerous in New Testament times than they
had been before.</p>
<p>Harnack calculates that at the time of the death of Augustus<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</SPAN></span>
there were from four million to four and a half million Jews in
the Roman Empire, including about seven hundred thousand in
Palestine, and that, if that estimate be correct, then the Jews
formed perhaps some seven per cent of the total population. Of
course, Harnack is himself the first to admit that such calculations
are exceedingly uncertain. But so much at least is clear—the
Jews in the first century were surprisingly numerous.</p>
<h4>2. THE SEPTUAGINT TRANSLATION AND THE LANGUAGE OF
THE NEW TESTAMENT</h4>
<p>The name "Septuagint," derived from the Latin word for
"seventy," has been applied to the Alexandrian translation of the
Old Testament in reference to an ancient story about its origin.
According to this story, the translation was made by seventy-two
men summoned from Jerusalem by Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of
Egypt, in order to add the Jewish law to the royal library at Alexandria.
The story is certainly not true in details, and is probably
not even correct in representing the translation as destined primarily
for the royal library. More probably the translation was intended
for the Greek-speaking Jews of Egypt.</p>
<p>The Septuagint is a translation of the Hebrew Old Testament
into the Greek world language of the period, and into the popular,
spoken form of that language, not into the literary form. The
translation differs widely in character in the different books, for
many different translators had a part in it. Some of the books are
translated with such slavish literalness as to be almost unintelligible
to a Greek. Everywhere, indeed, the influence of the Hebrew
original makes itself felt to some degree. Hebrew idioms are often
copied in the translation instead of being remolded according to the
peculiarities of the Greek language.</p>
<p>The Septuagint exerted an important influence upon the language
of the New Testament. The Septuagint was the Greek Bible of
the New Testament writers, and the influence of a Bible upon
language is very strong. A good example is afforded by the influence
of the King James Version upon the whole development of modern
English. It is not surprising, therefore, that as the Septuagint
was influenced by Hebrew, so the language of the New Testament
also displays a Semitic coloring. That coloring was induced partly
by the Septuagint, but it was also induced in other ways. Part of
the New Testament, for example the words of Jesus, goes back
ultimately to an Aramaic original. All the New Testament<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</SPAN></span>
writers except one were Jews, and had spoken Aramaic as well as
Greek. No wonder, then, that their Greek was influenced by the
Semitic languages. This Semitic influence upon the language of
the New Testament is not so great as was formerly supposed, but
it cannot be ignored. The New Testament is written in the natural,
non-literary form of the Greek world language. That is the main
thing to be said. But upon this base is superposed an appreciable
influence of Hebrew and Aramaic.</p>
<p>The importance of the Septuagint for the early Christian mission
was inestimable. Every pioneer missionary knows how difficult
it is to create the vocabulary necessary to express new religious
ideas. In the case of the earliest Christian mission, that labor had
already been done. It had been done by the Jews of Alexandria.
By the Septuagint, the great ideas of the Old Testament—and
upon these ideas Christianity was based—had already been put
into a Greek form. The Christian Church needed only to develop
what had been begun. The Church made good use of her opportunity.
The influence of the Septuagint upon the religious vocabulary
of the New Testament writers was profound. The Septuagint had
provided a vocabulary which was understood already by great
masses of people—by the Jews of the dispersion and by the hosts
of the "God-worshipers" who attended the synagogues. Naturally
the Christian missionaries used the words which people could
understand.</p>
<h4>3. CONCLUSION</h4>
<p>The Judaism of the dispersion was a wonderful preparation for
the gospel. Israel ought to be regarded with gratitude and sympathy.
But the ultimate object of gratitude is God.</p>
<p>The Church was founded in a time of opportunity. The Roman
Government had brought peace. The Greek language had welded
the nations together. The dispersion of the Jews had prepared the
way. These things did not come by chance. The nations were instruments
in the hand of God. But instruments for what? A
mighty, age-long plan! Centuries of preparation! At last the
Saviour came. But did he come for naught? Or is he Saviour
of you and me?</p>
<hr class="tb" />
<p><span class="smcap">In the Library.</span>—Edersheim (revised by White), "History of the
Jewish Nation," pp. 45-79. "The Jewish Encyclopedia": Reinach,
article on "Diaspora." Hastings, "Dictionary of the Bible": Schürer,
article on "Diaspora," extra volume, pp. 91-109.</p>
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