Impact of Judaism on Greek Society

Impact of Judaism on Greek Philosophy

Introduction

The first evidence of the presence of Jews in Greece is an inscription found in Oropos, Attica , near the city of Athens , referring to a character named Moschionos Moschos, dating from the 1st half of the third century BCE

By the year 85 BCE Strabo attests to the existence of Jewish communities in every city in the eastern Mediterranean. In the work of Philo the existence of communities mentioned in Sparta , Delos , Sikion, Samos , Kos , Crete , Thessaly , Voiotia, Macedonia , Aetolia , Attica , Argos , Corinth and Cyprus.In the first century, the apostle Paul speaks of flourishing communities in Philippi, Thessalonica, Veria, Athens and Corinth.

Greece disintegrated the Roman Empire in 146 CE Jews living in Roman Greece had a different way of life of those living in the province of Judea.The New Testament Greek describes Jews as separate from the Jews of Judea and the first did not participate in the First Jewish-Roman War or post-conflict community. The Jews of Thessaloniki Become Sound a new Jewish settlement in the first century with a different from the others with a wide autonomy Roman language.

Saul of Tarsus, better known as Paul, was a Jewish persecutor of Christians of earlier times. Tarsus belonged years ago, the Seleucid Empire , founded after the death of Alexander the Great and home to a large Jewish community. Paul was instrumental in the founding of many Christian congregations in Greece highlighting his missionary journeys in which he visited Greek cities like Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth.

Discussion

The Jews in Greece have their roots in the distant past. The destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 A.D. was the catalyst for the Jewish Diaspora that initiated the dispersal of Jews from Israel to the far corners of the then-known world. Many Jews fled to Europe and established communities throughout the continent. One such community of Diaspora Jews, later to be known as Sephardi, Sephardic, or simply as “Spanish Jews,” established themselves in southwestern Europe, mainly on the Iberian Peninsula where Jews familiar with Greek and Roman culture are believed to have since the 1st century A.D. .

The relatively small Jewish population in Iberia greatly expanded after 70 A.D. as a result of the migration of large numbers of Jews from Israel and combined with the Jews already living there into one large community that made its home in for almost 1,400 years before being compelled to leave their adopted homeland in the late 15th century after the Spanish, under Isabella and Ferdinand, finally defeated the Moors. The members of this now twice-exiled community settled in many places. However, the majority were welcomed into the lands of then vast and powerful Ottoman Empire, where they primarily settled in the capital at Istanbul, the former Constantinople, and the port city of Thessaloniki in northern Greece.

Jewish Culture of Greece

Most Jews today installed in Greece are Sephardim, ...