A brief survey of Palestine covering the three hundred year-period prior to the arrival of the Gospels.
Alexander and the Diadochi
The origins of Hellenism in Palestine commenced when the region was captured by Alexander the Great in the summer of 332BC, following the Battle of Issus a year prior.
To Alexander, Palestine served as a direct corridor into Egypt through Gaza. The subjugation of the Phoenician coast would thwart any base for Persian fleets to attack him in his rear, whilst he continued towards Persia. After conquering Palestine, Alexander allowed the high Jewish priests to remain the religious head of the region, with concurrence of a council of elders.
At the palace of Nebuchadnezzar in Babylonia, Alexander died in the summer of 323 BC, aged thirty-two. As to the question of his successor, 'He who is worthy', threw the contention up in the air. The Diadochi (the successors) proved unable to maintain unity. Ernest Grombrich surmised 'the generals and princes in his entourage were greedy, dissolute and dishonest.'[1] Alexander’s Empire, stretching from Macedonia to India, fragmented into warring regions, fought over by his generals. That same year, Palestine, with Syria and Phoenicia, came under the rule of Soter Ptolemy I, who entitled himself provincial governor (satrap).
Almost twenty years later, in 304 BC, Ptolemy crowned himself King of Egypt, beginning the long reign of Egypt by the Ptolemaic Dynasty.
The Battle of Ipsus
Twenty two years on from the death of Alexander, in 301 BC, during the Fourth War of the Diadochi, at the Battle of Ipsus in Phrygia, ancient Anatolia, Alexander’s successors fought in a major battle. The surviving text of Diodorus Siculus' Bibliotheca historica accounts in fragments of book XXI about how Alexander's former generals Lysimachus and Cassander allied with Seleucus and Ptolomy, to overthrow Antigonus, and his son Demetrius.
Antigonus had fallen short of the mark attempting to restore the entire fragmented Empire under his rule, despite his son Demetrius capturing Athens and much of southern Greece.
It was at this Battle of Ipsus that the allies of Selecucus’ decisively defeated Antigonus, due to their superior numbers and the strength of Selecucus' four hundred battle animals, including Elephants.
Ptolemy did not participate in the battle, despite invading Syria to weaken Antigonus, he received false news of Antigonus victory, and returned back to Egpyt.
In the aftermath of this battle, the former territory of Antigonus, Syria and Anatolia, was split up among the victors Cassander (of Cilicia and Lycia), Lysimachus (western Anatolia) and Seleucus, who was granted Syria. However, Seleucus was infuriated to discover that Coele in southern Syria had been occupied by Ptolemy, who refused to renounce the region.
The fallout prompted Seleucus to fortify northern Syria. If it was not for his lack of finances, Seleucus planned to attack the south of Syria occupied by Ptolomy. However, as a result of this tension, many years of war broke out between the dynasties of Ptolemy and Seleucus, otherwise known as the Syrian Wars.
The Wars of Ptolemy and Seleucus
During the Syrian Wars, Palestine was occupied and reoccupied between the houses of Seleucus and Ptolemy five times. This was a major cause for the lack of stability and order, preventing Hellenism flourishing during this early period. Another important result from the need for stability in the region enhanced the local autonomy and significance of the Jewish high Priest.
The Zenon Papyri is a collection of surviving documents detailing activities of taxation. The documents of Zenon, the chief financial minister to Ptolemy Philadelphus II, provides information between the period of 283 to 246BC. One of the accounts details a journey Zenon undertook to Palestine and Syria in 259BC for commercial interests: the extolling of materials such as cereals, oils and wine. Alongside these were the trade of slaves and trafficking of young female prostitutes to Egypt.
A dispute between the High Priest Onias 11 and Ptolemy II arose in regards to tax farming (the right to collect taxes was auctioned to elites). On top of this, there were extra taxes enforced by the edicts from Egypt. What resulted was the appointment in 242 BC of Joseph, son of Tobiah (nephew of the high priest) as tax collector for the region. However, rivalries and feuds escalated in the following decades, which caused political friction and the subsequent radical fractions between the Hellenization of Judea, and the Jewish communities. However, Greek rule had transformed much of the Palestinian upper-class in the habits of Hellenistic custom.
Jeudeo-Hellenistic Integration?
From these documents, we know Palestine was taunted by Seleucid and Bedouin attacks, requiring Ptolemaic military units to police Palestine. It was by these cleruchies, or military colonies, that Palestine was divided into the Hellenized cities, mostly along the coast, such as Ascalon (Ashqelon) and Joppa (Yafo, Tel Aviv), with the isolated pockets of Jewish communities living in the komai, small surrounding villages.
The Hellenistic cities of Palestine were managed by an extensive bureaucracy and taxation system, established to resource the region in economic trade. Ptolemaic soldiers were encouraged to settle in the area by marrying Palestinian women, granted houses and plots of land, nurturing inter-cultural associations.
The discovery of Hellenized military tombs at Marsia (Edom) from Sidonian settlers are decorated with frescoes of hunting scenes, suggest the symbolic mark of assimilation between Hellenistic and Jewish civilizations.
References
[1] Eine kurze Weltgeschichte fur junge Leser, E.H Grombrich, translated into A Little History of the World, by Caroline Mustill (London, Yale University Press, 2003) p.69
Bibliography
Diodorus of Sicily (Bibliotheca historica) translated by Charles Lawton Sherman, Charles Bradford Welles, Russel Mortimer Geer, Francis R. Walton (London, Harvard University Press, 1933)
https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Ipsos: accessed 3rd May 2022
Plutarch's Lives, with an English Translation, from Bernadotte Perrin (London, William Heinemann, MCMXIV)
Zenon Papyri, Publications de la Societe Fouad I De Papyrologie, C.C Edgar, 1941
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