Circle chart of values in the theory of basic human values
The theory of basic human values is a theory of cross-cultural psychology and universal values that was developed by Shalom H. Schwartz. The theory extends previous cross-cultural communication frameworks such as Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory.
Schwartz identifies ten basic human values, each distinguished by their
underlying motivation or goal, and he explains how people in all
cultures recognize them. There are two major methods for measuring these
ten basic values: the Schwartz Value Survey and the Portrait Values Questionnaire.
A particular value can conflict or align with other values, and
these dynamic relationships are typically illustrated using a circular
graphic in which opposite poles indicate conflicting values.
In a 2012 article, Schwartz and colleagues refined the theory of
basic values with an extended set of 19 individual values that serve as
"guiding principles in the life of a person or group".
Motivational types of values
The
theory of basic human values recognizes eleven universal values, which
can be organized in four higher-order groups. Each of the eleven
universal values has a central goal that is the underlying motivator.
Openness to change
Self-direction – independent thought and action—choosing, creating, exploring
Stimulation – excitement, novelty and challenge in life
Self-enhancement
Hedonism – pleasure or sensuous gratification for oneself
Achievement – personal success through demonstrating competence according to social standards
Power – social status and prestige, control or dominance over people and resources
Conservation
Security – safety, harmony, and stability of society, of relationships, and of self
Conformity – restraint of actions, inclinations, and impulses likely to upset or harm others and violate social expectations or norms
Tradition – respect, commitment, and acceptance of the customs and ideas that one's culture or religion provides
Self-transcendence
Benevolence – preserving and enhancing the welfare of those with whom one is in frequent personal contact (the 'in-group')
Universalism – understanding, appreciation, tolerance, and protection for the welfare of all people and for nature
Other
Spirituality was considered as an additional eleventh value, however, it was found that it did not exist in all cultures.
The structure of value relations
In
addition to identifying the ten basic values, the theory also explains
how these ten values are interconnected and influence each other, since
the pursuit of any of the values results in either an accordance with
one another (conformity and security) or a conflict with at least one
other value (benevolence and power). Tradition and conformity share
particularly similar motivational goals and consequently are
consolidated in the same wedge. Values can lightly or more strongly
oppose each other, which has led to the organization of the values in a
circular structure along two bipolar dimensions. The first dimension is openness to change versus conservation, which contrasts independence and obedience. The second bipolar dimension is self-enhancement versus self-transcendence and is concerned on the one side with the interests of one-self and on the other side of the welfare of others.
Although the theory distinguishes ten values, the borders between
the motivators are artificial and one value flows into the next, which
can be seen by the following shared motivational emphases:
Power and Achievement – social superiority and esteem
Achievement and Hedonism – self-centered satisfaction
Hedonism and Stimulation – a desire for affectively pleasant arousal
Stimulation and Self-direction – intrinsic interest in novelty and mastery
Self-direction and Universalism – reliance upon one's own judgement and comfort with the diversity of existence
Universalism and Benevolence – enhancement of others and transcendence of selfish interests
Benevolence and Tradition – devotion to one's in-group
Benevolence and Conformity – normative behaviour that promotes close relationships
Conformity and Tradition – subordination of self in favour of socially imposed expectations
Tradition and Security – preserving existing social arrangements that give certainty to life
Conformity and Security – protection of order and harmony in relations
Security and Power – avoiding or overcoming threats by controlling relationships and resources
Furthermore, people are still able to follow opposing values through
acting differently in different settings or at different times. The
structure of Schwartz's 10-value type model (see graph above) has been
supported across over 80 countries, gender,
various methods such as importance ratings of values (using the surveys
listed below), direct similarity judgment tasks, pile sorting, and
spatial arrangement, and even for how the values of other people, such as family members, are perceived.
Measurement methods
Several
models have been developed to measure the basic values to ensure that
the values theory is valid independent of the methodology employed. The
main differentiator between the Schwartz Value Survey and the Portrait
Values Questionnaire is that the former is explicit, while the latter is
implicit.
Schwartz Value Survey
The
Schwartz Value Survey (SVS) reports values of participants explicitly,
by asking them to conduct a self-assessment. The survey entails 57
questions with two lists of value items. The first list consist of 30
nouns, while the second list contains 26 or 27 items in an adjective
form. Each item is followed by a brief description for clarification.
Out of the 57 questions 45 are used to compute the 10 different value
types, of which the number of items to measure a certain value varies
according to the conceptual breath. The remaining 12 items are used to
allow better standardisation in calculation of an individual's value.
The importance of each of value item is measured on a non-symmetrical
scale in order to encourage the respondents to think about each of the
questions.
7 (supreme importance)
6 (very important)
5, 4 (unlabelled)
3 (important)
2, 1 (unlabelled)
0 (not important)
−1 (opposed to my values)
The survey has been conducted so far on more than 60,000 individuals in 64 nations.
Portrait Values Questionnaire
The
Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) has been developed as an
alternative to the SVS. The PVQ has been created primarily for children
from 11–14, however, it has also shown to produce coherent results when
given to adults. In comparison to the SVS the PVQ relies on indirect
reporting. Hereby, the respondent is asked to compare himself/herself
(gender-matched) with short verbal portraits of 40 different people.
After each portrait the responded has to state how similar he or she is
to the portrait person ranging from "very much like me" to "not like me
at all". This way of research allows to how the individual actually acts
rather than research what values are important to an individual.
Similar to the SVS the portraits for each value varies according to the
conceptual breath.
Ordering and group differences
The
order of Schwartz's traits are substantially stable amongst adults over
time. Migrants values change when they move to a new country, but the
order of preferences is still quite stable. Motherhood causes women to
shift their values towards stability and away from openness-to-change,
but not fathers.
Men are found to value achievement, self-direction, hedonism, and
stimulation more than women, while women value benevolence,
universality and tradition higher.
Relationship to personality
Personality
traits using the big 5 measure correlate with Schwartz's value
construct. Openness and extraversion correlates with the values related
to openness-to-change (openness especially with self-direction,
extraversion especially with stimulation); agreeableness correlates
with self-transcendence values (especially benevolence); extraversion is
correlated with self-enhancement and negatively with traditional
values. Conscientiousness correlates with achievement, conformity and
security.
Limitations
One
of the main limitations of this theory lies in the methodology of the
research. The SVS is quite difficult to answer, because respondents have
to first read the set of 30 value items and give one value the highest
as well as the lowest ranking (0 or −1, depending on whether an item is
opposed to their values). Hence, completing one questionnaire takes
approximately 12 minutes resulting in a significant amount of only
half-filled in forms.
Furthermore, many respondents have a tendency to give the
majority of the values a high score, resulting in a skewed responses to
the upper end.
However, this issue can be mitigated by providing respondents with an
additional filter to evaluate the items they marked with high scores.
When administering the Schwartz Value Survey in a coaching setting,
respondents are coached to distinguish between a "must-have" value and a
"meaningful" value. A "must-have" value is a value you have acted on or
thought about in the previous 24 hours (this value item would receive a
score of 6 or 7 on the Schwartz scale). A "meaningful" value is
something you have acted on or thought about recently, but not in the
previous 24 hours (this value item would receive a score of 5 or less).
Another methodological limitations are the resulting ordinal,
ipsatised scores that limit the type of useful analyses researchers can
perform.
Practical applications
Recent studies advocate that values can influence the audience's reaction to advertising appeals.
Moreover, in the case that a choice and a value are intervened, people
tend to pick the choice that aligns more with their own values.
Therefore, models such as the theory of basic human values could be seen
as increasingly important for international marketing campaigns, as
they can help to understand values and how values vary between cultures.
This becomes especially true as it has been shown that values are one
of the most powerful explanations of consumer behaviour.
Understanding the different values and underlying defining goals can
also help organisations to better motivate staff in an increasingly
international workforce and create an according organizational
structure.
Schwartz's work—and that of Geert Hofstede—has
been applied to economics research. Specifically, the performance of
the economies as it relates to entrepreneurship and business (firm)
creation. This has significant implications to economic growth and might
help explain why some countries are lagging behind others when labor,
natural resources, and governing institutions are equal. This is a
relatively new field of study in economics, however the recent empirical
results suggest that culture plays a significant role in the success of
entrepreneurial efforts across countries—even ones with largely similar
governmental structures. Francisco Liñán and José Fernandez-Serrano
found that these cultural attributes accounted for 60% of the difference
in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) variance per capita in countries within the European Union (EU).
The concept is related to but differs from the concepts of heaven or the afterlife
in that heaven is another place or state of existence generally seen as
above the world, and the afterlife is generally an individual's
continued existence after death.
The following section reviews religions chronologically by date
of the composition of various religious texts, from oldest to most
recent, although the chronology of ancient religions is not known with
certainty. Later dates are more certain than earlier dates.
Zoroastrian eschatology
In Zoroastrianeschatology, the world to come is the frashokereti, where the saoshyant will bring about a resurrection of the dead in the bodies they had before they died. This is followed by a last judgment. The yazatasAiryaman and Atar
will melt the metal in the hills and mountains, and the molten metal
will then flow across the earth like a river. All humankind—both the
living and the resurrected dead—will be required to wade through that
river, but for the righteous (ashavan) it will seem to be a river of warm milk, while the wicked will be burned. The river will then flow down to hell, where it will annihilate Angra Mainyu and the last vestiges of wickedness in the universe. The saoshyant is first mentioned as a savior in the Yashts written around 625 and 225 BCE, according to some interpretations.
HaOlam HaBa (העולם הבא) or the world to come is an important part of Jewish eschatology, the afterlife, also known as Olam haBa, Gan Eden (the Heavenly Garden of Eden) and Gehinom.
According to the Talmud, any non-Jew who lives according to the Seven Laws of Noah is regarded as a "righteous gentile", and is assured of a place in the world to come, the final reward of the righteous.
In Hindu eschatology the current age is the Kali Yuga, a period of decline. Kalki will appear to purge all evil, beginning a golden age of Satya Yuga.
There have been a range of dates predicted, purportedly from different methods of calculation. Pothuluru Veerabrahmendra, for example, wrote 400 years ago in his Divya Maha Kala Gnana, or Divine Knowledge of the Time,
that Kalki would arrive when the moon, sun, Venus and Jupiter entered
the same sign. This is not a rare occurrence and last happened in early
2012, passing without event. The time of arrival of Kalki has not been consistently asserted by astrologers.
The earliest copies of the Mahabharata
that exist dates from 200 CE and is the first text to mention Kalki but
was likely written in its final form around 400 CE. Kalki is also
mentioned in the Vishnu Purana which has a contested date of composition ranging from 400 BCE to 1000 CE.
Both Sunni Islam and Shia Twelve Imams beliefs hold that before the Last Judgment, the Mahdi and Jesus appears and defeats the Antichrist False Messiah (Al-Masih ad-Dajjal).
His rule will be paradise on Earth, which will last for seventy years
until his death, though other traditions state 7, 19, or 309 years.
Trinitarian universalism is a variant of belief in universal salvation, the belief that every person will be saved, that also held the Christian belief in Trinitarianism (as opposed to, or contrasted with, liberal Unitarianism which is more usually associated with Unitarian Universalism). It was particularly associated with an ex-Methodist New England minister, John Murray,
and after his death in 1815 the only clergy known to be preaching
Trinitarian Universalism were Paul Dean of Boston and Edward Mitchell in
New York.
Traditionally, the doctrine of Christian universalism was traced by Universalist historians back to the teachings of Origen of Alexandria (c. 185–284), an influential early Church Father and writer. Origen believed in apocatastasis,
the ultimate restoration and reconciliation of creation with God, which
was interpreted by Universalist historians to mean the salvation and
reconciliation with God of all souls which had ever existed, including
Satan and his demons. However more recent research has shown that this
analysis of Origen's views is uncertain.
Origen also believed in the pre-existence of souls and that glorified
Man may have to go through cycles of sin and redemption before reaching
perfection. The teachings of Origen were declared anathema at the Ecumenical Council of 553, centuries after his death, though Gregory of Nyssa,
another figure to whom Universalist historians attributed Universalist
belief, was commended as an Orthodox defender of the faith by the same
Council. Universalist historians have also identified Johannes Scotus Eriugena (815–877), and Amalric of Bena (c. 1200). as Universalists. Much of this research was incorporated by French priest Pierre Batiffol into an article on Apocatastasis later translated for the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia.
During the Protestant Reformation,
all doctrines and practices of the Catholic (Universal) Church were
re-examined and numerous sects formed, although none revived the belief
(originally attributed to Origen) in universal reconciliation. In 1525, Hans Denck (1425–1527) was accused of being a Universalist, but this is now considered unlikely.
Jane Leade
(1623–1704), a mystic who claimed to have seen heaven and hell, started
a Universalist congregation, the Philadelphians, which dissipated after
her death. She was a Behmenist rather than orthodox Trinitarian.
John Murray
(1741–1815) was forced to leave the Methodist Church because of his
Universalism. In 1770, he moved to New England and is credited with
being the Father of Universalism in North America. Although Murray was a
Trinitarian (as was his mentor, James Relly), his successor, Hosea Ballou (1771–1852) was a strong Unitarian who opposed Trinitarianism, Calvinism, and legalism. During his tenure, Universalism became linked with liberal theology as well as Unitarianism.
Modern Trinitarian Universalists include Robin Parry an evangelical writer, who under the pseudonym of "Gregory MacDonald" released a book The Evangelical Universalist, (2006) and Thomas Talbott author of The Inescapable Love of God (1999).
Theology
Thomas Talbott offers three propositions which are biblically based, but which he asserts to be mutually exclusive:
God is omnipotent and exercises sovereign control over all aspects of human life and history.
God is omni-benevolent, is ontologically Love, and desires the salvation of all people.
Some (many) persons will experience everlasting, conscious torment in a place of (either literal or metaphorical) fire.
Traditional theology clarifies omnipotence or omni-benevolence to resolve the contradiction. Calvinism
resolves it by positing a doctrine of limited atonement, which some
interpret as claiming that God's love is restricted (though this
assertion is disputed by most Calvinists). Only a select number of
people are elected to be saved, which includes redemption and
purification. This demonstrates a special love, and most people (the
'eternally reprobate' or non-elect) are given only common grace and tolerance. This bifurcation of grace intends to retain a doctrine of God's omnibenevolence and a doctrine of hell. In comparison, Arminianism resolves the contradiction by rejecting divine omnipotence with respect to human will. This is commonly referred to as synergism. It posits that God has given human beings have an inviolable free will,
which allows the choice of accepting or rejecting God's grace.
Universalists disagree with the third claim, and argue that all people
receive salvation.
Heresy is "adherence to a religious opinion contrary to church dogma".
Because dogma varies among denominations, what is considered heresy by
one denomination or congregation may be accepted as doctrine or opinion
by another. In a socially free world, free moral agents may identify
with whichever perspectives and positions, persons and communities, and
traditions (or subtraditions) they find most intellectually,
emotionally, and spiritually palatable. However, the results of their
exercise of this operational freedom may be understood or interpreted
differently by different persons.
There are three generally accepted understandings of hell:
A literal place of fire where the damned suffer eternal conscious torment.
A metaphorical hell where the suffering is real but is not literally
fire and brimstone. The pain may be physical, emotional or spiritual.
Conditional, where souls are punished until retributive justice is
met or accomplished, after which these punished souls are annihilated.
There is also the doctrine of purgatory, distinct from hell, where
imperfect souls are cleansed and made ready for heaven. It may be a
place of rehabilitation, correction, or retribution.
Universalists believe that every person will be saved, where more
orthodox Roman Catholics believe that only those who died in God's
grace will find purgation for their venial sins in Purgatory.
The Argument
There are four major theories about human salvation in Christendom:
Exclusivism: Salvation is exclusively found in Christianity. Anyone who is not a Christian will go to hell.
Inclusivism: Some adherents of other religions may find salvation, but it is still only Jesus Christ who can (and may or will) save them.
Pluralism:
One's own religion is not the sole and exclusive source of truth;
salvation, in principle, may be found in any religion, although
salvation is not necessarily found in one's search of any (other)
religion(s).
Universalism: All persons (and peoples?) will be saved.
Christian denominations and churches will generally profess one of
the above to be true and the others as error; however, they are not all
mutually exclusive. For example, some
who hold to #4 "Universalism" also hold to #1 "Exclusivism". For these,
anyone who is not a Christian will go to hell, but ultimately everyone
will become a Christian and therefore be saved. Others may be #2
"Inclusivists" and #3 "Pluralists". For those who might hold to these,
because God may use the tools of any particular religion or culture to
reveal his grace in Christ (Inclusivism), other religions therefore,
potentially exhibiting the effects of this work, may in fact hold
valuable insights to truth for theology (Pluralism), consequently
calling the members of a particular congregation/denomination/religion
to be open to that possibility.
Objections
Arminian objections
Arminianism
holds that God will not abrogate humanity's free will because love must
be chosen, not forced, and that some people will choose alienation from
God over consummation, and so God has "graciously" provided a place for
them to exist. C.S. Lewis
speculated, through literary allegory, that hell is locked from within
but few will leave because over a lifetime and through the coming ages,
they will become more and more at home in hell.
A Trinitarian Universalist believer might counter that for God to
allow his misguided and confused children to suffer eternal separation
from him is the very opposite of grace, runs counter to his loving and
sovereign nature, and would compare unfavorably to the attitude and
behavior of even average human parents toward their children. The Bible
seems to teach that those who believe do so because God caused them to
believe, not by any freedom of choice of their own (Ephesians 2:8–10),
and they might cite the following in support their answer:
"He choose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we
would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to
adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind
intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He
freely bestowed on us in the Beloved." Ephesians 1:4–6
"For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' So then it {does}
not {depend} on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who
has mercy." Romans 9:15–16
(See also: John 15:16, Philippians 1:29, Ephesians 1:11)
Also, the Bible in several places refers to freedom being only for
those freed through Christ, and that those who are not in Christ are in
darkness under the dominion of Satan (Acts 26:18), and are slaves to sin
(John 8:34). Therefore, it would make no sense to maintain that someone
can have the "freedom" to "reject God"—it is only by sin that people
reject God. Those in sin are slaves to sin and Satan, and therefore it
is only God who can, by his grace, release them from that bondage and
make them able to believe:
"The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all,
able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those
who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading
to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses {and
escape} from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to
do his will."
Mortalist objections
Mortalists object that, in their view, the Bible does not teach torment of souls, either in Hades, nor at the Last Day in Gehenna.
Hope of universal salvation
Apart
from the dogmatic belief that a sentence of endless torment in hell is
incompatible with God's moral character there are notable theologians
who believe that God wants everyone to be saved and that it is possible
for God to save everyone but, at the same time, they will not limit
God's sovereign right to choose not to save everyone.
While Thomas Talbott, "Gregory MacDonald" (the penname for Robin Parry) and Eric Reitan regard everlasting punishment as impossible, Reformed, neo-orthodox theologian Karl Barth and Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar believed that the eventual salvation of all was merely a possibility.
The decline of Hellenistic Judaism started in the second century
and its causes are still not fully understood. It may be that it was
eventually marginalized by, partially absorbed into, or progressively
became the Koine-speaking core of Early Christianity centered on Antioch and its traditions, such as the Melkite Greek Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch.
Background
Map of Alexander's empire, extending east and south of ancient Macedonia.
The conquests of Alexander in the late fourth century BCE spread Greek culture and colonization—a process of cultural change called Hellenization—over non-Greek lands, including the Levant. This gave rise to the Hellenistic period, which sought to create a common or universal culture in the Alexandrian empire based on that of fifth-century Athens, along with a fusion of Near Eastern cultures. The period is characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization which established Greek cities and kingdoms in Asia and Africa,
the most famous being Alexandria in Egypt. New cities established
composed of colonists from different parts of the Greek world, and not
from a specific metropolis ("mother city") as before.
With the conquest of Judea by Alexander the Great, the spread of Hellenism caused a blending of the local indigenous culture and the culture of the conquerors.
Jewish life in both Judea and the diaspora was influenced by the
culture and language of Hellenism. Local indigenous elites frequently
played a significant role in embracing and promoting Hellenism, leading
to its impact on all regional cultures, including the Jewish culture. In
Palestine, Hellenism gradually took hold, despite the relatively small
number of foreign inhabitants.
Mosaic floor of a Jewish Synagogue Aegina (300 CE).
The Jews living in countries west of the Levant formed the
Hellenistic diaspora. The Egyptian diaspora is the most well-known of
these. It witnessed close ties. Indeed, there was firm economic integration of Judea with the Ptolemaic Kingdom
that ruled from Alexandria, while there were friendly relations between
the royal court and the leaders of the Jewish community. This was a
diaspora of choice, not of imposition. Information is less robust
regarding diasporas in other territories. It suggests that the situation
was by and large the same as it was in Egypt.
The Greeks viewed Jewish culture favorably, while Hellenism
gained adherents among the Jews. While Hellenism has sometimes been
presented (under the influence of 2 Maccabees, itself notably a work in Koine Greek) as a threat of assimilation diametrically opposed to Jewish tradition,
Adaptation to Hellenic culture did not require compromise of Jewish precepts or conscience. When a Greek gymnasium was introduced into Jerusalem, it was installed by a Jewish High Priest. And other priests soon engaged in wrestling matches in the palaestra. They plainly did not reckon such activities as undermining their priestly duties.
Later historians would sometimes depict Hellenism and Judaism
uniquely incompatible, likely due to the influence of the persecution of
Antiochus IV. However, it does not appear that most Jews in the
Hellenistic era considered Greek rulers any worse or different from
Persian or Babylonian ones. Writings of Hellenized Jews such as Philo of Alexandria show no particular belief that Jewish and Greek culture are incompatible; as another example, the Letter of Aristeas
holds up Jews and Judaism in a favorable light by the standards of
Greek culture. The one major difference that even the most Hellenized
Jews did not appear to compromise on was the prohibition on polytheism;
this still separated Hellenistic Jews from wider Greek culture in
refusing to honor shrines, temples, gods etc. that did not pertain to
the God of Israel.
Hellenistic rulers of Judea
Under the suzerainty of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and later the Seleucid Empire, Judea witnessed a period of peace and protection of its institutions. For their aid against his Ptolemaic enemies, Antiochus III the Great promised his Jewish subjects a reduction in taxes and funds to repair the city of Jerusalem and the Second Temple.
Relations deteriorated under Antiochus's successor Seleucus IV Philopator, and then, for reasons not fully understood, his successor Antiochus IV Epiphanes
drastically overturned the previous policy of respect and protection,
banning key Jewish religious rites and traditions in Judea (although not
among the diaspora) and sparking a traditionalist revolt against Greek rule. Out of this revolt was formed an independent Jewish kingdom known as the Hasmonean kingdom, which lasted from 141 BCE to 63 BCE. The Hasmonean Dynasty eventually disintegrated due to a civil war.
Hellenization of Jewish society
Overall, Jewish society was divided between conservative factions and pro-Hellenist factions.
Pro-Hellenist Jews were generally upper-class or minorities living in
Gentile-majority communities. They lived in towns that were far from
Jerusalem and heavily connected with Greek trading networks.
Hellenization was evident in the religious Jewish establishment:
'Ḥoni' became 'Menelaus'; 'Joshua'
became 'Jason' or 'Jesus' [Ἰησοῦς]. The Hellenic influence pervaded
everything, and even in the very strongholds of Judaism it modified the
organization of the state, the laws, and public affairs, art, science,
and industry, affecting even the ordinary things of life and the common
associations of the people [...] The inscription forbidding strangers to
advance beyond a certain point in the Temple was in Greek; and was
probably made necessary by the presence of numerous Jews from
Greek-speaking countries at the time of the festivals (comp. the
"murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews," Acts
vi. 1). The coffers in the Temple which contained the shekel
contributions were marked with Greek letters (Sheḳ. iii. 2). It is
therefore no wonder that there were synagogues of the Libertines, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, Cilicians, and Asiatics in the Holy City itself (Acts vi. 9).
The turbulence created by Alexander the Great's death also popularized Jewish messianism.
For 2000 years, Jews lived in Greece and created the Romaniote Jewish community. They spoke Yevanic, a Greek dialect with Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic influence. According to oral tradition, they were descendants of Jewish refugees who fled Jerusalem in 70 CE, after the destruction of the Second Temple. However, their presence dates back to 300-250 BCE, according to existing inscriptions. Greek philosophers such as Clearchus of Soli were impressed by Jews and believed they were descendants of Indian philosophers.
Elsewhere, Jews in Alexandria created a "unique fusion of Greek and Jewish culture".
The attractiveness of Christianity may, however, have suffered a setback with its being explicitly outlawed in the 80s CE by Domitian as a "Jewish superstition", while Judaism retained its privileges as long as members paid the fiscus Judaicus.
The opening verse of Acts
6 points to the problematic cultural divisions between Hellenized Jews
and Aramaic-speaking Israelites in Jerusalem, a disunion that
reverberated within the emerging Christian community itself:
it
speaks of "Hellenists" and "Hebrews." The existence of these two
distinct groups characterizes the earliest Christian community in
Jerusalem. The Hebrews were Jewish Christians who spoke almost
exclusively Aramaic, and the Hellenists were also Jewish Christians
whose mother tongue was Greek. They were Greek-speaking Jews of the
Diaspora, who returned to settle in Jerusalem. To identify them, Luke
uses the term Hellenistai. When he had in mind Greeks, gentiles,
non-Jews who spoke Greek and lived according to the Greek fashion, then
he used the word Hellenes (Acts 21.28). As the very context of Acts 6
makes clear, the Hellenistai are not Hellenes.
Some historians believe that a sizeable proportion of the Hellenized Jewish communities of Southern Turkey (Antioch, Alexandretta and neighboring cities) and Syria/Lebanon converted progressively to the Greco-Roman branch of Christianity that eventually constituted the "Melkite" (or "Imperial") Hellenistic churches of the MENA area:
As Christian Judaism originated at Jerusalem, so Gentile Christianity started at Antioch,
then the leading center of the Hellenistic East, with Peter and Paul as
its apostles. From Antioch it spread to the various cities and
provinces of Syria, among the Hellenistic Syrians as well as among the
Hellenistic Jews who, as a result of the great rebellions against the
Romans in A.D. 70 and 130, were driven out from Jerusalem and Palestine
into Syria.
Legacy
Widespread influence beyond Second Temple Judaism
Both Early Christianity and Early Rabbinical Judaism were far less 'orthodox' and less theologically homogeneous than they are today; and both were significantly influenced by Hellenistic religion and borrowed allegories and concepts from Classical Hellenistic philosophy and the works of Greek-speaking Jewish authors of the end of the Second Temple period
before the two schools of thought eventually affirmed their respective
'norms' and doctrines, notably by diverging increasingly on key issues
such as the status of 'purity laws', the validity of Christian messianic
beliefs, and the use of Koiné Greek and Latin as liturgical languages replacing Biblical Hebrew, etc.
First synagogues in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East
The word synagogue itself comes from Jewish Koiné Greek,
a language spoken by Hellenized Jews across Southeastern Europe
(Macedonia, Thrace, Northern Greece), North Africa and the Middle East
after the 3rd century BCE. Many synagogues were built by the Hellenistai or adherents of Hellenistic Judaism in the Greek Isles, Cilicia, Northwestern and Eastern Syria and Northern Israel as early as the first century BCE- notably in Delos, Antioch, Alexandretta, Galilee and Dura-Europos: because of the mosaics and frescos
representing heroic figures and Biblical characters (viewed as
potentially conductive of "image worship" by later generations of Jewish
scholars and rabbis), many of these early synagogues were at first mistaken for Greek temples or Antiochian Greek Orthodox churches.
Mishnaic and Talmudic concepts
Many of the Jewish sages who compiled the Mishnah and earliest versions of the Talmud were Hellenized Jews, including Johanan ben Zakai, the first Jewish sage attributed the title of rabbi and Rabbi Meir, the son of proselyteAnatolian Greek converts to Early Rabbinical Judaism.
Even Israeli rabbis of Babylonian Jewish descent such as Hillel the Elder
whose parents were Aramaic-speaking Jewish migrants from Babylonia
(hence the nickname "Ha-Bavli"), had to learn Greek language and Greek
philosophy in order to be conversant with sophisticated rabbinical
language – many of the theological innovations introduced by Hillel had
Greek names, most famously the Talmudic notion of Prozbul, from Koine Greek προσβολή, "to deliver":
Unlike literary Hebrew, popular
Aramaic or Hebrew constantly adopted new Greek loanwords, as is shown by
the language of the Mishnaic and Talmudic literature. While it reflects
the situation at a later period, its origins go back well before the
Christian era. The collection of the loanwords in the Mishna to be found
in Schürer shows the areas in which Hellenistic influence first became
visible- military matters, state administration and legislature, trade
and commerce, clothing and household utensils, and not least in
building. The so-called copper scroll with its utopian list of treasures
also contains a series of Greek loanwords. When towards the end of the
first century BCE, Hillel in practice repealed the regulation of the
remission of debts in the sabbath year (Deut. 15.1-11) by the
possibility of a special reservation on the part of the creditor, this
reservation was given a Greek name introduced into Palestinian legal
language- perōzebbōl = προσβολή, a sign that even at that time legal
language was shot through with Greek.
— Martin Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism (1974)
Influence on Levantine Byzantine traditions
The unique combination of ethnocultural traits inhered from the fusion of a Greek-Macedonian cultural base, Hellenistic Judaism and Roman civilization
gave birth to the distinctly Antiochian "Middle Eastern-Roman"
Christian traditions of Cilicia (Southeastern Turkey) and Syria/Lebanon:
"The mixture of Roman, Greek, and
Jewish elements admirably adapted Antioch for the great part it played
in the early history of Christianity. The city was the cradle of the
church".
But many of the surviving liturgical traditions of these communities rooted in Hellenistic Judaism and, more generally, Second Temple Greco-Jewish Septuagint culture, were expunged progressively in the late medieval and modern eras by both Phanariot European-Greek (Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople) and Vatican (Roman Catholic)
gentile theologians who sought to 'bring back' Levantine Greek Orthodox
and Greek-Catholic communities into the European Christian fold: some
ancient Judeo-Greek traditions were thus deliberately abolished or
reduced in the process.
Antigonus of Sokho, also known as Antigonos of Socho, was the first scholar of whom Pharisaic
tradition has preserved not only the name but also an important
theological doctrine. He flourished about the first half of the third
century BCE. According to the Mishnah, he was the disciple and successor of Simon the Just. Antigonus is also the first noted Jew to have a Greek
name, a fact commonly discussed by scholars regarding the extent of
Hellenic influence on Judaism following the conquest of Judaea by Alexander the Great.
Antigonus II Mattathias (known in Hebrew as Matityahu) was the last Hasmonean king of Judea. Antigonus was executed in 37 BCE, after a reign of three years during which he led the national struggle of the Jews for independence from the Romans.
Aristobulus of Alexandria (fl. 181–124 BCE), philosopher of the Peripatetic school who attempted to fuse ideas in the Hebrew Scriptures with those in Greek thought
Artapanus of Alexandria (fl. 3rd century BC), Alexandrian Jewish writer who wrote a history Concerning the Jews, quoted by Polyhistor and Eusebius
Cleodemus Malchus, Jewish historian referenced by Alexander Polyhistor and Josephus
Ben Sira,
also known as Yesu'a son of Sirach, leading 2nd century BCE Jewish
scholar and theologian who lived in Jerusalem and Alexandria, author of
the Wisdom of Sirach, or "Book of Ecclesiasticus".
Titus Flavius Josephus, was the first Jewish historian. Initially a Jewish military leader during the First Jewish-Roman War, he famously switched sides and became a Roman citizen and acclaimed Romano-Jewish academic. He popularized the idea that Judaism was similar in many ways to Greek philosophy
Julianos (Hellenized form of the Latin name Julianus) and Pappos (from Koine Greekpappa or papas 'patriarch' or 'elder') born circa 80 CE in the city of Lod (Hebrew: לוֹד; Greco-Latin: Lydda, Diospolis, Ancient Greek: Λύδδα / Διόσπολις – city of Zeus),
one of the main centers of Hellenistic culture in central Israel.
Julian and Pappus led the Jewish resistance movement against the Roman
army in Israel during the Kitos War, 115-117 CE (their Hebrew names were Shemaiah and Ahijah respectively)
Lukuas, also called Andreas, Libyan Jew born circa 70 CE, was one of the main leaders the Jewish resistance movement against the Roman army in North Africa and Egypt during the Kitos War, 115-117 CE
Rabbi Meir, a famous Jewish sage who lived in Galilee in the time of the Mishna, is thought to be the son of Anatolian Greek (Talmud, Tractate Kilayim) gentile proselyte
converts to Pharisaic Judaism (folk etymologies and mistranslations
connected him, wrongly, to the family of Emperor Nero). He was the
son-in-law of Haninah ben Teradion, himself a Hellenized Jewish aristocrat and leading rabbinical figure in late 1st century CE Jewish theology.
Rabbi Tarfon (Hebrew: רבי טרפון, from the Greek name ΤρύφωνTryphon), a kohen, was a member of the third generation of the Mishnah sages, who lived in the period between the destruction of the Second Temple (70 CE) and the fall of Betar (135 CE). Thought to be originally from the region of Lod (Hebrew: לוֹד; Greco-Latin: Lydda, Diospolis, Ancient Greek: Λύδδα / Διόσπολις – city of Zeus), one of the main centers of Hellenistic culture in central Israel, R. Tarfon was one of the most vociferous Jewish critics of Early Christianity
Rabbi Haninah ben Teradion, prominent Galilean Jewish scholar and teacher. His father's name (Teradion)
is thought to be of Judeo-Greek origin. Also, 'Hananiah' (or 'Haninah')
was a popular name amongst the Hellenized Jews of Syria and Northern
Israel (pronounced 'Ananias' in Greek). He was a leading figure in late
1st century CE Jewish theology and one of the Ten Martyrs murdered by the Romans for ignoring the ban on teaching Torah
Trypho the Jew, thought to be a 2nd-century CE rabbi opposed to Christian apologist Justin Martyr, whose Dialogue with Trypho is paradoxically "equally influenced by Greek and Rabbinic thought." He is most likely the same as Rabbi Tarfon.
The Radhanites: an influential group of Jewish merchants and financiers active in France, Germany, Central Europe, Central Asia and China in the Early Middle Ages
– thought to have revolutionized the world economy and contributed to
the creation of the 'Medieval Silk Road' long before Italian and
Byzantine merchants. Cecil Roth and Claude Cahen, among others, claim their name may have come originally from the Rhône River valley in France, which is Rhodanus in Latin and Rhodanos (Ῥοδανός) in Greek, as the center of Radhanite activity was probably in France where their trade routes began.
