DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14564#0211
194
CITIES OF EGYPT.
belief of Egypt was fatal in its effect. A religion which
had fallen into helpless decay could only disappear at
the touch of philosophy. Thus at the moment when
all its greatest thoughts were clothed in worthy form, a
deep and hopeless doubt seized on the minds of the
people, except those few who could accept the new view
without losing whatever was worth retaining in the old
doctrines. It was through them that the Alexandrian
-. thinkers received a current of Egyptian influence.
Still more remarkable was the meeting of Greek and
Hebrew thought, and the share which Plato took in
their fusion. The Jews of Alexandria, dwelling in a
Greek city and speaking its language, soon needed a
translation of the Law into their vulgar tongue. Tradi-
tion says that this important work was executed by the
desire of the second Ptolemy, but it is more reason-
able to think that it was due to the care of the Alex-
andrian sanhedrim. From that moment the logic and
philosophy of Greece gave a more fixed form to Hebrew
thought, and suggested its definition ; from that moment
the Platonists were offered that which they had long
desired, the reality of their great leader's noble Ideas.
A whole literature of the Alexandrian Hebrews attested
CITIES OF EGYPT.
belief of Egypt was fatal in its effect. A religion which
had fallen into helpless decay could only disappear at
the touch of philosophy. Thus at the moment when
all its greatest thoughts were clothed in worthy form, a
deep and hopeless doubt seized on the minds of the
people, except those few who could accept the new view
without losing whatever was worth retaining in the old
doctrines. It was through them that the Alexandrian
-. thinkers received a current of Egyptian influence.
Still more remarkable was the meeting of Greek and
Hebrew thought, and the share which Plato took in
their fusion. The Jews of Alexandria, dwelling in a
Greek city and speaking its language, soon needed a
translation of the Law into their vulgar tongue. Tradi-
tion says that this important work was executed by the
desire of the second Ptolemy, but it is more reason-
able to think that it was due to the care of the Alex-
andrian sanhedrim. From that moment the logic and
philosophy of Greece gave a more fixed form to Hebrew
thought, and suggested its definition ; from that moment
the Platonists were offered that which they had long
desired, the reality of their great leader's noble Ideas.
A whole literature of the Alexandrian Hebrews attested