The Sages and Philosophers: Reevaluating the Interaction Between Ancient Israel and Greece

The previously assumed late development of the Jewish sacred writings led many to conclude that the Hellenistic world greatly influenced both the content and worldview of the Hebrew authors. Though the evidence for the historical reconstruction that required the Jewish texts to develop late has been called into question, scholars have yet to reconsider the implications this has for the antiquity of the ideas contained within the Jewish writings and their influence on surrounding cultures. Whereas it was once taken for granted that the Jews borrowed form and content from their Greek neighbors, it is now possible, even probable, that the reverse is true. This paper aims to evaluate the level of that interaction in the literature and the socio-political context which produced that literature