Jews of Babylonia and the Hellenic Diaspora

Over the course of history, Jews have dispersed for different reasons around the world. Within their new host cultures, they have had to learn how to define themselves as "Other" from the host, within the boundaries of each culture. They found ways to keep their Jewish traditions, while, in some cases, also assimilating many parts of their lives. Two of the major cultures Jews lived under were Babylonian and Hellenic. Each experience lead to vastly different Jewish communities.

After Alexander the Great took over the Persian Empire in the late fourth century B.C.E. (Gruen, 77), the Jewish Diaspora began to grow exponentially, founding communities throughout the Mediterranean world (Gruen, 78). The migrating Jews soon found themselves under direct pagan rule, and undeniably engaged with the dominant Greek culture (Gruen, 78). Diasporic Jews even became separated from Hebrew itself, most of them speaking Greek. This was the age of the Septuagint, or the Hebrew Bible translated into Greek.

Without their linguistic distinction, and living under the direct rule of pagan powers, how then could the Jews effectively define themselves as different, or other, from their host culture? They did this by employing Greek concepts to express their ancient traditions. A common way of doing this was through "the re-inscription of biblical legend in Hellenic form" (Gruen, 85). An example of this is the romantic story of Joseph and Aseneth. The only part of this story that has Biblical basis is that Pharaoh gave Joseph Aseneth, daughter of the high priest, to be his wife in the book of Genesis. The rest of this story is totally fiction (Gruen, 85), but it is incredibly significant.

Within the genre of the Greek novel, the author transmits a story with Biblical roots, but does so in a way that promotes Jewish values. It is not an erotic tale, as many of its Greek contemporaries were, but a story about faith in the one true God (Gruen, 86). Using this vehicle, the Hellenic Jews were able to define themselves as different through a Hellenic genre by making the messages of their stories something unique to only their group.