With the conquests of Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C.E., the populations of the Near East, including the Jews of Judea, began a thousand-year fascination with Hellenistic culture. Jews from all walks of life readily embraced aspects of Greco-Roman culture, which, for many, offered a route to political influence and improved social standing in the cosmopolitan world of the Hellenized Near East. Many wrote in Greek, decorated their houses with the latest styles from Pompeii and Alexandria and some even adopted Greek names.

Despite the cultural onslaught of Hellenism, however, many aspects of Jewish life remained distinctive. Most Jews held fast to the commandments and laws of the Torah, especially dietary laws, the observance of sacred days and festivals and their refusal to make graven images–a common feature of Greco-Roman art and architecture.

In the recently revised and updated third edition of our popular textbook Ancient Israel, you can learn even more about the fascinating encounter between Hellenism and early Judaism. Several of the book’s chapters, including Lee I. Levine’s “The Age of Hellenism” and Shaye J.D. Cohen’s “Roman Domination,” trace the complex history of Jewish interactions with Greek and then Roman society, from the time of Alexander’s conquests to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.

Ancient Israel: Third Edition