Journal Article

Hebraism and Hellenism: The Case of Byzantine Jewry

de Lange, Nicholas

1998

Overview

From ancient Hellenism to modern Hellenism: It would be easy to imagine that a straight line joins the one to the other. In reality the line is far from straight. In late antiquity the very term Hellene virtually disappeared from general Greek usage for several centuries, which is not to say, however, that Greek language and culture disappeared in the intervening period. They were maintained, in various ways, by Christians and to a more limited extent by Jews, in unbroken continuity, although thoroughly transformed by the admixture of a determinative \"Hebraic\" (by which I mean essentially Biblical) element, which on the Christian side often threatened and on the Jewish side actually managed to overwhelm the Hellenic tradition. It is a very complex story, the skeins of which have not yet been thoroughly disentangled. On the majority Christian culture, a good deal has been written (see particularly Mango 1965, Browning 1983, Garzma 1985), but very little attempt has been made so far to elucidate the Jewish experience. I have discussed elsewhere the continuity of the use of the Greek language by Jews (de Lange 1990c). In the present essay I consider the relationship between language and self-definition for Jews in the Byzantine Empire.

• Publisher: Duke University Press,Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics,Duke University Press, NC & IL
• Subject: Ancient and Medieral Interations / Bible / Byzantine civilization / Christianity / Greek civilization / Hebrews / Jewish culture / Jewish diaspora / Jewish literature / Jewish people / Jewish peoples / Judaism / Karaite Jews / Poetics / Prayer