V. Apologetic Jewish Writings.  During the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era the Jews of the dispersion, and especially of Egypt, were the object of constant attack.  Manetho, an Egyptian priest, wrote a history purporting to give the origin and the early experiences of the Jews.  Portions of this have been preserved and reveal the bitter and unjust spirit with which this race was regarded by the Greek and Egyptian scholars of the day.  To defend themselves from these attacks the Jews not only translated their scriptures, but employed many different types of writing.  A certain Jew by the name of Demetrius about 215 B.C. wrote a commendatory history of the Jewish kings.  Aristobulus, the teacher of Ptolemy Philometor, wrote an “Explanation of the Mosaic Laws,” in which he anticipated, in many ways, the modern interpretation of the early traditions found in the opening books of the Old Testament.  Like all Alexandrian scholars, however, he overshot the mark under the influence of the allegorical or symbolic type of interpretation.  Other Jewish writers appealed to the older Greek historians and poets.  Adopting the unprincipled methods of their persecutors, they expanded the original writings of such historians as Hecataeus, who had spoken in a commendatory way of the Jews.  They even went so far as to insert long passages into the writings of the famous Greek poets, such as Orpheus, Hesiod, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Menander, so as to transform them into ardent champions of the persecuted race.  The culmination of this illegitimate form of defence was to insert in the famous Sibylline Books (iii) a long passage describing the glories of the Jewish race and voicing the hopes with which they regarded the future.  It was in this atmosphere and under the influence of these methods that the anti-Semitic spirit was born in ancient Alexandria.  Thence it was transmitted, as a malign heritage, to the Christian church.

VI.  The Wisdom of Solomon.  The noblest literary product of the Jews of the dispersion was the apocryphal book known as the Wisdom of Solomon.  It was so called because the author assumed the point of view of Solomon.  In so doing he did not intend to deceive his contemporaries, but rather followed the common tendency of his day.  Although the book has many characteristic Hebrew idioms, which are due to its Jewish authorship, it was without doubt originally written in Greek.  Its author was evidently acquainted with the writings of many of the Greek poets and philosophers.  He accepted Plato’s doctrine of the pre-existence of the soul (8:19, 20), of the limitations of the body (9:15), and of the creation of the world out of formless matter (11:17).  He was especially influenced by the beliefs of the Epicureans and Stoics.  He was acquainted with Hellenic art, astronomy, and science (7:17-29) and throughout shows the influence of Greek methods of thinking.  His rejection of the teachings of the book of Ecclesiastes, his wide