Josephus was destined soon to furnish another example of a Jew completely Grecianized.  But Nicholas was only a Jew in blood.  Josephus declares that he himself was an exception among his contemporaries;[4] and the whole schismatic school of Egypt was detached to such a degree from Jerusalem that we do not find the least allusion to it either in the Talmud or in Jewish tradition.  Certain it is that Greek was very little studied at Jerusalem, that Greek studies were considered as dangerous, and even servile, that they were regarded, at the best, as a mere womanly accomplishment.[5] The study of the Law was the only one accounted liberal and worthy of a thoughtful man.[6] Questioned as to the time when it would be proper to teach children “Greek wisdom,” a learned rabbi had answered, “At the time when it is neither day nor night; since it is written of the Law, Thou shalt study it day and night."[7]

[Footnote 1:  Mishnah, Shekalim, iii. 2; Talmud of Jerusalem, Megilla, halaca xi.; Sota, vii. 1; Talmud of Babylon, Baba Kama, 83 a; Megilla, 8 b, and following.]

[Footnote 2:  Matthew xxvii. 46; Mark iii. 17, v. 41, vii. 34, xiv. 36, xv. 34.  The expression [Greek:  e patrios phone] in the writers of the time, always designates the Semitic dialect, which was spoken in Palestine (II.  Macc. vii. 21, 27, xii. 37; Acts xxi. 37, 40, xxii. 2, xxvi. 14; Josephus, Ant., XVIII. vi. 10, xx. sub fin.; B.J., prooem I; V. vi. 3, V. ix. 2, VI. ii. 1:  Against Appian, I. 9; De Macc., 12, 16).  We shall show, later, that some of the documents which served as the basis for the synoptic Gospels were written in this Semitic dialect.  It was the same with many of the Apocrypha (IV.  Book of Macc. xvi. ad calcem, &c.).  In fine, the sects issuing directly from the first Galilean movement (Nazarenes, Ebionim, &c.), which continued a long time in Batanea and Hauran, spoke a Semitic dialect (Eusebius, De Situ et Nomin.  Loc.  Hebr., at the word [Greek:  Choba]; Epiph., Adv.  Haer., xxix. 7, 9, xxx. 3; St. Jerome, In Matt., xii. 13; Dial. adv.  Pelag., iii. 2).]

[Footnote 3:  Mishnah, Sanhedrim, xi. 1; Talmud of Babylon, Baba Kama, 82 b and 83 a; Sota, 49 a and b; Menachoth, 64 b; comp.  II.  Macc. iv. 10, and following.]

[Footnote 4:  Jos., Ant. XX. xi. 2.]

[Footnote 5:  Talmud of Jerusalem, Peah, i. 1.]

[Footnote 6:  Jos., Ant., loc. cit.; Orig., Contra Celsum, ii. 34.]

[Footnote 7:  Talmud of Jerusalem, Peah, i. 1; Talmud of Babylon, Menachoth, 99 b.]