. The training of the Chosen people. perience of the Babylonian captivity had notdestroyed the Jewish stock. The Jerusalem of thePersian overlordship was more, thoroughly Hebrewthan it had ever been before. Hebrew traditions, wor-ship, ideals and civilization came to their full flowerin the city that sprang up under the labors of Nehe-miah and Ezra. The conquests and captivities left somedeplorable marks upon Judah, still,the net result of these experienceswas to purify and solidify Judaism. But under the Greek domination,resulting from the amazing victo-ries of Alexander the Great, the fibreo
. The training of the Chosen people. perience of the Babylonian captivity had notdestroyed the Jewish stock. The Jerusalem of thePersian overlordship was more, thoroughly Hebrewthan it had ever been before. Hebrew traditions, wor-ship, ideals and civilization came to their full flowerin the city that sprang up under the labors of Nehe-miah and Ezra. The conquests and captivities left somedeplorable marks upon Judah, still,the net result of these experienceswas to purify and solidify Judaism. But under the Greek domination,resulting from the amazing victo-ries of Alexander the Great, the fibreof tough Jewish stock was put to aseverer test than it had sustained inthe days of Nebuchadnezzar, forthere was this important differencebetween the aims of Nebuchadnezzarand those of Alexander. The Baby-lonian was satisfied with assertinghis suzerainty over conquered peo- Alexander the , of which the annual tribute wasthe token. He was satisfied to leave local customs un-touched and to concede a very large measure of self-. i88 Old Testament History rule, if insurrections did not occur. The Greek, on theother hand, was not only a conqueror but a mission-ary. He was not content to leave customs or even lan-guages as he found them. He had an ardent desirenot only to conquer the world, but to Hellenize theworld, and to make the civilization of the most distantprovinces a reflection of the civilization of Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, whichwe know as the Septuagint, was made in accordancewith this policy. The purpose of Alexander the Greataffords a clearer analogy to the missionary purpose ofthe Christian church than the aim of any other worldconqueror, with the possible exception of Napoleon I,who betrayed a somewhat similar ideal when he said,I propose to make the Mediterranean a French is evident then, at a glance, that during the peri-od of the Greek domination the loyalty of the Hebrewsto their traditions, their worship and their r
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