On this appellation, Dr. Jennings observes, There is a very
remarkable appellation which the Apostle Paul, after glorying in his
being “of the stock of Israel, and of the tribe of Benjamin,” applies to
himself, namely, that he was “a Hebrew of the Hebrews,” Phil. iii, 5. By
this expression Godwin understands a Hebrew both by father’s and
mother’s side. But if this be all that the phrase imports, there seems
to be very little occasion for the Apostle’s using it immediately after
having declared, that he was “of the stock of Israel, and the tribe of
Benjamin;” which, on Godwin’s supposition, is the same as a Hebrew of
the Hebrews; for the Jews were not allowed to marry out of their own
nation; or if they sometimes married proselytes, yet their number was
comparatively so small among them, especially while they were under
oppression, as they were at that time by the Romans, that methinks Paul
would hardly have mentioned it as a distinguishing privilege and honour,
that neither of his parents were proselytes. It is therefore a much more
probable sense, that a Hebrew of the Hebrews signifies a Hebrew both by
nation and language, which multitudes of Abraham’s posterity, in those
days, were not; or one of the Hebrew Jews, who performed their public
worship in the Hebrew tongue; for such were reckoned more honourable
than the Hellenistic Jews, who in their dispersion having, in a manner,
lost the Hebrew, used the Greek language _in sacris_, and read the
Scripture out of the Septuagint version. We meet with this distinction
among the converted Jews, in the Acts of the Apostles: “In those days,
when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring
of the Grecians or Hellenists against the Hebrews,” Acts vi, 1. This is
what St. Paul probably meant by his being a Hebrew, as distinguished
from an Israelite: “Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So
am I,” 2 Corinthians xi, 22. In one sense, these were convertible terms,
both signifying Jews by nation and religion; but in the sense just
mentioned, there were many, in those days, who were Israelites, but not
Hebrews. St. Paul was both, not only an Israelite by birth, but a
Hebrew, and not a Hellenistic Jew. Godwin expresses himself
inaccurately, when he says that those who lived in Palestine, and who,
as using the Hebrew text in their public worship, were opposed to the
Ἑλληνιϛαί, are called Hebrews, or Jews. For, though Hebrew and Jew are
convertible terms, when opposed to Gentiles, as denoting the seed of
Abraham, and professors of the Mosaic religion, see Jer. xxxiv, 9; yet,
as opposed to the Ἑλληνιϛαὶ, they are not convertible terms, there being
Hebrew Jews and Hellenistic Jews; for it is said, that when “they, who
were scattered by the persecution that arose about Stephen, travelled
into several countries, preaching the word to none but Jews only,” yet
they spoke, ϖρος τοὺς Ἑλληνιϛὰς, to the Hellenists or Grecians, Acts xi,
19, 20. In order to confirm the sense which is here given of the word
Ἑλληνιϛαὶ, in opposition to the appellation Hebrews, it is proper we
should take notice of the distinction between the Ἕλληνες and Ἑλληνιϛαὶ.
The former were Greeks by nation, and as such distinguished from Jews,
Acts xvi, 1; xix, 10; and the Greek empire having been rendered by
Alexander in a manner universal, and their language being then the most
common and general, the appellation Greeks is sometimes given to the
whole Heathen world, or to all who were not Jews, Rom. i, 16; ii, 9.
These Greeks, called Ἑλληνικοὶ by Josephus, are always styled Ἕελληνες
in the New Testament. On which account Grotius, understanding by the
Ἑλληνιϛαὶ, or “Grecians, to whom some of those who were dispersed on the
persecution which arose about Stephen, preached the Lord Jesus,” Acts
xi, 19, 20, Greeks by nation, concludes there is a mistake in the text,
and alters it according to the Syriac and Vulgate versions: “_Certè
legendum_,” [it ought certainly to be read,] saith he, “ϖρος τοὺς
Ἕλληνας.” So indeed the Alexandrian manuscript reads, but it is
supported by no other copy. And this is decisive against it--that from
the words immediately preceding, it is evident that these Grecians were
by nation Jews, and not Greeks; it being expressly said, that those who
were scattered on the persecution “preached the Gospel to the Jews
only.” As for the Ἕλληνες, or Greeks mentioned in St. John’s Gospel, as
being come to Jerusalem at the passover to worship in the temple, John
xii, 20, and likewise those mentioned in the Acts, as worshipping along
with the Jews in the synagogues, Acts xiv, 1; xviii, 4; they were
doubtless Greeks by birth and nation, yet proselytes to the Jewish
religion. There is a distinction made between Jews and proselytes, Acts
ii, 10; but none between Hebrews and proselytes, because a proselyte
might be either a Hebrew or a Hellenist, according to the language in
which he performed public worship. That the Hellenists or Grecians, were
Jews, is farther argued from the account we have, that when at Jerusalem
St. Paul “disputed against the Grecians, they went about to slay him,”
Acts ix, 29, as the Jews at Damascus had done before, Acts ix, 23. Now
had these Grecians been strangers of a different nation, it cannot be
imagined they durst have attempted to kill a Jew, among his own
countrymen, in the capital, and without a formal accusation of him
before any of their tribunals. Upon the whole, the Ἑλληνιϛαὶ, or
Grecians being Jews who used the Greek tongue in their sacred exercises,
the Hebrew Jews and Grecian Jews were distinguished in those days, in
like manner as the Portuguese and Dutch Jews are among us, not so much
by the place of their birth, (many being born in England, others
abroad,) as by the language they use in their public prayers and
sermons.
Among the wonderful dealings of God, says Dr. Neander, by which the
coming of Christianity was prepared, must be placed the spreading of the
Jews among the Greeks and Romans. Those among them who belonged to the
Pharisees gave themselves much trouble to obtain proselytes; and the
loss of respect for the old popular religion, and the unsatisfied
religious wants of multitudes, farthered their views. Reverence for the
national God of the Jews, as a mighty Being, and reverence for the
secret sanctuary of the splendid temple of Jerusalem, had long gained
admittance among the Heathen. Jewish goetæ (enchanters, jugglers, &c)
permitted themselves to make use of a thousand acts of delusion, in
which they were very skilful, to make an impression of astonishment on
the minds of those around them. Confidence in Judaism had in consequence
made such wide progress, especially in large capital towns, that the
Roman writers in the time of the first emperors openly complain of it;
and Seneca, in his book upon superstition, said of the Jews, “The
conquered have given laws to the conquerors.” The Jewish
proselyte-makers, “blind leaders of the blind,” who had themselves no
conception of the real nature, of religion, could give to others no
insight into it. They often allowed their converts to take up a kind of
dead monotheism, and merely exchange one kind of superstition for
another; they taught them, that, by the mere outward worship of one God,
and outward ceremonials, they were sure of the grace of God, without
requiring any change of life; and they gave to them only new means of
silencing their conscience, and new support in the sins which they were
unwilling to renounce: and hence our Saviour reproached these
proselyte-makers, that they made their converts ten times more the
children of hell, than they themselves were. But we must here accurately
distinguish between the two classes of proselytes. The proselytes in the
strict sense of the word, the proselytes of righteousness, who underwent
circumcision and took upon themselves the whole of the ceremonial law,
were very different from the proselytes of the gate, who only bound
themselves to renounce idolatry, to the worship of the one God, and to
abstinence from all Heathenish excess, as well as from every thing which
appeared to have any connection with idolatry. The former often embraced
all the fanaticism and superstition of the Jews, and allowed themselves
to be blindly led by their Jewish teachers. The more difficult it had
been to them to subject themselves to the observance of the Jewish
ceremonial law, necessarily so irksome to a Greek or a Roman, the less
could they find it in their hearts to believe, that all this had been in
vain, that they had obtained no advantage by it, and that they must
renounce their presumed holiness. What Justin Martyr says to the Jews,
holds good of these proselytes: “The proselytes not only do not believe,
but they calumniate the name of Christ twice as much as you, and they
wish to murder and torture us who believe on him, because they are
desirous to resemble you in every thing.” The proselytes of the gate, on
the contrary, had taken many of the most admirable truths out of
Judaism. Without becoming entirely Jews, they had become acquainted with
the Holy Scriptures of the Jews, they had heard of the promised
messenger from God, of the King armed with power from God, of whom a
report had been spread, as Suetonius says in the life of Vespasian, over
the whole of the east. Much of that which they had heard from their
Jewish teachers, whose writings they had read, had remained dark to
them, and they were still to seek in them. By the notions which they had
received from the Jews, of one God, of the divine government of the
world, of God’s judgment, and of the Messiah, they were more prepared
for the Gospel than other Heathens; and because they still thought that
they had too little, because they had no determined religious system,
and were curious after more instruction in divine things, and because
they had not received many of the prejudices which swayed the Jews, they
were more fitted to receive the Gospel than many of the Jews. From the
very beginning they must have been attentive to the preaching of the
Gospel, which secured to them, without making them Jews, a full share in
the fulfilment of those promises of which the Jews had spoken to them.
To these proselytes of the gate, (the φοβούμενοι τὸν Θεὸν, the εὐσεβεῖς
of the New Testament,) passed, therefore, according to the Acts, the
preaching of the Gospel, when it had been rejected by the blinded Jews;
and here the seed of the divine word found a fitting soil in hearts
desirous of holiness. There were, however, doubtless, among the
proselytes of the gate, some who, wanting in proper earnestness in their
search after religious truth, only desired, in every case, an easy road
to heaven, which did not require any self-denial; and who, in order to
be sure of being on the safe side, whether power and truth lay with the
Jews or the Heathens, sometimes worshipped in the synagogue of Yahweh,
sometimes in the temples of the gods, and who, therefore, fluttered in
suspense between Judaism and Heathenism.
remarkable appellation which the Apostle Paul, after glorying in his
being “of the stock of Israel, and of the tribe of Benjamin,” applies to
himself, namely, that he was “a Hebrew of the Hebrews,” Phil. iii, 5. By
this expression Godwin understands a Hebrew both by father’s and
mother’s side. But if this be all that the phrase imports, there seems
to be very little occasion for the Apostle’s using it immediately after
having declared, that he was “of the stock of Israel, and the tribe of
Benjamin;” which, on Godwin’s supposition, is the same as a Hebrew of
the Hebrews; for the Jews were not allowed to marry out of their own
nation; or if they sometimes married proselytes, yet their number was
comparatively so small among them, especially while they were under
oppression, as they were at that time by the Romans, that methinks Paul
would hardly have mentioned it as a distinguishing privilege and honour,
that neither of his parents were proselytes. It is therefore a much more
probable sense, that a Hebrew of the Hebrews signifies a Hebrew both by
nation and language, which multitudes of Abraham’s posterity, in those
days, were not; or one of the Hebrew Jews, who performed their public
worship in the Hebrew tongue; for such were reckoned more honourable
than the Hellenistic Jews, who in their dispersion having, in a manner,
lost the Hebrew, used the Greek language _in sacris_, and read the
Scripture out of the Septuagint version. We meet with this distinction
among the converted Jews, in the Acts of the Apostles: “In those days,
when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring
of the Grecians or Hellenists against the Hebrews,” Acts vi, 1. This is
what St. Paul probably meant by his being a Hebrew, as distinguished
from an Israelite: “Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So
am I,” 2 Corinthians xi, 22. In one sense, these were convertible terms,
both signifying Jews by nation and religion; but in the sense just
mentioned, there were many, in those days, who were Israelites, but not
Hebrews. St. Paul was both, not only an Israelite by birth, but a
Hebrew, and not a Hellenistic Jew. Godwin expresses himself
inaccurately, when he says that those who lived in Palestine, and who,
as using the Hebrew text in their public worship, were opposed to the
Ἑλληνιϛαί, are called Hebrews, or Jews. For, though Hebrew and Jew are
convertible terms, when opposed to Gentiles, as denoting the seed of
Abraham, and professors of the Mosaic religion, see Jer. xxxiv, 9; yet,
as opposed to the Ἑλληνιϛαὶ, they are not convertible terms, there being
Hebrew Jews and Hellenistic Jews; for it is said, that when “they, who
were scattered by the persecution that arose about Stephen, travelled
into several countries, preaching the word to none but Jews only,” yet
they spoke, ϖρος τοὺς Ἑλληνιϛὰς, to the Hellenists or Grecians, Acts xi,
19, 20. In order to confirm the sense which is here given of the word
Ἑλληνιϛαὶ, in opposition to the appellation Hebrews, it is proper we
should take notice of the distinction between the Ἕλληνες and Ἑλληνιϛαὶ.
The former were Greeks by nation, and as such distinguished from Jews,
Acts xvi, 1; xix, 10; and the Greek empire having been rendered by
Alexander in a manner universal, and their language being then the most
common and general, the appellation Greeks is sometimes given to the
whole Heathen world, or to all who were not Jews, Rom. i, 16; ii, 9.
These Greeks, called Ἑλληνικοὶ by Josephus, are always styled Ἕελληνες
in the New Testament. On which account Grotius, understanding by the
Ἑλληνιϛαὶ, or “Grecians, to whom some of those who were dispersed on the
persecution which arose about Stephen, preached the Lord Jesus,” Acts
xi, 19, 20, Greeks by nation, concludes there is a mistake in the text,
and alters it according to the Syriac and Vulgate versions: “_Certè
legendum_,” [it ought certainly to be read,] saith he, “ϖρος τοὺς
Ἕλληνας.” So indeed the Alexandrian manuscript reads, but it is
supported by no other copy. And this is decisive against it--that from
the words immediately preceding, it is evident that these Grecians were
by nation Jews, and not Greeks; it being expressly said, that those who
were scattered on the persecution “preached the Gospel to the Jews
only.” As for the Ἕλληνες, or Greeks mentioned in St. John’s Gospel, as
being come to Jerusalem at the passover to worship in the temple, John
xii, 20, and likewise those mentioned in the Acts, as worshipping along
with the Jews in the synagogues, Acts xiv, 1; xviii, 4; they were
doubtless Greeks by birth and nation, yet proselytes to the Jewish
religion. There is a distinction made between Jews and proselytes, Acts
ii, 10; but none between Hebrews and proselytes, because a proselyte
might be either a Hebrew or a Hellenist, according to the language in
which he performed public worship. That the Hellenists or Grecians, were
Jews, is farther argued from the account we have, that when at Jerusalem
St. Paul “disputed against the Grecians, they went about to slay him,”
Acts ix, 29, as the Jews at Damascus had done before, Acts ix, 23. Now
had these Grecians been strangers of a different nation, it cannot be
imagined they durst have attempted to kill a Jew, among his own
countrymen, in the capital, and without a formal accusation of him
before any of their tribunals. Upon the whole, the Ἑλληνιϛαὶ, or
Grecians being Jews who used the Greek tongue in their sacred exercises,
the Hebrew Jews and Grecian Jews were distinguished in those days, in
like manner as the Portuguese and Dutch Jews are among us, not so much
by the place of their birth, (many being born in England, others
abroad,) as by the language they use in their public prayers and
sermons.
Among the wonderful dealings of God, says Dr. Neander, by which the
coming of Christianity was prepared, must be placed the spreading of the
Jews among the Greeks and Romans. Those among them who belonged to the
Pharisees gave themselves much trouble to obtain proselytes; and the
loss of respect for the old popular religion, and the unsatisfied
religious wants of multitudes, farthered their views. Reverence for the
national God of the Jews, as a mighty Being, and reverence for the
secret sanctuary of the splendid temple of Jerusalem, had long gained
admittance among the Heathen. Jewish goetæ (enchanters, jugglers, &c)
permitted themselves to make use of a thousand acts of delusion, in
which they were very skilful, to make an impression of astonishment on
the minds of those around them. Confidence in Judaism had in consequence
made such wide progress, especially in large capital towns, that the
Roman writers in the time of the first emperors openly complain of it;
and Seneca, in his book upon superstition, said of the Jews, “The
conquered have given laws to the conquerors.” The Jewish
proselyte-makers, “blind leaders of the blind,” who had themselves no
conception of the real nature, of religion, could give to others no
insight into it. They often allowed their converts to take up a kind of
dead monotheism, and merely exchange one kind of superstition for
another; they taught them, that, by the mere outward worship of one God,
and outward ceremonials, they were sure of the grace of God, without
requiring any change of life; and they gave to them only new means of
silencing their conscience, and new support in the sins which they were
unwilling to renounce: and hence our Saviour reproached these
proselyte-makers, that they made their converts ten times more the
children of hell, than they themselves were. But we must here accurately
distinguish between the two classes of proselytes. The proselytes in the
strict sense of the word, the proselytes of righteousness, who underwent
circumcision and took upon themselves the whole of the ceremonial law,
were very different from the proselytes of the gate, who only bound
themselves to renounce idolatry, to the worship of the one God, and to
abstinence from all Heathenish excess, as well as from every thing which
appeared to have any connection with idolatry. The former often embraced
all the fanaticism and superstition of the Jews, and allowed themselves
to be blindly led by their Jewish teachers. The more difficult it had
been to them to subject themselves to the observance of the Jewish
ceremonial law, necessarily so irksome to a Greek or a Roman, the less
could they find it in their hearts to believe, that all this had been in
vain, that they had obtained no advantage by it, and that they must
renounce their presumed holiness. What Justin Martyr says to the Jews,
holds good of these proselytes: “The proselytes not only do not believe,
but they calumniate the name of Christ twice as much as you, and they
wish to murder and torture us who believe on him, because they are
desirous to resemble you in every thing.” The proselytes of the gate, on
the contrary, had taken many of the most admirable truths out of
Judaism. Without becoming entirely Jews, they had become acquainted with
the Holy Scriptures of the Jews, they had heard of the promised
messenger from God, of the King armed with power from God, of whom a
report had been spread, as Suetonius says in the life of Vespasian, over
the whole of the east. Much of that which they had heard from their
Jewish teachers, whose writings they had read, had remained dark to
them, and they were still to seek in them. By the notions which they had
received from the Jews, of one God, of the divine government of the
world, of God’s judgment, and of the Messiah, they were more prepared
for the Gospel than other Heathens; and because they still thought that
they had too little, because they had no determined religious system,
and were curious after more instruction in divine things, and because
they had not received many of the prejudices which swayed the Jews, they
were more fitted to receive the Gospel than many of the Jews. From the
very beginning they must have been attentive to the preaching of the
Gospel, which secured to them, without making them Jews, a full share in
the fulfilment of those promises of which the Jews had spoken to them.
To these proselytes of the gate, (the φοβούμενοι τὸν Θεὸν, the εὐσεβεῖς
of the New Testament,) passed, therefore, according to the Acts, the
preaching of the Gospel, when it had been rejected by the blinded Jews;
and here the seed of the divine word found a fitting soil in hearts
desirous of holiness. There were, however, doubtless, among the
proselytes of the gate, some who, wanting in proper earnestness in their
search after religious truth, only desired, in every case, an easy road
to heaven, which did not require any self-denial; and who, in order to
be sure of being on the safe side, whether power and truth lay with the
Jews or the Heathens, sometimes worshipped in the synagogue of Yahweh,
sometimes in the temples of the gods, and who, therefore, fluttered in
suspense between Judaism and Heathenism.