be accepted by the heathen, probably founded upon the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus, at one time central in Jewish ethics.(1309) At any rate, the observance of the so-called Noahitic laws was demanded of all worshipers of the one God of Israel. Strange to say, however, this extensive propaganda of the Alexandrian Jews during the two or three pre-Christian centuries left few traces in the history and literature of Palestinian Judaism. Two reasons seem at hand; the growth of the Paulinian Church, which absorbed the missionary activity of the Synagogue, and the effort of Talmudic Judaism to obliterate the old missionary tradition. To judge from occasional references in Josephus and the New Testament, as well as many inscriptions all over the lands of the Mediterranean,(1310) the number of heathen converts to the Synagogue was very large and caused attacks on Judaism in both Rome and Alexandria. Josephus tells us that Jews and proselytes in all lands sent sacrificial gifts to Jerusalem in such abundance as to excite the avarice of the Romans.(1311) The Midrash preserves a highly interesting passage which casts light on the earlier significance of the winning of heathen converts, reading as follows: “When it is said in Zephaniah II, 5: ‘Woe to the inhabitants of the sea-coast, the nation of Kerethites’; this means that the inhabitants of the various pagan lands would be doomed to undergo _Kareth_, ‘perdition,’ save for the one God-fearing proselyte, who is won over to Judaism each year and set up to save the heathen world.”(1312) In other words, the merit of the one proselyte whose conversion awakens the hope for the winning of the entire heathen world to pure monotheism, is an atoning power for all. Such was the teaching of the Pharisees, whom the gospel of Matthew brands as hypocrites because of their zeal in making proselytes.