The conversions to Christianity soon became much more numerous among the "Hellenists" than among the "Hebrews." The old Jews of Jerusalem found little attraction in a provincial sect but poorly versed in the only science appreciated by a Pharisee--the science of the law.{6.36} The relations of the little Church towards Judaism, like Jesus himself, were rather equivocal. But every religious or political party has an innate force which rules it, and, despite of itself, compels it to travel in its orbit. The first Christians, however great their apparent respect for Judaism, were, in reality, only Jews by their birth or by their outward customs. The true spirit of the sect had disappeared. The Talmud germinated in official Judaism, and Christianity had no affinity with the Talmud school. This is why Christianity found special favor among those nominal adherents of Judaism who were the least Jewish. Rigid orthodoxy did not incline towards the Christian sect; and it was the new-comers, people scarcely catechized, who had not been to the great schools, and were ignorant of the holy language, who lent a willing ear to the apostles and their disciples. Viewed rather contemptuously by the aristocracy of Jerusalem, these _parvenus_ of Judaism were not without their revenge. Young and newly formed parties always have less respect for tradition than older members of communities, and are more susceptible to the charms of novelty. These classes, little subjected to the doctors of the law, were also it seems the most credulous. Credulity is not a characteristic of the Talmudic Jew. The credulous Jew, fond of the marvellous, was not the Jew of Jerusalem, but the Hellenist Jew; who was at the same time very religious and very ignorant, and consequently very superstitious. Neither the half incredulous Sadducee, nor the rigorous Pharisee, would be much affected by the theories popular in the apostolic circle. But the Judæus Apella, of whom the epicurean Horace wrote,[6.37] was ready to give in his adhesion. Social questions, besides, particularly interested those who received no benefit from the opulence enjoyed by Jerusalem as the locality of the temple and other central institutions of the nation; and it was by a recognition of the needs to which in this day modern socialism seeks to respond, that the new sect laid the solid foundation of its mighty future. CHAPTER VII. THE CHURCH CONSIDERED AS AN ASSOCIATION OF POOR PEOPLE.--INSTITUTION OF THE DIACONATE.--DEACONESSES AND WIDOWS.