Now in dealing with the Judaism of this period we must again emphasize what has already been stated several times, namely the existence of the external influences by which it was affected. The background of the Apocrypha books in the domain of doctrine is not solely the Old Testament, though this is, of course, their chief source of inspiration; but there have also been marked Persian and Greek influences in certain directions; it is essential that this should be recognized. This point has been admirably dealt with by Fairweather, and some of his words are well worth quoting; he rightly says that there have been “two great streams of influence flowing in upon the Jewish theology of this period, an Eastern and a Western, a Persian and a Greek. Of these by far the stronger was the Greek, though the Persian is as distinctly traceable ... the Persian current was that of Zoroastrianism; the Greek cannot be associated with a single name. Out of these two forces, which were new, or newly felt, active upon the native Judaism of Palestine, which was old, was formed that _third_ which we meet within the home of Jewish theology of the period. But there was also a Jewish theology outside of Palestine altogether. Not only did foreign influences flow in upon Judaism, but Judaism, now no longer confined to Palestine, went out to meet them. Thus the hitherto unbroken river of Old Testament ideas and doctrines divided itself at this point into three separate streams. One, the main current, continued to flow on in Palestine; while on the east and west of it ran two other streams—the one through Persian territory, and the other through Greek. The tributaries of Persian and Greek ideas by which these streams respectively were fed necessarily caused their waters to be of a composite character, exceedingly difficult to analyse so as to say definitely, ‘This is Jewish, that is Persian,’ or ‘This is Jewish, that is Greek,’”[322] The main current of which Fairweather speaks represents Palestinian Judaism, while the other two streams powerfully affected the Judaism of the Dispersion; the differences between these two types of Judaism must be taken into consideration, for both types are represented in the books of the Apocrypha. We must also seek, as far as possible, to follow the teaching of the various books in chronological order. Differences of opinion exist, to be sure, regarding the actual dates of these, but there is in almost all cases approximate unanimity as to the _centuries_ to which they belong. In some instances different parts of a book belong to different times; this will be taken into consideration where necessary. When, therefore, quotations are given to illustrate some point of doctrine they will be put, as far as possible, in chronological order; see the table on p. 320. The doctrines to be dealt with are the following: