Hellenistic Influence upon the Jews of the Dispersion [LITERATURE.—Stade, _Op. cit._, vol. II (1888); Schürer, II, ii. pp. 219-327, German ed. III, pp. 1-188; Bertholet, _Die Stellung dev Israeliten und Juden zu den Fremden_ (1890); Reinach, _Textes d’auteurs Grecs et Romains relatifs au Judaisme_ (1895); Willrich, _Juden und Griechen vor der makkabäischen Erhebung_ (1895); Swete, _Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek_ (1900); M. Friedländer, _Die religiösen Bewegungen_ ..., pp. 235-264 (1905); by the same author, _Geschichte der jüdischen Apologetik als Vorgeschichte des Christentums_ (1903); Bousset, _Die Religion des Judentums im neutestamentlichen Zeitalter_ (1903); Harnack, _The Mission and Expansion of Christianity_, I, pp. 1-36 (1908); Bertholet, _Das religionsgeschichtliche Problem des Spätjudenthums_ (1909); Oesterley and Box, _The Religion and Worship of the Synagogue_, pp. 114-120 (1911); Wendland, _Op. cit._, pp. 192-211; and the following articles, Ramsay, “The Jews in the Græco-Asiatic Cities,” in the _Expositor_ (January, 1902); “Diaspora” in the _Jewish Encycl._; “Dispersion” in Hastings’ _Dict. of the Bible_ (extra volume) and the _Encycl. Bibl._] I. THE DISPERSION A preliminary matter to be dealt with is the Dispersion of the Jews, its origin and extent; after which we can turn our attention to the special characteristics of the Dispersion Jews, and the influence of Hellenism upon them. The first beginnings of the Dispersion on a large scale are to be seen in the deportation to Assyria of 27,290 of the inhabitants of Samaria by Sargon in B.C. 722. In 2 Kings xvii. 23 it is said: “So Israel was carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day” (cp. 2 Kings xvii. 6; xviii. 11). The general reference to this occurrence given in the Old Testament is supplemented by an inscription of Sargon’s in which it is said: “I besieged and captured Samerina (Samaria): 27,290 people dwelling in the midst of it I carried off. Fifty chariots I collected among them, and allowed them to have the rest of their goods.”[56] A further deportation on a larger scale took place when Nebuchadnezzar carried captive to Babylon the bulk of the nation of Judah in B.C. 597; this was supplemented by further deportations in B.C. 586 and 582 (see 2 Kings xxiv. 14-16; xxv. 11, 21; Jer. lii. 15, 28-30). Some five or six thousand exiles returned to Palestine in B.C. 430; but about a century later, in the reign of Artaxerxes III (Ochus),[57] there was another deportation, a number of Jews being transported to Hyrcania, on the Caspian Sea, and Babylonia.[58] The great majority of these exiles and their descendants were content to remain in their new homes, and many settlements of Jews arose in Babylonia, the centre of the Eastern Dispersion; from these centres they emigrated in all directions, and in course of time the chief centre of the Dispersion