Thus it appears that the status of the Jewish colonies in Egypt was at least equal to that of any other foreigners, and that they had assimilated native custom and law. The ideas of these settlers at the Cataract, and probably of those elsewhere, were derived from the habits of thought of the monarchy, quite apart from the Babylonian particularism. There was no objection to taking an oath by the goddess of the Cataract, for a legal declaration, like any Egyptian. This is akin to the later Egyptian Judaism, which sought reconciliation with Gentile principles, as in the Alexandrian school of Philo, and was entirely opposed to the bitterly anti-Gentile school which was developed in the Captivity. It is evident that there was no hesitation in establishing temple worship at the Cataract, and probably also in the other cities that “called on the name of Yahveh,” as a substitute for the destroyed temple of Jerusalem. This is in accord with the establishing of the temple by Oniah some three centuries later. There was not yet the dogma that no temple could be legitimate outside of Jerusalem: that view seems to have been a development of the Babylonian party, probably in connection with their rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem on the Return from Captivity. A rival temple would probably have been illegitimate at any time; but if the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed, or in the heretical hands of the Hellenic party, then it was looked on as more important to maintain the worship, rather than to abandon it because its true centre was unattainable. This was in accord with Western Judaism, which would subordinate the letter of the law to keeping the spirit of it; in contrast to Babylonian Judaism, which by concentrating on the letter of the law forgot the more important value of it, and thus “tithed mint, anise and cummin, and omitted the weightier matters of the law.” That the settlement at the Cataract was not very exceptional is shown not only by the reference to a Jewish resident of Abydos[20]—purely a centre of Egyptian religion—but also by a discovery this year of a rock tomb of early date which had been re-used about the fifth century B.C.[21] and inscribed with long documents in Aramaic, equal to over fifty feet of writing. M. Giron came to examine them, but they are so far damaged that it would need a longer study than he could spare to transcribe them. It is to be hoped that some other Aramaic scholar will undertake the work. This tomb is a few miles back in the eastern desert, opposite to Oxyrhynkhos. It proves that in this region of Middle Egypt there was also a Jewish settlement commonly using Aramaic.