JESUS THE MESSIAH
His Life and Times
No. 2
From Antioch To Alexandria
Antioch was much nearer to Palestine and had a large population of Jews, and it was also the Jewish capital of the East, but the capital of the Jewish world in the West was Alexandria. There was much wealth, thought, and influence of Judaism in Alexandria which was in Egypt. In those days Greece was thought of as just a land of beauty and art and temples and poetry. It wasn't thought of as a land that was progressive and was mostly thought of as a land of desolateness and ruins. The ancient Greeks had for the most part sunk to a nation of traders who were in keen competition with the Jews. Greece was under Roman rule at this time and most of its national characteristics had been buried.
Egypt was not a land that was very civilized in the sense of soil, climate, history, nature forbade it. But it was a land of untold attractions to the traveler. It had the mysterious Nile River with all its strange vegetation on its banks; it had its many deserts; it had gigantic monuments and colossal temples; and it had ancient mysterious hieroglyphics which were fascinating to see. This was an ancient country and religion that dazzled people to be a part of.
Alexandria was a beautiful seaport city that was the only safe coast for ships all along the coast of Asia and Africa. There was always a multitude of vessels of all shapes, sizes and nationalities in its port. Busy people were everywhere that spoke many different languages and of vast nationalities. It was a very profitable city because of its seaport and location.
Alexandria was not an old Egyptian city in the time of Jesus, but a modern city; in Egypt, and yet not of Egypt. It was very different from the rest of Egypt with its old and mysterious traditions. Everything was in character - the city, its inhabitants, public life, art, literature, study, amusements, the very aspect of the place. It was a combination or the new and ancient worlds put together.
The city was founded by Alexander the Great. It was built in the form of an open fan or an outspread cloak. Altogether is measured 16,360 paces, 3,160 paces more than Rome, with one pace being from 30 to 36 inches, but its houses were not as crowded nor many-storied. It was always a large city and to the very last of the Roman Empire held its own as being second place in the whole empire.
One of the five quarters into which the city was divided, which were named according to the first letters of the alphabet, was wholly covered by royal palaces with their spectacular gardens and other buildings. The royal mausoleum in this section was where the body of Alexander the Great lay in a glass coffin, with his body preserved in honey. This was only part of the palaces of the city in which there was nearly a million people. People were drawn from everywhere because of the wealth of the city, the facilities for study, and the amusements of the city. It was a very luxurious city.
The three worlds of Europe, Asia and Africa all met in there and either brought to it or fetched from it the treasures there. It was so big that it had five harbors. It supplied enough corn to Italy to feed the capital for four months of the year. The native industry was very significant, also. There were linen goods to suit the tastes of every country, woolen stuffs that were wrought with figures and even scenes, glass in every shade and shape, paper from the thinnest sheet to the coarsest packing paper, perfumes of every scent and many other things.
The Emperor Hadrian was quoted as saying that money was the people's god in Alexandria, and everyone seemed well to do in his own way. Even the poorest of the city were not as poor as in other cities. It was a joke in the city that "anything could be gotten except snow". There were cool shades, magnificent libraries, vast retreats where the teachers were gathered and taught every conceivable branch of learning. Its physicians were known all over the kingdom. Patients that had consumption were sent from far away to be cured.
This sketch of the city can help us to understand about the surroundings of the Jews who lived there. Altogether more than 1/8 of the population of the country of Egypt was Jewish (1,000,000 in 7,800,000). Alexander the Great had granted the Jews equal privileges with the Macedonians. The later troubles of Palestine with Syria greatly swelled their number in Egypt. Originally, and before they grew to such a great number, they had been assigned a special quarter of the city - The Delta, which was by the eastern harbor. When they outgrew the quarter, they started living all over the city. The export trade in grain was now in their hands, and the harbor and river police was committed to their charge. Two quarters in the city were specifically named Jewish.
Their synagogues stood in all parts of the city, but their chief glory was the great central Synagogue. Even the Palestinians boasted about it. It was built in the shape of a basilica, with a double colonnade, and so large that it needed a signal for those most distant to know the proper moment for the responses. The different trade-guilds sat together so that a stranger would know at once where to find fellow workers. In the choir of this Jewish cathedral stood 70 chairs of state, encrusted with precious stones, for the 70 elders who constituted the eldership of Alexandria. This was from the model of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem.
With all its greatness, it still did not rival the temple in Jerusalem and they still made pilgrimages and brought their contributions. Before they married they always consulted the official archives in Jerusalem to make sure that their intended wife was pure in Jewish descent. In Alexandria, the Jews were under the rule of a Jewish leader. Among others Alexander, the brother of Philo the great Jewish historian, held this post.
Things were going well for the Jews for awhile and they could worship and do as they pleased and have their own way of doing things. But eventually they got filled with pride and self-assertion because of all their riches and a man named Apion started to try to excite hatred from the Alexandrian populace against the Jews. He would tell the people that if the Jews were going to be a part of the city that they should worship the same gods and not try to be different and set apart. Philo, the Jewish historian, wrote that he just wanted the Jews to be treated like other men.
When news of all this finally reached Rome, it was greatly exaggerated and the people there came to regard the Jews with much contempt and anger. They wanted them to no longer have a right to their own religion and be strictly under the religion of Rome. The Romans were intensely practical and they regarded religion and politics as very much intertwined. They couldn't understand the worship of a God that no one could see with no visible symbols, such as idols, that one could see to worship. The Jews refused to pay the customary Divine honor to the Caesars, as the incarnation of Roman power. Also the Romans couldn't understand the rite of circumcision and they constantly jested the Jews over this matter. They also felt that the Sabbath day of rest was only a day for them to justify being idle and lazy. The Thursday fast was another target for their jesting. The Jews grew to become a constant theme for popular merriment and people would make great fun of them no matter if the joke was absurd or how poorly it was told.
The last thing that they hated was that the Jewish shops closed on the Sabbath. It was an inconvenience to them, but the Jews still seemed to do well in the business world and many of them had great wealth. In the words of Tacitus, the Jews kept close together and were very liberal with one another, but were filled with bitter hatred of all others. The Romans even went so far that they wouldn't even show the way to a Jew and wouldn't even point out a spring of water for the thirsty.
Even though their life was miserable, they still would not stray from their ways because of their strong beliefs.
For more information from this book, go to the archives page at my site www.cathydeaton.com There are other articles of interest there also.
MAP OF ALEXANDRIA AND ANTIOCH
Text taken from the book Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah written by Alfred Edersheim and used by permission.