Jew and Greek Then and Now
By Thomas Verenna
The book I am currently working on, even though dealing primarily with Gospel and Epistle exegesis, is really not about origins at all. It is a book on culture, assimilation and compromise. I spend a lot of time discussing authorial intent, knowing full well the writers themselves, even Paul, had formal schooling as Greeks, even though they were in fact Jews all along. This project has been more than just a look into the past; it has opened my eyes to the present in new ways. Assimilation into new cultures, simply put, is a double-edged sword.
What I mean to say is regardless of intent or motive behind someone’s own decision to assimilate, a compromise must always be made. The dynamic of Jew and Greek in antiquity are the most extreme case of such compromise. The Torah lays out strict rules, many of which (whether by redaction, late authorship, or coincidence) conflict with Hellenistic lifestyle. The observance of certain Greek feast days, acknowledging other gods and religion, eating certain foods, wearing certain clothing, and lest we not forget,*ahem* “mingling with a perverse spirit.”
Even prior to the Hellenistic age, so much of Jewish culture seems to stem from assimilation into previous cultures, whether it is from conquest or even the willful choice to move into the Diaspora because of better living conditions. Much of the Hebrew Bible is literary trope developed from other ancient Near Eastern cultures like the Assyrians, Babylonians, or the Hittites. The early polytheistic and henotheistic past of Judah and Samaria reflect Canaanite pantheons. The Sumerian flood epic of Gilgamesh has imbedded itself into the composition of the Jewish version rather deeply.
During the Hellenistic period, Jews seem to have been confronted by the great literary prowess of the Greeks at that time. This does not imply the Jews did not have their own literary traditions; rather they were confronted by a new set of traditions, including new genre styles and epics, philosophy, plays, new sings which probably contained rather dissonant sounds that amused and entertained and caused curiosity in the People of the Book so used to singing a different king of hymn. I would have to imagine that is why the Jewish Diaspora grew so immensely during the Hellenistic period, with large populations in regions where it had become a diverse melting pot of ideas, music, literature, art and philosophy.
Jews everywhere made compromises in their religious practices, their faith, and their traditions to better assimilate themselves within this ‘other’ ancient culture, to the very extent that even the pros most hostile to the idea of assimilation are in fact written in Greek! What does this mean? Jews that had the ability to write and read in Greek had to attend a Greek school for years to learn from a Grammatikos. In other words, they had to assimilate into the culture in order to be able to write against it. This is what I mean by double-edged sword.
This has led me to question the whole process of assimilation and literature in antiquity in general. But, more recently, it has challenged me to examine my own assimilation into the culture I have been raised in. I am an American, but originally my family line stems from two places: Sicily and the Ukraine.
On my Italian side, my grandfather has only maintained a very limited number of Italian traditions (my favorite among them is when the family gets together on Sundays to eat dinner together). My grandfather, however, was raised as a first generation American, in a household where both English and Italian were spoken. He lived in an Italian neighborhood in Jersey and had Italian friends (and to this day they always hang out together in their old hang-outs). Now approaching 90, he can barely recall Italian words—but it is not because he is old and senile. Conversely, he walks briskly, thinks sharply, and lives normally. But he made compromises.
On my mother’s side, the Ukrainian side, my Grandmother was a first generation American as well. Her mother, who I knew only a short time and affectionately as Baabaa, spoke Ukrainian and had escaped the country only narrowly missing Communist Russia. My Grandmother had several sisters, and all them used to, at one point, speak Ukrainian. My mother, with her four brothers, grew up in the 1970’s culture that nearly eradicated their desire to participate in the many Ukrainian traditions my Grandmother and their aunts still knew of and kept. They were so thorough in their apathy towards these traditions that my Grandmother, today, barely recalls enough Ukrainian to speak to her sisters in it. She had made compromises.
America is no place for Italian or Ukrainian traditions anymore—only American traditions. And the sad thing is, as Americans, we are damn proud of this. We as a country despise the fact that there are multi-lingual menus at restaurants. We cannot stand that little extra packet of instructions on an Ikea lamp set in French or Spanish. And just where the hell do those Europa’s get off calling soccer “football” anyway? But it goes even further than just traditions and language in this country. Just like the Jews in antiquity, Christians and Jews today must find a way to cope with a culture that is highly structured on the pillars of greed, covetousness, lust and consumerism.
How does a Christian reconcile the words attributed to Jesus in the Gospels to the rich man on the road? How can a Christian give up all they own, to the point of living in a box, in a country consumed by capitalism? How can a Christian follow the means of community found in Acts, the idea of communal living, in a country where having your own property is not just a ‘right’ but a status quo, even a status symbol? How can a Christians ‘love thy neighbor’ when that neighbor won’t shut up that damned dog from barking at 3am after repeated talks about it?
Just the same, how does a Jew not work on the Sabbath when we live in a culture where our days off fall on weekends and where clubs bump some great hits on Saturday night? How can a Jew get around the fact that some of the best outfits come in polyester blends? And just what are you supposed to do about hotdogs and ribs, anyway (especially during football and baseball season)? Sure there are 100% cotton clothes, kosher foods, and people you can hire to turn on the lights for you on a Saturday, but all of these things are pretty ‘unAmerican’ by the standards of pop-culture. Compromises are made.
And yet, I’m not writing this observation in Italian or Ukrainian (if I could even recall any Ukrainian, that is). I’m writing this all in English, which I learned from what seems like 75% of my life sitting at a desk in an American classroom in an American school where people go to become assimilated into American culture. And even though I find this assimilation depressing, I realize its necessity. I love being an American, although I am insanely jealous of Europeans (who managed to swing by the last 8 years without being turn inside out by a Bush Administration).
When the average person talks with me about history, I often find that they don’t think about these little intricacies. The see history as a bunch of tattered buildings, a grave stone or two, a battlefield with a MacDonald’s plopped right in the middle of where Pickett’s Charge took place. It is so incredibly easy to ignore the fact that what history is, what it means to you and I, are people. What we are talking about are people. American’s are reliving the world of the Hellenistic Diaspora. We are the Greek and the Jew. And just like them, we too make compromises. Hopefully we can manage to save a little bit of our own traditions along with maintaining the new (old) ones.
