Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/450

 JEWS

386

JEWS

nuns left the mother-house in Rome, to found an establishment in New York. The religious of Jesus Mary now possess a house on Fourteenth Street and an academy at Kingsbridge. They also have the supervision of a day-school for poor Italian chil- dren. The establishment on Fourteenth Street, called "Our Lady of Peace", is a residence for ladies in the literary profession.

Mother Ste Euphemie.

Jews and Judaism (D'1iri\ yehAdim ; lovSaia-fi.6!). — Of these two terms, the former denotes usually the Israelites or descendants of Jacob (Israel) in contrast to Gentile races; the latter, the creed and worship of the Jews in contrast to Christianity, Mohammedan- ism, etc. The subject wiU be treated under the fol- lowing heads: I. History of the Jews since the return from the Baljylonian Exile, from which time the Israelites received the name of Jews (for their earlier history, see Israelites); II. Judaism as a religious communion with its special system of faith, rites, cus- toms, etc.

I. History of the Jews. — This history may be divided into various periods in accordance with the leading phases which may be distinguished in the existence of the Jewish race since the Return in 538 B. c.

(1) Persian Suzerainty (538-333 B. C). — In Oct., 538 B. c, Babylon opened its gates to the Persian army, and a few weeks later the great conqueror of Babylonia, Cyrus, made his triumphal entry into the fallen city. One of the first ofhcial acts of the new ruler in Babylon was to give to the exiled Jews full liberty to return to Juda (see I Esdras, i). The sub- stance of Cyrus's decree in their favour is in striking harmony with other known decrees of that monarch, with his general policy of clemency and toleration to- wards the conquered races of his empire, and with his natural desire to have on the Egyptian border a com- monwealth as large as possible, bound to Persia by the strongest ties of gratitude. A comparatively large number of Jewish exiles (50,000 according to I Esdras, ii, 64, 65), availed themselves of Cyrus's permission. Their official leader was Zorobabel, a descendant of the royal family of Juda, whom the Persian monarch had invested with the governorship of the sub-prov- ince of Juda, and entrusted with the precious vessels which had belonged to Yahweh's House. There ap- peared also by his side the priest "Josue, the son of Josedec ", probably as the religious head of the return- ing community. The returned exiles, who mostly belonged to the tribes of Benjamin and Juda, settled chiefly in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. They at once organized a council of twelve elders, and this council, which was naturally presided over by Zoro- baljel, controlled and guided the internal affairs of the community, under the suzerainty of Persia. Without delay, too, they set up a new altar, and had it ready to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles in 537 B. c. Hence- forth, the ritual system was religiously carried out. The foundation of the second Temple was laid in the second month of the second year after the Return, but no further headway was made for fifteen or sixteen years, owing to the active interference and positive misrepresentations to the Persian kings by the Sa- maritans to whom the Jews had denied a share in the work of rebuilding the House of the Lord. Meantime, the Jews themselves lost much of their interest in the reconstruction of the Temple; and it is only in 520 B. c. that the Prophets Agga^us and Zacharias suc- ceeded in rousing them from their supineness. Pecun- iary help came too from the Jewish community in Babylon, and also, a little later, from the Persian king. Thus encouraged, they made rapid progress and on 3 March, 515 b. c, the new Temple was solemnly dedi- cated. The Jewish leaders next started on the re- building of the walls of Jerusalem, and here again met

with the hostility of the Samaritans, whose complaints at the Court of Persia were most successful under Artaxerxes I "Longimanus" (464-424 b. c), who issued orders strictly forbidding the Jews to proceed with the work.

The special mission of Esdras and Nehemias in be- half of the struggling Palestinian community and their strenuous efforts to lift up its moral and religious tone need not to be dwelt upon here (see Esdras; Nehe- mias). Suffice it to say, that to whatever precise time their labours should be assigned (see Captivities), the scribe Esdras and the satrap Nehemias left their per- manent impress on their fellow-Jews. After Esdras's death, which probably occurred not long before the end of the Persian rule over Juda in 333 b. c, little is distinctly known of the history of the Palestinian Jews. It seems, however, that under the satraps of Coele- Syria, the action of the high-priest had a very con- siderable influence upon their religious and civil matters ahke (cfr. Josephus, "Antiq. of the Jews", XI, vii), and that their community enjoyed a steadily increasing prosperity, hardly marred by the deporta- tion of a certain number of Jews to distant regions like Hyrcania, which probably occurred under Artaxerxes III (358-337 B. c). During the Persian period, the Jews who had preferred to stay in Babylonia remained constantly in touch with the returned exiles, sending them, at times, material help, and formed a flourishing community deeply attached to the faith and to the traditions of their race. Within the same period falls the formation of the Jewish colony at Elephantine (Upper Egypt), which was for a while supplied with a temple of its own, and the faithfulness of which to Persia is witnessed by Judeo-Aramean papyri recently discovered. Lastly, the institutions of Judaism which seem to have more particularly developed during the Persian domination are the Synagogues, with their educational and religious features, and the Scribes with their peculiar skill in the Law.

(2) Greek Period (333-168 B. C). — A new period in the history of the Jews opens with the defeat of Darius III (335-330 B. c.) by Alexander the Great at Issus, in CiUcia. This victory of the young conqueror of Per- sia imdoubtedly brought the Palestinian Jews into direct contact with tireek civihzation, whatever may be thought of the exact historical value of what Jose- phus relates (Antiq. of the Jews, XI, viii, 3-5) con- cerning Alexander's personal visit to Jerusalem. AJexander allowed them the free enjoyment of their religious and civil liberties, and rewarded those of them who went to war with liim against Egypt and settled in Alexandria, a city of liis foundation, by granting them equal civic rights with the Macedo- nians. Again, when the Samaritans rebelled against him, he added a part of Samaria to Judea (331 B. c). After Alexander's untimely death (323 B.C.), Palestine had an ample share of the troubles which arose out of the partition of his vast empire among liis captains. Placed between Syria and Egypt, it became the bone of contention between their respective rulers. At first, as a part of Coele-Syria, it passed naturally into the possession of Laomodou of Mytilene. But as early as 320 B. c, it was seized by t)ie Egyptian Ptolemy I (323-285 B. c.) who, on a Sabl)ath-day took Jerusalem, and carried away many Samaritans and Jews into Egypt. A few years later (315 b. c), it fell into the power of Syria; but after the battle of Ips\is in Phry- gia (301 B. c), it was annexed to I'^gypl and remained so practically a whole century (IKll 2J h. c). Seleu- cus I, who founded Antiocli about :i(IO it. c, attracted the Jews to his new capital by granting thcni ecjual ' rights with his Greek subjects; and thciiee tiicy gnul- ually extended into the principal cities of .\sia Minor. The rule of the first three Ptolemies was even more popular with the Jews than that of the Seleucids. Ptolemy I (Soter) settled many of them in Alexandria and (.'yrcne, whence they gradually spread over the