(5) Three Classes. The inhabttants of Alex andria were divided into three classes: 1) The Macedonians, the original founders of the city; (2) the mercenaries who had served under Alex ander; (3) the native Egyptians. Through the favor of Alexander and Ptolemy Soter, the Jews were admitted into the first of these classes, and this privilege was so important that it had great effect in drawing them to the new city (Ikea txtts, in Joseph. Contra Arlon, I, ii).
(6) Christian Church Founded by St. Mark. St. Mark is said to have first preached the gospel in Egypt and founded the Christian Church in Alexandria. The Christians were very numerous in this city in the second century.
Alexandria and New Testament.
A masterpiece, whether in literature, art or life, by its very inspiration urges its to study its se cret. Work on the New Testament has been tire less and abundant along two lines—one in set ting forth the power, beauty and worth of the truth itself; the other in making clear the con ditions which were antecedent to its deliverance, the environment in which it was proclaimed and the results which its deliverance brought about.
Along this latter line there is one very im portant question: did Alexandria do in the preparation of the New Testament message?" To any one who knows anything of the thought and life of the first Christian centuries, there can be no question about the wide reaching influence of the Egyptian capital. Her schools were the pride of scholarship, and her methods the charm of both teacher and pupil. In order to prepare the way for an estimate of the influence exerted upon the preparation of the New Testament, it is necessary to linger for a moment at three points in this city—in the Jewish quarter, at the Museum and in the market place. These are critical points for the study of Alexandria's peculiar place and purpose, in the earlier part of the third century B. C., the golden age of Hellenism.
The mission of Alexandrian Judaism was pe culiar. From the first it bore a conspicuous part in the history of the city. Alexander had given the Jews equal rights and privileges with other citizens at its foundation. They had their own °tabarcit or governor, who, in conjunction with the Sanhedrin, exercised control over them. At one time a wall about the Jewish quarter marked the hostility which they experienced from the Greeks and native Egyptians, because of political jealousy and religious hatred, but within it the Jews prospered financially and intellectually.
Within that inner wall Plato was studied as well as Moses, and Greek was the common language.
In this northwestern part of the old city began that amalgamation which was to be serviceable for so long in the history of thought.
Here were started the questions which brought the law into comparison with philosophy, and which opened the way for the interpretation of one into the terms of the other. It was from here doubtless that the call came for the Greek version of the books of Moses. That busy, thriv ing section was linked in a strange way with the fortunes of the gospels and epistles.
Our use of the word museum does not lead us to think of a university, but as the muses and their priest were associated with the schools it is nothing less than the great center of learning that here opens before us. Here was a theater for lectures and great public assemblies, and also the famous library open to all who would use it, thus bringing to the very door of the Jews the wisdom and culture of the heathen world. It was a place of marked intellectual activity, and that, too, with a fascination which comes from untrammeled speculation and comparative study.
The third point of interest for us is the market place, where wares from every part of the world were exhibited.
Greeks, Egyptians, Romans and merchants from the provinces of Asia Minor were busy in trade, and the variegated scene on the shore was matched by the harbor itself, where ships from many ports lay at anchor.
One fact invests this scene with supreme inter est for us. There is everywhere one medium of communication—the Greek. Cosmopolitan as the life was, it found its unification in this. There was one language in palace, court, school, theater and shop.
The Jews, the culture of heathendom, and the language which was the common vehicle of though, these were the factors toward the result into which we wish to make inquiry. In looking into the New Testament for marks of their influ ence our attention must be directed to two things: the language and the thought.