The History of Jewish Diaspora in the Hellenistic Period

The Jews spread about throughout the civilized Oikumene in the Eastern Mediterranean in a big way. Not all of the captives returned to Judea when the Persians said they could go home. The subject of Jewish engagement with and rejection of Hellenism in this period is a vast one, but some facts are important here as they set the stage for what was to come in Western Esotericism. Crucially, Greek became a Jewish language.