APOLOGETICS AGAINST THE DEVALUATION OF THE MOSAIC LAW IN EARLY JUDAISM? AN INDICATION OF AN ANTI-HELLENISTIC STANCE IN LXX-PROVERBS AND THE WORKS OF PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA

SUMMARY

In a time when Hellenism came to a rise, other streams of thinking, such as Judaism, were challenged by the Greek way of thinking. Due to this Hellenising trend, some Jews tended to devaluate the Law of Moses. Jewish literature of that time often worked as apologetics against Hellenism. This pilot article analyses the role of the Mosaic Law in the LXX-translation of Proverbs as well as the attestation of the Law in the works of Philo in order to determine whether or not there was an actual devaluation of the Law by Jews due to Hellenistic influence in the Early Jewish period and whether or not these works contain an anti-Hellenistic stance.