THE JEWS AND THEIR NEIGHBORS DURING THE P ERSIAN, HELLENISTIC AND ROMAN PERIOD

What kind of relations did the Jews have with the neighboring peoples during the Second Temple? Based upon the way in which the Jews defined themselves, what were the criteria, the variables by which to measure proximity and distance? And what are the political translations of th e different forms of ''otherness''? Compared to the autochtonous popul ations (Samaritans, Idumeans, Phenicians, etc.) whom languages and cus toms brought together, the ''Greeks'' from the hellenistic cities repr esented a most heterogeneous group and were perceived of as radically different During the Persian epoch, the question of relations with nei ghboring peoples evoked two contradictory attitudes within Jewish soci ety. The first with Esdras and Nehemiah, by imposing a very narrow def inition of Judaism, erected a barrier between Jews and non-Jews. The s econd, with the adversaries of Esdras and Nehemiah, by adopting a very broad definition, favored contacts and passages between non-Jewish so cieties and Judaism. From the hellenistic period on, new social clivag es due to the colonisation and to the emergence of a dominant culture tended to reduce the diversify of relations between peoples of the reg ion and resulted in increasing bipolarisation. Among the autochtonous peoples, some become hellenized and enter into the system of the Creek city-states, while others are judaicized and integrated into Jewish s ociety. As a reaction to this mobility and acculturation, the definiti on of what it means to be a Jew once again hardens. This bipolarisatio n of relations between Jews and non-Jews radicalizes to the point of c onstituting one of the determining factors in the Jewish insurrection against Rome between 66 and 135 of the common era.