vine revelation to mankind in
general, corresponding to the one to Noah and his sons after the flood.
The laws connected with this covenant, called the Noahitic laws, were
general humanitarian precepts. We find these enumerated in the Talmud as
six, seven, and occasionally ten. Sometimes we read of thirty such laws to
be accepted by the heathen, probably founded upon the nineteenth chapter
of Leviticus, at one time central in Jewish ethics.(1309) At any rate, the
observance of the so-called Noahitic laws was demanded of all worshipers
of the one God of Israel.

Strange to say, however, this extensive propaganda of the Alexandrian Jews
during the two or three pre-Christian centuries left few traces in the
history and literature of Palestinian Judaism. Two reasons seem at hand;
the growth of the Paulinian Church, which absorbed the missionary activity
of the Synagogue, and the effort of Talmudic Judaism to obliterate the old
missionary tradition. To judge from occasional references in Josephus and
the New Testament, as well as many inscriptions all over the lands of the
Mediterranean,(1310) the number of heathen converts to the Synagogue was
very large and caused attacks on Judaism in both Rome and Alexandria.
Josephus tells us that Jews and proselytes in all lands sent sacrificial
gifts to Jerusalem in such abundance as to excite the avarice of the
Romans.(1311) The Midrash preserves a highly interesting passage which
casts light on the earlier significance of the winning of heathen
converts, reading as follows: "When it is said in Zephaniah II, 5: 'Woe to
the inhabitants of the sea-coast, the nation of Kerethites'; this means
that the inhabitants of the various pagan lands would be doomed to undergo
_Kareth_, 'perdition,' save for the one God-fearing proselyte, who is won
over to Judaism each year and set up to save the heathen world."(1312) In
other words, the merit of the one proselyte whose conversion awakens the
hope for the winning of the entire heathen world to pure monotheism, is an
atoning power for all. Such was the teaching of the Pharisees, whom the
gospel of Matthew brands as hypocrites because of their zeal in making
proselytes.

6. This kind of proselytism was encouraged only by Alexandrian or
Hellenistic Judaism. In Palestine, however, the social system of the
nation was quite unfavorable to the simple "God-worshiper," who remained
merely a tolerated alien, even though protected, and never really entered