ere to live. The ruins
of many beautiful Greek temples and theaters may still be seen in that
country. Samaria was also rebuilt as a Greek city, the capital of the
province. So there were Greeks on all sides of Jerusalem and throngs
of Greek merchants and travelers were to be seen on the streets of
every Jewish city and village.

The Greeks in some ways had as much to be proud of as a people as the
Jews. Their sculptors had carved the most beautiful marbles in the
world. Their poets had composed the most beautiful poems. Their
philosophers were wiser than those of any other nation. Moreover, many
of these Greeks who came into Palestine and other countries of Asia
were filled with a truly missionary spirit. It is said that Alexander
the Great was inspired by the thought that he was helping to spread
the art and wisdom and culture of the Greeks throughout the world.

=The struggle between Judaism and Hellenism.=--This meant that the old
religion of Jehovah was in danger of being forgotten not only in
Babylonia and other lands but even in Judaea and Jerusalem. Many Jews
quite fell in love with the new art and learning of the Greeks. They
learned the Greek language, gave their children Greek names, such as
"Jason," for example, instead of "Joshua." A gymnasium was built in
Jerusalem where Jewish lads learned to exercise and play games after
the Greek style. Many of them tried to hide the fact that they were
Jews, and too often they ceased to worship Jehovah, the God of their
fathers, and offered sacrifices to Zeus and other Greek divinities.

=The beginnings of the Pharisees.=--Other Jews fought against all
these new ideas and fashions. They became more strict than ever in
their observance of the peculiar customs and regulations of the Jewish
law. It was at this time that the beginnings of the party of the
Pharisees came into existence, of which we read in the New Testament.
The word "Pharisee" means "one who is kept apart, or separate"; that
is, one who holds aloof from the heathen and from heathen customs.
They were the men who "when they come from the market place, eat not,
except they bathe themselves." They might have touched some heathen
person in the street which they thought made them ceremonially
unclean. In the earlier days the Pharisees were called "Hasideans," or
"the pious."

It was right, of course, that these men should struggle to keep their
religion alive. The great religious truths of the prophets were