Ἕλλην. Hellen, Græcus, Gentilis.HELLENISTS. This word comes from Hellen, a Greek. They were called Hellenistical Jews, who lived in Cities and Provinces, where the Greek Tongue was common; these not being much accustomed to Hebrew or Syriac, generally made use of the Greek Version of the Septuagint in private, and in their publick Assemblies;1 which was disapproved by many other Hebraïzing Jews, who could not endure that the holy Scripture should be read in any language besides Hebrew.
The Hellenists were not known till the establishment of the Greek Empire in the East. Sometimes they are called simply, Hellenes, Greeks; and sometimes Hellenistæ,Acts vi. 1. Ἐγένετο γογγυσμὸς τῶν Ἑλληνιστῶν. in the New Testament; for I do not find this last word in the Maccabees, or in the other books of the Old Testament.
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Footnotes
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Translators’ note. This was the only difference between the Hellenistical and Hebraïzing Jews, who reproached their brethren with reading Scripture after the Egyptian manner, that is, from the left to the right; whereas the Rabbins say, that as the Sun moves from East to West, so they should read from the right hand to the left. This difference however produced no schism or separation. Salmasius indeed endeavours to prove, that they never read the Bible in Greek; and he gives this reason for his assertion, viz. because they never read it in Arabic, a language which the Jews were much more gener- ally acquainted with than Greek. See Salmasius, Funus Linguæ Hellenisticæ: and for the contrary opinion, Morin. Exercitat. Biblic. Voss. de LXX. Interpret. ↩