Gospels. Thus it is possible that the Gadarene swineherds were Greeks rather than Semitic peasants. To the Phoenician, the Syrian, and the Arab the pig was hardly less unclean than to the Jew. We see also that while Jesus Himself is recorded to have spoken Aramaic, and to have read the Hebrew scriptures, it is by no means unnatural that the Gospel to the Gentiles should have been written in Greek-the official language of the Romans in the East, and the lingua franca of the Roman world. Josephus himself so wrote for Romans, and yet earlier the Hasmonean historian, under Alexander Jannæus, wrote his chronicle in the language of the Syrian Court. Architecture and written texts thus form our surest sources of knowledge as to the conditions prevailing in Palestine in Greek and Roman times. About 150 A.D., when the Mishnah was written at Tiberias in the later Hebrew, Greek and Persian words were used in Hebrew speech. These words, referring to civil law, government, trade, physic, and other matters, bear witness to the close relations which existed between the Jews and their neighbours. Probably the earliest indication of such intercourse is found in the Aramaic chapter in Danielalready noticed-where Greek names are given to instruments of music. But monumental texts tell us little of the religious and intellectual movements of the age preceding the Advent, and for such questions we must rely on the writings of Philo and of Josephus, and on the earlier apocalyptic books written in the Herodian age. Josephus himself was a Pharisee of broad views. He regards the story of Eden as an allegory in which "Moses speaks philosophically." His creed seems to have been affected by the current fashion of attempting to reconcile the ancient Scriptures with the Greek philosophy of Athens and of Alexandria -a fashion which is visible in the Book of Wisdom, and which led to Philo's attempt to reconcile the Torah with the Platonic theory of the Logos and Anastasis. Such views, no doubt as early as the time of Alexander Jannæus, found favour with the Hellenists, whose admiration of all Greek culture conflicted with the sterner precepts of the Law. Jewish opinion was thus naturally divided between the schools of the Sadducees, who found in the Torah no teaching of resurrection; of the Pharisees, whose traditions often show marks of Persian influence; and of the Hellenists, whose view of the future was based on Plato. But other influences were at work in Hasmonean and Herodian times. The Stoics had appeared in Syria, and their doctrines were accepted by Athenians and Romans. Yet earlier (according to Josephus, Apion, i. 22) an Indian colony of hermits seems to have been established in Syria, and bore the name of "Sugar-cane" people-the name of the family of Buddha. There seems, therefore, to be reason for supposing that Buddhist missionaries, who began to spread from the kingdom of Asoka about 250 B.C., had already penetrated to the Phoenician shores before the time of Christ. That Asoka knew the names of the Greek rulers of the West we learn from his own inscriptions; and the same Ptolemy for whom the Law BUDDHISTS AND ESSENES. 215 was rendered into Greek is said to have collected Buddhist books in his library. The hermits had long practised self-mortification in India, and had been met in Persia by Alexander the Great-one even being recorded to have come to Greece. In the second century A.D. Buddhists were found in Alexandria, and the legend of Buddha was known to St Jerome. It is not impossible, therefore, that the appearance of monastic sects in Palestine as early as the Hasmonean age, and in Egypt before the time of Philo, may yet be traceable to Buddhist influence. There is much in the description of the Essenes by Josephus that recalls the rules of the Buddhist Sangha or religious society. The existence of monasteries, the simplicity of dress, the common fund, the wanderings from place to place, are characteristic both of Buddhist missionaries and of the Essenes. The Egyptian Therapeutæ had the same customs as described by Philo. But the Essenes were not Indians, nor were they Buddhists only. They observed Hebrew rites, and read Hebrew Scriptures, although they abandoned sacrifices, and are said to have held peculiar tenets of their own. The resemblance between the Essenes and the early Christians has often been pointed out; but the celibacy of this Jewish sect was contrary to the plain teaching of Jesus concerning marriage, and to the practice of his wedded disciples. Another feature of the age preceding Christ was the widespread expectation of a future Saviour of the world. In Persia it was already believed that Zoroaster would |