CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: Alexandrian Jews Forsake Ancestral Platform

I. The Tragedy of the Great Departure

We are about to trace one of the tragedies of ancient church history—the adoption, by one segment of the Jewish Church, of the essential elements of Plato’s enticing pagan philosophy concerning the nature and destiny of man. As previously mentioned, it will not be a pleasant journey for us to take, but it is unavoidable if we are to understand how God’s chosen people of old became confused by the subtle sophistries of devious reasoning, with one segment adopting these concepts that cast aside the uniform teachings of Moses and the prophets—those holy men of old who wrote under inspiration and set forth the revealed truth of God on this question.CFF1 632.1

Some questioning minds began to toy with these alluring pagan speculations and, becoming enamored, lost their bearings and brought confusion and tragedy into the ranks of Jewry. Fortunately, not all took the tangent path, fraught with such fateful consequences. Others—and a goodly number at that—remained true to the faith of their fathers. Resultant conflicts and exchanges were sharp. The wanderers strayed into barren deserts, as it were, that were dull and profitless, but nonetheless real and disastrous. We will pass over these arid spots as rapidly as consistent with a balanced portrayalCFF1 632.2

Happier will be our experience when we come to survey the stout allegiance of others to the revealed verities of Old Testament Scripture, as the breach widened over the irruption of Platonic Immortal-Soulism in the ranks of Jewry. So we turn to the pathetic record of the great departure and its repercussions that reach over into the Christian Era.CFF1 632.3

Picture 1: Jews Debating:
During the Inter-Testament Peroid the Jews Were Debating Over Conflicting Views of Truth and Error.
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