Judea was right at the crossroads not only of an East-West trade but also of military exploits. Further, migration of the Jewish people throughout the Mediterranean sometimes diffused the religious observances. The best example of this is the Jewish temple at Elephantine wherein performing animal sacrifices (contrary to Deuteronomic law) in the name of alien deities for monotheistic worshipwas the practice.

The Jews at Alexandria began to translate various books (most likely the Pentateuch) into Greek for their own reading. Accepted by the community, it may have served Jewish thinkers well in their own apologetic dialogue with pagan intellectuals. Besides, proselytizing was hardly an unknown activity among the Jewish people as Matthew 23:15 attests. Even later Jewish writing of the period under review commends bringing one in "under the wings of the ''shekinah''." But even in Judea itself young priests neglected their duties so as to be able to participate--in the nude--at the gymnasium at Jerusalem. That some underwent the assuredly painful surgery of epispasm, the removal of the marks of circumcision, demonstrates just how serious they felt about this transition. Feeling gain in the advantage of opportunity was more than enough incentive for one to succeed in the society at large. Further, an appeal to the foreign power to decide cases--whether was to Antiochus IV Epiphanes deliberating about the office of the High Priest or the Roman procurator Cumanus of Antioch concerning tensions with the Samaritans--was probably distasteful to many Jewish people.