Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Alexandria was the crucible of dense intercultural exchanges, marked by the translation of the Bible in Greek. Philosophy was the most prestigious aspect of the paideia, the traditional system of Greek education. In the fragments of Greek and Roman writers collected by Menahem Stern, one finds two kinds of Greek reactions toward Judaism. In the first period, Jews got some sympathy from philosophers, as is evident in a famous fragment from Theophrastus. But from the end of the second century BC many philosophers were active propagandists of the hatred of Jews. One could have expected that Stoics, because of their cosmopolitism and rational humanism, would have rejected this kind of attitude. In fact, as is evident in Posidonius, Seneca, or Chaeremon, their anti-Judaism was virulent. It was based on the idea that Jews were a closed and superstitious nation. Actually those Jews who aimed to be integrated in the Greek cities and who, for many of them, only spoke the Greek language could not avoid to learn at least some elements of philosophy. Apart, however, from the huge Philonic corpus, about which it is difficult to affirm if it is an exception or the culmination of a long tradition, there remain only some fragments, most of them known indirectly, the interpretation of which is difficult. Little remains of what probably had been a great cultural continent.</jats:p>