True, you had Jews that spoke Greek, Hellenized Jews like Josephus, the Rabbis you mentioned after the fall of Jerusalem, but these belie what we see in the Bible. The monotheist tradition we see there. For example:
One of the scribes asked Jesus “Which is the greatest commandment of all?” His answer: Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord.” The scribe’s response: Well, Master, thou hast said the truth:for there is one God; and there is none other but he.” Mark 12:28-32
Ask yourself, do the scribe or Jesus sound Hellenized on the monotheist tradition of the Jews? I think not.
We have another example in John 4:22, Jesus sets the monotheist tradition of the Jews over against that of the Samaritans. He told the Samaritan woman, “Ye worship ye know not what; we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.” In verse 24, he described the nature of the one God (God the Father) believed by the Jews, He is Spirit -
“God is Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
By the way, Oneness Pentecostals have the same monotheist tradition you see described by Jesus in John 4. Jesus, the monotheist Jews of his day, and Oneness Pentecostals see the one God as: the Father (verse 23), as Spirit, as absolutely one - “they that worship HIM (not them) must worship HIM (not them) in spirit and truth.”
This is not Greek philosophy, this is not Justin, Tertullian, or Origen, this is not the creed makers, this is what the Bible says.
Which doesn’t mean much to you as a RC, I realized that, you guys take what the ECF say over what the Bible says. Just opposite with Oneness Pentecostals.
Typo, my statement should say:
Ask yourself, do the scribe or Jesus sound Hellenized or do they sound like they represent the monotheist tradition of the Jews?
Josephus was a Pharisee. IAC, the tradition of the Pharisees and the Essenes, and of the Sadducees were all different, The Sadducess recognized as Scripture only the Torah. There was no single canon of Scripture. No single tradition.