And exactly what was the “Jewish monotheist tradition”? Josephus who was very much part of the same world as the Apostles knew both Plato and Moses, insisted that Plato had read Moses. Many Jews, perhaps most Jews were Greek speakers. For many years Palestine was ruled by the Ptolomies, who were very friendly to Jerusalem, and Jews made up a quarter of Alexandria. Jesus himself very likely spoke some Greek although his “mission” was to Aramaic speaking Jews, by the testimony of the Gospels. Paul, though a Pharisee, came from the diaspora of the West, as did Apollos, an eloquent evangelist of whom Paul speaks favorably. Maybe what you call the Jewish monotheist tradition is the tradition of the rabbis who had to regroup, so to speak, after the destruction of the Temple, and create a non messianic/ non territorial Judaism for a now homeless Jewish nation.
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.