Ancient Israel took a substantially negative attitude towards the oriental cultures of the time. One can see that, for example, in the case of Babylon which they judged by also applying to it the «myth of Lucifer», which was extended as well to other peoples and other cities. We can also see this attitude in the way in which they understood the person of the foreigner who was often equated with an enemy. Nevertheless the hermeneutic that the wisdom tradition applied to the history of Israel expressed itself differently. Imitating here an attitude already practised elsewhere — one thinks of the way in which the Greeks assimilated the Egyptian culture, above all in contrasting themselves with «the barbarians» — one claimed that the wisdom and institutions of Israel were the oldest and hence superior to those of other peoples (Deut 4:5-8; Job 28; Prov 8 and Sir 24). The «culture» (and hence also the religion) of ancient Israel survived precisely through this interpretation to which on this way the foreign cultures had offered a fundamental contribution.

Gregorianum