Myron, in his usual hasty and decided manner, pressed his speedy reception as a proselyte, and his friends were desirous that this festival should be made still more solemn by his conversion. In later times accessions from among the heathens to the Jewish religion had become very common, and they were regarded as a pledge of the approach of the time when the promises of God should be fulfilled, which, as they understood them, implied the dominion of Israel over the whole earth.
Iddo and the priest with whom Myron had lodged endeavoured to prevail on him, by [submitting to circumcision], and baptism to become one of the family of Abraham and an heir of its promises, after which, on the offering of three turtle-doves, he would become a proselyte of righteousness, and be permitted to bring his sacrifice, like a native Jew, into the court of the priests. Myron was more inclined to become only a proselyte of the gate; and Helon took his part, and asked what more was necessary, since he could thus enjoy the benefits of the law, could partake in all the civil privileges of Israel, and dwell in their gates? “Would there not too,” he asked, “be danger that he should be seduced by the Hellenists to join the worship at Leontopolis, if he returned to Egypt in every respect a Jew?”
On the following morning they conducted Myron before [the tribunal which sat in the gate of Nicanor]. In the presence of three witnesses, Helon, Selumiel, and the priest his host, he solemnly abjured idolatry, professed his belief in all the truths which are revealed in the law, and promised obedience to the seven Noachic precepts, as they were called; namely, to abstain from idolatry, to worship only the true God, to avoid incest, not to commit theft, or robbery, or murder, to maintain judgment and justice, and to abstain from blood and all that contained blood, consequently from things strangled. He then presented his offering, but he was not allowed to come any further than to the enclosure between the court of the Gentiles and the court of Israel. From this time he bore the name of a devout man, one that feared God, a stranger or proselyte of the gate.
As Helon and Myron spent the last day but one of the feast in Iddo’s tabernacle on the mount of Olives, Helon read to him the description which Nehemiah gives of the first celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles after the captivity:[[169]]
“And on the second day were gathered together the chief of the fathers of all the people, the priests, and the Levites, unto Ezra the scribe, even to understand the words of the law. And they found written in the law which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month. And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written. So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the Watergate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim. And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths; for since the day of Joshua, the son of Nun, unto that day, had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness. Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast seven days: and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly according unto the manner.”
“It is not to be denied,” said Myron, when it was finished, “that [the Dionysian festivals of the Greeks] have considerable resemblance to the Feast of Tabernacles; the mixt offering of water and wine reminds me of the gift of Bacchus; the bundle of palm, myrtle, and willow branches, of the Thyrsus; the Hosanna, of the Evoe; the procession round the altar, of the Dionysian train; the dance in the court of the Women, of the dances of the Grecian youths. The torch too is in both cases found in the hands of the votary. But the resemblance of the Dionysia of the Greeks to the Feast of the Tabernacles is that of a distorted image to the faithful picture.”
“You might have gone further,” said Helon, “and have added that such is the relation generally of heathenism to Judaism. The heathens have mingled poetry and fable with the tradition which they received from the family of Noah; they have disfigured by human inventions the divine truths which they learnt from the Jews. How indeed could it be otherwise, since Jehovah found it necessary to preserve this knowledge pure in Israel, by renewing and impressing more deeply the communication of it by means of the law?”
“I understand now,” said Myron, “what you alluded to before, and I see the history of antiquity in an entirely new light. The Greeks differ from the Egyptians only in this, that they have given their distorted images a more graceful form.”
“Bless Jehovah,” said Helon, “that thou hast returned at last to the true source; and pray to him that all the heathens may come to draw from it. The advent of the Messiah, who shall accomplish this, cannot be far distant. He shall be the light of the Gentiles and the consolation of Israel. The sceptre is already departed from Judah[[170]] and is in the hand of Levi; and the seventy weeks of Daniel are hastening to their close.”
“And tell me,” said Myron, “my former friend, but now my brother in faith, shall my heathen brethren in those days become proselytes of the gate, or proselytes of righteousness? To me it seems, if I may venture to confide to you my opinion on such a subject, that this distinction points to an important difference in the laws of Jehovah themselves. I have bound myself by an oath to obey those precepts of universal morality, which are contained equally in the Noachic and Mosaic law; and I have professed my belief in all the truths which your lawgiver taught; but I have not bound myself to all the rites and ceremonies which your nation practises. How then, if the former were what is truly valuable, what all nations alike need; and in the days of which you speak shall alike know; and if the latter were only important for their tendency to preserve the others?”