HELLENISTS ("Ελληνικά") — This term designated the Jews of the Diaspora (Acts 2:11; 6:1) who lived outside Palestine and spoke Greek. Of some groups of these expatriates we have news before 586, when a group of Palestinian Jews settled on the island of Elephantine, less than 10 km north of the first cataract of the Nile. The forced deportations carried out by the Babylonians and Assyrians spread Israelite elements respectively into Babylonia and among the populations of northern Assyria. In the mid-4th century B.C., there would have been the deportation of Palestinian Jews to Iran, carried out by Artaxerxes III Ochus. From Palestine, Judaism spread into Egypt, and from Egypt it crossed over; it accentuated its expansionist movement throughout the 3rd century B.C.
Many are the places that welcomed the expatriates: Alexandria, Antioch, Apamea, Laodicea, Pergamum, numerous Greek islands and cities of Asia Minor, and Bactriana on the borders of India. The most important center of the Diaspora was Alexandria, where the Jews were attracted by Alexander the Great and then by the Ptolemies, with the concession of the same rights as the Greeks. By the mid-1st century B.C., in Alexandria alone there lived more than 100,000 Jews. Although the Jews of the Diaspora welcomed Hellenic culture and civilization favorably (the Greek version of the Bible was made then, to satisfy the religious needs of the Jews of Alexandria and Egypt who did not understand Hebrew), they nevertheless always remained faithful to the worship of Yahweh. In early Christianity, the first deacons, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Parmenas, etc., are remembered as Hellenists (Acts 6:5); they are the ones who attempt to kill Paul after the Apostle’s escape from Damascus (Acts 9:29); some Hellenists from Cyprus and Cyrene, scattered by the storm that followed the death of Stephen, also preach to the Greeks (Acts 11:20).