Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One in Hellenistic times who adopted the Greek language and culture, especially a Jew of the Diaspora.
  • noun A devotee or student of Greek civilization, language, or literature.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who is partly Greek; one who has Greek affinities, or who adopts the Greek language, manners, and customs; specifically, a Jew who used the Greek language and conformed more or less to Greek influence in the early period of Christianity, both in Palestine and in foreign countries, especially Egypt.
  • noun One skilled in the Greek language and literature; a Greek scholar; a Grecian.
  • noun A promoter of Greek culture; specifically, one of the learned Greeks who, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, disseminated the knowledge of the Greek language and literature in Italy, and were among the chief agents of the revival of learning.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who affiliates with Greeks, or imitates Greek manners; esp., a person of Jewish extraction who used the Greek language as his mother tongue, as did the Jews of Asia Minor, Greece, Syria, and Egypt; distinguished from the Hebraists, or native Jews (Acts vi. 1).
  • noun One skilled in the Greek language and literature.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A specialist in the study of Greek language, literature, culture, or history, or an admirer of the Greek culture and civilization.
  • noun A person who adopted the Greek customs, language and culture during the Hellenistic period, especially a Hellenized Jew.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ελληνιστής (hellenistes) "somebody who speaks Greek", from ελληνίζειν (hellenizein) "to speak Greek, to make Greek, to become Greek, hellenize", from Ancient Greek Έλλην (Hellen) "Greek".

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Examples

  • The Jewish group, led by the ragtag Maccabee army, beat back the Hellenist hedonists.

    Hanukkah Boosters Light a Fire Under Holiday Stephanie Simon 2011

  • Was it a civil war between traditionalist Jews and Hellenist assimilators that conveniently included a “miracle of the oil” to distract us from memories of an ugly internecine war?

    Chanukkah! Chanukah! Hanukkah! « The Blog at 16th and Q 2009

  • Building a Roman image from Hellenist hearsay accounts, decades after the death of the 1st-century Pharisee Ribi, and after a forcible ouster, by Hellenist Roman gentiles, of his original Jewish followers (135 C.E., documented by Eusebius), based on writings of a Hellenist Jew excised as an apostate by the original Jewish followers (documented by Eusebius) is circular reasoning through gentile-Roman Hellenist lenses.

    The Problem With Publishing On The Historical Jesus James F. McGrath 2010

  • Roman gentile, Hellenist-redacted versions were based, there is not one fragment, not even one letter of the NT that derives DIRECTLY from the 1st-century Pharisee Jews who followed the Pharisee Ribi Yehoshua.

    The Problem With Publishing On The Historical Jesus James F. McGrath 2010

  • But I say again that it does not matter if Jesus obtained his wisdom from a Hellenist philosopher or from God himself.

    The Poet Prince KATHLEEN MCGOWAN 2010

  • Hellenist Romans but, rather, in the Judaic descriptions of Pharisees and Pharisee Ribis of the period... in Dead Sea Scroll 4Q MMT see Prof.

    The Problem With Publishing On The Historical Jesus James F. McGrath 2010

  • His mother's name wasn't Mary it was Mariam, but the anti-semetic Hellenist Greeks changed all the holy family and aposiles names to Greek so miget brains like you would like them.

    Evangelical plans lawsuit over new Obama outreach effort 2008

  • Just using this contra-historical oxymoron demonstrated by the eminent late Oxford historian, James Parkes, The Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue exposes your Christian-blinkered agenda--dependent upon 4th-century, gentile, Hellenist sources.

    The Problem With Publishing On The Historical Jesus James F. McGrath 2010

  • The issue resolves to whether those who claim to follow J-sus will persist in following the Roman Hellenist-redacted syncretized imitation, J-sus, which has misled them, or turn to follow the Torah--in the Pharisee/Orthodox Jewish community--as the *historical* Pharisee Ribi Yehoshua and the Netzarim taught.

    Bait-and-switch Passover Haggadah? Messianics in the bookstore | RELIGION Blog | dallasnews.com 2009

  • Dacier, was known as "the greatest French woman Hellenist" of her era.

    Editorial Notes to 'Letter to the Women of England' 2007

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