During the Hellenistic period, the ancient harvest festival also became a day of renewing the Noahic covenant, described in , which is established between God and "all flesh that is upon the earth". By this time, some Jews were already living in Diaspora. According to there were Jews from "every nation under heaven" in Jerusalem, possibly visiting the city as pilgrims during Pentecost. In particular the "hoi epidemountes" () are identified as "visitors" to Jerusalem from Rome. This group of visitors includes both Jews and "proselytes" (, "prosēlytos"); sometimes translated as "converts to Judaism", "proselyte" referred to non-Jews who adhered fully to the Mosaic laws, including circumcision. The list of nations represented in the biblical text includes Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamia, Judaea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Cyrene, and those who were visiting from Rome. Scholars have speculated about a possible earlier literary source for the list of nations including an astrological list by Paul of Alexandria and various references to the Jewish diaspora by writers of the Second Temple era (particularly Philo of Alexandria).