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Ptolemy II was the first to clearly grant the Egyptian clergy what they desired. He kept erecting large temples in the north and in the south of the country. He also rebuilt old temples. He was thus no different in what he has established of religious buildings than the greatest of pharaohs in their most glorious times. There is a whole chapter about the outstanding religious buildings that were established at the time of Ptolemy II. In that chapter we talk about the new temples he has erected and the ones he has rebuilt. Among the temples which he has rebuilt is the Temple of Isis. This temple has been preserved for us till this day. It is considered one of the most prised gems the Ptolemies have left us with respect to architecture, art and Ancient Egyptian religion from the pictures and symbols engraved on it.

Despite the fact that Ptolemy II has established many Ancient Egyptian temples which indicates that Egypt at that time had been experiencing a period of great wealth and that they were living a luxurious life, yet this did not apply but to the group of occupying Hellenes and the Egyptian and Greek clergy only. As for the original Egyptian people, in other words the class of farmers and laborers, they worked hard not for themselves but to fulfill the desires of the king who worried about nothing else other than gathering money to spend on his wars to extend his kingdom on neighboring countries or to spend it on his own pleasures and those of the men that surrounded him who were all foreigners. It is therefore believed that the seeds of the downfall which took place in Egypt after the Rafah battle go back to the time of Ptolemy II who had drained the energy of the Egyptians.

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Despite the acceptance of both parties for this common worship, each of them worshipped their god according to their own methods and customs which they have inherited from their ancestors.

It is well known that the position of the Ptolemies with regards to worship matters in Egypt was a sensitive one and needed a lot of skill and care in order for things to move on smoothly in the country without any clashes or confrontations taking place. Due to this we find that Ptolemy II had been alert and careful in his behavior with the two groups, despite the fact that both the Hellenes and the Egyptians had considered him a god, each group in its own way. But, the great majority of the inhabitants of Egypt being Ancient Egyptians upon which the wealth and prosperity of the country depended because they were the working labor in agriculture and industries in general, all this led to Ptolemy II to exert his effort so that they be under his command. He was not to attain this without pleasing the Egyptian clergy, for they were considered the spiritual leaders of the Egyptian population. Ptolemy II realized that the only means by which he can get the clergy on his side was to erect religious buildings and give plenty of offerings to places of worship, offerings such as lands and animals to be offered for their gods across the land of Egypt.

Actually, this was the same method that pharaohs used in all their ages and specially in the final dynasty of their reign. They have realized that securing the rule of a pharaoh on his thrown depended on pleasing the clergy by erecting buildings for worship and providing plenty of offerings.

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What remained for Ptolemy II was to control the Hellenic group who were a mixture of Greeks, Macedonians and others who had come with Alexander the Great and the Ptolemies after him from other corners of the Hellenic land. The first step Ptolemy II took in this direction was making himself a god as Alexander the Great had done by claiming that he was a descendant of Hercules, the Greek god. At the beginning, Ptolemy II faced tough resistance from the side of the occupying Greeks and Macedonians because they were not used to worshipping persons. Yet, after great effort, he was able to reach his goal of establishing himself as a god for the occupiers. Hence, we find that he considered himself a god for the Egyptians by being a descendant of Ra, and at the same time the object of worship by Greeks, Macedonians and others who have come from the Hellenic land, settled in and controlled Egypt due to him being a descendant of Hercules. Therefore, Ptolemy II was a god for the occupiers worshiped according to their own way and a god for Egyptians worshipped on their own way. There is no doubt in that each of those two groups had their own religion and their own way of worship that followed their teachings. Due to this, we find that from the time of Ptolemy II, and perhaps before him, there had been two groups of clergy: the group of Egyptian clergy and the group of Hellenic clergy. At first, competition was high among the two groups of clergy. Ptolemy II exerted great effort to please both groups either by providing offerings or by erecting religious buildings.

The policy of the Ptolemies from the beginning was to unify the Egyptian and Macedonian Greek object of worship by encouraging them to worship a single god.

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The Ptolemies shared great skill and sound political handling of matters in integrating, if only apparently, between the occupying Hellenes and the Egyptians despite the clear differences between the two. Actually, Ptolemy II following the footsteps of his his father Ptolemy I from the beginning of his reign found that unifying the Hellenes and the Egyptians with regards to all aspects of life is impossible. Each of these two groups had its own customs and traditions which required approaching this sensitive issue with patience, care and great wisdom.

From the side of the Egyptians, Ptolemy II knew quite well from the history of the Egyptian land that no ruler was able to control it unless he was a Pharaoh from the descendants of the god Ra. The reason behind this is that the clergy as well as the Egyptian people viewed the pharaoh as a descendant of the god Ra, the first king to control Egypt. Therefore, in order to take control of the Egyptian people, the Ptolemies had to convert to the Ancient Egyptian religion and also to appear as the descendants of Ra. When they implemented this strategy, their monarchy became stable and they were able to secure their control specially that the controlling switch of the Egyptian people was in the hands of the clergy, viewed as being the strongest sector in the country having the ability to steer the whole population to whichever direction they wish at the times of peace and war. That way, Ptolemy II was able, through getting the clergy on his side, to make the farmers and all the working labor under his disposal directing them to wherever he pleased having established himself as a god to be worshiped and obeyed on earth.