Subject: JUICE History: From 1st - 3rd Century - Part #3
Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1998 23:44:39 +0000
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From: JUICE Administration <juice@virtual.co.il>
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Subject: JUICE History 3
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World Zionist Organization
Jewish University in CyberspacE
juice@wzo.org.il birnbaum@wzo.org.il
http://www.wzo.org.il
==============================================================
Course: Medieval Jewish History
Lecture: 3/12
Lecturer: Prof. Howard Adelman
Dear Subscribers,
As several of you pointed out,the last section of the first lecture was
inadvertently deleted. Well, here it is, followed by the third lecture,
which starts at - II Jews under the Romans...Sorry for the slip up.
It is important to mention this problem, however, because as we hear about
these groups in later history we must always keep in mind that the later
authors had no clearer picture than we could have, they were not trying to
get a clear picture, and that they were drawing selectively from the sources
available to them, which are basically limited to the New Testament,
Josephus, or rabbinic literature.
C. Jewish and Roman Rule in Judea
According to Josephus, in 63 BCE Pompey took Judea after conquering the
Seluecids. Hyrcanus II, the son of Alexander Yannai, a Hasmonean king of
Judea from 102-76 and whose wife Salome Alexandra or Shlomzion Hamalkah
ruled after him from 76-66, was recognized by the Romans as the High Priest
and Ethnarch, ruler of the Jews, but not as the king. The Jews of Judea now
paid an annual tribute to Rome and the size of Judea was reduced. Another
significant personality whose offspring would play a major role in future
events was Antipater II, Roman governor of Edom (Idumea) and probably a
descendent of a family forcibly converted to Judaism by John Hyrcanus I, who
had ruled from 135-104. After Julius Caesar defeated Pompey, Antipater was
appointed regent of Judea. Antipater's sons Phasael and Herod enjoyed rule
in Jerusalem and the Galilee respectively. When Herod fled to Rome to
garner support there, the Senate, on the advice of Octavian, the adopted son
of Caesar, better known as Augustus, and Mark Antony, also part of the
ruling Triumvirate, arranged for him to be king of Judea. In 39 BCE Herod
returned and in 37 reconquered Judea. From 37-4 he reigned as a client king
of the Romans. Herod had married Miriamme, granddaughter of Hyrcanus II and
thus he become linked with the Hasmonean dynasty. He expanded the territory
of Judea, protected the Jews abroad, built major projects such as those in
Caesarea and Massada, and enlarged the Temple in Jerusalem. He also placed
a golden eagle on it, supported Hellenistic games and temples. Under Herod,
and indeed in opposition to him, the Pharisees became a major force among
the Jews, Judaism was treated by Rome as a licit religion, the Jews were
exempt from emperor worship and they actively sought proselytes, attracting
many pagans to Judaism, or at least making them into semi-proselytes or
God-fearers. When Herod died in 4 BCE, the territory was divided among his
sons. He had designated Archelaus as King of Judea and Samaria, but before
Archelaus could be confirmed by Augustus, emperor from 27 BCE to 14 CE,
popular uprisings broke out because of the taxes Herod had placed on the
people, the eagle he placed on the Temple, and the execution of some Jews
who had tried to remove the eagle from the Temple. Popular demands
escalated and Archelaus responded with force, killing almost 3,000 Jews.
Typical of the infighting among the Jews, when Archeleus arrived in Rome,
several other delegations from Judea were there as well. One group of Jews
wanted the abolition of the Herodian dynasty and the joining of Judea and
Samaria to the Roman province of Syria. Another delegation of Roman Jews
supported this request. Yet another Jewish delegation from the Greek cities
also was there to support this request. One group from Herod's family wanted
the kingdom divided evenly among all Herod's sons or the confirmation of
Antipas as ruler. The Roman governor of Syria put down the rebellion of the
Jews and tried to meet many of these requests. Archeleus was previously
appointed ethnarch and his brothers tetrachs. Archeleus was cruel in
suppressing Jewish revolt with the hope that he would be confirmed as King
by the Romans, and subsequent complaints against him by the Jews caused the
emperor to remove him from power and exile him in the year 6. Judea was
annexed to Syria and placed under the authority of a Roman procurator
responsible to the governor of Syria.
>From 6 to 26 there were few uprisings in Judea. The Romans showed respect
for the Jews and the Jews showed respect for Rome. In 26, under the emperor
Tiberius, 14-37 CE, Pontius Pilate was made Procurator and he tried to
impose pagan symbols and to expropriate Jewish property. He was very
violent in crushing Jewish protests. It was during Pilate's bloody and
repressive administration that Jesus was crucified. Although the New
Testament tries to depict Pilate as innocent and to blame the Jews for
conspiring in this matter, it states that the trial and execution were
conducted by the Romans. Pilate was recalled by the emperor Tiberius in 36.
The next emperor, Caius Caligula, ruled from 37-41. Things started out well
with his release of Agrippa I, a grandson of Herod, from jail and his
appointment as ruler over parts of Judea, which were removed from the
authority of the procurator. Tensions between the Jews and the Romans
increased because of the repressiveness of Flaccus the Roman governor and
because of Caligula's insistence that he himself be worshipped as a god.
Only his assassination prevented the situation from deteriorating further.
Under Claudius, emperor from 41-54, Agrippa I was made King of Judea in 41.
He was popular among the Jews and there are traces of his legacy reported
later in the Mishnah (Bik. 3:4 and Sotah 7:8). He died suddenly in 44,
possibly poisoned by the Romans. Upon Agrippa I's death, anarchy broke out
in Judea. A succession of procurators ruled. The extremist Jewish sicarii,
dagger wielders, assassinated pro-Roman Jews. Agrippa II, the son of
Agrippa I, who was young at the time of his father's death, was appointed
king over a limited amount of territory with the right to supervise the
Temple and to appoint the high priest.
It was during this time, around 49 or 50, that Paul, previously called Saul,
set out on his first mission as a Christian. Paul was finally brought to
Rome and executed there in about 65. Because, according to Josephus (Ant.
20:197-204) and Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. 3:23:21-24), shortly before the
uprising against Rome, in either 62 or 66, the Jewish authorities killed
James of Jerusalem, Jesus' brother and leader of the Jewish-Christians. In
a controversial passage considered by many to have been a later
interpolation but considered by some to be authentic, Josephus also mentions
in passing the career of Jesus.
D. The Jewish Revolt against Rome
In a Jerusalem divided in its attitude to Rome, Agrippa II, in a speech
typical of Hellenistic historiography and reflecting the views of Josephus,
pointing out how Rome had subdued the rest of the world, tried to convince
the Jews not to rebel against Rome. The Jewish heads of the Temple
intentionally and provocatively stopped offering sacrifices in tribute to
Rome. Thus, in 66, while Nero was emperor (54-68), war broke out between the
Jews and the Romans. In October of 66 the Romans set siege to the Temple,
but then retreated to the seacoast where they were attacked by the Jews.
Agrippa II fought with the Roman forces, led after 67 by Vespasian who,
appointed by Nero, gathered an army in the north and began to crush
resistance. During the winter of 67-68 Jewish extremists, Zealots, took
over the rule of Jerusalem. In June of 68 Nero committed suicide and a
succession of generals tried to be emperor. In July of 69 Vespasian became
emperor. In April of 70 Vespasian's son and successor as Roman general,
Titus, set up a siege of Jerusalem. On August 6 (17 Tammuz) the regular
Temple sacrifices offered by the Jews to God ended. Beginning on August 13
(22-28 Tammuz) the Porticoes around the Temple were burned. On August 28 (9
Av) the Temple was burned. Until September resistance continued until all
of Jerusalem was razed, except for Herod's palace. In Rome the victory was
celebrated with the erection of the Arch of Titus which depicts the Temple
vessels and Jews brought to Rome in a triumphal march. Art historians still
debate whether the depictions on the Arch, which is still standing today,
are accurate or not. The some Jews, identified by Josephus as Zealots,
continued to hold out on the top of Massada, a mountain fortress built by
Herod near the Dead Sea. The Roman siege of Massada, described by Josephus,
and the remains of which are still visible today, lasted until 73 with a
collective self-immolation by the Jews on the mountain top.
II. Jews under the Romans from the Second till the Seventh Centuries
This lecture will provide a review of some of the basic structural features
of the transition period for the Jews who went from enjoying a level of
political and religious independence under the Romans to developing new
institutions and attitudes to survive and flourish under Roman and Christian
sovereignty. The key theme that will appear at each juncture is the fact
that Jews and Judaism were highly attractive to the other peoples of the
empire. The legislation that was enacted on a regular basis against
Judaism, especially Jews holding any sort of authority or power over other
people, was necessitated in the mind of its sponsors precisely because of
the attractiveness of Jews and Judaism. This interpretation, which I
believe consistently, or as consistent as a phenomenon can be in history,
explains the legislation of the period and provides an alternative
explanation to the customary lachrymose image of the suffering and
segregated Jew. Had the legislation reflected a denigrated position of the
Jews, there would have been no need for laws against conversion to Judaism,
intermarriage with Jews, or Jewish ownership of slaves. This legislation
thus represents a mirror image of the social reality that existed and shows
that the legislation involved power relationships between Jews and
Christians. Ultimately these relationships on the ground had a great deal of
symbolic value in the eyes of the adherents of both religions. Christians
eventually had to resort to force to produce what they could not achieve
through persuasion. This increasing hostility, however, grew out of
positive relations and meaningful interactions between Jews and Christians
at all levels. We will see, therefore, that initially there was little
intrinsic enmity between Jews and Christians, Judaism and Christianity; it
was often difficult to tell the difference. Anti-Jewish legislation emerged
from a defensiveness on the part of the early church, not a sense of
triumphalism. At the early stage the church leaders were concerned, as were
Jewish leaders, with the blurring of boundaries between themselves and
others, especially in matters of sexuality. In fact, we shall see
throughout our discussions that the critical Christian legislation that
defined relations with Jews was often equally or even more concerned with
matters of self-definition among Christians which often included a
significant discussion of sexuality among Christians.
A. War of Quietus
>From 98-117, during the reign of the emperor Trajan tensions between Rome
and the Jews of Palestine and Mesopotamia increased. In 117 there was a war
with Rome which received some attention in the Mishnah (Sota 9:14) as "the
War (Polemos) of Quietus." After subduing Jews in Mesopotamia, the general
Quietus was sent to be in charge of Judea in 117. There he also put down a
revolt of the Jews against the Romans, perhaps, according to the church
historian Eusebius, connected to revolts in Egypt and Cyrenaica in northern
Africa and in Cyprus [Historia Ecclesiastica 4:2].
B. Bar Kokhba and Hadrian
In 132 CE the Jews of the land of Israel, led by Simon Bar Kosiba, called
Bar Kokhba (cf. Numbers 24:17), the Aramaic for "son of a star," revolted
against the Romans, led by the emperor Hadrian, the successor to Trajan
117-138, culminating in an independent kingdom from 132-135. The causes of
the revolt are not clear, in particular whether Hadrian's treatment of the
Jews, a ban on castration that they understood to include circumcision,
plans to rebuild Jerusalem as a pagan city, and the banning of all Jews from
entering Jerusalem, was the cause of the revolt or the result of it and
whether they were enacted at the beginning, possibly during the 120s, or the
end of the revolt, after 135.
Sources of information on the revolt include historical artifacts from
around the Dead Sea, letters of Bar Kokhba, discovered at Wadi Murabbaat,
11 miles southwest of Kumran, coins, and stray references in the writings of
church fathers such as Eusebius, Dio Cassius, Spartianus, Chronicon
Paschale, and Hieronymus, as well as in rabbinic literature. The coins are
dated from the first and second years of "Freedom of Israel"; and the
letters, the third and fourth years. In one of the letters Bar Kokhba was
addressed as "the Nasi of Israel," the prince--or patriarch--of Israel.
In part the revolt could have been fueled by a crises of rising expectations
on the part of the Jews of the land of Israel. Hadrian started off on good
terms with them. He executed Quietus in 117 and may have considered
rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem until, according to the Midrash (Genesis
Rabbah 64.10), the Samaritans, a Jewish sectarian group, intervened. The
Sibylline Oracles, part of the intertestamental literature, expressed
Jewish hopes at the start of his reign (5:46-50). Hadrian made a series of
visits to Palestine in 129-132, reported in rabbinic literature and on
coins. These visits could have been friendly. Or they could have been
hostile, particularly if he arrived after the start of the revolt. The warm
stories in rabbinic literature of Hadrian chatting with Jewish farmers in
Palestine and the reports of his plans to rebuilt the Temple led the Jews to
hope for more than he would deliver.
The course of the war is also not known. Bar Kokhba appears as a demanding
and stern leader with absolute control over his troops and the land, for
which people paid him rent. Many of the leading rabbis of Palestine,
including Rabbi Akiva, one of the major rabbinic authorities of the Mishnah,
as well as Jews from abroad, played a role.
The revolt was accompanied by a major messianic fervor among the Jews with
Rabbi Akiva hailing Bar Kokhba, "You are the King, the Messiah" (Talmud of
the Land of Israel, Taanit 4:6). The coins adopted the same motifs as those
utilized during the Hasmonean kingdom established by the Maccabees: Lulav
and Etrog, the palm branch and citrus fruit, a palm branch with a date
cluster, a vine, and a jug of oil. Bar Kokhba used depictions of the
Temple, gates, harps, and trumpets, reflecting hopes for a reestablishment
of the Temple cult. The slogans on the coins included many from the
Hasmoneans and the Zealots: "Jerusalem," "For Freedom of Jerusalem," the
Redemption of Israel," and "the Freedom of Israel," mostly using the word
"Herut," meaning freedom.
According to Dio Cassius, the Jews accumulated weapons and dug underground
tunnels--some of which are still extant in places such as Herodium. Bar
Kokhba drove out the Romans for a while, and established control at
Jerusalem, with at least fifty fortresses, and over almost a thousand
villages throughout the country. At Betar, a fortified city about 7 miles
from Jerusalem, which was his final stronghold, he was able to hold off the
Romans for a long time. His main problem, according to his letters, was
getting supplies through. Some Jews, including Akiva, were martyred near
Caesaria. The end of the revolt was marked by the fall of Betar, where
according to the Midrash 80,000 myriads out of a force of 200,000 were
killed, including Bar Kokhba himself. Dio Cassisus gave the number as at
least 580,000 casualties. Jewish tradition placed the fall of Betar on the
ninth of Av (August), the traditional date also assigned to the destruction
of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem, and the burial of the dead on
the fifteenth of Av, a date with biblical resonances as well. Jerome, the
church father who lived in the land of Israel, confirmed that Betar fell in
August. Some survivors of Betar fled to the Judean desert where they were
pursued by the Romans, others left the country.
When the war was over the southern part of Judea was devastated, including
the rabbinic center at Yavneh. Many Jews and Romans--including an entire
legion-- were dead. As an indication of the losses of the Romans, Hadrian
did not begin his report to the Senate with the customary, "I and my army
are well." Much of Judean Jewry was killed or sold into slavery. The center
of Palestinian Jewry and rabbinic Judaism moved to the north: Caesaria,
Sepphoris, Beth Shaarim, and Usha. Jews were no longer allowed in
Jerusalem, with the exception of the Ninth of Av (hence the reason that the
Kotel, the Western Wall in Jerusalem, is called the Wailing Wall).
Jerusalem was rebuilt as a pagan city, Aelia Capitolina, with a temple to
Jupiter Capitolinus and a statue of Hadrian on the Temple mount. Capital
punishment was imposed on Jews for Torah study and circumcision, possibly
for purposes of limiting conversion to Judaism. Jews fled to Babylonia,
despite rabbinic attempts to keep Jews in the land of Israel, including
allowing marriages to be dissolved for one spouse to remain. Some Jews
defected from Judaism, including Elisha ben Abuyeh, known as Aher, "the
other," in rabbinic literature, because of his heretic views, made famous in
the novel As a Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg. Henceforth, after Bar
Kokhba's messianic movement, which with the support of many rabbis, had
produced such devastation for the Jews, the rabbis tried to limit messianic
speculation among the Jews. They began to teach that the messiah would come
in 400, 600, or 365 years. "Tipah atzman mahshivei kitzin," "those who
calculate the end of days will be destroyed."
The end of the revolt brought a relaxation of the tensions between the
Romans and the Jews of Palestine. The Romans stopped provoking the Jews and
the Jews, with a new pacific spirit, began to accept Rome. Traces of
rabbinic comments from this period include praise of Roman public works and
the army. Hananiah ben Shimon bar Yohai helped the Romans to catch political
terrorists and brigands. "Pray for the welfare of the government," a maxims
in the Mishnah's Pirkei Avot, reflected this new attitude towards Roman
authority in the land of Israel.
The Bar Kokhba revolt marked a turning point, if not a break, in the
relations between Jews and Christians. The acceptance of the messianism of
Bar Kokhba constituted a rejection of Jesus. According to Eusebius (Hist.
Ecc. 4.8.4; 4.6.4; and 5.12.1) Bar Kokhba recognized that the
Judeo-Christians did not support him. After the war subsequent Christian
bishops of Jerusalem were gentile Christians and not of Jewish origin.
C. The Severan Dynasty
Despite the devastation, better treatment by the Romans, and periods of
prosperity and development, the Jews of the land of Israel continued to
revolt against the Romans for several centuries.
Antoninus Pius, emperor from 138-161, abolished many of Hadrian's decrees
against the Jews, except those against conversion to Judaism and Jews
entering Jerusalem. Because of the devastation at Yavneh, the Sanhedrin,
the main deliberative body of the rabbis, moved north to Usha, near present
day Haifa. The Patriarch of the Jews of the land of Israel, Shimon ben
Gamaliel II, claimed descent from David, still maintaining continuity in
Jewish sovereignty.
Commodus, emperor from 180-192, endured further outbursts of rebellion by
the Jews of Palestine. When he was assassinated the Jews sided with Niger,
the governor of Syria, who lost to Severus Septimus. Because the Senate
declared a triumphant for a victory over Judea--the only evidence of some
sort of battle--there must have been further military skirmishes between the
Jews and the Romans.
Severus Septimus, who ruled from 193-211, saw a period of good relations
between Rome and the Jews of the land of Israel. Perhaps feeling threatened
from both the power and influence of Christianity and Judaism, he passed
some laws against Christianity and continued prohibitions against conversion
to Judaism. Nevertheless, during this period, the Jews built impressive
stone synagogues were built in the Galilee.
Carcalla, the son of Septimus, ruled from 211-217, declaring in 212 that all
free inhabitants of the Roman empire were citizens, subject to holding the
curial office, the Decurionen, a tax collecting position, because many
Romans did not want to assume since the burdens of these offices made the
office holder personally liable for uncollected taxes.
In 235 the Severan dynasty ended with the death of Severus Alexander and an
interregnum began. For fifty years there was tumult, political and economic
decline, wars with Persia, inflation, succession problems with the armies.
Many Jews left the land of Israel.
>From 284-305 Diocletian ruled as a dictator, with great pomp and ceremony,
restoring order and stability, making peace with Persia in 288, and
instituting political repression. He also was hostile to Christianity, often
forcing Christians to convert and to make libations to the pagan deities.
He recognized the authority of the Patriarch of the Jews, but he did try to
force Jews to marry according to Christian rules of consanguinity,
forbidding marriages between uncles and sororal nieces.
As late as 351, based on some small shreds of evidence in rabbinic and
patristic literature, there may have been a rebellion by the Jews against
the Romans in Sepphoris---Diocaesarea. The first reports of attacks against
synagogues date from 355 in northern Italy and northern Africa. But it is
unclear whether these represent attacks on Jews or against Christians who
may have been frequenting the synagogues.
In short, during the final centuries of pagan Roman rule in the land of
Israel, the Jews continued to exercise physical and spiritual power in the
region. The Roman emperors dealt with them in a variety of way, but they
were clearly a force to be reckoned with.
D. Judaism and Early Christianity in the Roman Empire
Until the year 313, Judaism and Christianity competed with each other on
fairly even terms in a struggle between conflicting religious
interpretations of the same tradition. Rome recognized Judaism, and not
Christianity, as a licit religion. Thus each group claimed to be the true
Israel, not only for theological reasons but also to be legitimate in the
eyes of Rome.
The battle between Judaism and Christianity at this time was a battle of
midrash, a conflict over biblical interpretation, in which each tried to
show that it was the true heir to the promises made by God to Israel and
that it was the other who was the heir to the curses that God heaped upon
ancient Israel as described in the Prophets. So it is important to realize
that while as a religion Judaism opposed Christianity as much as
Christianity opposed Judaism, at the same time there were many positive
relations between individual Jews and Christians. In fact, it will be seen
that the positive relations between the people and the rivalry between the
two groups for converts that may have been the cause of heightened
theological hostility, rather than simply the ascendancy of Christianity,
which, according to many conventional scholars, was intrinsically opposed to
Judaism.
Patristic writers, such as Eusebius, the bishop of Caesarea (d. 340), show
the final developments of Christianity in the pagan world. He wrote two
works in around 311, the time of Roman Emperor Constantine's toleration of
Christianity. In Preparatio evangelica and Demonstratio evangelica,
Eusebius argued for the superiority of Christianity over all religions,
particularly Judaism. He asserted that the patriarchs and Moses had been
Christians, trying to deprive Judaism of its ancient literature, heroes,
sages, hope, ritual, prayers, and divine promise. They tried to read the
entire Bible for their own Christian message. Some of the key passages
included, "the elder serving the younger," (Gen. 25:23) "the scepter shall
not depart from Judah until Shiloh comes," (Gen. 49:10) "a virgin shall
conceive and give birth," (Isaiah 7:14) "the suffering servant," (Isaiah 53)
"the new covenant," (Jeremiah 31). The Christians tried to show that Jesus
was related to David, his coming was predicted by the Prophets, and that the
blessings of the Old Testament applied to the Christians and the curses to
the Jews. Additionally, the Christians tried to eliminate many aspects of
Christianity that were seen as Jewish: synagogue worship, the sabbath,
holidays, dietary laws, circumcision, and legal practices other than the
basic principles of the Ten Commandments.
The Jews in rabbinic literature, such as the midrash and even the prayerbook
(with the birkat haminim, "sectarians blessing," designed to remove
sectarians, perhaps Christians, from participating in the service), began to
pursue a polemic against Christianity, an aspect of early Judaism not widely
recognized today, although it was central to relations throughout the middle
ages. The rabbis tried to show that the Patriarchs were good rabbinic Jews,
that Moses, Moshe Rabbenu, was a rabbi. They stopped the public reading in
the synagogue on a daily basis of the Ten Commandments and asserted the
equality of all the Torah, all 613 commandments according to their reckoning
(Talmud of the Land of Israel, Berakhot 1:5, 1:8 (3c); Babylonian Talmud
Berakot 12a; Tamid 5:1). Abraham's attempt to sacrifice Isaac, the Binding
of Isaac or the Akeddah in Genesis 22, read on the Jewish New Year, Rosh
Hashanah, was presented as competing with the Passion of Christ. Midrash
and piyyut, Hebrew poetry, tried to show that Abraham actually sacrificed
his only begotten son, whose death served as atonement for the Jews and that
Isaac was later resurrected (see Bereshit Rabbah 56 and Psalms Rabbah 29).
Jews argued that prophecy had ceased well before the period in which Jesus
would live and that, contrary to the Christian reading of Genesis 49:10, the
scepter had never departed from Judah. Rabbinic literature also explicitly
attacked the Gospels, calling them "aven gilayon," a Hebrew pun that refers
to the evangels as "revealed sin." It was be suggested that they can be
burned despite the fact that they contain the divine name. Jews were
cautioned that it is better to die than to hide in a church. By the second
or third centuries, although it was never officially edited or canonized,
Jews began to circulate a bawdy version of the New Testament in Hebrew,
Toledot Yeshu, "the Generations of Jesus," which described him as the
illegitimate son of a menstruating whore given to blasphemy and magic. Any
miracles associated with his resurrection were attributed to his disciples
having stolen his body. There even seems to be a degree of defiant pride
in narrating the involvement of the elders of Jerusalem in administering to
Jesus the many traditional forms of rabbinic execution including, flogging,
stoning, and hanging, although they could not find a tree that would receive
him.
It should be pointed out that a reconstruction of the earliest strata of
Jewish attitudes towards Jesus and Christianity presents methodological
difficulties for the following reasons:
1. Many of the traditions, although sometimes associated with earlier
rabbis, are found in much later texts from more distant lands. The Talmud
originated in fifth century Palestine and sixth century Babylonia. The
midrash was edited and reedited from the second to the twelfth centuries and
not published until many centuries later.
2. Many of the most anti-Christian teachings were edited out of Jewish
texts either by Christian censors who might even consign entire works to the
flames or by Jewish censors who tried to prevent the burning of Jewish books
by removing passages that might offend.
3. Later reciprocal attitudes make it very difficult to see the different
ways in which Jews and Christians once may have related to each other. Jews
have not always been the passive victims of Christian power. Christians
have not always attacked Jews without provocation. Jews have been feisty
polemicists and Christians have had to legitimize their religion. Attacks
on Judaism may have been due to its strength, authority, power, and
influence, not its weakness.
For Further Reading
A. Linder, The Jews in Roman Imperial Legislation
M. Simon, Verus Israel
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