Bibliography
| Title: Pagans in a Jewish World. Pagan Involvement in Jewish Religious and Social Life in the First Four Centuries CE Type: Thesis Year: 1992 Abstract: "This thesis analyzes the involvement of non-Jews, often referred to as "God-fearers", in ancient Jewish communities. I discuss the pertinent evidence, including inscriptions, Josephus, Philo, rabbinic texts, Luke-Acts, early Christian writers, and Greek and Latin authors, to determine what types of activities characterized these persons, their numbers, their chronological and geographic distribution, and their role in the expansion of Christianity. I pay careful attention to each text as an independent witness to the phenomenon, and to the literary factors which may have affected how ancient authors portrayed "God-fearers", or as I prefer "pagan adherents". The fragmented nature of the evidence and ideologically driven portrayals require that any historical reconstruction be tentative. Nevertheless, we can observe in these sources how pagans engaged in various Jewish practices including individual and communal worship, benefaction of Jewish institutions, participation in festivals, and attendance in the synagogue. In their participation they represent one segment on a broader spectrum of pagan-Jewish relations in Roman antiquity, between those who converted to Judaism and those who thought highly of Jews and Judaism, but expressed little or no interest in becoming involved with Jewish life. The evidence points to a possible rise in the number of pagan adherents in the second and third centuries, the same period when initiation cults and syncretistic beliefs were gaining in popularity. The correspondence suggests that pagan adherents may have been as much a manifestation of trends prevalent in Greco-Roman religions as they were a part of ancient Jewish life. The subject of pagan adherents reflects a situation of productive relations between pagans and Jews. These relations persisted despite various anti-Jewish actions and statements and the rebellions which took place between 66 and 135 CE. For the most part, the Roman Empire before the conversion of Constantine was a time when Jews and Judaism enjoyed social acceptance, and when Jews opened up their communities to interested non-Jews". Keywords: Cultural and Religious History of Ancient Judaism |