Jews in the Diaspora

41 C.E. Embassy of Pagan Alexandrians to Emperor Claudius (41-54 C.E.)
By October 30, 2016 Read More →

41 C.E. Embassy of Pagan Alexandrians to Emperor Claudius (41-54 C.E.)

Judeopagan Conflict Berlin Papyrus Inv. 8877; CPJUD. II 156C, Col. 2 Isidoros: “My Lord Augustus, with regard to your interests, Balbillus (e.g. leader of the Alexandria mission) indeed speaks well. But to you, Agrippa (King of Judaea), I wish to retort in connection with the points you bring up about the Jews. I accuse them […]

Posted in: Jews of Egypt
39 C.E. Philo is Part of Embassy to Emperor Caligula
By October 30, 2016 Read More →

39 C.E. Philo is Part of Embassy to Emperor Caligula

Judeopagan Conflict/ The Temple Mount and Statue of Caligula Both the Jews and the Greeks (e.g. sent emmisaries to Rome) continued to plead their respective causes before the emperor. A Greek delegation, composed of “elders” (gerontes), left for Rome just after the advent of Emperor Caligula, soon to be followed by another, whose members included […]

Posted in: Jews of Egypt
August 38 C.E. Jews and Synagogues of Alexandria
By October 30, 2016 Read More →

August 38 C.E. Jews and Synagogues of Alexandria

Jews and Synagogues of Alexandria/ Judeopagan Conflict/ Murder/ Statue of Caligula in Synagogues The Jews of Hellenistic Egypt met with a certain amount of “anti-Judaism,” even during the period of their greatest influence, but things did not turn noxious until the Roman period. Ethnic strife and urban violence in Alexandria caused serious damage to the […]

Posted in: Jews of Egypt
10 C.E. – 66 C.E. Petronius
By October 19, 2016 Read More →

10 C.E. – 66 C.E. Petronius

Circumcision Circumcision was particularly abhorrent to the Romans: the novelist Petronius describes a slave who has “only two faults… he is circumcised and he snores”, and Tacitus includes circumcision in his list of “abominable and base” Jewish customs. Source: Satyricon, 68:4-8, in Stern 1976, 442.; Contra Apionem, 2. 123; Rajak 1992, 18. Dr. Joan Goodnick […]

5 C.E. – 67 C.E. Saint Paul
By October 19, 2016 Read More →

5 C.E. – 67 C.E. Saint Paul

Passover Corinthians I Cor. 5:7-8, NIV “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth”

4 C.E. – 70 C.E. Columella
By October 19, 2016 Read More →

4 C.E. – 70 C.E. Columella

Jews in the “Circus” of Rome De Re Rustica, III, 8:1, 2, 4 She (e.g. Nature) has adorned Germany with armies of exceedingly tall men, but she has not wholly deprived other nations of men of exceptional stature. For Cicero bears witness that there was once a Roman citizen, Naevius Pollio, who was a foot […]

10 B.C.E. – 65 C.E. Seneca
By October 19, 2016 Read More →

10 B.C.E. – 65 C.E. Seneca

Lighting Lamps on Sabbath and Proselytizing by Jews Seneca’s references to Jews derive from works that he composed in the sixties of the first century C.E., that is, at the height of the Jewish proselytizing movement and the diffusion of Jewish customs throughout the Mediterranean world. What mattered to Seneca was the spread of the […]

10 B.C.E. – 50 C.E. Cornelius Celsus
By October 19, 2016 Read More →

10 B.C.E. – 50 C.E. Cornelius Celsus

Jewish Doctors Cornelius Celsus compiled an encyclopaedic work, of which only the medical part has remained. It is noteworthy that among the authorities quoted by this Latin author, who apparently lived in the time of Tiberius, we find a Jewish medical writer, Iudaeus; cf. the commentary. First Celsus states that among the plasters useful for […]

20 B.C.E. Judaeopagan Conflict, Alexander the Great and the Jews of Egypt
By October 19, 2016 Read More →

20 B.C.E. Judaeopagan Conflict, Alexander the Great and the Jews of Egypt

Under the Ptolemies, the Jews had been part of the community of “Hellenes,” the dominant group of Greek-speaking conquerors. When the Romans, in their turn, conquered Egypt, the situation was altered from top to bottom. There was no room within the limits of Roman law for the community of Hellenes, a cultural rather than a […]

Posted in: Jews of Egypt
Jews in the Diaspora
By October 13, 2016 Read More →

Jews in the Diaspora

The Time of Isaiah (750 B.C.E. – 675 B.C.E.) 800 B.C.E. Greek and Roman Gods 590 B.C.E. Pharaoh Psamtik II 570 B.C.E. – 495 B.C.E. Pythagoras 525 B.C.E Cambyses II The Jews of Egypt 300 B.C.E. Theophrastus 300 B.C.E. The Jews of Greece 48 B.C.E. – 44 B.C.E. Julius Caesar 64 B.C.E. ― 10 B.C.E. […]