{"title":"Conversion to Judaism and Hostility toward Jews in the Roman Empire","authors":"K. Berthelot","doi":"10.1163/15700631-bja10086","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n Hellenistic texts on Jews hardly ever refer to people converting to Judaism. Roman authors’ criticism and condemnation of people who had converted to Judaism thus appears as a new feature of anti-Jewish discourse. The relative prominence of references to Judaizers and converts in Roman literary texts may be explained by the number and visibility of proselytes in Rome, but also perhaps by the perception, within certain Roman circles, of conversion to Judaism as a betrayal of Roman values. Tacitus best illustrates this trend. This article seeks to shed light on his hostile remarks on converts through a comparison with Philo’s highly positive comments on proselytes. The comparison reveals surprising points of agreement between the two authors and helps us understand what was at stake in the phenomenon of conversion and how it could generate tensions between proselytes and their native environment.","PeriodicalId":45167,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Judaism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal for the Study of Judaism","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700631-bja10086","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HISTORY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Hellenistic texts on Jews hardly ever refer to people converting to Judaism. Roman authors’ criticism and condemnation of people who had converted to Judaism thus appears as a new feature of anti-Jewish discourse. The relative prominence of references to Judaizers and converts in Roman literary texts may be explained by the number and visibility of proselytes in Rome, but also perhaps by the perception, within certain Roman circles, of conversion to Judaism as a betrayal of Roman values. Tacitus best illustrates this trend. This article seeks to shed light on his hostile remarks on converts through a comparison with Philo’s highly positive comments on proselytes. The comparison reveals surprising points of agreement between the two authors and helps us understand what was at stake in the phenomenon of conversion and how it could generate tensions between proselytes and their native environment.
期刊介绍:
The Journal for the Study of Judaism is a leading international forum for scholarly discussions on the history, literature and religious ideas on Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman period. It provides biblical scholars, students of rabbinic literature, classicists and historians with essential information. Since 1970 the Journal for Study of Judaism has been securing its position as one of the world’s leading journals. The Journal for the Study of Judaism features an extensive book review section as well as a separate section reviewing articles.