Source: “Paul: The Pagan’s Apostle”, by Paula Fredriksen, 2017.
This podcast explores the complex relationship between Jewish communities and the broader Greco-Roman world, particularly emphasizing the intertwined nature of ethnicity and religious practice in antiquity. Unlike modern distinctions, ancient societies viewed a people's gods as intrinsically linked to their "family" or ethnic identity. The podcast details how Jews, especially those of the western Diaspora, largely migrated voluntarily, adapting to Hellenistic culture, including the adoption of Greek as a common language and the translation of their scriptures into the Septuagint. It highlights the challenge this posed for Jews, who lived in cities permeated by the worship of various gods, yet maintained a unique aniconic (no images) tradition and centralized their sacrificial cult in Jerusalem, leading to accusations of "impiety" from some pagans. However, the source also presents evidence of significant cultural accommodation and mutual interaction, showcasing instances of Jews participating in pagan civic life and pagans "Judaizing" by supporting synagogues or adopting some Jewish practices, demonstrating a nuanced integration rather than strict segregation.
Topic 1: Jewish Diaspora in the Hellenistic World The Jewish communities established in the Western Diaspora were primarily a result of voluntary migration, a stark contrast to the forced exile experienced by Jews in Babylon. This widespread resettlement was driven by the Macedonian diaspora that followed Alexander the Great's conquests, which saw the establishment of new cities and the refounding of older ones. Veterans, merchants, and colonists, along with other populations including Jews, migrated to these areas. By the time of Paul, Jews were found throughout the cities of the eastern Mediterranean, Asia Minor, Egypt, Syria, Italy, and along the northern coast of Africa, with some ancient sources noting that it was difficult to find a place in the habitable world that had not received them. This deep integration into the new Hellenistic landscapes profoundly affected Jewish culture, leading to the translation of ancestral scriptures from Hebrew and Aramaic into Greek, known as the Septuagint, around 200 B.C.E. This translation was crucial in spreading the influence of the Jewish God. Furthermore, the concept of "diaspora" itself evolved to reflect voluntary emigration, akin to Greek colonization, where Jews established "colonies" outside the Land of Israel due to population growth, viewing their host cities as a "fatherland" while still honoring Jerusalem as their "mother city."
Topic 2: Hellenistic Urban Life and the Role of Gods The political order introduced by Alexander the Great inherently brought a new cultural order, largely by transplanting Greek cult and culture through the establishment of poleis (city-states). Key civic institutions such as the agora, temple, gymnasium, and theater became prevalent, introducing a Greek architectural and social vernacular that often blended with indigenous styles to form hybrid Hellenistic variations. Greek also became the dominant linguistic medium, serving as a widespread language across the West. Within this urban framework, gods were an omnipresent and foundational element, shaping human time, space, and social relations. Dedicated festivals honoring divine patrons punctuated the civic year, and venues like theaters, stadiums, and sacred precincts were sites of cult. The domestic sphere mirrored civic structures, with family celebrations also invoking and honoring presiding deities and ancestors. Gods were not only in public and private buildings but also on insignia, military standards, and in daily speech. Life in a Greco-Roman city was inseparable from its gods, as the relationship between heaven and earth was inherited, making cult an expression of a people's family connection, peoplehood, and ethnicity.
Topic 3: Ancients' Understanding of Religion, Ethnicity, and Piety In Mediterranean antiquity, the modern distinction between "ethnicity" and "religion" was not intrinsically present. Gods and humans were understood to form interconnected family groups, implying that there was no religiously "neutral" ethnicity. A people's cult was seen as an intrinsic aspect of their ethnicity, and vice versa. Terms like mos maiorum (ancestral custom) or hai patrikai paradoseis (ancestral traditions), which broadly align with our concept of "religion," described the inherited rules and protocols for demonstrating respect and loyalty to one's gods. The emphasis was on outward acts of deference, offerings, and cultic practices, rather than the sincerity or authenticity of an individual's inner psychological state or "belief" as understood by moderns. "Piety" (pietas in Latin or eusebeia in Greek) signified a person's attentive attitude and meticulous execution of these inherited protocols, recognizing that gods cared about such honors and could express displeasure if offerings were unacceptable. Similarly, fides (Latin) or pistis (Greek) meant "steadfastness," "fidelity toward," or "conviction that," rather than merely "belief," implying confidence in ancestral customs and their faithful execution.
Topic 4: Jewish Accommodation to Hellenistic Culture Western Jewish culture demonstrated a significant adaptation to Hellenism. The Greek translations of Jewish scriptures, the Septuagint, literally embodied this cultural interaction, as they infused Jewish religious concepts with Greek theological, philosophical, and political vocabulary. For example, the Hebrew divine self-identification "I am" became the Greek "the Being," and God's "word" was rendered as the philosophically profound logos. More subtly, the Septuagint introduced Greek terms like daimonia (originally "lower god") to articulate a hierarchy of divinity, effectively reinterpreting "idols" as "demons." This allowed for the elevation of Greek gods beyond mere dumb images while simultaneously subordinating them to the Jewish God within Hellenism's own cosmological map. Furthermore, Jewish tradition's long-standing aniconism (prohibition of visual representations of God) and its singular focus on the Jerusalem Temple facilitated the philosophical reinterpretation of the Jewish God as the acorporeal, radically nonphysical high god of Hellenistic paideia (higher education). Some Hellenistic Jewish writers even advised showing a certain respect for pagan pantheons, viewing it as a way to promote peace.
Topic 5: Jewish Sacrificial Practices and Temple Focus A distinctive aspect of Jewish religious practice in the Diaspora was the principle that blood sacrifices to the Jewish God were, in principle, restricted to the Temple in Jerusalem. While Jewish communities abroad organized into "prayer houses" or "synagogues" for scripture reading and communal gatherings, these local centers were not sites for animal sacrifice and did not house cult statues. This practice, or rather, the absence of widespread local sacrificial offerings—which was nearly universal in other ancient cultures—meant that diaspora Jews were the only conspicuously non-sacrificing population in the first-century Roman Empire. The Temple in Jerusalem, particularly after its glorious refurbishment by Herod the Great, was a renowned destination for international Jewish pilgrimage. The temple tax, a voluntary donation collected widely abroad and sent specifically to Jerusalem to support the Temple's daily worship, further underscored this centralized cultic focus. This unique Jewish practice sometimes led pagan observers to accuse Jews of asebeia (impiety against pagan gods), but it also, ironically, prompted some outsiders, like Tacitus, to interpret Jewish worship as solely "with the mind" (mente sola), paying homage to the highest God without physical offerings or images.
Topic 6: Pagan Perceptions and Stereotypes of Jews Pagan writers frequently articulated negative views and stereotypes about Jewish practices. They acidly commented on Jewish asebeia (impiety due to their refusal to honor the gods of the majority), their amixia (separateness), misoxenia (hatred of strangers, i.e., non-Jews), and misanthropia. Observances such as Sabbath keeping were often characterized as "laziness," and their dietary restriction on pork was seen as peculiar. Jewish aniconism led some pagans to speculate that Jews worshiped only the sky or clouds. Male circumcision was widely condemned as a disgusting self-mutilation and a subject of derision. However, these outsider views should be evaluated with skepticism. While some observations, like widespread Sabbath observance, were descriptively accurate, such accusations of antisocial behavior were common ethnographic insults leveled against various "exotic others" (e.g., Egyptians, Celts, Persians, Germans) by Greco-Roman authors. These stereotypes often served to highlight what the pagan authors valued in their own society by denying it to others, rather than providing reliable social descriptions of the Jews. The persistence of anti-Jewish material in historical records is partly due to its later preservation and reuse by early Christian polemicists.
Topic 7: Evidence of Jewish Cultural Embeddedness/Integration Contrary to accusations of Jewish self-segregation, a wealth of evidence from papyri, inscriptions, and literary works reveals significant Jewish cultural embeddedness within the Greco-Roman environment. For example, some inscriptions show Jews, while identifying as Jewish, performing actions such as manumitting slaves prompted by local pagan gods, suggesting a flexible approach to divine obligations. Jews actively participated in civic life, including the ephebate (training for future civic leadership), which involved activities honoring city gods, and their names appear on steles dedicated to pagan deities like Heracles and Hermes. Jewish inscriptions sometimes adopted common pagan funerary conventions like "D.M." (to the infernal gods) and invoked major Greek deities such as Zeus, Helios, and Gaia as witnesses in oaths. Pagan deities even appear in the mosaic floors of Jewish houses and synagogues. Furthermore, Jews were present at public cultural venues like theaters, hippodromes, and odeons, and there is evidence of Jewish gladiators whose professional activities were allied with the Roman cult of the emperor. The extensive Hellenistic Jewish literary production, which engaged with and reinterpreted classical authors and traditions, further underscores the deep integration of Jews into the intellectual and social life of their diaspora cities.
Topic 8: The Jerusalem Temple and Pagan Access The Jerusalem Temple, especially after its grand reconstruction by Herod the Great, was an architectural marvel that served as the earthly dwelling of Israel's God. Its design incorporated a sophisticated system of nested courtyards that spatially articulated current interpretations of biblical purity laws. While the innermost areas were reserved for priests, Jewish men, and Jewish women, the largest and outermost section was known as the Court of the Nations. Non-Jews were permitted to enter this court and could bring gifts or arrange for offerings to be made on their behalf, but they were explicitly prohibited from performing sacrifices themselves. A balustrade marked the inner boundary of the gentiles' court, featuring inscriptions warning "foreigners" against proceeding further. The debate among scholars centers on whether pagans were restricted due to being "impure." Some argue that ritual impurity applied only to Jews, making the concept irrelevant for pagans. Others suggest that a "moral impurity" linked to idolatry might have been a factor. However, the fact that Jews freely traversed the Court of the Nations on their way to their own areas without fear of contamination suggests that any "gentile impurity" was not contagious in the same way as Levitical impurities, indicating it was of no practical consequence for the Temple's daily operation.
Topic 9: Pagan Involvement with Jewish Communities ("God-fearers" / "Judaizers") Pagans living in the Roman Empire often engaged with Jewish communities in various ways, though full "conversion" to Judaism (which involved changing one's ethnicity and severing ties with ancestral gods) was an extreme and relatively rare decision. More commonly, non-Jews would adopt some Jewish practices without fully converting. These individuals were often referred to in ancient sources as "god-fearers" (theosebeis or phoboumenoi ton theon) or "Judaizers" (Ioudaïzein). "God-fearers" could denote generally pious individuals, or more specifically, pagans who actively associated with Jewish communities and customs, offering patronage to synagogues or sympathizing with Jewish causes. Examples include Roman aristocrats like Julia Severa and Capitolina who funded synagogue construction or refurbishment, and town councilors listed as "god-fearers." "Judaizing" described a non-Jew adopting typically Jewish behaviors, such as observing the Sabbath or abstaining from pork. These terms highlight the pervasive cross-ethnic activity, indicating that pagans, to varying degrees, involved themselves with Jewishness and, consequently, with the Jewish God, while simultaneously maintaining their own native cultic practices. Their Jewish involvement was voluntary, ad hoc, and not regulated by Jewish law.
Topic 10: The Concept of "Divine Sonship" and Paul's Innovation In antiquity, the relationship between heaven and earth, and between gods and human groups, was often understood along ethnic or "family" lines, sometimes even involving actual lines of descent. Greek gods, particularly Zeus, and divine heroes like Heracles, were famously depicted having sexual relations with human partners, leading to ruling houses tracing their prestigious lineages back to these divine ancestors. More metaphorically, the Israelite people could be presented as God's "sons," as seen in phrases like "Israel is my first-born son." However, the Jewish God did not engage in human sexual relations. In the Hellenistic period, Jews sometimes created diplomatic "kinship" links, such as claiming a granddaughter of Abraham married Heracles, to integrate into this pan-Mediterranean system. Paul later significantly stretched this concept, arguing that through Christ, "sonship" via adoption was also being offered to "the nations." This was a distinct form of "being made" a son, as opposed to "being born" one, contrasting with the Greco-Roman idea of divine-human lineage. A crucial proviso of Paul's proclamation was that these adopted pagan "sons" could worship only Israel's God. This innovation, though unusual and unprecedented in its exclusivity, still drew upon the fundamental idea, language, and structure of the patriarchal Mediterranean family in understanding divine-human relationships.