Gentiles and Their Relations to Jews

AbstractThe relations between Gentiles and Jews in the Greco-Roman world generally appear to have been characterized by relative harmony. Although reciprocal stereotyping, hostility, and prejudice indeed existed among Jews and Gentiles, there is also ample evidence of positive Gentile-Jewish social interaction, at least within some strata of the population. This most likely took place in the context of various voluntary associations to which the Jewish synagogues belonged. When the imperial government acted against Jews, it seldom concerned Jews only but commonly involved other minorities. Jews were normally permitted to practice their religion, and Jewish communities had developed various strategies for expressing loyalty to the empire without crossing the line to “idolatry.” The different attitudes, positive and negative, to Gentiles found within the early Jesus movement most likely represent different various strategies for dealing with the problem of the assumed moral impurity of Gentiles.