Juifs et païens dans le monde gréco-romain

Abstract

Did antisemitism exist in a pagan society before being developed in the heart of Christianity? The Jews, whose monotheism isolated them from the environment, constituted a minority frequently threatened amongst the pagans; however, - and despite their rebellions against Rome - their light to worship was granted by Roman laws until the beginning of the Christian empire. The image of the Jew illustrated in Greco-Roman literature since the third century is far from being negative. During the first century, it is necessary to distinguish the exasperation of the traditional Romans toward the Jewish proselytism from the libel of the Alexandrians which aroused from the ambition of the Jews in Obtaining citizenship. Despite the religious conflict, there wasn't the obsession later created by the theological hate.