Did Rome accommodate Jewish customs (in AD 30)?
-
Clarifying the question
Did the Roman government generally acquiesce to Jewish laws and customs in AD 30, during peacetime administration? Would they avoid imposing offensive laws?
-
Historians agree, saying “yes”
- Richard Carrier: “However, it is generally agreed that before the Jewish War the Jews had the practice of their own laws to a quite remarkable degree. Important exceptions related to political appointments in the control of money and property, obvious areas of Roman interest (the issue of the death penalty will be discussed later). But otherwise Jewish law was upheld. This was a tradition of respect passed down since Julius Caesar decreed.(Such decrees were inscribed at Rome, Sidon, Tyre, and Ascalon, in both Greek and Latin, according to Nina Jidejian, yre Through the Ages (beirut: Dar el-Mashreq, 1969), p. 86.) after the Jewish War, this was no longer the case. But in the time of Jesus, Romans who ran roughshod over Jewish law like Pontius Pilate, seem to than acting extralegally, against the decrees of emperors Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius.” [The Empty Tomb (Prometheus, 2005), 373-74.]
- Shimon Gibson (Leading Archaeologist; professor, 20+yrs excavating): “The truth is the Roman authorities would have wanted to keep the Sanhedrin and locals agreeable.” [The Final Days of Jesus (Harper Collins, 2009), 132.]
- Craig Evans (Professor of NT, Founder of DSS Inst.): “Indeed, both Philo and Josephus claim that Roman administration in fact did acquiesce to Jewish customs. In his appeal to Caesar, Philo draws attention to the Jews who “appealed to Pilate to redress the infringement of their traditions caused by the shields and not to disturb the customs which throughout all the preceding ages had been safeguarded without disturbance by kings and by emperors” (De Legatione ad Gaium 38 §300). A generation later Josephus asserts the same thing. The Romans, he says, do not require “their subjects to violate their national laws” (Contra Apionem 2.6 §73). Josephus adds that the Roman procurators who succeeded Agrippa I “by abstaining from all interference with the customs of the country kept the nation at peace” (J.W. 2.11.6 §220). [“Jewish Burial Traditions and the Resurrection of Jesus,” Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 3.2 (2005).]
“Yes, after all…
-
Philo says so in Embassy 299-300
-
Josephus says so in Against Apion 2.73
Josephus, in Against Apion 2.73 says Rome accommodated Jewish customs.1
-
Josephus says so in Wars of the Jews 2.20
Josephus, in Wars of the Jews 2.20 says Rome accommodated Jewish customs.1
-
Josephs says so in Antiquities of the Jews 16:160-173