Index
Jewish diaspora: authority of Patriarchs in
Palestine over, , ; basilical hall
with inscriptions attesting a flourishing
Jewish community in Sardis, –;
in Christian emperors’ legislation and
pronouncements, , –, –;
in Christian writings, –; conflicts
with Christian communities, –
passim; evidence for presence of rabbis
in, –, ; flourishing communi-
ties attested in cities of late Empire in
Greek East, –; God-Fearers (theo-
sebeis) and proselytes attested in th-
and th-century Aphrodisias reveal
attraction of Judaism in predominantly
Christian Greek empire, –, ;
Greek predominates in, , ; He-
brew and Aramaic known in, ;
literature of, completely lost, , ,
; marriage contract in Aramaic
from early th-century Antinoopolis
(Egypt), –; mosaic floor at-
testing synagogue officials from late
th-century Apamea (Syria), –;
mosaic floor from a synagogue in th-
or th-century Gerasa (Arabia), –;
relationship with Palestinian (Rabbinic)
Judaism, –, ; relative flourish-
ing of in period of unresolved tensions
between pagans and Christians, –,
, ; Synagogues, –, , ;
use of Latin in, –
Jewish scholars of the classical world in
the th century: Menahem Stern,
Elias Bickerman, and Arnaldo Momi-
gliano, –.See alsoTransplantation
of European scholarship and science
into English-speaking environments in
middle of th century
Judaeo-Christians (Ebionites): omitted
from discussion,
Judaism and its Hellenisation: Bickerman’s
interpretation of Maccabean reaction,
, ; Greek used in Syrian syna-
gogues, –; Hengel’s syncretistic
interpretation of, xiii–xiv, –, –
; juxtaposition with pagan culture,
–, ; minor significance, ,
–, –, –, , ; sole ex-
ample of a surviving and independent
national and religious culture and his-
tory in Graeco-Roman period, –,
, –, –; use of Hellenisa-
tion in book of Daniel in defense of
Jewish monotheism, –.See also
Jewish community in Judaea under
Hellenistic kingsLegal status of Jews since Constantine,
Linguistic aspects. See alsoColoniae,colo-
nies in Roman Near East
—Arabic: mentioned by Jerome, –;
spoken in Petra of late th century,
—Aramaic: and its alphabet widely used
in Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sassanid
Persia, –; of Babylonia and Jewish
Talmud, –; Christian Palestinian
dialect of, ; dialects of, ; together
with Hebrew as languages of Jews, ;
remained a rustic vernacular in Syria,
—archives from Mesopotamia, –,
.See alsoPalmyra
—Assyrius sermo,
—Greek: ousts Nabataean Aramaic with
coming of Rome, ; as primary lan-
guage of communication and medium
of transmission between Semitic lan-
guages and Latin, , –, ;
survives demise of Hellenistic empires,
–
—infiltration of Latin terms into Semitic
languages, –, ,