176 CHAPTER FIVErefrainedfromeatingporkandcircumcisedtheirsonsbutparticipatedwithout
hesitation in public festivals).
We should view the population of urban and suburban Jewish Palestine
(and letus rememberthat weknow nextto nothingabout theleast urbanized
areas during this period) as situated along an ideological continuum. At one
extreme are people who, though of Jewish origin and probably in some sense
ethnicity(theymusthaveknownthattheywerelivingin“Jewish”towns,even
if only because their “Greek” neighbors sometimes reminded them), were to
allintentsandpurposesstandardGreco-Romanpagans.Attheotherarehard-
core representatives of Judaism, mainly the rabbis. Most Jews were caught in
between, though the evidence clearly indicates that the two poles were un-
equal in their attraction. Most Jews see mto have lived mainly as pagans and
lookedprimarilytotheRomanstateandthecitycouncilsastheirlegalauthor-
ities and cultural ideal, but even they may have retained some sense of being
notquitefullyGreek—(un?)liketheirinsistentneighborsinScythopolis.Oth-
ers may have been eclectic, living in some respects as pagans and in others as
Jews, occasionally supporting and consulting rabbinic figures for some pur-
poses,perhapsbythethirdcenturyhelpingintheconstructionofsynagogues,
but most often ignoring them. Or they may have been people whose primary
identity was Jewish and, like the rabbis themselves, may often have regarded
their accommodations with the dominant culture with unease.
It ispossible thatthe balancebegan toshift bythe endof thethird century.
We have seen that there is some evidence for a growing anxiety in Jewish
Palestine about public paganis maround 300. Perhaps this should not be
pressed,butitmaybenocoincidencethatthePalestinianrabbinicmovement
attained its greatest numerical extent, that the patriarch began his rise, and
probablythatthecitycouncilsbegantheirdeclineallinthesamebriefperiod
around300.WhetherornotthePalestinianJewsdidtakeasteptowardjudaiz-
ingtheirpublic—andprivate—livesinthedecadesbeforeConstantine’scon-
questofPalestinein323–324,itiscertainthatwiththechristianizationofthe
empire, the character of Jewish life changed dramatically.