IN CODE 41
death, if need be, to keep his religious identity. While the racial leaders,
like Philo, would try every expedient to avoid a direct challenge, they
would play the political game even to bearding Gaius in his den rather
than let Israel or its ideals perish. Martyrdom had no terrors, since the
political martyr was translated to heaven and became a saving force for
the people. Yet martyrdom was not sought. If the Jewish race could, byclever manipulation, get the Roman to let him alone until such time as
God would send the great Husbandman to pull down the Roman for
his sins, that was by all means the policy to follow. The destruction of
Roman "arrogance" may be described as the work of "Envy," or of the
Good Husbandman, or of fate or necessity. Of one thing the Jew was
sure, that he need only be patient for a different social order to come
into existence, one in which those worthy of power, that is, themselves,
would have it. Meanwhile if individual Romans took a more friendly
attitude to the Jews, they would be gladly received and flattered, though
such individuals by no means blinded the Jews to the significance of
Roman power as such.