o Its understanding of “holiness” demanded an opposition against
paganism (with its idolatry) and Judaism (with its Law).o Insofar as it succeeded in expressing egalitarian ideals, it
was inherently threatening to the stratified world of ancient
patronage.• The earliest evidence of opposition comes not from the side of the
Roman Empire but from the side of the Jews.
o The question of the involvement of Jewish leaders in the
death of Jesus is difficult and contentious. Certainly, he was
executed under Roman order, but it is likely that some degree
of cooperation if not instigation can legitimately be ascribed
to some Jewish leaders. With the exception of the Gospel of
Luke, however, the Gospels certainly tend to exaggerate the
complicity of the Jewish population in the death of Jesus.
o Nevertheless, the evidence of the New Testament (especially
Acts and Paul’s letters) supports the fact that in the first
decades, Jews harassed and sought to subvert the Christian
movement. In fact, Paul attests that he was a persecutor of
the church before his conversion and that after becoming an
apostle was persecuted by his fellow Jews.o For the Jews, the problematic claim was not that “Jesus
is Messiah,” for such a confession (right or wrong) was
compatible with Jewish identity. The troubling claim was that
“Jesus is Lord,” that is, as the son of God, he shared fully in
the life and power of the divine. This claim offended Torah
observers who interpreted the manner of Jesus’s death as an
indication that he was cursed by God and who believed that
declaring Jesus as Lord was the equivalent to polytheism.o The sources speak of two forms of harassment: stoning
(attested by Paul and Acts) and excommunication from the
synagogue (attested by Acts and the Fourth Gospel).