The Jews of the Graeco-Roman Diaspora century examples are Iamblichus,On the Mysteries,^32 and Sallustius,Concern-
ing the Gods and the Universe.^33 As a parallel and related development, explicit
criticism of Christianity^34 had begun in the second century with Celsus’
Alēthēs Logos(True Word), to culminate in the Emperor Julian’sAgainst the
Galileans. Pagan critiques of Judaism as a religious system could also be found
in the classical period; most of those which are known are so because they
were quoted and answered in Josephus’AgainstApion, written in Rome in the
s..^35 Celsus had also related Christianity very firmly to its Jewish con-
text. But with one exception which proves the rule, serious pagan attention
to Judaism as a religious system is not well attested in the period of religious
co-existence with which we are concerned. All the available evidence is col-
lected and discussed in the second volume of themagnum opusof the deeply
regretted Menahem Stern,Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and JudaismI–III
(–). It may of course be that a pagan literature of this period which
did discuss Judaism has been lost; but if so it has left no trace. The exception
proving the rule is of course the emperor Julian himself, who is an excep-
tion precisely because he was born and brought up as a Christian; he then
converted secretly and only declared himself as a pagan in .^36 We are not
concerned here with the details of his plan to rebuild the Temple in Jeru-
salem, except to note that it is beyond question, as recorded by both pagan
and Christian sources, that work did start on this project and was then inter-
rupted by fires which Christians took to represent divine intervention.^37
What is significant in this context is Julian’s complex three-way analysis of
Judaism, Christianity, and paganism, as expressed most fully in hisAgainst
the Galileans.^38 To summarise drastically, Julian saw Judaism as a traditional
culture and set of religious observances, which had its own values but could
never claim the cultural level and achievements of classical civilisation; but
it was precisely the traditional observances of Judaism which the Christians
had reprehensibly rejected, while on the other side abandoning the cults of
the pagan gods. What was more, traditional Judaism had once manifested a
feature which made it comparable to and compatible with paganism, namely
. Edited by des Places ().
. Edited by Nock ().
. Well surveyed by R. L. Wilken,The Christians as the Romans Saw Them().
. L. Troiani,Commento storico al ‘‘contro Apione’’ di Giuseppe().
. See, e.g., G. W. Bowersock,Julian the Apostate(); P. Athanassiadi-Fowden,Julian
and Hellenism: An Intellectual Biography().
. See F. Blanchetière, ‘‘Julien. Philhellène, Philosémite, Antichrétien. L’affaire du
Temple de Jerusalem (),’’Journ. Jew. Stud. (): .
. See Wilken (n. ), chap. .