INTRODUCTION
The general topic of this book is religious rivalry. It has become apparent,
however, that “rivalry” does not cover all the evidence for social relations
between different religious groups in the ancient Mediterranean world, so
that some scholars prefer terms such as “competition,” “interaction,” and
the like in order to avoid the implications of the former term. It has perhaps
not been spelled out clearly what is meant with this change of terms, but
the gist of it seems to be that rivalry carries with it notions of antagonism,
or hostility, or a type of head-on conflict, which we do not often see in the
materials we have studied. Jews and pagans are thought to have been
largely indifferent toward Christianity, at least early on, and the Christian
view of Jews and pagans, when it expresses antagonism or hostility, is
often understood to be a rhetorical construct designed to meet the inner
needs of Christian communities rather than an expression of real social
conflict with their competitors.
I suspect that things were not so simple. For one thing, if such rheto-
ric was designed to secure a sense of self-identity or to deflect members from
the attractions of the alternatives (two explanations commonly given),
then a sense of rivalry is already built in, even though the conversation is
going on primarily within one community. For another, not all of the evi-
dence we have looked at points this way, and some of the examples I will
look at below can be as appropriately described in terms of rivalry as by any
of the milder terms we might care to employ. Moreover, we need to note that