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Greek Roman

Why the Roman state came into conflict with Jews and Christians

There were many reasons why the Jews and Christians came into conflict with the Roman state,  considering the Jews had rebelled against the Roman state several times causing serious problems for the Roman state. The Jewish conflicts with the Romans were predominantly about Jewish customs and laws. In Alexandria under the reign of Augustus, one source of tension between the Roman state and the Jews was the laographia or poll tax. This tax was imposed on all except the Greek citizen elite.  The Jews felt this tax was a statement that they were inferior.

Often there was unrest in the cities of the Roman Empire that had mixed Greeks and Jews this often ended up involving riots and other disturbances of the peace. Under the emperor Gaius who was well known for his dislike of the Jews that it came to the point that full scale rioting occurred. The Greeks and Jews often came into conflict and there were serious outbreaks of trouble in A.D 66 and A.D 115.

In a letter dated around A.D 41, Claudius writes to the city of Alexandria where he blames the recent unrest and riots on the Jews and he simply states that if the conflict is not resolved then he will show the city what a benevolent ruler is like when he is turned to righteous anger. He then goes on to say that he pleads with the Alexandrians to behave gently and in a kindly manner with the Jews. He also tells the Jews not to insinuate themselves into the games presided over by the Gymnasiarchs and Kosmetai, since they already enjoy the benefits of the city even though it is not their own city. He also advises the Jews not to bring more Jews into the city from Syria or Egypt, which would bring more suspicion onto them and if they did he would come against them as a plague.

Josephus also writes about an occasion that was instigated by the Jews when they went in large numbers to a Greek meeting in the amphitheatre. The Greeks responded as if they were spies and created a scene and grabbed three Jews to burn them alive, however the whole community of Jews rose up and started a riot, pelting the Greeks with rocks and then getting torches they went to the amphitheatre threatening to burn it down with all the Greeks in it. Tiberius the Roman governor of the city had to get involved and quell the Jews anger.

Around A.D 115-117, during the reign of Trajan the Jews rebelled and destroyed large amounts of area around Egypt, Cyrene and Cyprus. Eusebius writes that the Jews rushed into a faction fight against their Greek neighbors as if seized by some terrible spirit of revolt. Then in the next year it ended up being a full scale war which resulted in Lupus the governor of Egypt fleeing to Alexandria and killing all the Jews of the city. During this time the Jews in the region of Cyrene were also revolting killing both Romans and Greeks and in Cyprus the Jews killed two hundred and forty thousand people and because of this no Jew was allowed to even go to the island of Cyprus and if they did they were to be put to death.

At one stage the Romans attempted to erect standards and other statues in the Jewish temple and surrounding Jerusalem, this was a contravention of Jewish law and thus a small riot broke out. Jews from all around the Roman empire would send money to Jerusalem which was called the temple tax, this tax was to be used for the upkeep of the temple, however when the temple was destroyed by the Romans in A.D 70, the Romans then demanded the tax to paid to the Roman state to allow them to practice their Jewish religion, this resulted in further tensions and demonstrations.

The Jews were often rioting and causing trouble because of their laws and religion which then resulted in action taken by the Roman state and the regular conflict between the Roman state and the Jews. There were three major wars and revolts between the Romans and the Jews that Josephus records, the final resulting in all Jews being banned from the city of Jerusalem.

The Christians came into conflict with the Roman state for various reasons but the most prominent reason was the Christian teaching not to sacrifice to idols, this resulted in serious conflict with the Roman state because the state was thought to have been protected by various state gods and rituals. Since the Christians refused to acknowledge the states gods, then they were atheists and were seen as unpatriotic and to have a disregard for the welfare of the state. The state went to great lengths to ensure everyone sacrificed to the gods, many Christians refused and this resulted in many years of persecution and conflict under various emperors.  The Christians believed the state gods were not gods but demons and refused to sacrifice, this caused the state to inflict various punishments on the Christians.

During the reign of Emperor Nero a large portion of the city of Rome was burnt down, and Nero needed a scapegoat. Nero knew that the pagans of Rome were not all that tolerant of the Christians so he blamed them as the cause of the fire and the first state legislated persecution broke out in the city of Rome against the Christians. Tacitus records that the Christians were not so much persecuted by Nero because of the burning of the city but because of hate for the human race. The Christians also formed a community with distinct customs and were rather critical of Roman society specifically their morality.

To make things worse the Christians claimed loyalty to the church and that loyalty superseded any other loyalties to the state. This created problems in the unity of families when one was converted to Christianity. The Roman authorities were suspicious of anything that looked like a secret society, especially if it was linked to an Asiatic religion, which they associated with immorality.

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