Verus Israel

This text examines Jewish-Christian relations in the Roman Empire from the second Jewish War (AD 132-135) to the end of the Jewish Patriarchate (AD 425). Contrary to the view that the Jewish and Christian communities gradually ceased to interact and that Jews gave up proselytizing among the Gentiles, the book maintains that Judaism continued to make its influence felt on the world at large and to be influenced by it in return. It analyzes both the antagonisms and attractions between the two faiths, and concludes with a discussion of the eventual disappearance of the missionary elements of Judaism, while its rival’s community triumphed with the help of a Christian imperial authority and a doctrine well adapted to the Graeco-Roman mentality.

Author Biography

Marcel Simon (1907-1986), late Professor Emeritus of the University of Strasbourg, was one of the century’s foremost historians of Christianity. His many publications include Le Judaisme et le Christianisme antique (1968), L’Anglicanisme (1969), and La Civilisation de l’antiquite et le Christianisme (1972).