It’s useful to remember that in the earliest years of the Jesus movement what you would have been dealing with is sectarian violence. And we should get away from the idea of any kind of monolithic Judaism as well. You had lots of diverse groups contending with each other, some more famous than others, many of whom hated each other as much or more than they hated the Romans.
The early church clearly internalized the concept of active opposition. I think they drew this expectation, not from persecution by the Romans, but from the memories of early sectarian opposition.
Kaliko59 said
Paul persecuting the followers of Jesus seems unusual. Are there other examples in the first century of an established Jewish majority persecuting a small Jewish sect?
Steefen
Look into how James died.
From Wikipedia entry on James, brother of Jesus
Clement of Alexandria relates that “James was thrown from the pinnacle of the temple, and was beaten to death with a club”.
Hegesippus cites that “the Scribes and Pharisees placed James upon the pinnacle of the temple, and threw down the just man, and they began to stone him, for he was not killed by the fall. And one of them, who was a fuller, took the club with which he beat out clothes and struck the just man on the head”.
According to a passage found in existing manuscripts of Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews, (xx.9) “the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James” met his death after the death of the procurator Porcius Festus but before Lucceius Albinus had assumed office (Antiquities 20,9) – which has been dated to 62. The High Priest Hanan ben Hanan (Ananus ben Ananus) took advantage of this lack of imperial oversight to assemble a Sanhedrin (although the correct translation of the Greek synhedrion kriton is “a council of judges”), who condemned James “on the charge of breaking the law”, then had him executed by stoning. Josephus reports that Hanan’s act was widely viewed as little more than judicial murder and offended a number of “those who were considered the most fair-minded people in the City, and strict in their observance of the Law”, who went so far as to arrange a meeting with Albinus as he entered the province in order to petition him successfully about the matter. In response, King Agrippa II replaced Ananus with Jesus son of Damneus.
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert
1 Guest(s)