Ethnical Conflict In Graeco Roman Society

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Ethnical Conflict In Graeco Roman Society

Christopher D. Stanley in one of the articles of Journal’s for the Study of the
New Testament titled ‘Neither Jew nor Greek’ talks about the ethnical conflict in
Graeco-Roman society. He focuses his writing on four main periods of conflict existence.
Before I will go to the summary of the periods I will introduce his definition of
ethnicity and conflict. By term ‘ethnic’ he means “not as fixed quality that inheres in
some objectively identifiable population group, but rather as a fluid aspect of individual
and group self-definition that can be either highlighted or ignored as circumstances
warrant’ (pg. 110). Boundaries that are used to distinguish ‘insiders from outsiders’(111)
are (1) a belief in shared history, (2) a common culture, (3) some form of physical
difference. The author describes conflict as a competition “for scarce social, economics,
or territorial resources; where there are discrepancies or change in the political power;
where one group has migrated into territory of another; where there is a historical
conflict; or where groups in the same area possess discordant systems of personal and
social values”(115).
The author identifies four main periods of conflict what I already mentioned in the introduction. First period extends through the latter half of the first century of BCE. Fifty years later we have the second conflict. Third ones is dated through the Levant and at the time of the Jewish Revolt. Finally, the forth one occurred in Diaspora revolt of 115-17 CE.
Primary sources for these conflicts can be found in the writings of Josephus. In most instances the conflicts are resulted from tensions between the Jewish community and the local citizen-body and their leaders. Writer concludes his introduction saying that “religious differences lay at the heart of these disputes” It is also true in this case. Jewish monotheism was incompatible with the religious demands of life in Greek city, making conflict inevitable. While Greeks and other ethical groups constituted polytheism.
In that time population of Asia Minor (where almost all of the conflicts took place) inhabitants divided themselves into Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews). “Those whom the Jews lumped together as ‘Gentiles’ would have defined themselves as ‘Greeks’, ‘Romans’, ‘Galatians’, and members of various other ethnic populations. There is broad evidence to indicate that both ‘Jews’ and ‘Greeks’ regarded themselves as distinctive.
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