Relations between Jews and non-Jews in the Hellenistic-Roman period were marked by suspicion and hate, maintain most studies of that topic. But if such conjectures are true, asks Louis Feldman, how did Jews succeed in winning so many adherents, whether full-fledged proselytes or "sympathizers" who adopted one or more Jewish practices? Systematically evaluating attitudes toward Jews from the time of Alexander the Great to the fifth century A.D., Feldman finds that Judaism elicited strongly positive and not merely unfavorable responses from the non-Jewish population. Jews were a vigorous presence in the ancient world, and Judaism was strengthened substantially by the development of the Talmud. Although Jews in the Diaspora were deeply Hellenized, those who remained in Israel were able to resist the cultural inroads of Hellenism and even to initiate intellectual counterattacks. Feldman draws on a wide variety of material, from Philo, Josephus, and other Graeco-Jewish writers through the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha, the Church Councils, Church Fathers, and imperial decrees to Talmudic and Midrashic writings and inscriptions and papyri. What emerges is a rich description of a long era to which conceptions of Jewish history as uninterrupted weakness and suffering do not apply.

Preface
Ch. 1 Contacts between Jews and Non-Jews in the Land of Israel 3

Ch. 2 The Strength of Judaism in the Diaspora 45

Ch. 3 Official Anti-Jewish Bigotry: The Responses of Governments to the Jews 84

Ch. 4 Popular Prejudice against Jews 107

Ch. 5 Prejudice against Jews among Ancient Intellectuals 123

Ch. 6 The Attractions of the Jews: Their Antiquity 177

Ch. 7 The Attractions of the Jews: The Cardinal Virtues 201

Ch. 8 The Attractions of the Jews: The Ideal Leader, Moses 233

Ch. 9 The Success of Proselytism by Jews in the Hellenistic and Early Roman Periods 288

Ch. 10 The Success of Jews in Winning "Sympathizers" 342

Ch. 11 Proselytism by Jews in the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Centuries 383

Ch. 12 Conclusion 416

Abbreviations 447

Notes 461

Bibliography 587

Indexes 621

Names and Subjects 646

Geographical Place-Names 662

Greek, Latin, and Hebrew and Aramaic Words 664

Modern Scholars 672