What you are posting is not exactly true and you fail to take into account the persecution Jews faced in I will use the term PALESTINE IN THE THIRD AND FOURTH CENTURIES*
By SAUL LIebeRmAn
The Jewish Theological Seminary of America
I. PERSECUTIONS AND ReBelLIons
MANy so-called important historical facts have taken such deep roots in the field of Jewish history that they have gradually become common knowledge and serve as background for further constructions. Persecutions of the Jewish religion by the Roman empire (in the third and fourth centuries) on the one hand and rebellions of the Palestinian Jews against it (during the fourth century) on the other are considered well established facts and are generally accepted. Since the time of Grätz Jewish scholars take the persecution of the Jewish religion by Constantius for granted. Some scholars maintain that the Jewish religion was persecuted in the third century as well. It is likewise generally accepted that the Jews revolted against Rome during the fourth century. "As a matter of fact," asserts a Jewish historian, "both cities (i. e. Lydda and Sepphoris), but especially Sepphoris (Diocaesarea, were centers of Jewish rebellion in the fourth century until they were destroyed by Gallus (351). In order to cure the focal
- All the dates mentioned in this article are C. E.
- Geschichte der Juden, IV3, p. 313 ff. and p. 456, n. 30.
≥ I. Halevy, D'noxin nim lIb, p. 315; A. Marmorstein, Les persécu-tions religieuses à l'époque d. R. Yohanan b. Nappacha, REJ vol.
LXXVI, 1923, p. 166 ff.; idem, Tarbiz III, 1932, p. 167 ff.
3 Graetz ibid. and his followers.
A JR, vol. XXXVI, 1945, p. 165.