Why were Judaism and Christianity a problem for the Roman Empire?

Answer 1

Well, Edward Gibbon says that monotheistic religions such as Christianity was damaging to the Empire because it pacified the tempers of the conquerers, and lessened their military spirit. Also, they focussed all their energies/monies on the religious, instead of on taxes for the armies. This was ONE of the factors involved in the decline and fall of the Empire.

Answer 2

Edward Gibbon (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) says that although Jews believed that it was unlawful for them to pay taxes to an idolatrous master, and in spite of their several uprisings, the attitude of the pagan emperors to their Jewish subjects was one of tolerance. He says, "Since the Jews, who rejected with abhorrence the deities of their sovereign and by their fellow-subjects, enjoyed the free exercise of their unsocial religion, there must have existed some other cause which exposed the disciples of Christ to those severities from which the Jews were exempt."

So, the Jews fitted into the Empire remarkably well, until the time of Constantine. It was the success of Christianity that finally caused Jews to face difficulties in the Roman Empire.

Much of the time, Christianity was tolerated or ignored by the authorities. When Christians did face persecution, this was not so much for reasons that clearly did not affect the Jews, such as refusal to accept the Roman gods, but for reasons unique to Christianity. They were found to oppose the rule of Roman law, considering themselves subject to their own laws and taxes. By the endo of the third century, it was feared they would even raise their own army and raise an insurrection against the emperor.

Answer 3

The Jews were occasionally a problem for the Roman Empire, because of the repeated insurrections, not only in Palestine but also in Egypt and Cyprus. However, the pagan Romans found no problem with Judaism and treated it with tolerance and respect until the first Christian emperor, Constantine, began to persecute the Jews.

Christianity also seems to have been regarded with toleration by the pagan Roman emperors until concerns began to be raised about the risk to the good governance of the empire, as Christianity began to assume the organisation of a state within a state in the third century. Instances of apparent treason by Christians added to this, until Diocletian instituted the Great Persecution in 303 CE. This continued until 305 in the west, but until 311 in the east of the empire.

Answer 4

Answer 1

Occupation.. it's a bit like Palestine today, with the Jews being the Palestinians (bizarrely!) and the Romans being the Israelis.

Plus, I suppose religion had something to do with it... again, a bit like modern day Palestine/Israeli conflict.

Answer 2

The main issue was the increasing secularization and Hellenization of Judea. The majority of Jews began to assimilate, taking on Roman customs. The High Priesthood became corrupt and the religious inhabitants of Judea believed that the only way to bring back proper Torah-observance would be to banish the Romans. This conservative, religious zealotry is what led to the numerous Jewish-Roman battles and conflicts.

It is important to note that the conflict between the Jews and the Romans has nothing to do with and is not similar in the slightest to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is about land, competing religious ideals, and questions about nationalism, Imperialism, and the results of colonialism.

Answer 5

AnswerIn spite of occasional insurrections by the Jews, their religion was treated with respect and tolerance by the Roman authorities until the fourth century, when Emperor Constantine began the Christian persecution of the Jews. This was likely because of the ancient Christian belief that the Jews were personally responsible for the death of Jesus.

Edward Gibbon (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire), along with most other historians, believes that Christian traditions about persecution are overblown. He says that a considerable time elapsed before they even considered the new sectaries as deserving of the attention of government, and that they then proceeded with caution in dealing with the Christians for any offences against Roman law. The Christian persecution of the pagans would ultimately be more severe and more thorough than anything the Christian writers of the fourth or fifth centuries ascribed to the pagan magistrates of Rome. The comparatively short periods of officially sanctioned persecution of Christians, in the middle of the third century and at the start of the fourth century, seem to have been reactions against perceived treachery by some Christians, who were beginning to act as if their communities were independent of the Roman authorities.

Answer 6

Beacause it was against their own.