You Tube Theology

Why did Paul’s message cause anxiety not just for Roman officials, but for Jewish communities as well?

As Dr. Paula Fredriksen explains, when Paul told Gentiles they must worship only the God of Israel, everyone in the Roman world would have assumed this message came straight from the synagogue. And in a society where abandoning the local gods was seen as risking the city’s safety, that put Jewish communities in a precarious position.

In Paul’s lifetime, there was no separate “Christian” identity — meaning his radical message to Gentiles was understood as a Jewish message. And that made the synagogue vulnerable in ways we often overlook.

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