ethnical conflict in Graeco roman society

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

The author identifies four main periods of co

. . .
Finally, the forth one occurred in Diaspora revolt of 115-17 CE. “Those whom the Jews lumped together as ‘Gentiles’ would have defined themselves as ‘Greeks’, ‘Romans’, ‘Galatians’, and members of various other ethnic populations. Ethical conflict created a source for biblical especially New Testament writings. According to Jews beliefs what they possessed came from God and they could not unrestrained these practices that were in conflict with the cultural prejudices of Greeks.

After reading that article I was able to have better understanding of the situations described in Gospels from historical perspective.

Primary sources for these conflicts can be found in the writings of Josephus. Greek cities were forced to contribute massive resources to compete with Roman armies. Having cultural, religion and political freedom would relieve their pain. However we live in 20th century looking at political arena we still can note that Jewish communities are still involved in ethnical conflicts and mainly in Asian part of the world.

I can relate the topic of the article to almost all of the readings from the Gospels. Jews were hindered from observing their laws, and forced to appear in the court on the Sabbath (this is the day they could not according to religion). Jewish monotheism was incompatible with the religious demands of life in Greek city, making conflict inevitable.

Political relationship was also one of the reason for conflict growth. There is broad evidence to indicate that both ‘Jews’ and ‘Greeks’ regarded themselves as distinctive. They were waiting for ‘Survivor’ or’ Messiah’ as gospel's writers called Jesus.

Common topics in this essay:
Neither Jew, Minor Greek, Temple Concluding, CE Primary, Asia Minor-home, Wars Greek, Survivor Messiah, Nor Greeks, Jerusalem Temple, Minor Jews, century bce, asia minor, main periods conflict, ethnical conflict, ethical conflict, jerusalem temple, main periods, periods conflict, author describes, jewish community,

Approximate Word count = 969
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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