ABSTRACT
The religion of most Jews was inherited from their ancestors, but non-Jews attracted to the cult were welcomed into Jewish communities not least in diaspora settlements such as in Rome, although the number who became full proselytes, rather than more loosely affiliated to Judaism, is unknown. Their religion differed from the other religions of the pre-Christian Roman Empire above all in one respect – the Jewish God was believed to demand the exclusive obedience of his Jewish worshippers, such that cult paid to any other divinity was treachery. This attitude was almost incomprehensible to polytheists, who responded to such deliberate snubbing of powerful forces sometimes with admiration but often with disgust at what they termed ‘atheism’. 1
