ABSTRACT
This chapter examines standard religious categories often employed in studying the ancient Mediterranean and the problems both with using these categories, and with discarding them. It is particularly important not to erase the presence of Jews and Judaism in antiquity because of the long legacy of Judeophobia and supersessionism that began in ancient times but continues to this day. While Roman views of Judaism were mixed, some appreciative and some mocking, some later Christian writings that proclaimed that Christianity “superseded” or replaced Judaism as the right way to worship led to Christian-initiated hatred and violence, and to centuries of persecution and even genocide. The core element of all forms of supersessionism rests on the idea that the movement that built around the idea of Jesus as Messiah represents a superior covenant. Ross Kraemer is a scholar who has written about this mislabelling.
