Corpus-Paul

["David Hindley" <dhindley AT compuserve.com>]

Robert Kraft asks:

>>My question, amid all that rambling, is whether the claim that in Paul's
time there were reports or traditions about Jewish desecration of temples
(presumably pagan) can be sustained. (Nevermind that the text might not be
making such an actual claim; just run, for the sake of investigation, with
the assumption that it is actually calling some Judeans/Jews
"temple-robbers" in some sense of the Greek term.)<< 

Weren't there accounts in Jos' Antiquities of incidents between Greeks and
Jews, at very least in Alexandria. I recall it had something to do with
Greeks desecrating Jewish synagogues with dead men's bones or by erecting
pagan alters by the entrance. Are we to assume that some segments among
Diaspora Jews were could not have returned a little "tit for tat"? Think of
the pagan incense shovels found in the Bar Kokhba cave (forgot the official
sounding name offhand), although they were, of course, at war. Just as not
every Diaspora Jew in Rome was an adulterer, neither would all be temple
robbers, but perhaps enough were so engaged, now and then, to make a
rhetorical point.  

Sincerely,

David Hindley
Cleveland, Ohio USA

Romans 2:22 You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who detest
idols, do you rob temples? (New Amer Bible)