Endnote 11 – Why Did God Choose Abraham?

Other stories exist, such as 3 Maccabees, that bear witness to the gentile rulers’ confusion when Jews refused to engage in enterprises praised by the Greek world or to seek goals prized by their gentile neighbors. There, too, the Jews’ dedication to the one God prevents their full participation in their society on Greek terms and brings them into conflict. For ancient witnesses to anti-Jewish slander concerning “hatred of outsiders,” see Tacitus, Historiae 5.5; Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 34.1–4, 40.3.4; Juvenal, Satirae 14.100–104; Josephus, Contra Apion 2.121; 3 Maccabees 3:3–7.