Endnote 19 – The Omnipresence of the God-Fearers

That, indeed, this reference is to “sympathizers” would seem to be corroborated by a passage in the third-century A D. historian Dio Cassius (67.14.2), who notes that during the reign of Domitian, Flavius Clemens, the consul, and his wife, Flavia Domitilla, were accused of atheism, “a charge on which many others who drifted into Jewish ways were condemned.” The reference here, too, would seem to be to Judaism rather than to Christianity, since, as we have noted, the distinction between the two was clear in Rome in the days of Nero (and certainly by the time of Dio) and also since, as Stern notes (Greek and Latin Authors, II. Tacitus, p. 130) the ancient tradition refers to Clemens as a Christian. Moreover, it is hardly likely that a consul would have practiced Judaism fully as a proselyte and have avoided participating in the state religious celebrations which were so integrally a part of the Roman Empire. The key word here, moreover, is “drifted” (exokellontes), which is a metaphor applying to a ship. It can hardly refer to conversion, which is an absolute step; it almost surely refers to step-by-step adoption of one practice of Judaism after another.