Insiders and outsiders. Those “in the know” and those “outside the loop.” This division and divisiveness characterized the secretive world of first century religious life in the ancient near east. There was the cult of emperor worship: participation in which was a political imperative. There was the host of Roman and Greek gods and goddesses: each jealous for attention, each claiming sovereignty over particular aspects of people’s lives. There were the “mystery religions:” their rites and rituals strictly shrouded from the uninitiated, and with promised participation in divine wisdom to those who found the secret way.

The Hebrews had always stood strangely aloof from this religious smorgasbord. Jewish worship of one God, and Jewish refusal to accord divinity to any human ruler, whether Ph…