But the Jewish community of Sardis, except for its wealth, was not all that unusual. Archeological and literary evidence has confirmed a Jewish presence in Ephesus, Smyrna, and many other cities and towns. Jews apparently comprised about 10 percent of the vast Roman Empire's first century A.D. population of 80 million. Many attracted by Judaism (which was actively looking for converts at that time) and then Christianity became known in Greek as theosebeis, "God-fearers" or "God worshippers."

 The Jews were survivors. They put up with criticism such as that of the Roman historian Tacitus, who wrote that the Jewish religion was "perverse and degraded. ... Among the Jews all things are profane that we hold sacred." They endured the attack of the Roman poet Juvenal, who complained that Jews dedicated one day of the week "to idleness." Jews were called atheists because they denied the existence of pagan gods, but persecution made most hold on even more tightly to biblical faith.

 What did change the Jewish community, apparently, was a debate about what that biblical faith was. "Biblical Anatolia" notes that some Jews "were absorbed into the Christian Church," and quotes a mournful Talmud passage about a rabbi's visit to Jewish Christians in Sardis: "Rabbi Eleazar ben Arak visited the place. He was attracted to them, and his learning vanished."

 Or maybe he gained a new perspective.