Conversion to Judaism in Classical Antiquity

This paper analyzes the evidence for the tremendous increase in the number of Jews between 586 B.C.E. and the first century C.E. While it finds no conclusive evidence for actual proselytizing, since we have no missionary tracts and know of no missionaries, it concludes that it is most likely that this increase, both in the Land of Israel and in the Diaspora, was occasioned by voluntary conversion to Judaism. The major evidence for this increase is to be found in Josephus, whose reliability in this matter, especially in the figure that he gives for the number of Jews who came to Jerusalem for Passover in the year 66, is defended by the author. Evidence for the eagerness to accept proselytes may be found in the character of Abraham as depicted in midrashic literature, as well as in Philo, especially in his account of the translation of the Pentateuch into Greek, in the New Testament, and in various Greek and Roman non-Jewish writers, notably Strabo, Horace, Seneca, Juvenal, and Tacitus. People were attracted to Judaism for various reasons, especially economic advantages; women, in particular, were attracted.