Of course, none of these questions were a problem for the Jewish people of the Hellenistic era. They did have their own problems with a large, dispersed population outside Judea and the occasional misunderstandings and rhetorical attacks. And among the Jewish people themselves there were many solutions given both political and religious. Still, despite their diversity when more severe situations came upon them they were, admirably, able to handle them. As the Maccabean uprising demonstrated, for instance, they were hardly without recourse to militia-like activity when the need arose. And as Philo's ''Embassy to Gaius'' attests, they were not without diplomatic means to try to make good their need to maintain their religious heritage.

Finally, it would be a caricature of either religion to state that Christianity is of the individual and Judaism is of a people, as if either there were no Church or there were no individual Jewish persons. True, out of Christianity came an assortment of individual thinkers on serious subjects, but Judaism had as many lively intellectuals. And while there were bad results of a misguided idealism in the rebellion of Bar-Kokva, there were enough Christian verbal assaults against both Jews and pagans given on behalf of the Church. Also, one may note that as the synagogue became a center for a people without a Temple, so the Church became the hope for Christians who had undergone persecution by both Jews and pagans right up to, and beyond, the [[Edict of Milan]] in AD 314.