Abstract:
This article indicates how the two cultural features of religion and covenantal
praxis helped foster or shape Judean ethnic identity in the first century CE. It focuses on
socialization into the three social domains of the Temple, the synagogue and the home. In these
domains, Judean ethnic identity was dominated by the requirements of the Torah. At the same time the
presence of Romans, the Herodians and the Gentiles within the ancestral land helped shape Judean
identity as well.