pure theism of the Old Testament scriptures to any form of religion known to the ancients, could not fail to attract and convince multitudes among the pagans, wherever the Jewish worship was established. Such persons became either proselytes or " devout," that is, worshippers of the true God. Being free from the inveterate national and religious pre- judices of the Jews, and at the same time convinced of the falsehood of polytheism, they were the most susceptible of all the early hearers of the gospel. It was by converts from among this class of persons, that the churches in all the heathen cities were in a great measure founded. There is abundant evidence that the Jews were very numerous at Rome, and that the class of proselytes or devout persons among the Romans was also very large. Philo says (Legatio in Caium,- p. 1041, ed. Frankf.) that Augustus had assigned the Jews a large district beyond the Tiber for their residence. He accounts for their being so numerous from the fact that the captives carried thither by Pompey were liberated by their masters, who found it inconvenient to have servants who adhered so strictly to a religion which forbade constant and familiar intercourse with the heathen. Dion Cassius (lib. 60, c. 6) mentions that the Jews were so numerous at Rome that Claudius was at first afraid to banish them, but contented himself with forbidding their assembling together. That he afterwards, on account of the tumults which they occasioned, did banish them from the city, is mentioned by Suetonius (Vita Claudii, c. 25), and by Luke, Acts 18 : 3. That the Jews on the death of Clau- dius returned to Rome, is evident from the fact that Suetonius and Dion Cassius speak of their being very numerous under the following reigns ; and also from the contents of this epistle, especially the salutations in ch. 16, addressed to Jewish Christians.
That the establishment of the Jewish worship at Rome had produced • considerable effect on the Romans, is clear from the statements of the heathen writers themselves. Ovid speaks of the synagogues as places of fashionable resort ; Juvenal (Satire 14) ridicules his countrymen for becoming Jews ; and Tacitus (Hist. lib. 5, ch. 5) refers to the presents sent by Roman proselytes to Jerusalem. The way was thus prepared for the early reception and rapid extension of Christianity in the imperial city. When the gospel was first introduced there, or by whom the introduction was effected, is unknown. Such was the constant inter- course between Rome and the provinces, that it is not surprising that some of the numerous converts to Christianity made in Judea, Asia Mi- nor, and Greece, should at an early period find their way to the capital. It is not impossible that many, who had enjoyed the personal ministry of Christ, and believed in his doctrines, might have removed or returned to Rome, and been the first to teach the gospel in that city. Still less im- probable is it, that among the multitudes present at Jerusalem at the day of Pentecost, among whom were " strangers of Rome, Jews and prose- lytes," there were some who carried back the knowledge of the gospel. That the introduction of Christianity occurred at an Ciirly period may bo