Roman Historian Dio Cassius Writes about the God of Israel

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Hadrian forbade circumcision, Torah learning, kosher and family purity laws, as well as Shabbat observance. Knowing that these observances formed the basis of G-d's covenant with the Jews and Jewish observance, Hadrian, like his Hellenistic forerunners during the Seleucid Greek Empire three centuries earlier, tried to eradicate Judaism.

Roman Historian Dio Cassius, in his book Roman History 27.17, wrote that the Jews “are distinguished from the rest of mankind in practically every detail of life, and especially by the fact that they do not honor any of the usual gods, but show extreme reverence for one particular divinity. They never had any statue of him even in Jerusalem itself, but believing him to be unnameable and invisible, they worship him in the most extravagant fashion on earth.”

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Dio Cassius

Image: See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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Overview

Dio Cassius writes that the Jews:

“are distinguished from the rest of mankind in practically every detail of life, and especially by the fact that they do not honour any of the usual gods, but show extreme reverence for one particular divinity.

‍They never had any statue of him even in Jerusalem itself, but believing him to be unnamable and invisible, they worship him in the most extravagant fashion on earth.”