bears the inscription: Fisci iudaici calumnia sublata
(“to efface the shame of the Jewish tax”).

 

98–117 CE:  REIGN OF ROMAN EMPEROR TRAJAN

100 CE:  SHUOWEN JIEZI (dictionary) compiled

China: by Han scholar Xu Shen

Supersedes the more basic first known Chinese dictionary, the Erya (200s BCE) [author unknown].

The Shuowen Jiezi is a sophisticated early second century Chinese dictionary (from the Han Dynasty). It is ultimately presented to Emperor An (of Han) by Xu Chong, the son of Xu Shen, two decades later, in 121 CE.

Timing is apparently everything.

 

c. 100 CE:  RABBI AKIVA TRAVELS TO NEHARDEA

Rabbi Akiva travels to Nehardea (Babylonia) to announce the Hebrew leap year. This is the first time that the sources mention a noted Jewish sage from Palestine active in the Babylonian Diaspora.

 

100 CE:  LEGITIMACY

The early Church Fathers, as any new religious movement, would need to secure and protect their legitimacy as a religion. “Borrowing” key iconography from Judaism, they would need to fully secure their legitimacy vis à vis Judaism in particular. As the legitimacy of Judaism, direct heirs of Sinai, is somewhat difficult to undermine, and as the Church Fathers did not want to undermine ‘Sinai’ and/or the (Jewish) Bible, per se, the Church would employ a different tack.