Some scholars have characterized Jewish participation in Roman theatrical institutions as a departure from normative Judaism, while others have distinguished Jews in the diaspora, who attend the theaters, from Jews in Palestine, who criticize and reject them. Both of these narratives are inadequate because scholars have failed to analyze the sources in terms of the cultural and discursive dynamics of Roman theater-going in general. Critiques and accommodations of the theater are common among Jews who lived in both the diaspora and Palestine, for the nature of theatrical culture itself provided Jews with opportunities for vigorous dialogical give-and-take under a Roman imperium in which theaters and their shows were of utmost political and social importance.

This article offers the first epistolary analysis of Clement's letter to Theodore and demonstrates that it comports in form, content, and function with other ancient letters that addressed similar circumstances. In these letters authors issue accounts of the composition and transmission of their works in order to diminish confusions that arose when premature, stolen, and conflicting copies reached the public. The analogy provided by these letters helps establish the remarkable generic coherence of the letter to Theodore, which is difficult to explain by the supposition that the letter is a modern forgery.

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