Casper

Can we add that Luke-Acts attempts to assure the reader (and perhaps any censors) that one can be a good Christian as well as being a good Roman?

Why would you want to do that unless you were seen as separate from the Jews by the Romans themselves?

Doug Shaver

Because the perceived linkage between Christians and Jews was the reason Romans doubted the loyalty of Christians. Any Christian writer asserting Christian loyalty to the Roman empire had to make it perfectly clear that Christianity had severed whatever connection it might once have had with Judaism. He had to argue, in effect: "Notwithstanding our religion's origins, we consider Jews to be our enemies as much as they are yours."

Casper

Hmmm, that's something I didn't consider, and seems pretty empirical. Good call.