Evidence ancient Jews watched but didn’t participate in gladiatorial games – If a Jews did occasionally fight, they would’ve probably opted to take on animals rather than people, according to a new scholarly article. | JNS.org

A new scholarly paper finds “inconclusive” evidence that Jews participated in the ancient Roman gladiatorial games. But it is clear that they defied rabbinic admonitions and attended the games as spectators, wrote Haggai Olshanetsky, a University of Basel postdoctoral fellow in ancient civilizations.