Julian’s dream lived on, and the bitterness of Christian response to him shows that he touched a sensitive nerve. The Achilles’ heel of the Christian tradition was its relation to Judaism. The truth of Christianity seemed to require the demise of Judaism. For if Judaism was still a living religion, an alternative to Christianity, and the ancient Jewish tradition was still observed by Jews, and the Jewish Scriptures were still read and studied in Jewish communities, Christians could not claim to be the rightful inheritor of the patrimony of Israel and Jesus was not the Messiah whom Jews had awaited. Even though Julian’s program to rebuild the Temple was unsuccessful, it was the final, and most brilliant, stroke in the ancient conflict between paganism and Christianity.
The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, p. 195