would have been ‘impious’, as would a Gentile who robbed a temple. Both these things happened often enough, but if the guilty party was subsequently afflicted by some misfortune, there was a ready explanation at hand—his discomfiture was the direct result of his ‘impiety’, or misbehaviour. Christians did not think in that way. They did not go around deliberately showing disrespect to other religions, though Paul was accused of having done that in Ephesus.75 For Christians, ‘piety’ and ‘impiety’ were