" Likewise, Augustine made the effort of historical imagination to register to the full the Jewishness of Jesus and the apostles. And now, he wrote to Jerome in a series of subtly argued polemical exchanges, it was necessary to preserve Jews in the undisturbed observance of their traditions and laws, for God must have wanted them to be universally dispersed, wandering the face of the earth, as custodians of the Bible’s prophecies of Christ – a living museum of perpetual anticipation. "

― Simon Schama , The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BCE – 1492 CE