| Summary: | Religious pluralism has characterized societies since time immemorial and has
been one of the sources of conflict in many societies. This article compares how
religious pluralism was handled in intertestamental Palestine and the manner it is
managed in post-apartheid South Africa. The study used academic literature which
applied the Apocrypha to describe the religious context of Palestine between 336
BC and 63 BC. The themes that emerged from this analysis were then used to
source academic literature that describes the religious context of South Africa from
1994 to 2021. This process led to the synthesis of the similarities and differences
of the two contexts. The findings latently reveal the contribution of the Apocrypha
to theological reflection while simultaneously showing that the Roman Empire’s
violent attempts to undermine religious pluralism in intertestamental Palestine
bred counterviolence. The paper further reveals that post-apartheid South Africa’s
use of legal instruments to promote religious pluralism seems to contribute to the
optimization of religious freedom and peaceful co-existence. These findings are
likely to contribute to the discourse of religious pluralism, interfaith dialogue, and
intercultural communication.
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