Anti-Judaism in early Christianity

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Anti-Judaism in Early Christianity is a description of anti-Judaic sentiment in the first three centuries of Christianity; the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd centuries. Early Christianity is sometimes considered as Christianity before 325 when the First Council of Nicaea was convoked by Constantine the Great, although it is not unusual to consider 4th and 5th century Christianity as members of this category as well.

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Jewish Christians were excluded from the synagogue, according to one theory of the Council of Jamnia, as they refused to pay the Fiscus Judaicus . [1]

William Nicholls wrote in his book Christian Antisemitism: A History of Hate: [2]

...the very presence of the Jewish people in the world, continuing to believe in the faithfulness of God to the original covenant ... puts a great question against Christian belief in a new covenant made through Christ. The presence of this question, often buried deep in the Christian mind, could not fail to cause profound and gnawing anxiety. Anxiety usually leads to hostility.

Rabbi Michael J. Cook believes that both contemporary Jews and contemporary Christians need to reexamine the history of early Christianity, and the transformation of Christianity from a Jewish sect consisting of followers of a Jewish Jesus, to a separate religion often dependent on the tolerance of Rome while proselytizing among Gentiles loyal to the Roman empire, to understand how the story of Jesus came to be recast in an anti-Jewish form as the Gospels took their final form. [3]

The Greek word Ioudaioi could also be translated "Judaeans", meaning in some cases specifically the Jews from Judaea, as opposed to people from Galilee or Samaria for instance. [4]

New Testament

It has been argued that the New Testament contributed toward subsequent antisemitism in the Christian community. [5] A. Roy Eckardt has asserted that the foundation of antisemitism and responsibility for the Holocaust lies ultimately in the New Testament. [6]

Eckardt insisted that Christian repentance must include a reexamination of basic theological attitudes toward Jews and the New Testament in order to deal effectively with antisemitism. [7]

Post New Testament

A number of hostile early actions taken by Church leaders against the Jews are believed to have influenced later Christian thought.

One example of these acts comes from a historical account relating to Ambrose, the bishop of Milan. In 388, then-Roman Emperor Theodosius the Great was informed that a bishop in Callinicum led his followers in the destruction and burning of a local synagogue. Ambrose, upon learning of the local governor of Callinicum's intent to force the bishop responsible to pay for the reconstruction of the synagogue, appealed the sentence to the Emperor. When Theodosius first denied the appeal, Ambrose "publicly refused him communion until he reversed the governor's sentence." [8] Ultimately, Theodosius agreed with Ambrose and the decision of the governor was overturned. Many scholars believe that instances like this contributed to Christian notions of the Jews as second-class citizens, whose property is worth inherently less than theirs. [9]

According to the 2nd century Roman historian Justin, the Christians were "seen as the 'true spiritual Israel' because the Jews had despised and forsaken the law of God and God's holy covenant". [10] Many Roman officials, including Justin, based upon the perception of the Christians as their god's chosen people, advocated for the expansion of Gentile rights in the Roman Empire, while also aiming to drastically reduce the rights the Jews had during that time, believing their claim to legitimacy to be false. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

Antisemitism is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. This sentiment is a form of racism, and a person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Primarily, antisemitic tendencies may be motivated by negative sentiment towards Jews as a people or by negative sentiment towards Jews with regard to Judaism. In the former case, usually presented as racial antisemitism, a person's hostility is driven by the belief that Jews constitute a distinct race with inherent traits or characteristics that are repulsive or inferior to the preferred traits or characteristics within that person's society. In the latter case, known as religious antisemitism, a person's hostility is driven by their religion's perception of Jews and Judaism, typically encompassing doctrines of supersession that expect or demand Jews to turn away from Judaism and submit to the religion presenting itself as Judaism's successor faith—this is a common theme within the other Abrahamic religions. The development of racial and religious antisemitism has historically been encouraged by the concept of anti-Judaism, which is distinct from antisemitism itself.

Some Christian Churches, Christian groups, and ordinary Christians express religious antisemitism toward the Jewish people and the associated religion of Judaism.

The term Judeo-Christian is used to group Christianity and Judaism together, either in reference to Christianity's derivation from Judaism, Christianity's recognition of Jewish scripture to constitute the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, or values supposed to be shared by the two religions. The term Judæo Christian first appeared in the 19th century as a word for Jewish converts to Christianity. The term has received much criticism, largely from Jewish thinkers, as relying on and perpetuating inherently antisemitic notions of supersessionism, as well as glossing over fundamental differences between Jewish and Christian thought, theology, culture and practice.

Antisemitism and the New Testament is the discussion of how Christian views of Judaism in the New Testament have contributed to discrimination against Jewish people throughout history and in the present day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philosemitism</span> Affinity towards the Jewish people

Philosemitism, also called Judeophilia, is the feeling or expression of interest in, respect for, and appreciation of Jews on the part of a non-Jew. It is signified by a non-Jewish individual's fondness for Jewish history, Jewish culture, and Judaism. Although pro-Jewish sentiment has been attested in a number of societies since antiquity, the concept of philosemitism in a modern context has largely been defined by the aftermath of World War II and particularly by the memory of the Holocaust, which was the most violent culmination of antisemitism in recent history. Despite the fact that it is effectively the opposite of antisemitism, American-Jewish historian Daniel Cohen of the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies has asserted that philosemitism "can indeed easily recycle antisemitic themes, recreate Jewish otherness, or strategically compensate for Holocaust guilt."

The history of antisemitism, defined as hostile actions or discrimination against Jews as a religious or ethnic group, goes back many centuries, with antisemitism being called "the longest hatred". Jerome Chanes identifies six stages in the historical development of antisemitism:

  1. Pre-Christian anti-Judaism in Ancient Greece and Rome which was primarily ethnic in nature
  2. Christian antisemitism in antiquity and the Middle Ages which was religious in nature and has extended into modern times
  3. Muslim antisemitism which was—at least in its classical form—nuanced, in that Jews were a protected class
  4. Political, social and economic antisemitism during the Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment Europe which laid the groundwork for racial antisemitism
  5. Racial antisemitism that arose in the 19th century and culminated in Nazism
  6. Contemporary antisemitism which has been labeled by some as the new antisemitism
<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blood curse</span> Reference to a New Testament narrative

The term "blood curse" refers to a New Testament passage from the Gospel of Matthew, which describes events taking place in Pilate's court before the crucifixion of Jesus, and specifically the willingness of the Jewish crowd to accept liability for Jesus' death.

Religious antisemitism is aversion to or discrimination against Jews as a whole based on religious doctrines of supersession, which expect or demand the disappearance of Judaism and the conversion of Jews to other faiths. This form of antisemitism has frequently served as the basis for false claims and religious antisemitic tropes against Judaism. Sometimes, it is called theological antisemitism.

New antisemitism is the concept that a new form of antisemitism which developed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, tends to manifest itself as anti-Zionism. The concept is included in some definitions of antisemitism, such as the working definition of antisemitism and the 3D test of antisemitism. The concept dates to the early 1970s, although the identification of anti-Zionism with antisemitism has "long been de rigueur in Jewish communal and broader pro-Israel circles".

The Catholic Church and Judaism have a long and complex history of cooperation and conflict, and have had a strained relationship throughout history, with periods of persecution, violence and discrimination directed towards Jews by Christians, particularly during the Middle Ages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Self-hating Jew</span> Pejorative label implying antisemitism

The terms "self-hating Jew", "self-loathing Jew" and auto-antisemite are pejorative terms used to describe a Jew whose viewpoints on any specific matter are perceived as antisemitic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Racial antisemitism</span> Prejudice and discrimination against Jews based on race or ethnicity

Racial antisemitism is prejudice against Jews based on a belief or assertion that Jews constitute a distinct race that has inherent traits or characteristics that appear in some way abhorrent or inherently inferior or otherwise different from the traits or characteristics of the rest of a society. The abhorrence may find expression in the form of discrimination, stereotypes or caricatures. Racial antisemitism may present Jews, as a group, as a threat in some way to the values or safety of a society. Racial antisemitism can seem deeper-rooted than religious antisemitism, because for religious antisemites conversion of Jews remains an option and once converted the "Jew" is gone. In the context of racial antisemitism Jews cannot get rid of their Jewishness.

Anti-Judaism describes a range of historic and current ideologies which are totally or partially based on opposition to Judaism, on the denial or the abrogation of the Mosaic covenant, and the replacement of Jewish people by the adherents of another religion, political theology, or way of life which is held to have superseded theirs as the "light to the nations" or God's chosen people. The opposition is maintained by the appropriation and adaptation of Jewish prophecy and texts, and the stigmatization of the very people who transmitted those texts. There have been Christian, Islamic, nationalistic, Enlightenment rationalist, and socio-economic variations of this theme, according to Nirenberg.

The persecution of Christians in the New Testament is an important part of the Early Christian narrative which depicts the early Church as being persecuted for their heterodox beliefs by a Jewish establishment in what was then the Roman province of Judea.

Martin Luther (1483–1546) was a German professor of theology, priest and seminal leader of the Reformation. His positions on Judaism continue to be controversial. These changed dramatically from his early career, where he showed concern for the plight of European Jews, to his later years, when embittered by his failure to convert them to Christianity, he became outspokenly antisemitic in his statements and writings.

Jewish deicide is the notion that the Jews as a people are collectively responsible for the killing of Jesus, even through the successive generations following his death. A Biblical justification for the charge of Jewish deicide is derived from Matthew 27:24–25.

Relations between Protestantism and Judaism have existed since the time of the Reformation, although there has been more emphasis on dialogue since the 20th century, with Protestant and Jewish scholars in the United States being at the forefront of the emerging interfaith movement.

Jewish polemics and apologetics in the Middle Ages were texts written to protect and dissuade Jewish communities from conversion to Christianity, or more rarely to Islam. The terms polemics and apologetics may be distinguished but may also be considered somewhat subjective. A smaller number of proselytizing text also exists intended to convert Christians, or more rarely Muslims, to Judaism. However, the vast majority of Jewish polemical literature was written in response to Christian polemical writings and with a permanent reference to Christian arguments.

Christian polemics and apologetics in Europe during the Middle Ages were primarily directed inwards, either against "heretics," such as the Cathars, or between Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. A subset of polemic and apologetic activity continued against Judaism and Islam, both openly in Christian Europe and more circumspectly in the pre-Ottoman and Ottoman lands.

References

  1. ↑ Historians debate whether or not the Roman government distinguished between Christians and Jews prior to Nerva's modification of the Fiscus Judaicus in 96. From then on, practising Jews paid the tax, Christians did not. Wylen, Stephen M., The Jews in the Time of Jesus: An Introduction, Paulist Press (1995), ISBN   0-8091-3610-4, Pp 190-192.; Dunn, James D.G., Jews and Christians: The Parting of the Ways, AD 70 to 135, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (1999), ISBN   0-8028-4498-7, Pp 33-34.; Boatwright, Mary Taliaferro & Gargola, Daniel J & Talbert, Richard John Alexander, The Romans: From Village to Empire, Oxford University Press (2004), ISBN   0-19-511875-8, p. 426.;
  2. ↑ William Nicholls: Christian Antisemitism: A History of Hate (Jason Aronson, 1993) ISBN   1-56821-519-3. p.90
  3. ↑ Michael Cook 2008 Modern Jews Engage the New Testament
  4. ↑ The Complete Gospels, Robert J. Miller editor, pages 193–194, cameo essay on "The Judeans", for example the translation of John 1:7: "After this, Jesus moved around in Galilee, he decided not to go into Judea, because the Judeans were looking for a chance to kill him."
  5. ↑ The Question of Anti-Semitism in the New Testament Writings of the Period. Jews and Christians: the parting of the ways, CE 70 to 135. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999. Page 179. 'The challenge thus posed to Christian NT scholars in particular cannot therefore be ducked... The question we must face, then, is whether such attitudes are already inseparable from the scriptures on which they were based. ... in terms of the present inquiry, Does the attitude to Jews in the post-70 NT documents indicate that the final breach, the decisive parting of the ways between Christianity and (rabbinic) Judaism, has already happened?'
  6. ↑ Eckardt, A. Roy (1973). Elder and Younger Brothers . New York, Schocken Books. ISBN   9780805203790.
  7. ↑ Eckardt, A. Roy. Your People, My People.
  8. ↑ Parkes, James, 1896-1981. (2011) [1964]. The conflict of the church and the synagogue : a study in the origins of antisemitism. American Council of Learned Society. ISBN   978-1-59740-504-1. OCLC   749282962.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  9. 1 2 Evans, Craig A. Hagner, Donald Alfred. (1993). Anti-semitism and early Christianity : issues of polemic and faith. Fortress Press. OCLC   826630329.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ↑ Disinheriting the Jews: Abraham in early Christian controversy. 1992-02-01.

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