This work concerns this history-long issue’s survivability in society, today. The preeminence of anti-Jewish sentiments is older than one desires to recount. The pursuit of who knows God best or who can be closer to God, may very well have started with Cain, as he killed his brother Abel.[1] The struggles for divine attention and recognition – just to claim as though – to establish political control, were sanctioned and promoted by government authorities during ancient times.[2] The nature of this sanction varied by time and region, but official involvement was a pervasive feature, ranging from official canonization of texts to severe censorship and persecution of unsanctioned works. Religion in ancient times was the active social element congealing society, as it was governmentally sanctioned. A notable example is the effect on attitudes and perceptions towards Jewish life and faith that Constantine’s Edict of Milan in 313 CE, legalizing Christianity and promoted it after a pivotal victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 CE, had on society and the future.
So, what were the beginnings? A previous blog article Origins of Anti-Jewish Sentiment from Greek Ethnic and Theological Condemnation – Word From Vine noted that the roots of ill sentiments towards Jewish people, faith and life, emerged from Greek attitude and belief influencing thought and culture for centuries. While the ‘Judeo-Christian’ culture claim is assailed in political and religious circles, touting social and economic progress due to its premises as a concept of modelling society and asserted morals, the diametrics inherent in that statement are resounding, especially if considering the legacy of disdain held against Jewishness continuing into yesterday’s future.
Such a claim merits questioning, what good comes from disdain? Whose belief is closer to God? The Greeks and the Romans thought they were. These questions may not have been sought to be answered then in the apostolic era (30 – 120 CE) nor in the following patristic era (100 – 450s CE). These periods, however, marked an evolution of vitriolic theological distinction between the developing Christian ideas in Greco-Roman thought and life before their gods counterposed with that of Jewish thought and life before God.
Anti- Jewish Sentiments and influence in the Apostolic Era
During this time, ill sentiments toward Jewish people lingered prominently in the Greco world absorbed by the Roman Empire. Greco-Roman philosophers and writers also contributed to cultural narratives of disdain towards Jewish ways and faith. Those sentiments surfaced among influencers of the time. Christian theologians, church fathers, and priests, often framed as theological critiques but manifesting as narratives of Jewish collective guilt, and the notion that Christians replaced Jews as God’s chosen people[3] and the narrative charging that Jews were responsible for killing Jesus – deicide. These views were influenced by ethnic criticism and religious conflict between Greek culture and thought under the growing Roman Empire and Jewish life and customs evolving into social hostility, influencing contemporaneous writings and the emerging theme of the resulting New Testament (NT). Among the noted NT verses demonstrating such sentiments, several noteworthy each with its own significance:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.”[4]
“All the people answered, ‘His blood is on us and on our children!'”[5]
“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.”[6]
“You suffered from your own people the same things those churches suffered from the Jews who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to everyone. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last.”[7]
“By calling this covenant ‘new,’ he has made the first one obsolete”.[8]
“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?”[9]
“I know your afflictions and your poverty – yet you are rich! I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan.”[10]
“. . Did they [the Jews] stumble to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring! I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?”[11]
“For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own people the same things those churches suffered from the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to everyone in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last.”[12]
“It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.”[13]
“”Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh.”[14]
“For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain.”[15]
In addition to these sentiments appearing in the NT, the sentiments were often in the context of polemics against Jewish leaders or groups who rejected Jesus, as a ‘messiah’.
Anti-Jewish Views of Patristic Church Fathers
Among the influencers of the Church Fathers, including bishops and theologians, the rhetoric escalated in the apostolic era into explicit condemnations, viewing Jews as obstinate rejecters of Jesus deserving eternal suffering. Narratives included Jews as “witness people” (preserved to testify to Christian truth through misery) and as satanic or bestial. These views were expressed in homilies, treatises, and letters, often to deter Christians from Judaizing practices like attending synagogues. The notable figures highly regarded then and still are today studied in academic institutions and shared – having common dark sentiment include many of repute as follows:
Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch (c. 35–107 CE, bishop): In his Epistle to the Magnesians (Greek original, English translation): “It is absurd to profess Christ Jesus, and to Judaize. For Christianity did not embrace Judaism, but Judaism Christianity.” This portrayed Judaism as obsolete and inferior.[16]
Epistle of Barnabas (c. 70–135 CE): Where it is quoted as saying, “Their covenant has been torn away from them… Their temple has been abandoned to destruction.”[17]
Justin Martyr (c. 100–165 CE, apologist): In Dialogue with Trypho (Greek, English translation) stated: “For the circumcision according to the flesh, which is from Abraham, was given for a sign; that you may be separated from other nations, and from us; and that you alone may suffer that which you now justly suffer; and that your land may be desolate, and your cities burned with fire; and that strangers may eat your fruit in your presence, and not one of you may go up to Jerusalem.”[18]
Tertullian (c. 150 – 240 CE) Tertullian, “Father of Latin Christianity,” for using Latin as his in writings and dialogue. Tertullian is credited with coining the term “trinity” ( Trinitas )) to describe God. He expressed contempt for Jews, accusing them of distorting the truth and rejecting the truth of Christ’s resurrection, in Against the Jews.[19]
Melito of Sardis (c. 180 CE): “God has been murdered… by the right hand of Israel… You did not know, O Israel, that this one was the firstborn of God.”[20]
Eusebius of Caesarea ( 260s – 339 CE, bishop of Caesarea, 313 – 339 CE) His work, the Ecclesiastical History, was completed around 324 CE. Another significant work, the Life of Constantine, was left unfinished at his death. His work Demonstratio Evangelica (The Proof of the Gospel) is described as a direct attack on Judaism, in which he charged the Jews with serious errors in their exposition of Scripture.[21]
Origen of Alexandria (c. 184–253 CE, theologian): “We may thus assert in utter confidence that the Jews will not return to their earlier situation, for they have committed the most abominable of crimes, in forming this conspiracy against the Savior of the human race… Hence the city where Jesus suffered was necessarily destroyed, the Jewish nation was driven from its country, and another people was called by God to the blessed election.”[22]
John Chrysostom (c. 347–407 CE). Over a century went by when the archbishop of Constantinople stated as follows:
“The synagogue is worse than a brothel… it is the den of scoundrels and the repair of wild beasts… the temple of demons devoted to idolatrous cults… a criminal assembly of Jews… a place of meeting for the assassins of Christ.”[23]
Chrysostom’s eight homilies vilify Jews as demonic and urge hatred to prevent Christian interaction with Judaism. Chrysostom’s homilies were delivered in Antioch to combat synagogue attendance.
St. Augustine of Hippo (354–43 CE ). A contemporaneously to Chrysostom was the honored St. Augustine of Hippo who stated:
“Not by bodily death shall the ungodly race of carnal Jews perish… Scatter them abroad, take away their strength. And bring them down, O Lord.”[24]
Augustine advocated for Jewish survival in misery as witnesses to Christian triumph over Jews, influencing medieval treatment of Jews.[25] These narratives impacted patristic writings by promoting separation (e.g., Chrysostom’s complaints about “Judaizers”). They also influenced liturgy, like anti-Jewish elements in Good Friday services.[26] These messages held to a belief that their scripture authorizes a faith to supersede others and be the source of salvation for the Jews and the world. The prevailing thought and practice against Jewish faith and life was underscored by a theological replacing claim.
Greco Era Philosophers and Contemporaneous Ancient Writings
Prior to Apostolic era, Greco Era culture demonstrated ill will toward Jews through philosophers and historians, viewing them as misanthropic, barbaric, or resistant to assimilation. As these sentiments predated Christianity, they established the prevailing thinking of the culture providing the ground for continued and evolving ill sentiments toward Jews conveyed by apostolic and patristic anti-Judaism.
Noteworthy was Hecataeus of Abdera who stated: “The sacrifices that [Jews] perform differ from those of other nations… their way of living is somewhat unsocial and hostile to foreigners.”[27] This influenced ethnic prejudice. Egyptian historian Manetho stated: “Moses taught the Jews] not to adore the gods… [they were] expelled lepers.” Portrays Jews as impure and godless, fostering narratives of contamination.[28] Additionally, Agatharchides of Cnidus stated: “The people known as Jews… have made their hatred of mankind into a tradition.”[29] This ill will mocked Jewish customs like the Sabbath as absurd. These writings impacted ancient culture by justifying pogroms (e.g., in Alexandria, 38 CE) and edicts (e.g., Antiochus IV’s bans on Jewish practices, leading to the Maccabean Revolt). They influenced Church fathers, who echoed themes of Jewish subjugation and triumph of Christian belief.
Apostolic and Patristic Impacts
The anti-Jewish influencers of the time did not voice mere personal opinions. They encouraged to shaping the Christian doctrines, fueling sermons and social norms for over a thousand years. The narratives fueled hatred by collectivizing guilt and portraying Judaism as satanic or inferior, impacting NT redaction heightening anti-Pharisaic rhetoric. The sentiments that filled writings of the ancient past are telling of prevailing mindset of the times fertile ground for the sanctioning of the New Testament. Its origin is not noted sufficiently. Stems from a way back time blurred in history filled with characterizing labels that deflect from sincere attention, and making it easy, today, to pass on anew what is old and ugly, as a revelation. Consequently, contemporary online commentaries and channels elaborate on their treating this dark subject as a novel occurrence in contemporary society.
The social dynamic of stimuli and surroundings affecting a child, in sociology, is telling on how this phenomenon of sentiments lingers across societies for millennia. Therefore, what impact can one perceive such historic vitriol towards Jewish people would have on future generations’ mindset and perceptions over time?
I rest that it is an indoctrinated perception – not arising from informed ill sentiment – over time aggravated as it was spiritualized into a religious force. The claimed fondness for Jewish people and Israel, ‘may’ very well stem from believing in the need to encourage the Jew in their pursuit of their homeland as a vehicle to convince them to accept what the New Testament says and away from what the Hebrew Scriptures say. As the Romans adopted the Greco sentiments, the Apostolic and Patristic era motifs laid the groundwork for continuing anti-Jewish sentiment beyond its era. History does repeat.
#Antisemitism #Christianity #Supersecessionism #Greco-Romanbeliefs #ApostolicEra #NewTestament #Anti-judaism #PatristicEra #history #Greco-RomanEmpire #replacementtheology
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[1] Genesis, Ch. 4, verse 8.
[2] Mommsen, Theodor. The History of Rome. Translated by William Purdie Dickson, 1854-1856. Mommsen was a German historian and scholar who examined the role of religion in Roman public life. In his History of Rome, he highlighted the importance of public rituals and religious observances in maintaining the stability of the Roman state. He argued that Roman religion, especially emperor worship and state-sponsored rituals, was central to the functioning of Roman society and politics; See also, Hadot, Pierre. Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault. Translated by Michael Chase, 1995; Dodds, E.R. The Greeks and the Irrational. University of California Press, 1951; Edwards, Mark. The Early Christian World. Routledge, 2000.
[3] Supersecession – Sydney Thelwall, a translator, used “supersession” in the title of chapter 3 of his 1870 translation of Tertullian’s work An Answer to the Jews. In a 1972 article, A. Roy Eckardt used it in his article “Christian Perspectives on Israel.”
[4] Gospel of Matthew 23:15: This is a condemnation of Jewish religious leaders (Pharisees), and the reference to making converts “children of hell” can be seen as implying that Jews, as a group, are destined for damnation, which has contributed to the view of Jews as morally or spiritually inferior.
[5] Gospel of Matthew (27:25, NIV translation).
[6] Gospel of John (8:44, NIV): This verse has been used historically to accuse Jews of being aligned with Satan, portraying them as deceitful and evil. This interpretation has fueled the idea that Jews are spiritually corrupted and serves as a basis for antisemitic rhetoric, associating Jews with the devil.
[7] 1 Thessalonians (2:14–16, NIV): Paul accuses Jews of deicide and universal hostility, suggesting divine punishment.
[8] Hebrews 8:13: Later, these passages influenced patristic writings, where church fathers cited them to argue for Jewish inferiority.
[9] Matthew 23:33: This passage is a direct accusation of moral corruption, and the phrase “brood of vipers” has historically been used to dehumanize Jews, associating them with serpents or Satan. The reference to hell here has been interpreted as a divine punishment for the rejection of Jesus and God’s will, which has been tied to the idea of Jews’ spiritual condemnation.
[10] Revelation 3:9 : The accusation that a group of people who claim to be Jews are actually “a synagogue of Satan” has been historically used to label Jews who do not accept Jesus as false or evil, perpetuating the idea of Jews as agents of Satan.
[11] Romans 11: 11-15: This passage implies that Jewish rejection of Jesus is a transgression causing them to miss salvation, which is now offered to Gentiles. It perpetuates the idea that Jews are spiritually inferior or that their rejection of Jesus has had negative consequences for them.
[12] 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16: This passage is highly negative in its portrayal of Jews, accusing them of being responsible for the deaths of Jesus and the prophets, and casting them as hostile to Gentiles. It also invokes divine wrath upon Jews, which has historically been interpreted as justification for violence and persecution against Jewish communities.
[13] Romans 9:6-8: This passage undermines the legitimacy of the Jewish people as God’s chosen people. By claiming that only Christians (as the “children of the promise”) are truly Abraham’s offspring, Paul implies that Jews, by rejecting Jesus, have lost their special status and are no longer the true heirs of God’s covenant.
[14] Philippians 3:2-3: The term “mutilators of the flesh” is a derogatory reference to circumcision, which was a central Jewish ritual. Paul here disparages Jewish practices, specifically circumcision, which has been central to Jewish identity for millennia. The use of the term “dogs” was also historically used to insult Gentiles, and by applying it to those who adhere to Jewish customs, Paul dehumanizes and rejects Jewish identity.
[15] Titus 1:10-16: The “circumcision group” here refers to Jewish followers of Jesus who believed that Gentiles must adhere to Jewish laws, like circumcision. By labeling this group as “rebellious” and “deceivers,” Paul portrays Jewish influence within the early Christian community as divisive and undesirable.
[16] Ignatius aimed to unify Christians against Judaizing tendencies.
[17] Barnabas. 4.6–8; 16.1–4.
[18] Justin, Dialogus cum Tryphone (PG 6:505-508). Justin blames Jewish suffering (e.g., post-70 CE destruction) on divine punishment for rejecting Christ, reinforcing deicide narratives.
[19] Tertullian, “The Jews, who are the enemies of Christ, are lost in their arrogance and blindness. They cannot see the truth of God’s salvation in Jesus.” “Their very law is a curse, and their rejection of Christ is the root of their misery.” Against the Jews – ch. 8-13.
[20] Peri Pascha 96–99.
[21] Eusibius’ work Demonstratio Evangelica (The Proof of the Gospel) is described as a direct attack on Judaism, in which he charged the Jews with serious errors in their exposition of Scripture. He referred to Jews as “a people who had slain the prophets and the Lord himself“. Eusebius on the Destruction of Jerusalem – Excerpts from Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, Bk. III, Ch. V-VIII.
[22] In Against Celsus (Greek, English).
[23] In Adversus Judaeos (Homily 1, Greek, English). One of the most violent voices of the early Church during the 4th century, John Chrysostom delivered eight sermons titled Adversus Judaeos (“Against the Jews”), attacking both Jews and Christians who associated with them. His noted quotes: “The synagogue is not only a brothel and a theater; it is also a den of robbers and a lodging for wild beasts.” – Homily I, Adversus Judaeos; “When animals are unfit for work, they are marked for slaughter. This is what has happened to the Jews.” – Homily I; “I hate the synagogue precisely because it has the law and the prophets; I hate it more than a brothel.” – Homily I; “Jews are inveterate murderers, destroyers, men possessed by the devil.” – — Homily VI. Chrysostom’s fiery rhetoric directly encouraged hostility and violence toward Jews throughout Byzantine Christianity.
[24] Augustine, 354–430 CE, bishop- In Tractates on the Gospel of John (Latin, English).
[25] Augustine’s “witness doctrine” protected Jews from extermination but endorsed subjugation. Although Augustine did not promote violence, his writings expressed theological contempt for Jews and shaped centuries of Christian anti-Judaism. Notable quotes: “The Jews, who slew Him [Christ] … are thus by their own Scriptures a testimony to us that we have not forged the prophecies about Christ.” – City of God, Book 18, ch. 46; “The Jews … are thus by their own Scriptures a testimony to us that we have not forged the prophecies about Christ. For in their books, we find the prophecies which we see fulfilled in Christ.” – City of God 18.46; “The Jew … under punishment for the crime of the death of the Lord, is dispersed over the earth.” – Tractatus adversus Judaeos; Augustine argued Jews should not be killed but kept alive in subjugation — a “witness people” doomed to humiliation: – (Psalm 59:11, interpreted in Enarrationes in Psalmos). He used this verse to justify the continued suffering and dispersion of Jews as divine punishment.
[26] The Good Friday prayer included the line, “Oremus et pro perfidis Judaeis: ut Deus et Dominus noster auferat velamen de cordibus eorum; ut et ipsi agnoscant Jesum Christum, Dominum nostrum,” which translates to, “Let us pray also for the perfidious Jews: that the Lord our God may take the veil from their hearts, and that they also may acknowledge Jesus Christ, our Lord”. In 1959, Pope John XXIII removed “perfidis” from the Roman Catholic liturgy, a change that was extended to the entire Church in July 1959. The final removal of the prayer was in 1970.
[27] Hecataeus of Abdera (c. 4th century BCE, historian) : Quoted in Diodorus Siculus’s Bibliotheca Historica (Greek, English translation).
[28] Manetho (3rd century BCE, Egyptian priest-historian): In Aegyptiaca (quoted by Josephus in Against Apion, Greek, English). Manetho’s account spread anti-Jewish myths in Egypt.
[29] Agatharchides of Cnidus (2nd century BCE, historian): Quoted in Josephus’s Against Apion (Greek, English).