This is not the intention to place a guilt trip on the church and also not to imply that today’s Christian is responsible for the atrocities perpetrated on Jews by those who
have not been Christians. Rather to become familiar with the poor track record of Christian/Jewish relationship.
When the true Church began, nearly all of its members were Jews. They didn’t see themselves as starting a new religion. In fact, they could hardly figure out what to do with the Gentiles who wanted to join in the worship of the Messiah.
The Acts of the Apostles record ‘great dissension and debate’ concerning those who were returning to Jesus ‘from among the Gentiles’ (Acts 15:1-21). Known as the Jerusalem Council, the leaders of the early Church hotly debated whether or not Gentiles who believed in Jesus had to follow the Law of Moses and be circumcised. This concern certainly underscores the
Jewishness of the early Church.
But as time passed, Jewish believers became more and more separated from the Jewish community. When the believers fled from Jerusalem before the destruction of the Temple, heeding the prophetic warnings of Jesus (see Matthew 24), the split was emphasized. At
the Council of Yavneh (70-90 CE) a malediction concerning the ‘sectarians,’ the Jewish believers in Jesus, was written. It was a prayer for the disappearance of these Jews from the synagogue. Then in 134 CE, Jewish believers opposed their Jewish leaders by refusing to
participate in the Bar Kokhba revolt. He was being hailed as the Messiah so they couldn’t follow him. The split became a chasm. Jewish believers in Jesus, seen as traitors, were further separated from the fellowship of the Jewish community.
As this separation between the believers and the Jewish community was widening, Rome began to restrict Jewish forms of worship and identity. Those in the Jewish community were called ‘superstitious’ because they believed in a God they could not see. They were also labeled as haters of humanity when they would not participate in pagan ceremonies so prevalent in the Roman Empire. Since much of the public celebration in Rome was imbued with religious significance, Jews were also called unpatriotic because they would not join in. for example, in Egypt, which was part of the Roman Empire, the story of God’s judgment Pharaoh was changed. It was said, rather, that Jews were lepers who had been expelled from Egypt.
A tremendous struggle ensured between Judaism, that is, the way of life of the Jews, and Hellenism, the way of life of the Romans (and their predecessors). In order to do away with the Jewish people as a distinct entity, the emperor, Hadrian, forbade circumcision, Sabbath observance, Jewish holidays, the rabbinical academies, the study of Torah (the five books of Moses),and more.
Even though the Romans discouraged the practice of Judaism, somehow the Jews remained intact as a people. Then the Roman emperor Vespasian permitted Jochanan ben Zakkai, a famous Pharisee of the first century, to start a seminary in Yavnah, which later became the centre of Jewish learning.
So during the early rule of the Roman Empire, we could see separation between the Jewish believers and the Jewish community, pressure on all Jews to adopt the Roman way of life, and a struggle to express Jewish identity in the form of scholarship, rather than statehood and Temple worship. This laid the foundation for the anti-Jewish attitudes seen in the next centuries. Many Gentiles living in the Roman Empire adopted ‘Christianity’ when the Emperor Constantine (306- 337CE) declared it to be the state religion. By 400s, Jews could no longer seek converts. Jews could not have non-Jewish slaves. The ‘Church’ forbade intermarriage and discouraged contact between Christians and Jews. Some of the Church leaders, ostensible followers of the Jew, Jesus, began to preach against His Jewish people.
These actions met little Church resistance since one of the second-century Church fathers, Justin Martyr, had already laid the foundation for anti-Semitism. Origen, who died in 251 CE accused the Jews of plotting to murder Christians. Even John Chrysostom (344- 407CE), known as ‘the bishop with the golden tongue,’ called the Jews worthless, greedy, assassins of Christ,
and worshipers of the devil. He stated from the pulpit that there could never be forgiveness for the Jews and that it was ‘incumbent’ on Christians to hate them. Jerome, a contemporary of Chrysostom and translator of the Latin Vulgate, devoted one of his celebrated essays entirely to anti-Jewish propaganda. He wrote, ‘God hates the Jews, and I hate the Jews.’ With this kind of ecclesiastical support, other anti-Jewish changes were made. Sunday, the day that commemorated the resurrection, became the Sabbath day. Passover became Easter, taking the name of a pagan goddess, Ishtar. Fertility rites soon clouded the truth of the resurrection. In general, what was then known as Christianity ignored the Jewish people, except to persecute them.
The Roman Catholic Church, seeing itself as the new Israel, and, therefore, the new ‘chosen people’ prohibited many Jewish customs. Observance of Pass-over was forbidden. The reading of the Talmud was outlawed and many priceless, hand-copied works were burned. Invoking the new laws of the Roman government, the state church did all it could to destroy the identity of the Jews, driving God’s people further and further away from their own Messiah.
In the 1400s the Catholic Church tried another approach in dealing with the Jews. The Jewish population of Spain was offered a choice: Convert to Catholicism or die. Many chose to die rather than follow those they saw as responsible for the deaths and destruction of so many other Jews. Then come the Reformation period, martin Luther, the great reformer, although first expressing great respect for the Jews, turned against them in his later years. Frustrated by the lack of Jewish conversions,
he wrote that the root of their resistance to the Gospel was their evil nature. He accused the Jews of being ritual murderers, incapable of being saved. He urged the destruction of all Talmud.
The Russian Orthodox Church, too, like so many other ‘Followers’ of Jesus, contributed to the campaign against Jewish people. Many Jews died in the pogroms at the hands of Russian soldiers, called ‘Cossacks,’ in the early part of the century. Why were they killed? For one reason only: because they were Jewish.
Adolf Hitler, the one who ordered the torturous destruction of 6,000,000 Jews. Their teachings, after all, were diametrically opposed. Jesus taught love and compassion. Hitler taught hate. These are one the many reasons why the Jews hesitate to be converted to Christianity. So, Christian! Love and have compassion for God’s chosen people and share the good news
of God’s love to your beloved Jews.
