Antisemitism and the New Testament is the discussion of how
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
views of
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
in the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
have contributed to
discrimination against Jewish people throughout history and in the present day.
A. Roy Eckardt
Arthur Roy Eckardt (1918/19 – May 5, 1998) was an American theologian and pastor in the United Methodist Church
The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part o ...
, a writer in the field of Jewish-Christian relations,
[In Memoriam: Professor A. Roy Eckardt](_blank)
Holocaust and Genocide Studies 1998 12(3):519 asserted that the foundation of
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
and
responsibility for the Holocaust
Responsibility for the Holocaust is the subject of an ongoing historical debate that has spanned several decades. The debate about the origins of the Holocaust is known as functionalism versus intentionalism. Intentionalists such as Lucy Dawidowi ...
lies ultimately in the New Testament.
[ A. Roy Eckhardt]
''Elder and Younger Brothers:The Encounter of Jews and Christians,''
' Scribner New York, 1967'' Eckardt insisted that Christian
repentance
Repentance is reviewing one's actions and feeling contrition or regret for past wrongs, which is accompanied by commitment to and actual actions that show and prove a change for the better.
In modern times, it is generally seen as involving a co ...
must include a reexamination of basic theological attitudes toward Jews and the New Testament in order to deal effectively with antisemitism.
Other historians, such as Richard Steigmann-Gall, have argued that
Nazism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
as a whole was either unrelated to Christianity or actively opposed to it.
James Dunn has argued that the New Testament contributed toward subsequent antisemitism in the Christian community.
James D. G. Dunn
James Douglas Grant Dunn (21 October 1939 – 26 June 2020), also known as Jimmy Dunn, was a British New Testament scholar, who was for many years the Lightfoot Professor of Divinity in the Department of Theology at the University of Durha ...
(ed.) 199
J. ''The Question of Anti-Semitism in the New Testament Writings of the Period,''
in James D.G. Dunn, ‘Jews and Christians: the parting of the ways, CE 70 to 135. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999. Pp.176-211 p 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?' According to
Louis Feldman
Louis Harry Feldman (October 29, 1926 – March 25, 2017) was an American professor of classics and literature. He was the Abraham Wouk Family Professor of Classics and Literature at Yeshiva University, the institution at which he taught si ...
, the term "antisemitism" is an "absurdity which the Jews took over from the Germans." He thinks the proper term is
anti-Judaism
Anti-Judaism is the "total or partial opposition to Judaism as a religion—and the total or partial opposition to Jews as adherents of it—by persons who accept a competing system of beliefs and practices and consider certain genuine Judai ...
. The distinction between anti-Judaism and antisemitism is often made, or challenged, with regard to early Christian hostility to Jews: some, notably
Gavin I. Langmuir
Gavin I. Langmuir (April 2, 1924 – July 10, 2005) was a Canadian medievalist historian. Much of his work focused on the Jews of medieval England and the history of antisemitism.
Veteran of World War II, a historian of antisemitism, and a medi ...
, prefer anti-Judaism, which implies a theological enmity. They say that the concept of antisemitism "makes little sense" in the nascent days of the Christian religion and that it would not emerge until later. In this context, the term antisemitism implies the secular biological race theories of modern times.
Peter Schäfer
Peter Schäfer (born 29 June 1943, Mülheim an der Ruhr, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a prolific German scholar of ancient religious studies, who has made contributions to the field of ancient Judaism and early Christianity through monographs, co- ...
prefers the word
Judaeophobia for pagan hostility to Jews, but considers the word antisemitism, even if anachronistic, synonymous with this term, while adding that Christian anti-Judaism eventually was crucial to what later became antisemitism. Dunn argues that the various New Testament expressions of anger and hurt by a minority puzzled by the refusal of a majority to accept their claims about Jesus the Jew reflect inner tensions between Jewish communities not yet unified by
rabbinical Judaism
Rabbinic Judaism ( he, יהדות רבנית, Yahadut Rabanit), also called Rabbinism, Rabbinicism, or Judaism espoused by the Rabbanites, has been the mainstream form of Judaism since the 6th century CE, after the codification of the Babylonian ...
, and a Christianity not yet detached from
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
.
The Greek word ''Ioudaioi'' used throughout the New Testament could refer either to Jews or, more restrictively, to Judeans alone.
The idea that the New Testament is antisemitic is a controversy that has emerged in the aftermath of the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
and is often associated with a thesis put forward by
Rosemary Ruether
Rosemary Radford Ruether (1936–2022) was an American feminist scholar and Roman Catholic theologian known for her significant contributions to the fields of feminist theology and ecofeminist theology. Her teaching and her writings helped est ...
. Debates surrounding various positions partly revolve around how antisemitism is defined, and on scholarly disagreements over whether antisemitism has a monolithic continuous history or is instead an umbrella term covering many distinct kinds of hostility to Jews over history.
Factional agendas underpin the writing of the canonical texts, and the various New Testament documents are windows into the conflict and debates of that period. According to Timothy Johnson, mutual slandering among competing sects was quite strong in the period when these works were composed. The New Testament moreover is an ensemble of texts written over decades and "it is quite meaningless to speak about a single New Testament attitude".
The New Testament and Christian antisemitism
According to Rabbi Michael J. Cook, Professor of Intertestamental and Early Christian Literature at the
Hebrew Union College
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
, there are ten themes in the New Testament that have been sources of anti-Judaism and antisemitism:
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
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
, to understand how the story of Jesus came to be recast in an
anti-Jewish
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
form as the
Gospels
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
took their final form.
Some scholars assert that critical verses in the New Testament have been used to incite prejudice and violence against Jewish people. Professor
Lillian C. Freudmann, author of ''Antisemitism in the New Testament'' (
University Press of America
University Press of America is an academic publisher based in the United States. Part of the independent Rowman & Littlefield
Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an independent publishing house founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the ...
, 1994) has published a study of such verses and the effects that they have had in the Christian community throughout history. Similar studies have been made by both Christian and Jewish scholars, including, Professors
Clark Williamsom (
Christian Theological Seminary
Christian Theological Seminary is an ecumenical seminary related to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and located in Indianapolis, Indiana. It provides five degree-level education courses, three dual-degree programs, a Doctor of Ministry ...
),
Hyam Maccoby
Hyam Maccoby ( he, חיים מכובי, 1924–2004) was a Jewish-British scholar and dramatist specialising in the study of the Jewish and Christian religious traditions. He was known for his theories of the historical Jesus and the origins of C ...
(
The Leo Baeck Institute),
Norman A. Beck (Texas
Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
College), and
Michael Berenbaum
Michael Berenbaum (born July 31, 1945, in Newark, New Jersey) is an American scholar, professor, rabbi, writer, and filmmaker, who specializes in the study of the Holocaust. He served as deputy director of the President's Commission on the Holo ...
(
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...
).
New Testament
There are some verses in the New Testament that describe Jews in a positive way, attributing to them
salvation
Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...
or
divine
Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.[divine ...](_blank)
love.
According to the New Testament
Gospels
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
, Jesus, on his fateful entry into Jerusalem before Passover, was received by a great crowd of people. Jesus was arrested and
tried by the Sanhedrin. After the trial, Jesus was handed over to
Pontius Pilate
Pontius Pilate (; grc-gre, Πόντιος Πιλᾶτος, ) was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judaea, serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26/27 to 36/37 AD. He is best known for being the official who presided over the trial of J ...
, who duly tried him again and, at the urging of the people, had him
crucified
Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagin ...
.
The New Testament records that Jesus' disciple
Judas Iscariot
Judas Iscariot (; grc-x-biblical, Ἰούδας Ἰσκαριώτης; syc, ܝܗܘܕܐ ܣܟܪܝܘܛܐ; died AD) was a disciple and one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. According to all four canonical gospels, Judas betraye ...
, the Roman governor
Pontius Pilate
Pontius Pilate (; grc-gre, Πόντιος Πιλᾶτος, ) was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judaea, serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26/27 to 36/37 AD. He is best known for being the official who presided over the trial of J ...
along with Roman forces and the leaders and people of
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
were (to varying degrees) responsible for the death of Jesus.
Gospel of Mark
According to the
Gospel of Mark
The Gospel of Mark), or simply Mark (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). is the second of the four canonical gospels and of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells of the ministry of Jesus from his baptism by John the Baptist to h ...
, the
crucifixion of Jesus
The crucifixion and death of Jesus occurred in 1st-century Judea, most likely in AD 30 or AD 33. It is described in the four canonical gospels, referred to in the New Testament epistles, attested to by other ancient sources, and consid ...
was authorized by
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
authorities at the insistence of leading Jews (Judeans) from the
Sanhedrin
The Sanhedrin (Hebrew and Aramaic: סַנְהֶדְרִין; Greek: , ''synedrion'', 'sitting together,' hence 'assembly' or 'council') was an assembly of either 23 or 71 elders (known as "rabbis" after the destruction of the Second Temple), ap ...
.
Paul H. Jones writes:
[Paul H. Jones,'The Christian Formation of the Jew as Religious Other,' in Encounter 67:2 2006 pp.161-197.]
Gospel of Matthew
The
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel of Matthew), or simply Matthew. It is most commonly abbreviated as "Matt." is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, Jesus, comes to his people and for ...
is often evaluated as the most Jewish of the canonical gospels, and yet it is sometimes argued that it is anti-Judaic or antisemitic.
The Gospel of Matthew has given readers the impression his hostility to Jews increases as his narrative progresses, until it culminates in chapter 23. In chapter 21, the
parable of the vineyard, which is strikingly similar to Isaiah 5:1-30, is followed by the great "stone" text, an early Christological
interpretation of Psalm 118: "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone". The Old Testament allusions appear to suggest that the author thought God would call to account Israel's leaders for maltreating Christ, and that the covenant will pass to the gentiles who follow Christ, a view that arose in intersectarian
polemic
Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topics ...
s in Judaism between the followers of Christ and the Jewish leadership. Then, in chapters 23 and 24, three successive hostile
pericope
A pericope (; Greek , "a cutting-out") in rhetoric is a set of verses that forms one coherent unit or thought, suitable for public reading from a text, now usually of sacred scripture. Also can be used as a way to identify certain themes in a cha ...
s are recorded. First, a series of
"woes" are pronounced against the Pharisees:
Certain passages which speak of the destruction of Jerusalem have elements that are interpreted as indications of Matthew's anti-Judaic attitudes. Jesus is said to have lamented over the capital: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it...See, your house is left to you, desolate". Again, Jesus is made to predict the demise of the Temple: "Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down".
[James W. Aageson]
''Windows on Early Christianity: Uncommon Stories, Striking Images, Critical Perspectives,''
Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2016 pp.43ff. Such visions of an end to the old Temple may be read as embodying the replacement theology, according to which Christianity supersedes Judaism.
The culmination of this rhetoric, and arguably the one verse that has caused more Jewish suffering than any other second Testament passage, is the uniquely Matthean attribution to the Jewish people:
This so-called "blood guilt" text has been interpreted to mean that all Jews, of Jesus' time and forever afterward, accept
responsibility for the death of Jesus
The crucifixion and death of Jesus occurred in 1st-century Judea (Roman province), Judea, most likely in AD 30 or AD 33. It is described in the four canonical gospels, referred to in the New Testament epistles, attested to by #Other accoun ...
. Shelly Matthews writes:
Douglas Hare noted that the Gospel of Matthew avoids sociological explanations for persecution:
The term "Jews" in the Gospel of Matthew is applied to those who deny the
resurrection of Jesus
The resurrection of Jesus ( grc-x-biblical, ἀνάστασις τοῦ Ἰησοῦ) is the Christian belief that God raised Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion, starting – or restoring – his exalted life as Christ and Lo ...
and believe that the
disciples stole Jesus's corpse.
Gospel of John
In the
Gospel of John
The Gospel of John ( grc, Εὐαγγέλιον κατὰ Ἰωάννην, translit=Euangélion katà Iōánnēn) is the fourth of the four canonical gospels. It contains a highly schematic account of the ministry of Jesus, with seven "sig ...
, the word
Ἰουδαῖοι, or ''the Jews'', is used 63 times,
Reimund Bieringer
Reimund Bieringer (born 1957) is a German theologian, biblical scholar, Professor Emeritus (with formal duties) of New Testament Exegesis at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium, and a Roman Catholic priest of the D ...
, Didier Pollefeyt, Frederique Vandecasteele-Vanneuville, 'Wrestling with Johannine Anti-Judaism: A Hermeneutical Framework for the Analysis of the Current Debate,' in ''Anti-Judaism and the Fourth Gospel,'' pp.3-4
p.15
in a hostile sense 31 times, and no distinctions are made between Jewish groups. The
Sadducees
The Sadducees (; he, צְדוּקִים, Ṣədūqīm) were a socio-religious sect of Jewish people who were active in Judea during the Second Temple period, from the second century BCE through the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Th ...
, for example, prominent elsewhere, are not distinguished.
[Andreas J. Köstenberger]
''Encountering John: The Gospel in Historical, Literary, and Theological Perspective,''
Baker Academic, 2002 pp.248ff. The enemies of Jesus are described collectively as "the Jews", in contradistinction to the other evangelists, who do not generally ascribe to "the Jews" collectively calls for the death of Jesus. In the other three texts, the plot to put Jesus to death is always presented as coming from a small group of priests and rulers, the Sadducees.
The Gospel of John is the primary source of the image of "the Jews" acting collectively as the enemy of Jesus, which later became fixed in Christian minds.
John himself has Jesus tell
the Samaritan woman that "salvation is from the Jews."
For example, in John 7:1-9, Jesus moves around in Galilee but avoids Judea, because "the Jews" were looking for a chance to kill him. In 7:12-13 some said "he is a good man" whereas others said he deceives the people, but these were all "whispers", no one would speak publicly for "fear of the Jews". Jewish rejection is also recorded in 7:45-52, 8:39-59, 10:22-42, and 12:36-43. John 12:42 says many did believe, but they kept it private, for fear the Pharisees would exclude them from the
synagogue
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...
. After the crucifixion, 20:19 has the
disciples hiding behind locked doors, "for fear of the Jews".
In several places, John's gospel also associates "the Jews" with darkness and with the
devil
A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...
. In John 8:37-39; 44–47, Jesus says, speaking to a group of Pharisees:
Although it has been claimed that the modern consensus is that the term (Jews) in John refers exclusively to religious authorities, the basis for this claim has been challenged and John's use of the term ''Jews'' remains a complex and debated area of biblical scholarship. New Testament scholar
J.G. Dunn writes:
Reflecting the consensus that John's use of the term refers strictly to Jewish religious authorities, some modern translations, such as
Today's New International Version
Today's New International Version (TNIV) is an English translation of the Bible which was developed by the Committee on Bible Translation (CBT). The CBT also developed the New International Version (NIV) in the 1970s. The TNIV is based on the NI ...
, remove the term "Jews" and replace it with more specific terms to avoid antisemitic connotations. For example,
Messianic Bibles, as well as the
Jesus Seminar
The Jesus Seminar was a group of about 50 critical biblical scholars and 100 laymen founded in 1985 by Robert Funk that originated under the auspices of the Westar Institute.''Making Sense of the New Testament'' by Craig Blomberg (Mar 1, 2004) ...
, often translate this as "Judeans", i.e. residents of
Judea
Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Hebrew language#Modern Hebrew, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian vocalization, Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous L ...
, in contrast to residents of
Galilee
Galilee (; he, הַגָּלִיל, hagGālīl; ar, الجليل, al-jalīl) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Galilee traditionally refers to the mountainous part, divided into Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and Lower Galil ...
, a translation which has not found general acceptance in the wider Christian community.
Later commentary
Successive generations of Christians read in the Gospel of John the collective guilt of Jews, universally and in all generations, in the death of Christ. John's use of the collective expression "the Jews" is likely explained by the historical circumstances in which and audience for which he wrote. With the
destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, the Jewish priesthood, and thus the class of the Sadducees was massacred and thus ceased to exist, due to its role in the
First Jewish–Roman War
The First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), sometimes called the Great Jewish Revolt ( he, המרד הגדול '), or The Jewish War, was the first of three major rebellions by the Jews against the Roman Empire, fought in Roman-controlled ...
. As John wrote his Gospel after these events, for a gentile audience, he spoke generically of Jews, rather than specifying a group within Judaism that no longer existed and that would have been unfamiliar to his readers.
First Epistle to the Thessalonians
Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16 as follows:
The text appears somewhat anomalous compared to the general tone of thanksgiving, in that we have a diatribe against persecutors identified as Jews.
The text appears to flagrantly contradict what Paul writes in chapters 9 to 11 of his
Epistle to the Romans
The Epistle to the Romans is the sixth book in the New Testament, and the longest of the thirteen Pauline epistles. Biblical scholars agree that it was composed by Paul the Apostle to explain that salvation is offered through the gospel of J ...
. This has led several scholars to question its authenticity, and suggest that it is an
interpolation
In the mathematical field of numerical analysis, interpolation is a type of estimation, a method of constructing (finding) new data points based on the range of a discrete set of known data points.
In engineering and science, one often has a n ...
. According to
Pieter Willem van der Horst Pieter Willem van der Horst (born 4 July 1946) is a scholar and university professor emeritus specializing in New Testament studies, Early Christian literature, and the Jewish and Hellenistic context of Early Christianity.
Education and career
Va ...
, there is an instance of antisemitic statements in one of the
Pauline epistles
The Pauline epistles, also known as Epistles of Paul or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen books of the New Testament attributed to Paul the Apostle, although the authorship of some is in dispute. Among these epistles are some of the earliest extan ...
;
David Luckensmeyer maintains that it was not written with the intent to condemn all Jews, Paul's letters reveal someone who lived his life within Judaism, but did at the same time have an antisemitic effect.
F. F. Bruce
Frederick Fyvie Bruce (12 October 1910 – 11 September 1990), usually cited as F. F. Bruce, was a Scottish biblical scholar who supported the historical reliability of the New Testament. His first book, ''New Testament Documents: Are They ...
called it an 'indiscriminate anti-Jewish polemic' mirroring Graeco-Roman pagan attitudes to the Jews. Gene Green, Ernest Best, T. Holtz, Amy Downey variously argue that it resonates with Old Testament themes, plays on Jewish fears of being the "privileged people of God" and typical of an argumentative style shared by Greeks and Jews alike and thus, in Downey's words, exemplifying an intracultural clash between Paul the Jew and Jewish leaders opposing the propagation of Gospel ideas in both Judea and Thessalonia.
[Amy Karen Downey,]
''Paul's Conundrum: Reconciling 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16 and Romans 9:1-5 in Light of His Calling and His Heritage,''
Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2011 pp.61ff,66-7.
Epistle to the Hebrews
Most scholars consider the
Epistle to the Hebrews
The Epistle to the Hebrews ( grc, Πρὸς Ἑβραίους, Pros Hebraious, to the Hebrews) is one of the books of the New Testament.
The text does not mention the name of its author, but was traditionally attributed to Paul the Apostle. Mos ...
to have been written for Christians who were tempted to return to Judaism. Lillian Freudmann thinks that it in trying to argue the superiority of Christianity to Judaism, it twisted Old Testament passages in a way that transmitted an anti-
Torah
The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...
antisemitism.
John Gager reads it as a polemic against Judaism, not the Jewish people, and regards it as the most important
anti-Judaizing text of early Christianity. Samuel Sandmel asserts that rather than vilifying Judaism, or the Jews of that age, the Epistle to the Hebrews is an argument for the supersessionist notion that Christianity is the pinnacle of ancient Judaism.
William L. Lane
William L. Lane (1931– March 8, 1999) was an American New Testament theologian and professor of biblical studies.
Background and education
Lane earned his B.A. from Wesleyan University, his M.Div. from Gordon Divinity School (1955), his Th.M. ...
dismissed the idea that it contains an anti-Judaic polemic, its primary concern being simply to assert that the Old Testament prophecies had been fulfilled. Those who see in its discontinuities antisemitism are wrong William Hagner argued: there may be anti-Judaism, but no antagonism for Jews. While it promotes supersessionism it venerates the Hebrew saints, for Donald Bloesch, and therefore what it is exhorting is the replacement of Jewish institutions, not Jews. For Timothy Johnson, Christianity had to struggle to survive amid a majority of sects that were not Messianic, and whatever slander there is, is to be understood as the rhetoric of a marginal group against the majority of Jews. Such rhetorical vehemence was common in antiquity in religious and philosophical disputes.
Book of Revelation
In Revelation 2:9 and 3:9 reference is made to a "
synagogue of Satan
In the letters to the early Christian churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia in Revelation 2:9 and 3:9, reference is made to a synagogue of Satan ( gr, συναγωγή τοῦ Σατανᾶ, ''synagoge tou satana''), in each case referring to a gr ...
" (συναγωγή τοῦ Σατανᾶ). At Revelation 2:9 we have:
At 3:9 one reads:
There is no certainty about who are those claiming falsely to be Jews: whether they are Jews hostile to gentiles,
Jewish Christians
Jewish Christians ( he, יהודים נוצרים, yehudim notzrim) were the followers of a Jewish religious sect that emerged in Judea during the late Second Temple period (first century AD). The Nazarene Jews integrated the belief of Jesus ...
persecuted by a Jewish majority, Jews who are practicing a "false" form of Judaism or gentiles feigning to be Jews.
[Craig Koester]
''Revelation: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary,''
Yale University Press 2014 pp.2711ff.pp.274-276: 'Synagogue members at Smyrna presumably considered opposition to the church to be consistent with Israel’s tradition since they thought that Jesus's followers had departed from the tradition by making elevated claims about Jesus. From John's perspective, however, their attempt to denounce Jesus' followers-especially when this could lead to imprisonment and death-was incompatible with loyalty to Israel's God. For John, those who denounce Christians thereby denounce the God to whom they bear witness, so he calls it blasphemia. Moreover, the Jews who made such denunciations joined forces with civic and provincial authorities-who worshiped other gods-in their efforts to have Christians arrested. For John, true Jews would not have collaborated with idolators. Other interpretations are less viable. Some assume that the inauthentic Jews are Gentile Christians. First, some argue that these Christians keep Jewish customs and affiliate with the synagogue to avoid Roman persecution. . .Second, some interpreters hold that the so-called Jews are Christians like Jezebel and Nicolaitans, who might have claimed to be part of the Jewish tradition, even though they eat what has been sacrificed to idols..Other interpretations take the so-called Jews to be non-Christians.
The traditional interpretation upheld until recently by a majority of scholars took this to denote Jews hostile to Christians, and specifically to the Jewish communities of
Smyrna
Smyrna ( ; grc, Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or , ) was a Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to promi ...
(2:9) and
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
(3:9). In the Smyrna passage, according to Koester, those claiming to be Jews probably bore in their traits the usual markers of kinship, circumcision, dietary restriction and Sabbath observance, but are taken to task for denouncing the Christian community to the Roman authorities to get them arrested.
This has recently been questioned by
Elaine Pagels
Elaine Pagels, née Hiesey (born February 13, 1943), is an American historian of religion. She is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. Pagels has conducted extensive research into early Christianity and Gnosti ...
, David Frankfurter, Heinrich Kraft and John W. Marshall. Pagels, reviewing the literature, argues that the author of Revelation,
John of Patmos
John of Patmos (also called John the Revelator, John the Divine, John the Theologian) is the name traditionally given to the author of the Book of Revelation. The text of Revelation states that John was on Patmos, a Greek island where, according ...
, was himself a Jew devoted to Christ, saw himself as a Jew, not a Christian. Unlike the other evangelists who blame Jews for Christ's death, the author of Revelation, drawing on old patterns of late Jewish
eschatological imagery, assigns responsibility for his death to Romans and says they are abetted by an internal enemy who feign to be God's people while acting as agents of Satan, a theme also present in the literature of the
Qumran
Qumran ( he, קומראן; ar, خربة قمران ') is an archaeological site in the West Bank managed by Israel's Qumran National Park. It is located on a dry marl plateau about from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, near the Israeli ...
sectaries. Pagels identifies most of these internal enemies as converts to the
Pauline doctrine and teachings prevailing among gentiles. Taken literally the passage at Revelations 3:9 would refer to gentiles upstaging Jewish followers of Jesus, feigning to be more Jewish than Jews themselves. Paul Duff on the other hand assumes they are Jews, like John himself, but Jews who are hostile to the Jesus movement. David Frankfurter has revived the old argument of
Ferdinand Baur by endorsing the view that in fact the members of Satan's synagogue are mostly gentiles, claiming Israel's legacy while rebuffing religious practices that are obligatory for Jews. Even those who, like
David Aune
David Edward Aune (born 1939) is an American New Testament scholar. He is the emeritus Walter Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at the University of Notre Dame.
Aune studied at Wheaton College, the University of Minnesota, and the ...
, consider that the phrase indicates Jews, not gentiles, allow that the Book of Revelation is virtually devoid of traces of the polemics between Christians and Jews typical of those times. Pagels concludes that the evidence weighs in favour of reading the 'synagogue of Satan' as referring to gentile converts to the Pauline version of the Jesus movement, who denominate themselves as 'those of Christ/Christians', a terminology never used by John of Patmos.
It has been argued that the idea of a Jewish
Antichrist
In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist refers to people prophesied by the Bible to oppose Jesus Christ and substitute themselves in Christ's place before the Second Coming. The term Antichrist (including one plural form) 1 John ; . 2 John . ...
developed from these verses.
[ Moshe Lazar]
'The Lamb and the Scapegoat: The Dehumanization of Jews in Medieval Propaganda,'
in Sander Gilman
Sander L. Gilman, born on February 21, 1944, is an American cultural and literary historian. He is known for his contributions to Jewish studies and the history of medicine. He is the author or editor of over ninety books.
Gilman's focus is on ...
, Steven T. Katz
Steven Theodore Katz (born August 24, 1944) is an American philosopher and scholar. He is the founding director of the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies at Boston University in Massachusetts, United States, where he holds the Alvin J. and Shir ...
(eds.) "Anti-Semitism in Times of Crisis, " New York University Press 1991 pp.38-79 pp.45-46
Christian responses
In the decree ''
Nostra aetate
(from Latin: "In our time") is the incipit of the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions of the Second Vatican Council. Passed by a vote of 2,221 to 88 of the assembled bishops, this declaration was promulgated o ...
'' in 1965,
Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...
declared that
True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ; still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures.
Norman A. Beck, professor of theology and classical languages at
Texas Lutheran University
Texas Lutheran University (TLU) is a Private university, private Evangelical Lutheran Church in America university in Seguin, Texas.
History
The university traces its roots back to 1891, to an academy of the first German Evangelical Lutheran S ...
, has proposed that Christian
lectionaries
A lectionary ( la, lectionarium) is a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for Christian or Judaic worship on a given day or occasion. There are sub-types such as a "gospel lectionary" or evangeliary, and a ...
remove what he calls "… the specific texts identified as most problematic …". Beck identifies what he deems to be offensive passages in the New Testament and indicates the instances in which these texts or portions thereof are included in major lectionary series.
Daniel Goldhagen
Daniel Jonah Goldhagen (born June 30, 1959) is an American author, and former associate professor of government and social studies at Harvard University. Goldhagen reached international attention and broad criticism as the author of two controve ...
, former Associate Professor of Political Science at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, also suggested in his book ''
A Moral Reckoning
''A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair'' is a 2003 book by the political scientist Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, previously the author of ''Hitler's Willing Executioners'' (1996). Gol ...
'' that the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
should change its doctrine and the accepted
Biblical canon
A biblical canon is a set of texts (also called "books") which a particular Jewish or Christian religious community regards as part of the Bible.
The English word ''canon'' comes from the Greek , meaning " rule" or "measuring stick". The use ...
to excise statements he labels as antisemitic – he counts some 450 such passages in the
Synoptic Gospels
The gospels of Gospel of Matthew, Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Mark, and Gospel of Luke, Luke are referred to as the synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in a similar sequence and in similar or sometimes identical ...
and
Acts of the Apostles
The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its messag ...
alone – to indicate that "The Jews' way to God is as legitimate as the Christian way".
The
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
Faith and Order Commission document ''God's Unfailing Word: Theological and Practical Perspectives on Christian-Jewish Relations'' addresses the matter of New Testament texts and connection to antisemitism: "Varying theological emphases within the Church of England regarding the doctrine of scriptural interpretation and authority may have a bearing on how such concerns are addressed."
God's Unfailing Word: Theological and Practical Perspectives on Christian-Jewish Relations
/ref>
See also
* Anti-Judaism in early Christianity 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 Counci ...
* Christian–Jewish reconciliation
Christian−Jewish reconciliation refers to the efforts that are being made to improve understanding and acceptance between Christians and Jews. There has been significant progress in reconciliation in recent years, in particular by the Catholic C ...
* Christianity and Judaism
Christianity began as a movement within Second Temple Judaism, but the two religions gradually diverged over the first few centuries of the Christian Era. Differences of opinion vary between denominations in both religions, but the most import ...
* Origins of Christianity
The history of Christianity concerns the Christian religion, Christian countries, and the Christians with their various denominations, from the 1st century to the present. Christianity originated with the ministry of Jesus, a Jewish teach ...
Notes
References
Further reading
* Baum, Gregory, ''The Jews and the Gospel: A Re-examination of the New Testament'', Newman Press (1961); reprinted as ''Is the New Testament Anti-semitic?'', Paulist Press (1965)
* Evans, Craig A. and Donald A. Hagner, eds., ''Anti-Semitism and Early Christianity: Issues of Polemic and Faith'', Fortress Press (1993);
* Freudmann, Lillian C. ''Antisemitism in the New Testament'', University Press of America (1994);
* Gomes, Peter J. "The Bible and Anti-Semitism: Christianity's Original Sin", Chapter 6 in ''The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart'', William Morrow (1996);
* Hagner, Donald A., "Anti-Semitism", ''Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels'', 2 ed., Green, Brown and Perrin, eds., IVP Academic (2013);
* Kee, Howard Clark, and Irvin J. Borowsky, eds., ''Removing the Anti-Judaism from the New Testament'', Philadelphia: American Interfaith Institute (1998);
* Stendahl, Krister, "Anti-Semitism", ''The Oxford Companion to the Bible'', Metzger and Coogan, eds., Oxford University Press (1993); pp. 32–34.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Antisemitism In The New Testament
Ancient Christian antisemitism
Judaism in the New Testament