Religious antisemitism is the aversion to or discrimination against Jews as a whole based on Abrahmic 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.
Some scholars have argued that modern antisemitism is primarily based on nonreligious factors, John Higham is emblematic of this school of thought. However, this interpretation has been challenged. In 1966, Charles Glock and Rodney Stark first published public opinion polling data, which showed that most Americans based their stereotypes of Jews on religion. Since then, further opinion polling in America and Europe has supported this conclusion.
Origins Father Edward Flannery, in his 1965 book The Anguish of the Jew: Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism, traces the first clear examples of specific anti-Jewish sentiment back to Alexandria in the third century BCE. Flannery writes that it was the Jews' refusal to accept Greek religious and social standards that marked them out. Hecataetus of Abdera, a Greek historian of the early third century BCE, wrote that Moses "in remembrance of the exile of his people, instituted for them a misanthropic and inhospitable way of life." Manetho, an Egyptian historian, wrote that the Jews were expelled Egyptian lepers who had been taught by Moses "not to adore the gods". The same themes appeared in the works of Chaeremon, Lysimachus, Poseidonius, Apollonius Molon, Apion and Tacitus. Agatharchides of Cnidus wrote about the "ridiculous practices" of the Jews and of the "absurdity of their Law", and how Ptolemy Lagus was able to invade Jerusalem in 320 BCE because its inhabitants were observing the Sabbath.Flannery, Edward H. The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism. Paulist Press, first published in 1985; this edition 2004, pp. 11-12. David Nirenberg also charts this history in Antijudaism: The Western Tradition.
Christian antisemitism
Christian religious antisemitism is often expressed as anti-Judaism (i.e., it is argued that the antipathy is to the practices of Judaism). As such, it is argued, antisemitism would cease if Jews stopped practicing or changed their public faith, especially by converting to Christianity. However, there have been times when converts were also discriminated against, as in the case of the liturgical exclusion of Jewish converts, which occurred during the late 15th and 16th centuries, when Christianized Marranos or Iberian Jews were accused of secretly practicing Judaism or Jewish customs.See, for example, Flannery, Edward H. The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism, Stimulus Books, first published 1985, this edition 2004.
New Testament and antisemitism
Frederick Schweitzer and Marvin Perry write that the authors of the gospel account sought to place responsibility for the Crucifixion of Jesus and his death on Jews rather than the Roman emperor or Pontius Pilate.Perry & Schweitzer (2002), pp. 27, 35. As a result, Christians for centuries viewed Jews as "the Christ Killers".Perry & Schweitzer (2002), p. 18. The destruction of the Second Temple was seen as a judgment from God to the Jews for that death,Richardson (1986), p. 23 and Jews were seen as "a people condemned forever to suffer exile and degradation". According to historian Edward H. Flannery, the Gospel of John in particular contains many verses that refer to Jews in a pejorative manner.Flannery (2004) p. 33.
In , Paul states that the Churches in Judea had been persecuted by the Jews who killed Jesus and that such people displease God, oppose all men, and had prevented Paul from speaking to the gentile nations concerning the New Testament message. Described by Hyam Maccoby as "the most explicit outburst against Jews in Paul's Epistles",Hyam Maccoby, The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity, Harper & Row, 1986, , p. 203. these verses have repeatedly been employed for antisemitic purposes. Maccoby views it as one of Paul's innovations responsible for creating Christian antisemitism, though he notes that some have argued these particular verses are later interpolations not written by Paul. Craig Blomberg claims that viewing them as antisemitic is a mistake, but "understandable in light of [Paul's] harsh words". In his view, Paul is not condemning all Jews forever, but merely those he believed had specifically persecuted the prophets, Jesus, or the 1st-century church. Blomberg sees Paul's words here as no different in kind than the harsh words the prophets of the Old Testament have for the Jews.Craig Blomberg, From Pentecost to Patmos: An Introduction to Acts Through Revelation, B&H Publishing Group, 2006, , p. 144.
The Codex Sinaiticus contains two extra books in the New Testament—the Shepherd of Hermas and the Epistle of Barnabas. The latter emphasizes the claim that it was the Jews, not the Romans, who killed Jesus and is full of antisemitism. The Epistle of Barnabas was not accepted as part of the canon; Professor Bart Ehrman has stated, "the suffering of Jews in the subsequent centuries would, if possible, have been even worse had the Epistle of Barnabas remained".
Early Christianity Many early and influential Church works—such as the dialogues of Justin Martyr, the homilies of John Chrysostom, and the testimonies of the church father Cyprian—are strongly anti-Jewish.
During a discussion on the celebration of Easter during the First Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, Roman emperor Constantine said,Eusebius. "Life of Constantine (Book III)", 337 CE. Retrieved March 12, 2006. ... it appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin, and are, therefore, deservedly afflicted with blindness of soul. ... Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Saviour a different way.
Prejudice against Jews in the Roman Empire was formalized in 438, when the Code of Theodosius II established Christianity as the only legal religion in the Roman Empire. The Justinian Code a century later stripped Jews of many of their rights, and Church councils throughout the 6th and 7th centuries, including the Council of Orleans, further enforced anti-Jewish provisions. These restrictions began as early as 305, when, in Elvira (now Granada), a Spanish town in Andalucia, the first known laws of any church council against Jews appeared. Christian women were forbidden to marry Jews unless the betrothed Jewish male first converted to Catholicism. Jews were forbidden to extend hospitality to Catholics. Jews could not keep Catholic Christian concubines and were forbidden to bless the fields of Catholics. In 589, in Catholic Iberia, the Third Council of Toledo ordered that children born of a marriage between Jews and Catholics be baptized by force. By the Twelfth Council of Toledo (681), a policy of forced conversion of all Jews was initiated (Liber Judicum, II.2 as given in Roth).Roth, A. M. Roth, and Roth, Norman. Jews, Visigoths and Muslims in Medieval Spain, Brill Academic, 1994. Thousands fled, and others converted to Roman Catholicism.
Accusations of deicide
Although never a part of Christian dogma, many Christians, including members of the clergy, held the Jewish people under an antisemitic canard to be collectively responsible for deicide, the killing of Jesus, who they believed was the son of God. According to this interpretation, some Christian traditions historically attributed responsibility for Jesus’ death to the Jewish people present at the time, as well as collectively over generations, labeling it as the sin of deicide, or God-killing. This belief played a significant role in fueling antisemitic attitudes and actions in various Christian societies throughout history.Perry & Schweitzer (2002), p. 26.
Passion plays are dramatic stagings representing the trial and death of Jesus, and they have historically been used in remembrance of Jesus' death during Lent. These plays historically blamed the Jews for the death of Jesus in a polemical fashion, depicting a crowd of Jewish people condemning Jesus to death by crucifixion and a Jewish leader assuming eternal collective guilt for the crowd for the murder of Jesus, which, The Boston Globe explains, "for centuries prompted vicious attacks—or pogroms—on Europe's Jewish communities".Sennott, Charles M."In Poland, new 'Passion' plays on old hatreds", The Boston Globe, April 10, 2004.
Blood libel
Blood libels are false accusations that Jews use human blood in religious rituals."Blood Accusation", Jewish Encyclopedia, retrieved 7 May 2007.Jewish Encyclopedia Historically, these are accusations that the blood of Christian children is especially coveted. In many cases, blood libels served as the basis for a blood libel cult, in which the alleged victim of human sacrifice was elevated to the status of a martyr and, in some cases, canonized.
Although the first known instance of a blood libel is found in the writings of Apion, who claimed that the Jews sacrificed Greek victims in the Temple, no further incidents are recorded until the 12th century when blood libels began to proliferate. These libels have persisted from then through the 21st century."The World: Saudi Editor Retracts Article That Defamed Jews", Los Angeles Times, March 20, 2003, fetched 19 the April 2008,
In the modern era, the blood libel continues to be a major aspect of antisemitism. It has extended its reach to accuse Jews of many different forms of harm that can be carried out against other people.
Medieval and Renaissance Europe
Antisemitism was widespread in Europe during the Middle Ages. In those times, the main cause of prejudice against Jews in Europe was the religious one. Although not part of Roman Catholic dogma, many Christians, including members of the clergy, held the Jewish people collectively responsible for the death of Jesus, a practice originated by Melito of Sardis.
Among socio-economic factors were restrictions by the authorities. Local rulers and church officials closed the doors for many professions to the Jews, pushing them into occupations considered socially inferior such as accounting, rent-collecting, and moneylending, which was tolerated then as a "necessary evil".Paley, Susan and Koesters, Adrian Gibbons, eds. . Retrieved March 12, 2006. During the Black Death, Jews were accused of being the cause and were often killed.See Stéphane Barry and Norbert Gualde, La plus grande épidémie de l'histoire ("The greatest epidemics in history"), in L'Histoire magazine, n°310, June 2006, p.47 There were expulsions of Jews from England, France, Germany, Portugal and Spain during the Middle Ages as a result of antisemitism.
German for "Jews' sow", Judensau was the derogatory and dehumanizing imagery of Jews that appeared around the 13th century. Its popularity lasted for over 600 years and was revived by the Nazis. The Jews, typically portrayed in obscene contact with unclean animals such as pigs or owls or representing a devil, appeared on cathedral or church ceilings, pillars, utensils, etchings, etc. Often, the images combined several antisemitic motifs and included derisive prose or poetry.