Jewish deicide
In Christian theology, Jewish deicide is the theological view that the Jews as a people are responsible for the Crucifixion of Jesus.[1][2]
Overview
[change | change source]The view is said to have spread in the early days of Christianity when early Christian theologians (Church Fathers) wrote about it.[3] Since the end of the Holocaust,[4][5] during which at least 6,000,000 Jews were killed,[4][5] this matter has been discussed by modern historians from different disciplines.[6][7] Now, Jewish deicide is considered an antisemitic trope and no longer agreed by mainstream churches.[6][7]
New Testament
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Gospel of Matthew
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The view is said to have been based on Matthew 27:24–25:[8][9]
So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood; see to it yourselves." And all the people answered, "His blood be on us and on our children!"
Gospel of John
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The view is also said to have been based on John 5:16–18, where John referred to the Jews directly:[10][11]
So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews began to persecute him. In his defense Jesus said to them, "My father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working." For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
In the Greek Bible (The New Testament's original Greek text),[12] Ἰουδαῖοι (Ioudaios) was used,[12] meaning "the Jews" or "the Judeans", though some scholars claimed that the passage should be analyzed in the context of how it was later interpreted.[13]
First Epistle to the Thessalonians
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In the First Epistle to the Thessalonians,[14] Paul wrote,[15][16]
For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus which are in Judea; for you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all men.
Church Fathers' views
[change | change source]Ignatius of Antioch
[change | change source]In the early decades of Christianity, Ignatius of Antioch (c. 50 – 117) claimed that those who followed Jewish custom were "partakers with those who killed Jesus".[17]
Justin Martyr
[change | change source]Justin Martyr (100 – 165) claimed that God's covenant (also known as the Old Covenant or Mosaic Covenant) with the Jews[18] was no longer valid and that Christians had replaced them because the Jews "[had] slain the Just One [Jesus]",[17] who would deserve exile and persecution in the centuries to come.[17]
Irenaeus
[change | change source]Irenaeus (130 – 202) claimed that the Jews[19] had been "disinherited from the grace of God" as they had "rejected the Son of God and slew Him".[17]
Tertullian of Carthage
[change | change source]Tertullian of Carthage (155 – 230) blamed the Jews for the death of Jesus.[17]
Origen of Alexandria
[change | change source]Origen of Alexandria (185 – 254), along with John Chrysostom (c. 347 – 407), is said to have been responsible for much of Christian antisemitism.[17] He held the Jews responsible for the killing of Jesus.[17] He believed that Jerusalem deserved to perish and the Jewish nation to be overthrown in order for God's grace to be passed on to Christians.[17]
John Chrysostom
[change | change source]John Chrysostom (c. 347 – 407), an important early Church Father who served as the archbishop of Constantinople, wrote in his homily series Adversus Judaeos (Ancient Greek: Κατὰ Ἰουδαίων Kata Ioudaiōn, "against the Jews"):[20]
[The synagogue is worse than] a brothel and a drinking shop [...] a den of scoundrels, the repair of wild beasts, a temple of demons, the refuge of brigands and debauchees, and the cavern of devils, a criminal assembly of the assassins of Christ [. ...] demons dwell in the synagogue and also in the souls of the Jews.
As there were only two other ordained individuals in Antioch legally recognized as Christian preachers, Chrysostom managed to promote his ideas to most local Christians.[21]
Academic views
[change | change source]Notably, John Chrysostom's Adversus Judaeos[22] is seen by many historians as having inspired antisemites in the following 1,600 years to justify pogroms, expulsions and discriminatory policies against Jews.[23][24] Such antisemites include Nazi Germany's ruler Adolf Hitler,[20][24] who reprinted and circulated Chrysostom's text among Germans within Nazi territories to justify the Holocaust.[20][24]
Steven Katz
[change | change source]American philosopher Steven Katz (1944 – ), the founding director of the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies at Boston University in Massachusetts, wrote:[24]
The decisive turn in the history of Christian anti-Judaism, a turn whose ultimate disfiguring consequence was enacted in the political antisemitism of Adolf Hitler.
Walter Laqueur
[change | change source]Walter Laqueur (1921 – 2018), a German-American Jewish historian, said that the conditions for the 4th-century Christian church were "brutal and aggressive" as it was "fighting for survival and recognition", leading to the lack of demand for mercy and forgiveness,[23] particularly due to the anti-Christian Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate (reigned 361 – 363).[25] The three centuries of persecution of Christians did not end until the late 4th century,[25] when the Christian church became the state religion of the Roman Empire under Theodosius I (reigned 379 – 395),[25] who closed pagan temples in the process.[25]
James Parkes
[change | change source]Anglican priest James Parkes called Chrysostom's antisemitic homilies
the most horrible and violent denunciations of Judaism to be found in the writings of a Christian theologian.
Amy-Jill Levine
[change | change source]Regarding the Gospel of Matthew, Biblical scholar Amy-Jill Levine said that Matthew 27:24–25[9] had caused more suffering throughout Jewish history than any other passage in the New Testament.[26]
Modern Christian views
[change | change source]
Protestant churches
[change | change source]It is said that most Protestant churches have never given a binding position on this theological view. Some, especially the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), have made official declarations against it.[27][28]
Roman Catholic Church
[change | change source]The Roman Catholic Church (RCC) held the view until 1965,[29] when the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) passed the Nostra aetate, which includes the declaration that
What happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today.
Since then, the Catholic Church has become divided, ensued by the rise of the radical traditionalist Catholics,[30][31] who are active in current American politics.[32] The Vatican II's position was supported by Pope John Paul II,[29] when he led the Catholic Church between 1978 and 2005.[33]
Related pages
[change | change source]References
[change | change source]- ↑ Greenspoon, Leonard; Hamm, Dennis; Le Beau, Bryan F. (1 November 2000). The Historical Jesus Through Catholic and Jewish Eyes. A&C Black. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-56338-322-9.
- ↑ Kiewe, Amos (20 November 2018). "Antisemitism and Communication". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.633. ISBN 978-0-19-022861-3.
The Church correctly identified the charge of eternal guilt of the Jew as the root cause of antisemitism and stated its rejection of the faulty reasoning associated with the charge of eternal deicide.
- ↑ Feldman, Louis Harry (1996-01-01). Studies in Hellenistic Judaism. Brill. p. 309. doi:10.1163/9789004332836. ISBN 978-90-04-33283-6.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1
- Shapiro, P.A. (2007). "Faith, murder, resurrection: The Iron Guard and the Romanian Orthodox Church". Antisemitism, Christian Ambivalence, and the Holocaust. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253116741. OCLC 191071016. Retrieved November 4, 2024.
- Laqueur, Walter (July 30, 2009). "Towards the Holocaust". The Changing Face of Antisemitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 9780195341218. Retrieved November 3, 2024.
- "Deportation of Hungarian Jews". Timeline of Events. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Archived from the original on 25 November 2017. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
- Brosnan, Matt (12 June 2018). "What Was The Holocaust?". Imperial War Museum. Archived from the original on 2 March 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
- "36 Questions About the Holocaust". Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles. Retrieved 2024-10-14.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1
- Polonsky, Antony (1989). "Polish-Jewish relations and the Holocaust". Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry. 4: 226–242. doi:10.3828/polin.1989.4.226. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
- "Murder of the Jews of Poland". Yad Vashem. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
- "POLISH VICTIMS". Holocaust Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
- Waltman, Michael; Haas, John (2010). The Communication of Hate. Peter Lang. p. 52. ISBN 978-1433104473.
- Grabowski, Jan; Klein, Shira (February 9, 2023). "Wikipedia's Intentional Distortion of the History of the Holocaust". The Journal of Holocaust Research. 37 (2): 133–190. doi:10.1080/25785648.2023.2168939. Retrieved January 20, 2025.
- "Unter der NS-Herrschaft ermordete Juden nach Land. / Jews by country murdered under Nazi rule". Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung / Federal Agency for Civic Education (Germany). April 29, 2018.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1
- James Parkes, Prelude to Dialogue (London: 1969) p. 153; cited in Wilken, p. xv.
- Ritter, Adolf M. (1998). "John Chrysostom and the Jews — A Reconsideration". In Mgaloblishvili, Tamila (ed.). Ancient Christianity in the Caucasus. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315026954-11. ISBN 9781315026954.
- Brustein, Willian I. (2003). Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe before the Holocaust. Cambridge University Press. p. 52. ISBN 0-521-77308-3.
- Levine, Amy-Jill; Brettler, Marc Zvi, eds. (2011). The Jewish Annotated New Testament. Oxford University Press.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1
- Kertzer, David I. "The Roman Catholic Church, the Holocaust, and the demonization of the Jews. Response to "Benjamin and us: Christanity, its Jews, and history" by Jeanne Favret-Saada". HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory. 4 (3). Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States: The University of Chicago Press: 329–333. Retrieved December 23, 2024.
OPEN ACCESS
- "Antisemitism in History: From the Early Church to 1400". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). Retrieved December 23, 2024.
- "The resurrection of Christian antisemitism". The Jerusalem Post. 18 June 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
- Kertzer, David I. "The Roman Catholic Church, the Holocaust, and the demonization of the Jews. Response to "Benjamin and us: Christanity, its Jews, and history" by Jeanne Favret-Saada". HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory. 4 (3). Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States: The University of Chicago Press: 329–333. Retrieved December 23, 2024.
- ↑ Matthew 27:24–25
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Greek Bible: Matthew". greekbible.com. Retrieved March 2, 2025.
- ↑ John 5:16–18
- ↑ Walker, William O. (1979). "Anti-Semitism in the New Testament? By Samuel Sandmel. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978. xxi + 168 pages". Horizons. 6 (1): 123–124. doi:10.1017/s0360966900015759. ISSN 0360-9669. S2CID 171123190.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Greek Bible: John". greekbible.com. Retrieved March 2, 2025.
- ↑ Feldman, Louis H.; Evans, Craig A.; Hagner, Donald A. (January 1995). "Anti-Semitism and Early Christianity: Issues of Polemic and Faith". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 115 (1): 115. doi:10.2307/605317. ISSN 0003-0279. JSTOR 605317.
- ↑ Thessalonians%202:14–15;&version=KJV; 1 Thessalonians 2:14–15
- ↑ Jeremy Cohen, Christ Killers: The Jews and the Passion from the Bible to the Big Screen, Oxford University Press 2007. p. 55.
- ↑ Gilliard, Frank D. (February 5, 2009). "The Problem of the Antisemitic Comma between 1 Thessalonians 2.14 and 15". New Testament Studies. 35 (4). Cambridge University Press: 481‒502. doi:10.1017/S0028688500015162. Retrieved March 2, 2025.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|year=/|date=mismatch (help) - ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 17.5 17.6 17.7 Dr. David R. Reagan. "The Evil of Replacement Theology: The Historical Abuse of the Jews by the Church". Lamb & Lion Ministries. Retrieved March 1, 2025.
- ↑ Referred to as Israel in his writings.
- ↑ Referred to as the house of Jacob and the people of Israel in his writings.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2
- Schrauger, Brian (18 June 2020). "The resurrection of Christian antisemitism". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on 7 October 2024. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
John the Golden-Throat (a.k.a. Chrysostom), ascended the pulpit in 347 CE where he began the first of eight sermons in a series titled, Adversus Judaeos; in English, Against The Jews...Chrysostom began his diatribe against all Jews by attacking Christians who celebrated Jewish holy days honoring the same God as Christianity, agreeing to disagree about Jesus. "We must first root this ailment out," he said, "and then take thought of matters outside. We must first cure our own." They are sick, he said, "with the Judaizing disease...deserving stronger condemnation than any Jew.
- Berger, J. M.; Broschowitz, Michael S. (25 April 2024). "John Chrysostom: The Architect of Antisemitism". Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism. Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. Archived from the original on 2 January 2025. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
Modern antisemitism is informed by concepts articulated more than 1,600 years ago by John Chrysostom, an early father of the Christian Church. While a direct causal lineage is hard to establish, Chrysostom's influence on historical and modern antisemitism is well-documented. Chrysostom articulated several key tropes of antisemitic ideology, including the belief that Jewish people are "schemers" and the belief that they engage in human sacrifice. He also introduced dehumanizing language that foreshadowed the genocidal rhetoric of the Nazis who cited John Chrysostom as a historical source legitimizing their bigotry. Chrysostom is still cited by antisemitic extremists online and offline on a daily basis.
- Gutmann, Tim (10 May 2024). "Christians can't let history repeat itself when it comes to antisemitism". Premier Christianity. Archived from the original on 27 January 2025. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
- Schrauger, Brian (18 June 2020). "The resurrection of Christian antisemitism". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on 7 October 2024. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
- ↑ Christine C. Shepardson, Controlling Contested Places: Late Antique Antioch and the Spatial Politics of Religious Controversy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014), 93)
- ↑
- "John Chrysostom, Against the Jews. Homily 6". The Tertullian Project. Retrieved March 2, 2025.
- Fr. Vasile Mihoc. "St Paul and the Jews According to St John Chrysostom's Commentary on Romans 9-11" (PDF). Vanderbilt University. Sibiu, Romania. Retrieved March 2, 2025.
- Fulton, John P. (2011). "Tertullian's Adversus Judaeos: a Tale of Two Treatises" (PDF). Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Retrieved March 2, 2025.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 Walter Laqueur, The Changing Face of Antisemitism: From Ancient Times To The Present Day (Oxford University Press: 2006) ISBN 0-19-530429-2, pp. 47–48
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 Katz, Steven (1999), "Ideology, State Power, and Mass Murder/Genocide", Lessons and Legacies: The Meaning of the Holocaust in a Changing World, Northwestern University Press, ISBN 9780810109568
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 Spencer, Sidney; Crow, Paul A. (February 28, 2025). "The alliance between church and empire". Britannica. Retrieved March 2, 2025.
- ↑ Fredriksen, Paula; Reinhartz, Adele (2002). Jesus, Judaism, and Christian Anti-Judaism: Reading the New Testament After the Holocaust. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-664-22328-1.
- ↑
- ↑ Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (November 16, 1998).
- "Guidelines for Lutheran–Jewish Relations".
- World Council of Churches (July 1999). "Guidelines for Lutheran–Jewish Relations". In Current Dialogue, Issue 33.
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 Wojtyła, Charles (17 November 1980), "3", Meeting of John Paul II with the Representatives of the Jewish Community, Mainz (Google translation), Vatican, Rome, IT: Roman see
- ↑
- "12 Anti-Semitic Radical Traditionalist Catholic Groups". Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). January 16, 2007. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
- "Radical Traditional Catholicism". Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Retrieved December 23, 2024.
- Ehret, Ulrike (2011). "4: The Catholic right, political Catholicism and radicalism". Church, Nation and Race: Catholics and Antisemitism in Germany and England, 1918-45. doi:10.7228/manchester/9780719079436.003.0004. Retrieved December 30, 2024.
- "Traditionalist Catholicism". Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Retrieved December 29, 2024.
Traditionalist Catholics [...] continued to incorporate explicit antisemitism into their theology [...] a paranoid belief in Jewish conspiracies to undermine the church and Western civilization [...] preach that contemporary Jews are responsible for deicide, endorsed The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and claimed that there was a factual basis for the medieval blood libel. One of its bishops, Richard Williamson, is a well known Holocaust denier.
- "What to know about Nick Fuentes, the white supremacist who was just hosted by a major Texas PAC leader". The Texas Tribune. October 10, 2023. Retrieved February 27, 2025.
- ↑
- Weitzman, Mark. "Jews and Judaism in the Political Theology of Radical Catholic Traditionalists" (PDF). Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (SICSA).
- Strong, Franklin (July 29, 2019). "The Webs Connecting 'Traditionalist' Catholics and White Nationalists". Sojourners. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
- Joyce, Kathryn (October 30, 2020). "How QAnon and Trumpism Have Revealed a Deep Church Schism Among Catholics". Vanity Fair. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
- Sales, Ben (July 19, 2021). "Pope Francis restricts Latin Mass that calls for the conversion of the Jews". The Times of Israel. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
- Joyce, Kathryn (September 10, 2024). "Behind the Catholic Right's Celebrity-Conversion Industrial Complex". Vanity Fair. Retrieved February 27, 2025.
- ↑
- "Who is Nick Fuentes and Why Is His Antisemitism Dangerous for America?". American Jewish Committee (AJC). January 25, 2023. Retrieved February 27, 2025.
- Monacelli, Steven (February 24, 2023). "FBI Overreach Is Concerning, But So Are 'Radical-Traditionalist Catholics'". The Texas Observer. Retrieved February 27, 2025.
- Gfeller, Kevin (April 20, 2023). "First-of-its-kind Survey Reveals American Catholics' Attitudes Toward Jews Have Improved in Last Century". Saint Joseph's University. Retrieved December 30, 2024.
- "What to know about Nick Fuentes, the white supremacist who was just hosted by a major Texas PAC leader". The Texas Tribune. October 10, 2023. Retrieved February 27, 2025.
- "Latin Mass in US Capitol was unauthorized, Washington archdiocese says". National Catholic Reporter. January 29, 2024. Retrieved February 27, 2025.
- Joyce, Kathryn (September 10, 2024). "Behind the Catholic Right's Celebrity-Conversion Industrial Complex". Vanity Fair. Retrieved February 27, 2025.
- "Catholic voters favoured Trump over Harris, according to polls". The Tablet. November 6, 2024. Retrieved January 1, 2025.
- "Exit polls from the 2024 presidential election". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 1, 2025.
- ↑
- O'Brien. "Bishops Vote to Revise U.S. Catechism on Jewish Covenant with God". CNS. Archived from the original on 2015-03-24. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
- nForrest; Palm (July–August 2009). "All in the Family: Christians, Jews and God". Lay Witness. CUF. Archived from the original on 2009-09-05. Retrieved 2009-08-22.
- "U.S. Bishops get Vatican 'Recognitio' for Change in Adult Catechism" (news release). USCCB. September 2009. Archived from the original on 2011-06-28. Retrieved 2009-12-04.