SUMMARY…contd…

    The supervising or over-riding intelligence manipulating such hostile groups and generating this enduring animus against the Jews is an evil one. Could it be that Satan is currently using human agencies to vent his malice towards the Jewish people, of whom is Jesus, Messiah and King of the Jews ? He understands the Biblical promises of the coming of the Messiah, born of the Jews and that all human “ salvation is of the Jews.”  The enduring hatred, now re-named “anti-Zionism “ does seem to originate with Satan and his minions. He knows, although many Christians in the western world seem unaware of this,-as were the five foolish virgins in the parable,- that the final days are near to completion. Demonic powers are vainly seeking to turn the eyes of men away from the only Champion of our whole race and from His victory upon the cross and His resurrection.

    In regard to the hatred which led directly to the Holocaust, I quote :

“It was a diabolical hatred, in reality directed not against a particular race but against God Himself . ( A purely racial issue could never have generated such an intensity of hatred) Behind it all was envy – diabolical envy- because the Jewish people, not the Nordic race, bore the mark of divine election and had been chosen for a world mission.” (  Basilea Schlink, “My Chosen People.”,p13-14; Kanaan Publications, 2000.)

SUMMARY… continued…COMFORT, MY PEOPLE….

That literary censure issued from many church teachers and clergy  against the Jews is most strange and grievous in the light of the debt which the church owes to Israel: every Jew, by his very existence is a sign post to God. The Jew is the subject of divine election, the recipient of God-given covenants, the law, the promises of God, the words of the prophets and all the heralds of the Messiah in the Torah. Their Messiah and the Christian’s Christ  is the theme of their scriptures too,- either latent or patent throughout the sacred writings. The New Testament is built upon the Old, and completes it ; The church has among its foundations the prophets and the apostles who were Jewish, and Jesus , the chief cornerstone of the household of God, was born of the Jews. The debt which the church and the world owes is eternally obvious : every Jew is a living reminder that God lives, that He is the Creator and Sustainer of all life, that He orders the destinies of men and nations according to His purposes to bring glory to His name, that He is holy and gracious, that He is an ethical God who authorises standards of human behaviour, that He pronounces blessings and curses and fulfils both. History shows that a sovereign and superintending power, His power, has preserved the people of Israel over four thousand years,when other ancient people groups have passed into oblivion.…   

It is some defence of these first Christian teachers and theologians, “ the fathers”,- that they were eager that the anathemas which Paul hurled at the young church in Galatia should not be  forgotten. They were well aware of the bane which could infect the church through a reversion to legalism and ritualism. Judaism had these attractions as a refuge for those who were weak in faith and lacked assurance of full salvation through the grace of God. The Judaising of the faithful was seen as a constant threat.

      Apart from the eternal benefits and status received by all who have faith in Jesus Christ as God and Saviour, even the sceptic and agnostic may admit to the immense gifts which the Jewish people have conferred upon mankind ,-far too many to list in this simple precis. How remarkable that the greatest number of Nobel prize winners  are Jewish. Before the Holocaust had developed eleven out  of thirty-eight winners were Jewish, and yet, as God had said in ancient times,-“you were the fewest of all peoples.”- Deut.ch.7,v.7.

   But even so, the very presence of the Jew in society is an offence to those who reject the immanence of God in His world and His sovereign, transcendent rights in the lives of men and women. The Jew has received a God-given calling and destiny. He has also received a moral code from God; this troubles the guilty conscience of the unbeliever and those who jealously guard their independence of God. Such a self-reliant and Godless one has chosen to cling to gods of his own creating or his own traditions.

       There are other unrecognised benefits which are transmitted to all posterity from the Old Testament and the religion of the Jews. The progressive revelation of God, concerning His being, nature, character and purposes for His created order and the life of mankind are found in no other faith,where the sole source of inspiration is a defective self-hood and corrupted imagination. The unfolding revelation of God in the whole of the Bible makes clear the validity of linear time, in total distinction from the cyclical theory of time common in Eastern and animist religions. Uncongenial as it is for modern man, all human history has a beginning in time, and it is moving in a linear motion towards a finite end, and “ in keeping with His promises ( every Christian is ) looking forward to a new heaven and new earth, the home of righteousness.”) –2  Peter,ch.3,v.13. This promise contrasts diametrically with the escapist longings and dreams of offered by Eastern mystical religions which propose an endless cycle of meaningless existences in which personal responsibility and human sinfulness is muted and discounted. Another uncomfortable goad in the conscience of modern man is that there will be a final accountability ,- it is written into all the scriptures. There is a future judgement which carries rewards and punishments; this accounting will be decreed in a spiritual, eternal dimension, outside of our present framework of time and space. It is only against this forbidding background that God’s amazing love and grace towards erring mankind becomes meaningful and highly relevant for all men and women, who desperately need God’s forgiveness and the eternal life offered to any  who receive Jesus Christ, the only appointed Saviour and Friend of sinners. Without the new life offered to all who receive Him personally, men and women remain under condemnation, lost, spiritually dead and eternal orphans.

     The presence of Judeo-Christianity raised uneasy questions in the minds of the secularists, humanists and rationalists who came to the fore in the Enlightenment of 18th. century Europe. Their natural successors were the amoral theorists who ushered in the Nazi ideology. For the latter, the ten commandments were anathema . The Jew became an unacceptable presence in Nazi theory  because of his so-called “slave mentality “- the adherence to a moral code. “Conscience is a Jewish invention.”- Hitler speaking to Rauschning

     The rejection of the Jews and the continuing antagonism against them which is welling-up from a dark abyss is not a purely human phenomenon, although mankind is fully implicated in the age-long sufferings of the Jews. Differing pretexts for this hostility have been offered throughout history, but there seems to be an underlying spiritual  energy. The Jews have suffered from the period of the captivity in Egypt until the present day, and even now, in their homeland. Human agents have been used,- pagans,idolatrous  tribes in Canaan, Christian and Islamic leaders, rationalists, agnostics, apostate Jews, uncontrollable mobs, tyrants, and peace-loving humanists. The malignant authors of yesterday have now been succeeded by the anti-Zionist  Arab media.

“ COMFORT, MY PEOPLE…”

HERE IS A LIST OF OTHER TOPICS WHICH COULD BE BROADCAST UNDER THIS HEADING, BUT I HOPE TO PUT OUT FIRST MY SUMMARY OR  CONCLUSION, that is in case some viewers find the whole subject irrelevant, boring and merely academic.

LIST OF OTHER  SUBJECTS WHICH I HOPE TO ISSUE LATER :-

MEDIEVAL LAWS  AND EDICTS.

THE  ATTITUDE  OF  THE  MEDIEVAL  CHURCH  TOWARDS  THE  JEWS.

UNDER  ISLAM-  LAWS CONTROLLING  JEWS  AND   CHRISTIANS.

MEDIEVAL  MYTHS  AND  SUPERSTITIONS.

A  DIGEST- HOSTILE  MODERN  AUTHORS, CHRISTIAN AND SECULAR.

THE  DREYFUS  AFFAIR.

THE  PROTOCOLS  OF  THE  ELDERS  OF  ZION.

THE  REACTIONS  OF  THE NATIONS  DURING  THE  HOLOCAUST,-  AN  OVERVIEW.

THE  OPENING AND  CLOSING  OF  A  WAY  OF  ESCAPE.

HATRED  OF  THE   JEWS,-  A  RANDOM  COLLECTION  OF  PRETEXTS  USED.

A  SHORT  CHRONICLE  OF  ISRAEL’S   PAIN  AND  ANGUISH.

A  CONCLUSION  AND  A  CALL  TO  THE   CHURCHES  OF  EUROPE.

APPENDICES,-  SOME  VOICES  CALLING  THE  CHURCHES  TO  REPENTANCE.

A  BREIF  BIBLIOGAPHY.

 

          A   CONCLUSION, AND A  CALL  TO  THE  CHURCHES  OF  EUROPE.

“ To be at  once  an anti-Semite  and  a  Christian  is  to  try  to  marry  reverence  with  abuse.”-      Jules Isaac, –“The Teaching of  Contempt.”( McGraw-Hill  Book  Co., 1965, p.150.)

 

      Never in the whole of recorded history has there been such a continuous stream of abuse and calumny directed against one people or race as there has been against the Jews. A literary hostility has been singular and unprovoked  : no other people  group has been  subject to such opprobrium,= the Romany, the Kurds, the Lapps, the Basques and other minority peoples have never suffered without relief as have the Jews. That hostility has persisted through many centuries, despite the several dispersals and many expulsions of the Jews into other lands. Almost always, their sufferings have been marked by their passivity and absence of retaliation. Most remarkably, the hostility towards this people is baseless, and springs from misunderstanding, myth, misinformation and mis-reading of the scriptures. It has been perpetuated by nameless fears and rumour, supported by discriminatory laws and decrees issued by rulers, Christian and Islamic authorities, autocrats and tyrants.

    That stream of vitriol arose long before the Christian era began, but then it was little more than a simple literary device ,- the gratuitous mockery of academics directed towards a strange, exclusive minority . In the centuries which followed secular writers and some Christian teachers of the church built up intense accusations against the Jews. The secular authors inveighed against the Jews because of their unconformity, unusual religious customs and the practice of money-lending. The latter activity was a last resort for many Jews, who were excluded from many trade guilds and the ownership of land. Christian writers saw the Jews as the one group of people who were guilty of the crucifixion of the Son of God, that they were also slaves to a legalistic use of the scriptures. They were thought to be a race who were to remain under the curse of God until the end of the age, and that they were deservedly rejected by God in favour of the church ,- which was thought to be the “new Israel.”

 

     TO BE CONTINUED…

SOME OF THE ROOTS OF ANTI-JEWISH TEACHINGS IN THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH.

  SOME OF THE CHURCH “ FATHERS” TAUGHT THAT THE JEWS HAD MISUNDERSTOOD AND FAILED TO  TAKE ADVANTAGE  OF THE OLD COVENANT, AND THAT THIS HAD LED TO THEIR REJECTION OF THEIR MESSIAH. THE GOD-GIVEN PROMISES GIVEN TO THEM WERE NOW FORFEITED. THE OLD COVENANT WAS DEAD AND EMPTY OF MEANING, AND THE JEWS LIVE UNDER AN  ENDURING CONDEMNATION.

     AGAINST THIS :-

      Israel since her rejection of her Messiah in 30 A.D. has been held in a period of suspension, discipline and judgement because of her unbelief. That period, in which God’s dealings with her have been kept in abeyance,has now closed with the return of the Jews to their homeland. That restoration began towards the end of the 19th. century when the first Jewish settlements arose in Israel, and since that time an increasing number of Jews are turning to the Lord Jesus as the true Messiah,- e.g. in 2010 there were about out 40,000 Messiah Jews living in the land.

     This restoration to the land and to the Messiah was clearly foreseen,-See Amos,ch.9,v11/14; Hosea,ch.3,v.4/5; Romans,,ch.11,v. 25/31.

     Israel under the covenant announced by Jeremiah has a perpetual entitlement to the land, and that land is in reality God’s own special possession. That land is His, and He gives it to whom He wills, –See Jeremiah,ch.31,v.1/4; Lev.ch.25,v.23.

    The time is now coming, and has already begun, when Israel and Gentile believers in Jesus will be united in Him as “ one new man out of the two… through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility..Eph.ch.2,v.16.

   The covenant with Israel is a perpetual one, and it preceded the covenant of the Law, which is now aged and obsolete.-Gen.ch.17,v.7/9; Romans ch.11,v1/2; Hebrews ch.8,v.13.

  The first Abrahamic covenant is intact today, and it is this which created the Jewish people as the chosen nation of God, –See Gen.ch.22,v15/18. This choice was confirmed by Paul, who insisted that God’s calling of Israel is irrevocable, –See Gal.ch.3,v16/29; Romans ch.11,v.28/29. God’s promises to Israel are never retracted, See Jer.ch.31,v.35/37.

The Old Covenant of the Law has now been replaced for Gentile believers by the New Covenant made by the blood shed by Jesus Christ. The Old Covenant for Jewish believers in the Messiah has been brought into a deeper and spiritual reality known in the heart and mind , not only as a religious exercise. That “ religion “ exists as a dead army, awaiting the anointing of the Holy Spirit ,- See Jer.31,v.31/34; Ezek.ch.37,v.24/28.

 

   For the Jews also, “everyone who believes (in Jesus as God and Saviour) is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses,- ACTS,Ch.13,v 39.

SOME OF THE ROOTS OF ANTI-JEWISH HOSTILITY IN THE TEACHINGS OF THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH.

A THEORY EXPOUNDED  BY LACTANIUS AND AUGUSTINE THAT THE SOLE REASON FOR THE CONTINUED EXISTENCE OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE AFTER THEIR REJECTION OF CHRIST WAS THAT THEY REMAIN AS A  “WITNESS PEOPLE” TO  THE  TRUTHS OF SCRIPTURE  AND THAT THE CHURCH IS THE GUARDIAN OF THOSE TRUTHS .

     It was thought that the existence of the Jewish race was a proof of God’s judgement upon unbelievers, and that judgement took the form of subjection  and domination by other nations. The depressed status of Judaism compared with the ascendancy of the church was another proof that the church alone contained the truths of scripture.

    AGAINST  THIS :-

     The Jews, whatever their beliefs, are a testimony to the reality of God as their Creator and His election of that race. That race continues to live as a sign of God’s grace towards who still persist in unbelief towards their Messiah, not a s sign of His judgement upon unbelievers . The Jews are still a testimony to the truth that God sent His Son, born of Jews, and that He is the end of the Law and the prophets.

    The witness of the Jewish people is that their survival points to the faithfulness of God in regard to His promises and of the everlasting covenant He made with the ancestor of that race,- See Gen.ch,17,v.19; Ezek. ch,37,v.24/28.

    Any judgement upon unbelieving Israel is a spiritual hardening and resistance towards His Messiah, not a human judgement, such as oppression and persecution,- See Isaiah,ch,6,v.9/10; ch.29,v.10 and Romans ,ch.11,v.7/10.

Some of the roots of anti-Jewish hostility in he teachings of the medieval church.

A  FALSE ALLEGORICAL SYSTEM OF THOUGHT WAS DEVELOPED BY SOME OF THE TEACHERS IN THE EARLY CHURCH. This equated many of the Jews with unfaithful characters in the history of the Old Testament.

  The Jews were thought to be the “elder son”, the children of Hagar , carnal children.

  Christians were thought to be the “younger sons”, the children of Sarah and Abraham, spiritual children.

The Jews were thought to be represented by Cain, and Jesus was represented by faithful Abel, the good shepherd.

The Jews were considered to be the sons of Esau. Christians were seen as the sons of Jacob.

The Jews were seen as the sons of Manasseh, the elder son of Joseph, while Christians were thought to be the sons of Ephraim, the younger son who received the first blessing given by Jacob.

The Jews were thought to be derived from the family of Judas, the betrayer,- the carnal disciple; Christians were seen as the true, faithful Jewish disciples.

  The Jews were even thought to be incarnations of Satan, based solely on the words found in John, ch.8,v.44.

AGAINST THIS TEACHING :-

    These allegories are unsubstantiated in scripture.

    The words spoken by Jesus in John, ch.8,v.44.could apply to those in mankind who remain in violent opposition to God and His Messiah, and who are in constant rebellion against God and His will,- See examples in Romans,ch.1, v.18-32, and Ephesians ch.2,v.1-3.

   The Jews, as every other person in other races, have every possibility of receiving forgiveness through the grace and mercy of God and so become children of God by faith in the Lord Jesus, as He made plain in John, ch. 8,v.12.

SOME OF THE ROOTS OF ANTI-JEWISH HOSTILITY IN THE TEACHINGS OF THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH.

        THE  THEORY  THAT  THE   JEWS  ARE  UNIQUELY  GUILTY  OF DEICIDE,-  THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  THE  SON  OF GOD.  THIS WAS FIRST SUGGESTED BY MELITO OF  SARDIS, AND WAS  DEVELOPED BY ORIGEN, TERTULLIAN, CHRYSOSTOM, IRENAEUS AND OTHERS, WHO CONSIDERED THAT THE JEWS WERE THEREFORE SUBJECT TO AN IRREVOCABLE  CURSE.

  AGAINST THIS TEACHING  CONSIDER  THE  FOLLOWING :-

The cry of the crowd in Matt.ch.27,v25 could be an invitation to accept guilt or a statement by which Jews normally took responsibility for an action ,-c.f .Joshua ch.2,v.19.

The Jews had acted in ignorance…Luke ch.23,v.34; Acts ch.3,v.17, ch.13,v.27.

Those Jews called out for the crucifixion were a hastily assembled mob in the early morning, not the whole of the Jewish race …Matt.ch.27,v.15.

The judgement which fell on the Jewish people in 70 A.D. was the outcome of continued unbelief,- the refusal to accept Jesus as the Messiah.- Luke ch.19, v41-44. It was not a  perpetual curse from God.

The crowd who had assembled before Pilate could not invoke guilt upon their children,-Ezekiel ch.18,v20.

The Jewish crowds who had followed Jesus had not usually  been hostile towards Him,-Luke ch.19,v.47; 20,v.19; 21,v38; 22,v.2  and Mark ch,12,v12.

The crowd who had cried out at the time of the decision to crucify Jesus included Gentiles who were visiting Jerusalem for the Passover, and this was the crowd who took responsibility, according to Paul,-Acts,ch. 13,v27.

Herod, Pilate and the assembled Jews and Gentiles could all be deemed guilty of deicide ,- Acts,ch,4,v.27.

There is the gracious promise of God to forgive all who repent of their sin and believe in Jesus as their God and Saviour, as the Messiah (Christ), both Jews and Gentiles,- “ all whom the Lord our God will call…”Acts,ch.2,v.39.   God was in Christ Jesus, and His death was the centre and only means of salvation for all men, Jews and Gentiles…Acts,ch.2,v 23; ch.4,v.12. This was God’s plan of salvation.-Acts,ch4,v.28.

The Jews living in Jerusalem were only a small proportion of all the Jews alive at that time ; many were living in the Dispersion around the Mediterranean since the time of the Assyrian conquests in the 8th. century.

           If guilt attaches to any particular group, it adheres to the teachers of the law, the priests, and the elders ( see John ch.19.v.11), and to Judas,who together handed Jesus over to the Roman authority. It is not possible to assign collective guilt to the whole of the Jewish people, but only to those groups mentioned, who allowed themselves to be blinded by intolerance, fear and the lust for complete religious power, –that is, the majority of the Sanhedrin.(See Mark,ch.15,v.1.)

     There is a view that rabbinic Judaism has perpetuated its guilt down through the ensuing centuries by creating a scholastic,ethical, logical and spiritless religion, in which atonement for sin is sought through prayer, repentance and the duties of good works and almsgiving - “tzedakah”.  The sole prescribed means of acceptance by God is the trust of a believer in the one perfect sacrifice Who was prepared and given by God Himself, and was foreshadowed in the Old Testament, –Jesus, the Lamb of God and the King of the Jews. “For God so loved the world (Jews and Gentiles) that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish (eternal death) but have eternal life.”-John ch.3,v.16.

   All the people living at the time of His crucifixion and all the countless millions who have lived since who persist in rejecting Jesus Christ and refuse to surrender to Him as a personal Saviour and Lord and God so that they may receive God’s forgiveness,- they are the guilty ones who raise sinful hands against the Son of God.

   Jewish responsibility for His death is subordinated to the collective responsibility of the whole of sinful humanity, The Jewish people are an image of humanity as a whole, and the whole of sinful humanity is guilty of deicide. The Jewish leaders were guilty of an infamous homicide, but they were the unwitting authors of the crucifixion of the Son of God, and the instruments in God’s plan of salvation.

Misconstrued scriptures…contd…

 

The covenant with Abram and his seed is an everlasting one, and is symbolised with circumcision…”I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you…”Genesis ch17,v.7.

These first covenants initiated by God are unconditional  and ante-date the Mosaic covenant based on the Law,which Israel broke repeatedly. God’s covenant relationship of grace towards Israel has never been withdrawn:- “ Though the mountains be shaken…yet My unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor My covenant of peace be removed.”-Isaiah,ch.54,v10.

  “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David..-Isaiah,ch.55,v3.  “I will make an everlasting covenant with them; I will never stop doing good to them.”-Jer.ch.32,v40.   “Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.”-Ezek.ch.16,v.60.   “I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant .”-Ezek.ch.37,v26.

   God’s covenant and His faithful dealings with Israel have continued despite their three exiles ( in Egypt,Babylon and the Dispersion.), and despite their unfaithfulness and law-breaking.

   There is the promise of salvation for the people of Israel, as for all other peoples.-“For if their rejection is reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead.”-Romans,ch11,v.15.

  For the Jew, the Old Covenant based on the Law has been made obsolete because it has been replaced by the New Covenant made by the shed blood of Christ, in which the law is written within the heart of every believer.,-“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel … I will put My laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.”-Heb.ch.8,v.10.

   The Gentiles who have faith in Christ are, in fact, grafted into the cultivated olive tree, which is the Israel of faith, which is those Jews who are “inwardly “ of faith, having  the circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code..”-Romans,ch.2,v29.

   There are clearly two distinct groups  who are being saved now through faith in the atoning sacrifice made by Christ :- the church composed of Gentile believers, and the Israel of faith in Him as their Messiah.- “This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus..”-Eph,ch.3,v.6.

     This same though is brought out in Galatians,ch.6,v.15-16…”Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God.” NOTE,- The conjuction here translated as “even” should read “ and “( which is how “ kai” is always translated.)  There are two groups of believers, as the context of the previous verses make clear.

   The two groups are :” all who follow this rule”( Gentile believers),and “ the Israel of God”, – those Jews who have a personal trust in Jesus as the Messiah.

    This latter group are referred to again in Romans,ch.9,cv.6-8., which speaks of those Jews who are not merely descended from the line of Israel, but those who have faith in Jesus the Messiah,- these are “the children of the promise, who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.”

    These are the two groups written about in Romans,ch.3,v.29-30,- the circumcised who are justified by faith,and “ the uncircumcised “ Gentlies who are justified “ through that same faith.”

       IN THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE PLACE OF THE JEWS, THESE TWO GROUPS HAVE BEEN CONFLATED, WHEREAS THE TRUTH IS THAT THERE ARE TWO DISTINCT GROUPS OF BELIEVERS :- THE CHURCH COMPRISING GENTILE BELIEVERS, AND THE “ ISREAL OF GOD”. – all those Jews who have now believed in Jesus as their Messiah.

 

      (TO BE CONTINUED….)

SOME OF THE ROOTS OF ANTI-JEWISH HOSTILITY IN THE TEACHINGS OF THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH….Misconstrued Scriptures.

   THE “ REPLACEMENT  THEORY “ as propounded by Ignatius,Tertullian,Augustine, Chrysostom, Cyprian and others. The theory suggested that God has closed His dealings with the Jews because of their unique crime and their persistent unbelief. He has therefore “replaced” Israel by covenanting with the Christian church, which is henceforth the “new Israel”, –although there is no such term in the scripture.

   The theory arose out of mis-representations of some scriptures.e.g.-

    The parable of the barren fig tree….Matthew, 21-v.18/22.    The fig tree was said to represent the people of Israel and their unfruitfulness throughout their long history, leading to their rejection by God.   The more accurate meaning could be that God powerfully answers words spoken in faith and under the leading of the Holy Spirit..  In no way does the parable imply the total rejection of the nation of Israel, but it could imply a rejection of its religious system.

   The  parable  of  the  tenants….Matthew, 21-v.33-46… The parable is said to represent in allegorical form the final abandonment by God of the Jewish people, who had rejected His servants,- the prophets, failed to produce fruit,murdered His Son, and had finally lost their privileged position.  The parable probably implies that the existing religious leaders of Israel will lose their position as the guardians of the theocracy in Israel, and that the contemporary nation will forfeit its place in favour of another. Future Israel is not excluded from the benefits of salvation.eg.-Romans,11,v.25.-“ Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved….”

   The  parable of the wedding banquet …Mathew, 22-v.1-14…The parable is aid to show how the Jews, the first invited guests, had persistently refused the many prophets’ invitations to enjoy fellowship with God at His banquet, and had finally brought destruction upon themselves and their city ( i.e..by the armies of Titus in 70.A.D.)   The parable points to the generosity and breadth of God’s appeal to all peoples to respond in faith to His invitations. The one gate-crasher guest who was without a garment of faith was ejected. The parable does not exclude those Jews who will have responded in faith by the time of the Tribulation.-Rev.ch.7-v.14.

  Nowhere do these parables indicate a final rejection of the people of Israel, but rather, the futility of its religious system and the blindness of its current leaders. God’s continued faithfulness and care and promises for Israel are detailed in scripture :-

“O Jerusalem,Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets ….how often I have longed to gather your children together…For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”- Matthew, ch.23,v.37-39. See also Zech.,ch.12, v.10.

   “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you ; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria…” Acts ch.1,v8.

  “Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly : “We had to speak the word of God to you first…Acts,ch.13,v.46.

  “Paul….tried to convince them about Jesus from the law of Moses and from the prophets..” Acts,ch.28,v.23.

    The first covenants made by God with Israel are covenants of grace, based on faith ,-

“Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.-Gen.ch15,v6.

The covenant  contained God’s promises of many descendants and a title to a land,- “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates…”-Gen.15,v.18..

         ( to be continued..)

AUTHORS ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL… A SUMMARY.

    Because the Jews were regarded as the deicidal race, they were then classed as a special kind of heretic, deserving of punishment and servitude and degradation,  but yet afforded some protection as the “witness people” to the truths in the scripture. Church codes and edicts provided for certain safeguards for the Jews, but restrictions were also placed on them,such as the prohibition of land ownership and confinement within the ghettoes.

    These conditions, built on church doctrines and rules allowed many writers free rein to heap abuse upon the Jews as a despised people.The Jew was said to be synonymous with the unjust usurer, the oppressor ot the poor, the ritual murderer of Christian children, the blasphemer, the poison of wells, the conspirator, the incorrigible unbeliever, the sorcerer, a companion of devils, an agent of Satan, an enemy of God and Christians, a fearful image bearing an eternal curse incurred upon the whole race as the offspring of Judas, and the betrayer of Jesus, their Messiah, the Christ of the church.

ANCIENT AND MEIEVAL AUTHORS…contd…

PETER  ALPHONSI, 1062-1110…In his “ Dialogue” he alleged that the Jews had misunderstood their prophets and neither had they obeyed the law. Their talmud and midrashim contain fables which they regard as literal truth.

PETER OF CLUNY, 1122- 1156…In his “Treatise against the Chronic Obstinacy of the Jews”  he attacked as fables the writings in the Talmud. He argued that the Jews were inspired by Satan, and that they should be made to finance the first Crusade.

THOMAS AQUINAS, 1125-1174…He maintained that the Jews should suffer in perpetual servitude. They should be protected as witnesses to the truth of Christianity, although they are heretics. Their possessions should be treated as belonging to the state.

PETER OF BLOIS, circa. 1200..He asserted that the Jewish concept of the Messiah was, in fact the Antichrist.

RAMON  LULL, 1234-1304…He urged that Jews should be compelled to hear Christian sermons. He accused the Jews of blaspheming Jesus and His mother Mary, and that if they did not convert they should be expelled from Christian lands because their devilish presence was a threat to the faithful.

NICHOLAS  DONIN, circa. 1240…In his “Disputation “ with rabbi Yehiel Ben Joseph he showed that the Talmud and other writings were the source of a new religion, and that it was divorced from the Old Testament . The Jews were no longer living witnesses to the truth of scripture because they had turned aside to the heresies found in the Talmud . This was said to contain lies about Jesus , the virgin Mary and the pope, and it even sanctioned the killing of Christians.

RAYMOND  MARTINI,circa, 1278…In his “Dagger of Faith” he contended that the Jews had been rejected by God because of their sin at Sinai during the worship of te golden calf. He argued that they believe in two Messiahs, but remain in ignorance of God . He saw no possibility of a restoration to their homeland, although a remnant will be saved.

ABNER OF BURGOS, 1270- 1348… In his “Wars of God” he accused the Jews of reciting prayers against Christians during their synagogue worship.

GERONIMO DE SANTA FE, circa. 1414… He wrote two treatises ,:-“To prove the Perfidy .

of the Jews,” and “Concerning Jewish Errors drawn from the Talmud, “ all with the intention of pointing up the lies and fables in the Talmud. These he said contradicted the law of God and the laws of nature.

PAUL OF BURGOS, ( otherwise known as PABLO DE SANTA MARIA.), .1434…In his “Scrutinium Scripturarum”  he accused the Jews of spiritual blindness regarding their own sins and heresies, which will cause their long dispersion.

ALPHONSO DE SPINA, 1459…His book, “The Fortress of Faith” probably mooted the concept of the Inquisition. He accused the Jews of spiritual blindness, ritual murder, well poisoning  and other crimes against Christians. Their treatment of Jesus will ensure their eternal damnation

ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL AUTHORS…contd….

MOHAMMED, 570-632.. He produced the words for the Koran, which contains promises and maledictions for the Jews, for example :- “And we said to to the children of Israel after him, “Dwell in the land; and when the promise of the world to come comes to pass, we shall bring you a rabble.” ( i.e. as a crowd gathered out of various nations.)-  Sura 17: 105-6       “And well you know there were among you that transgressed the sabbath , and we said to them,” Be you apes, miserably slinking ! And we made it a punishment exemplary for all the former times and for the latter.”-Sura 2-62

AGOBARD, archbishop of Lyons, 779-840…In his letters to his superiors he accused the Jews of blasphemy , superstition and of maligning Jesus Christ in the “Toledoth Jeshu”. He also alleged that they curse Christians in their prayers, that they steal  Christian children in order to sell them on to Arab traders, and that they seduce Christian women. He considered that the Jews are cursed, unclean, a generation of vipers, a useless and sinful race.

AMULO, archbishop of Lyons, 841-852…In his treatise directed against the Jews he stated that the Jews believe in two Messiahs, that they malign Jesus as though He were Lucifer. Their unbelief in Christ is detestable. He accused the Jews of using their money to induce Christians to renounce their faith.

“The TOLEDOTH  YESHU “…An anonymous and fabulous  work  which appeared in the 10th.century, probably derived from an earlier oral source. It contains blasphemies against Jesus Christ and Mary. It was ignored by scholarly Jews, but a few saw it as an example of the Jewish hatred of Christians. It thus served as a further pretext for  the oppression of the Jews in Europe.

ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL AUTHORS….contd…

SULPICIUS SEVERUS, 4th. century…He contended that  the Jews suffer dispersion because of their rejection of Jesus Christ.

MAXIMINUS, circa.427… His treatise that the Jews are uncircumcised in heart and that God has rejected the, as He did Cain. Christians are represented by Abel, who was slain because his worship pleased God.

AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO, 354-430….Among his writings he claimed that the Jews are guilty of deicide, carnality in worship and blind to the truth that salvation is received only through the grace of God. Judaism is corrupt, and Israel,  as the older son, has been replaced in God’s dealings by the Christian church, which is His younger son.  The Jews now live under a divine curse, but they are to be preserved as the “slave librarian” of the church. The Jews exist, not for their own sake, but for the salvation of that nation. They remain as enemies of God and will be punished by a future of wandering servitude among the nations.  Even so, the Jewish people are to be protected as a witness to the truth of Christianity and the scriptures.  The Old Testament properly belongs to the wholr church, and the men of faith in the Old Testament are members of the church.    Although the Jews are to be kept in subjection socially, they are to be loved spiritually because their defection from the truth of the gospel has allowed the Gentiles to be grafted into the olive tree of God’s kingdom. The Jews will be grafted back into the olive tree at the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

PRUDENTIUS, 4th.century…He saw the Jews as an enslaved and subdued people, who will always suffer because of the murder of  their Messiah.

ISIDORE OF SEVILLE, 570- 636…In his “Contra Judaeos” he argued that many Jews would not believe and would be supplanted by the Gentiles, that Jerusalem and the temple site would be abandoned. He asserted that Jewish rituals would cease to be practised. The covenant of the law they did not understand, but the new covenant calls both Jews and Gentiles to faith in Jesus Christ.

THE TEACHING OF JACOB, 634…This argued that the law had passed away, and that the rituals of the Jews had ceased because of their transgressions. The church has now replaced Israel in God’s purposes.

PSEUDO  EPHRAIM, 4th. century…He warned that the Jewish festivals should be avoided.Israel he likened to a broken vine, which has been replaced by the church. Israel is now without hope, and will be subject to continual punishment.

EPIPHANIUS, 310-403 approx. He considered that “real Jews” are like the Herodians,-  lazy,dishonest and perverse.

PSEUDO-CYPRIAN, late 3rd.century…This unknown author created a perverse and malicious interpretation Old Testament history in order to portray the continued ungodliness of the Jews.

GREGORY OF NYSSA, 331-396,…Among his writings he claimed that the Jews are guilty of deicide, that they are enemies of God, advocates for the devil and haters of Christians and the prophets.

AMBROSE OF MILAN,340-397,…He claimed that the Jews are guilty of covetousness, and that their forms of worship are marred by unbelief and folly.

CHRYSOSTOM OF ANTIOCH, 344-407,…He wrote eight “Homilies” against the Jews in the period 386-394. In these sermons he warned all Christians against any association with the Jews or Judaizers because of the murder of Jesus Christ, and because they themselves are a depraved and debauched people. God’s vengeance upon them will never end, and it will cause their everlasting dispersion  and bondage among the nations. Their rituals will never be restored, even with a rebuilt temple. Their rites are abominable and useless, and only serve Satan and his demons.

METHODIUS  OF  OLYMPUS, circa. 240…He accused the Jews of being earthly-minded and using only a literal interpretation of the scriptures. They have  brought about their own destruction.

THE DIDASCALIA, 3rd. century…This church instruction affirmed that the Christian church had now replaced the synagogue because of the disobedience and unbelief of the Jews. They are now not able to obey the law or worship without the temple. Although the Jews are guilty of the death of Jesus , Christians could still term their “brothers.”

JEROME, 340-420…Among his vast output he asserted that Christians are the “spiritual Jews”. The carnal Jews are descended from Judas, not from Judah. The Jews he termed as serpents,haters of men and guilty of cupidity in their commercial dealings. The synagogue is a place of depravity and vice, infested with devils. Despite all, the Jews must  be prayed for.

CYRIL OF JERUSALEM,.315-386…He denounced the patriarchate of Jerusalem, and considered that Jewish worship is shameful.

EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA, died 340…He asserted that the ancient Hebrews were primitive Christians, as were all the patriarchs. The Jews were an unworthy people for whom the law was needed, but even with this help, they would finally lose their independence and their distinct worship. The judgement upon them would last until the end of this age, with a continuous dispersion among the nations.

HILARY OF POITIERS, died 367…In his commentary on Psalm 51 he maintained that the Jews are a perverse and wicked people, haters of God and the ones who crucified God himself and killed the prophets. Their glory is their iniquity.

THE EPISTLE TO DIOGNETUS, 3rd. century….This letter made little use of the Old Testament, but it accused the Jews of keeping superstitious and foolish customs, because God has no need of offerings. Jewish rituals , such as abstinence from certain foods, circumcision and sabbath observance are useless. Jews are supposed to be involved in the martyrdom of Christians.

THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES,circa.3rd. century…This document was re-worked  by Christians to explain that the dispersion of the Jews was due to their rejection of Jesus as their Messiah. Because of their unfaithfulness they needed the law, God is displeased by their insincere worship.

APHRAHAT, a Syrian writer, circa. 336….In his homilies he warned that the Jewish rituals and customs are to be avoided because the Old Covenant was now superseded. He expected no restoration for the Jews.

EPHRAIM, died 373….(a Syriac)…His hymns refer to the perversions of the Jewish religion.

AUTHORS….ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL… A DIGEST ..contd.

TERTULLIAN…155-222.. In his “Adversus Judaeos” he asserted that the Jews “have ever been guilty of the crime of idolatry”, but that the Mosaic system had now fallen into disuse because the law and the old spiritual truths were now completed in Christ. The prophecies of His first coming were ignored by the Jews, who are now hateful towards Christians and they are “seed plot of all calumnies against us.

THE  DIALOGUE  OF  TIMOTHY  AND  AQUILA, circa.200.. an anonymous  work , which claimed that the Jews are now rejected by God and are being punished by expulsion from their land. The writer conceded that Jews who repent may be baptised into the Christian faith.

IRENAEUS  OF  LYONS, 125-202…His thesis was that the Jews are being punished as Cain was because their worship was not true to the pattern God had given them, and that they had finally rejected their Messiah. They had denied the Eternal King and had chosen a robber instead. All Jews are responsible for this deicide.  The church is now the “true Israel”. Christians are the sons of Abraham, while Jews occupy the place of Esau, who was supplanted by his younger brother, Jacob.   Christians have a spiritual understanding of the law, but Jews are the slaves of the law and the traditions they have created.  The Jews as a race are hard of heart, disobedient before God, and destined for destruction.

ARISTIDES, circa.170…He understood the Jews to be superstitious and indulging in angel worship and customs controlled by the phases of the moon.

MELITO  OF  SARDIS, circa.190…He claimed that the Jewish people are exclusively responsible for the crucifixion and the Gentiles actually welcomed Jesus as the Christ of God. Judgement has befallen the Jews as a result of their rejection of Jesus as their Messiah. Their privileged place has now been taken by the Gentile church.

ORIGEN  OF  CAESAREA, –183-253. His verdict on the Jews was that they are being punished because of their unbelief and deicide. They have been rejected by God and their place is now taken by Christians…..(See summary later).

CLEMENT  OF  ALEXANDRIA, circa. 210…His view was that the Old Testament scriptures belong to the church and were fulfilled in Christ. Although the Jews were guided by God through the centuries they have been unfaithful and hard-hearted and lazy, and their understanding of God is that He is their Master, but not a loving Father.

CYPRIAN, circa. 246…He considered that the Jews had failed to understand the scriptures, and had in consequence rejected their Messiah. The old law was now cancelled and a new dispensation had begun, in which the church will enjoy greater privileges and power than the Jews ever knew. The Jewish people and Judaism have no assured future, but even so, Jews may obtain forgiveness and then enter the church.

HIPPOLYTUS, circa. 230…In his “Adversus Judaeos” he claimed that the present and future sufferings of the Jews are due to their treatment of Christ,- “For the prophet says as in the person of God,-“Let their table become a snare and a retribution”. Of what retribution does he speak ? Manifestly of misery which has now got hold of thee.”   The whole of the Jewish people are guilty, and they have latterly corrupted the scriptures and contributed to a Christian heresy ,-i.e.- gnosticism. Their punishment will be eternal blindness and everlasting bondage to the Gentiles,- “their back do Thou bend down always-“ as slaves to other nations. The Jews as a people are cunning, proud, ungrateful and without fear. They are destined to serve the Antichrist, who will revive the Jewish kingdom amidst much suffering and persecution inflicted upon the Christian church. Even so, Jews may enter the church through conversion, faith and good works.

AUTHORS…ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL,- A DIGEST.

 

UNCHARACTERISTICALLY   UNGRACIOUS.

IGNATIUS,  circa. 105 ..He thought that the men of faith in the O.T. were “Christians before their time,” and, as such, were not real Jews. He saw Judaism as a religion of the past , a dead, unusable leaven. “Put aside then the evil leaven, which has grown old and sour, and turn to the new leaven, which is Jesus Christ.” To live according to the principles of Judaism is to live without grace.

The Epistle of Barnabas, circa. 100…An anonymous work which warned Christians to resist the old, Judaistic interpretation of the O.T., which had been misunderstood by the Jews, who had given it a literal interpretation. Their understanding of the O.T. ceremonial laws was a device of an evil angel,who  had thus deceived the Jews. This writer thought that the stories and truths in the O.T. were valuable only as allegories pointing to Christ and  New Testament truths, which spiritual meanings the Jews had failed to see.

Marcion, circa. 140… a  heretic. He suggested that their are two Gods: –the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , who is inherently good, and the “Demiurge”,- the creator God of the Old Testament. The latter chose the Jews and gave his law to them, but everything in their legacy is unworthy of Christianity. The Jews, who had rejected Christ are wicked.

Justin Martyr, writing around 135-161….In his “Dialogue with Trypho” he contended that the new covenant had replaced the old one, and that the external observance of the law was superseded because it was intended only as a spiritual law. Jesus is the Messiah predicted by the prophets, and the rituals of the O.T  foreshadow Him. He asserted that the Jews have been replaced as the people of God by Christians, who are now the “Israel of God”, the true Israelites and the heirs of Abraham. God has now rejected the Jewish sacrificial system by allowing the destruction of their temple.                            The continued existence of the Jewish people serves as a witness to the truth of Christianity and the scriptures. The Jews,although guilty of deicide,can know salvation, but at present they labour under the errors of their rabbis, and remain hardened, foolish, useless and unfruitful. In fact, they serve the devil and persecute Christians.

    Justin in his “Apologies”  asserted that he Jews continue to misunderstand and refuse to believe the gospel; they even attack Christ and accuse Him of using magical  arts.

 

TO BE CONTINUED….

THE CHURCH AND THE ISRAEL OF GOD…..Introduction…continued….

   Is there any need to rehearse these written censures, calumnies and diatribes directed against the Jews ? Yes,-because nearly all the general and detailed histories of Europe either delicately ignore them or maintain a total indifference towards this ancient antipathy. Written hostility often a release or expression in the ill-treatment inflicted upon the Jews throughout their sojournings in Europe, in the form of expulsions,confiscation of property, pogroms and massacres.

    One instance will suffice: several excellent and well-researched histories of the Crusades have been published recently. None allude to the massacres and pogroms launched upon the Jewish communities in Europe. During the first Crusade 7000 Jews were lynched in the Rhinelands and 400 were murdered while sheltering in the synagogue in Jerusalem. There were massacres in England during the third Crusade; other massacres took place during the abortive Crusades of 1236 and 1309. During the progress of the “ Shepherds’ Crusade “ of 1320  at least 140 Jewish communities were destroyed in the south of France and near the Spanish frontier with the loss of 30,000 lives . Before the Crusaders set out to engage in murder and mayhem their recruiting cry was “God wills it !”  The spoken word unsheathed a thousand swords; the written word ignited a Holocaust.

    If I may pre-empt some part of my conclusion, may I then affirm that it is now more apparent than ever in this “end-time” for Christians to heed an urgent call to respond in Israel’s favour through prayers of intercession, by practical encouragement  as they face hostile neighbours, and by proclaiming the offer of salvation by the grace of God through faith in their true Messiah Jesus.

     In our recent history God is receiving the glory by His unambiguous fulfilment of prophecy by restoring Israel to its ancient land, and thus “ preparing the way for the Lord” and by “ making straight in the desert a highway for our God”. The faithful remnant of Israel and the Church can then unite in the final prayer of the Bible,-“ Amen, come Lord Jesus.”  Only at His coming in glory will true peace and justice be established in Jerusalem and throughout the world.

    It is therefore imperative now for all Christians to offer prayer and support for Israel, and so hasten the day when  “all Israel shall be saved”(  Romans ch.11,v26), which event will be the climax of our history and “life from the dead” for all peoples on the earth.

THE CHURCH AND THE ISRAEL OF GOD. INTRODUCTION.

 

   This is a survey of the comments written over the past two millennia in which antipathy has been expressed against the Jewish people. It is a simple register of of the teachings, theories, polemics, doctrines and superstitions which constitute the written evidence of the longest and most enduring hatred in human history.scholars

It is offered with minimum of comment,analysis, interpretation or censure: such deductions are the prerogative of the professional,-which I am not. A simple presentation of the evidence is the best ground for any unprejudiced judgement in a matter which has long been omitted from many general histories of Europe and its churches. Emotive or subjective comment has been avoided,-difficult as this has been. The intention is to allow the summaries or digests to speak for themselves about the authors’ intentions or motives.

A paper trail has been laid over nearly two milllennia which reflected the general opprobrium and contempt for Jews arising from faulty religious inferences, unfounded superstitions and cultural and social distinctions which underwent a metamorphosis in the last two centuries to emerge as a racial hatred. The writers who recorded their animus towards the Jews were secular and religious scholars, poets and philosophers. They wrote often haphazardly and without any foreknowledge of the final import which their writings would leave as a legacy for future generations. The residuary legatees of this age-old animosity are now holding court in the terror groupings scattered around the world , and in covert cliques lurking on the fringes of Western –style  democratic societies.

   Any reader will quickly realize that this collection of “digests” and quotations is blatantly tendentious and also a prosecution.=.- it is both  ! The whole of European society, at this present time and throughout history, has a charge to answer before God and before the Jewish people. The reader can survey these written evidences of an unfounded a

and shameful hatred according to their own unclouded conscience.

 

 

    Most of European society, including its churches, will disclaim any responsibilityfor the anti-Jewish writers of earlier generations, and will plead that had they lived during those past ages they would never have been guilty of such prejudice and enmity in word ordeed. Such an excuse is strangely reminiscent of the attitude of the Pharisees on the occasion when Jesus had cause to rebuke them, as recorded in the gospel of Matthew,ch.23,v.30-31 :-“If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets. So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.”

    Europeans in the 21st.century are the descendants of the Jew-baiters and writers who berated them in past generations. We Europeans are now identified  with our cultural inheritance,- with all the good that has been generated by a “Christianised “society , and with all the wrongs that have been perpetrated . Our human oneness in European society binds us all in responsibility for its past misdeeds, while it also makes us inheritors of its benefits.                   i

    ( to be continued…)       .

THE CHURCH AND THE ISRAEL OF GOD.

  “ COMFORT,  MY  PEOPLE.”

An overview of anti-Jewish sentiments through the ages, and a call to the churches to comfort His people Israel.

“Comfort, comfort My people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has  been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sin.”- Isaiah ch.40,v.1-2.

 

( Hopefully, I will try to issue an “Introduction “ to this theme.)

PRE-CHRSTIAN AND OTHER ANCIENT AUTHORS.- A DIGEST –contd…

ALEXANDER  POLYHISTOR,-1st.century B.C.. Following a myth derived from the Jewish Sibyl, it was said that the Jewish law was a produced by a woman named Moso.

TIMAGENES OF ALEXANDRIA ,1st. century,B.C. He alleged that the Jews appropriated land belonging to others and then tried to impose their customs on them.

PTOLEMY, 1st.century, B.C. He claimed that the Jews conquered the Idumeans, and imposed on them taxes, the rite of circumcision and their own laws.

QUINTILIAN,1st. century,B.C. He wrote that the Jews are hated and a curse to others living near them.

STRABO, 1st.century,B.C. He considered that the Jewish leaders perverted the pantheistic religion of Moses, and created Judaism instead.

PETRONIUS,1st. century,A.D   The Jews deserve scorn because of the rite of circumcision.

SENECA,1st. century, A.D. He wrote that the Jews are an evil nation, who are colonising the empire and that Judaism is a superstition from the East, because it conflicted with all the philosophical concepts of an abstract religion.

PLINY THE ELDER,1st.century, A.D. He wrote that Judaism was an unnatural religion because of its hatred of the gods.

TACITUS, 56-117,A.D. He saw the Jews as guilty of misanthropy, separatism and the use of  strange foods.

JUVENAL, 1st. and 2nd. century..The Jews are guilty of flouting Roman laws, misanthropy, separatism and the strange rite of circumcision.

CICERO, 1st.century,B.C. In his “Pro Flacco” he asserted that the Jewish religion was a superstition, differing from normal Roman beliefs, and the clannish Jews are “born to servitude.”

CHAEREMON OF ALEXANDRIA, 1st.century. He asserted that the Jews were expelled from Egypt because 250,000 were lepers and 380 were shepherds, an abomination in Egypt.

LYSIMACHUS, circa.1st.century,..He repeated the myth of expulsion from Egypt because of leprosy and other afflictions. The leadership of Moses brought about their exclusiveness and contempt for other religions.

DAMOCRITUS, 1st.century..He repeated the myth of Jewish worship of an asses’ head , and the myth of the ritual murder every seventh year of a captured foreigner.

APION.,1st.century.He accused the Jews of a variety of crimes:-sedition in the colony of Alexandria,the worship of an asses’ head,hatred of other races,sacrificing live animals,ritual  murder and the strange custom of circumcision.

VALERIUS MAXIMUS,1st.century.He considered that the Jewish cult was associated with the cult of Jupiter Sabazius.-(  A corruption of the word Sabbath.)

MARTIAL, 1st. century,.He thought that the Jews were especially immoral.

PLUTARCH, 2nd. century. He believed the Jews honour the pig and the ass, and that their god is Bacchus, which is associated with the cult of Dionysus. Their feast of Rosh Hashanah resembles that cults’ practices.

APPIAN, 2nd. century. The Jews deserve the heavy Roman taxation because of their insurrection.

LUCIAN,2nd. century. He thought the Jews were diviners and profited by exploiting superstitious minorities

PHILOSTRATUS, 3rd. century. He alleged that the Jews are exclusive and deserve the sufferings inflicted on them in 70A.D.when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem.

CASSIUS DIO, 2nd.- 3rd.century. The alleged that the Jews were guilty of causing uprisings in Cyrene,Egypt and Cyprus 9115-116 A.D.).They labour under a superstition of their own.

CELSUS,2nd. century.   He wrote his “True Account” in 178.A.D., in which he denounced Judaism and Christianity.His comments can be deduced from Origen’s “Contra Celsum”. He asserted that the O.T. prophecies and miracles are false, and that the Jews are a proud, hateful, misanthropic people, who worship angels and practice witchcraft.They were expelled from Egypt because of sedition.

PRE-CHRISTIAN AND OTHER ANCIENT AUTHORS…A DIGEST.

Hostility towards the Jews in the ancient Greco-Latin world was generally a literary device or an affectation, prompted by Judaism’s high monotheism, its cultural separation from other people groups,its prophetic traditions and heritage,-an unknown phenomenon at the time,-and its strong sense of divine election.

The pagan perception of Judaism was that this distinctive religion was an atheistic superstition because of its rejection of images and idols. The Jews’ exclusivity was thought to be an evidence of misanthropy, especially as many Jews dissociated themselves from the emerging Christian church .

The Jews were  a small, indefensible target for literary and unjustified abuse.

 

MANETHEO..3rd. century.  The Jews are descendants of the Hyksos , a despised ,leprous people, driven out of Egypt with their leader ,-Osarsiph (Moses). They scorned the gods of Egypt and its sacred beasts ad customs.

HECATAEUS OF ABDERA..3rd. century B,C.  The Jews study the stars, and are race who hate others and are totally unsociable.

THEOPHRASTUS..3rd. century, B.C.  The Jews call on their god,but also worship the stars and animals, and engage in human sacrifice.

AGATHARCHIDES OF CNIDUS..2nd. century, B.C.  Jewish religious customs, such as circumcision and sabbath observance  are ridiculous

MNASEAS OF PATRAS,,2nd.century, B.C. He alleged that the Jews worship a donkey’s head, a myth developed from the report  that a golden head of a donkey was found in their temple.

POSEIDONIUS OF APAMEIA, 2nd.century,B.C. The Jews are said to hate all other races. They were expelled from Egypt because of their leprosy and their hatred of the Egyptian gods.Their exclusiveness is evident in their religious laws, which conflict with humanity and justice. Antiochus punished them by desecrating their temple in 169.B.C.

APOLLONIUS  MOLON..1st,century,B.C. The Jews are thought to hate all foreigners, as well as being superstitious, atheists, exclusive,immoral and blots in human society.

        TO BE CONTINUED…

A PREFACE.

This survey of anti-Jewish writings, collected by a layman,- myself, has material which is well-known to most professional historians and other academics. The notes or “digests” which follow have been assembled on the backs of giants,- eminent historians and research scholars, whose labours are acknowledged in the bibliography. The quotations which form the background to these digests have been removed in order to create a more condensed blog, and also to avoid the tedious,vexatious and costly process of obtaining copyright permissions from many publishers and authors.

This is a primitive survey and I have ignored the normal apparatus of a professional piece of work, which would comprise references, footnotes,an index and the use of foreign terminology.