Antisemitism in Early Christianity
What does the presence of anti-Jewish polemics in the New Testament and early Christianity do to your attitude toward Christianity? Why is anti-Judaism so important to the birth of Christianity?
What does the presence of anti-Jewish polemics in the New Testament and early Christianity do to your attitude toward Christianity? Why is anti-Judaism so important to the birth of Christianity?
January 31st, 2008 at 2:46 pm
This is a bit philosophical, so I hope you will bear with me. Dr. Charme said that being antisemitic is required in order to be a “good Christian”. This was a really thought-provoking statement and I have been mulling over it in my mind since our last class. It brings up a couple questions and I’d love to know what you all think.
First, what is a “good Christian”? In order to be a good Christian, is it necessary to believe that the Jews killed Jesus, or believe that content in the NT deemed antisemitic originated with God or Jesus? Can one still be a “good Christian” while maintaining a more liberal reading of the NT (in which antisemitic content is attributed to the political motives of the writers)?
The second question I have is (again, somewhat philosophical)…if a person believes that what is written in the New Testament is a true relaying of historical facts (in this case, believes that the Jews killed Jesus), then would any resulting negative perception of the Jews be antisemitic? In other words, is a negative perception that is based on what a person believes to be accurate information, prejudicial?
I’d love to know what you all think (and you too, Dr. Charme).
Patty
February 1st, 2008 at 7:23 am
Patty,
I too have been mulling over what Dr. Charme said at the end of class this past week. I always thought I was a “good Christian” but do not consider myself anti-semitic. Can one be without the other? What is a good Christian? I guess according to Catholic hierarchy I am not a “good Catholic or Christian”. I do not believe nor follow all of the religious dogmas set forth by the Catholic religion. At one time I would have been but then again not by Dr. Charme’s criteria. The more you think about it … the more confusing. We will have to deep into this theology a bit more in class.
Mary
February 2nd, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Hi Patty and Mary:
I’ve also been thinking about what Dr. Charme said at the end of last class. What is a “good” Christian? I’ve heard many people say that being a good Christian entails, among other things, “living a good life by serving others.” But is it more than just that? Can you validate the truth of the “other” without invalidating yourself? Is it possible to be a good Christian without demonizing Judaism?
February 2nd, 2008 at 4:55 pm
It is very interesting thing to mull over, isn’t it? Like you, Mary, back when I was a Catholic, I used to think that being a “good Christian” meant being like Jesus, which in my mind meant being kind, forgiving, putting others before yourself, advocating for the less fortunate…all those happy, fuzzy things that make you feel good about yourself. I never thought of myself as antisemitic, never picked up on the antisemitic content in the NT. It just didn’t register with me (at least not consciously). However, as we are seeing, there is a lot more than warm fuzziness in the New Testament. Maybe what Dr. Charme was conveying was this: a “good Christian” would necessarily accept the Gospels as the word of God and would embrace them. There’s a lot of antisemitic content in the New Testament. So a + b = c. If you embrace the New Testament and much of it is antisemitic, you are necessarily antisemitic.
At least, this is how I interpreted Dr. Charme’s statement and maybe I am off a bit.
February 6th, 2008 at 10:49 am
I wish their was away to take back what man has done in the name of Christ to the Jews who lost their live’s for no reason but hatred in the tortuous inhuman behavior that was demonstrated during the Holocaust. I as a believer of Christ have not looked down on the Jewish community as if they murdered Christ. It is in my believe what was to happen happened for a reason and a purpose. That is how God works! He does not always make sense in our own minds but He has an end goal that will take place and He will accomplish that goal. It is the spin of man to make it what he wants it to be. Man has been full of hate since the beginning of time when one son of Adam and Eve in a jealous rage killed his brother. The New Testament talks of love not hate. To love your neighbor, love one another, do not let the sun go down on your anger.; these are all statements of love. When a person reads any piece of literature he can interpret how he pleases, and he will. If your heart is full of hate you will see hate when you read. If your heart is full of love you will see love with in the passages you read. Man wants to hate so their for he finds any thing to agree with him and takes off with that. Even if that is not what the author intended the passage for. I do not believe that the New testament is anti-semitic, it was written by Jewish people. The film “The Passion” is very descriptive that Jews not the Romans put Christ to death on the cross. So what! over the centuries people have tortured people. Can we go back in time and erase it? no! We need to stop hating and take our eyes off the past and move forward it is a future and we all can work together to bring peace instead of hate. I would love to see peace and not war. i would love to see enemy’s hug and have a good cry together. I would love if we could just get along. My life long question, Why do people have to be so mean? Why can’t we just love one another?
February 7th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Theresa,
I agree with the gist of what you are saying and wish it was easy to not see the hatred toward Jews that is in the New Testament. I also wish it was easy not to see hatred toward the Jews in “The Passion of the Christ”. The problem is that a lot of this material is not subtle - it is blantantly hateful toward the Jews and it’s pretty difficult (if not impossible) to have a heart filled with love when reading (and viewing) this material or to view it as anything other than antisemitic propoganda.
The New Testament talks of love. It also talks of hate. How do you reconcile the two? Do you ignore the hateful parts and pretend they don’t exist but only acknowledge the loving parts? What if the hateful speech is coming from Jesus himself? Do you ignore it? Do you claim that somebody else wrote it? Is it really the word of God? If it is, and if God is saying nasty stuff about the Jews, do you consider God antisemitic? If so, would you say that God is hateful as well as loving?
Patty
February 7th, 2008 at 11:56 am
I think my views have changed dramatically about the Bible since I’ve taken Dr. Wall’s course “The Bible as Literature”. I don’t look at the Bible as “inspired by God himself”, but look it as a piece of fiction-fact work. The Bilble holds different meanings for different people. Some people choose to take it literally. If so, then you have to believe that God and Jesus did say some and do some hateful things. As for “Passion” I too can now see the anti-semetic tones but I wonder if I really would see them if I wasn’t aware of them before hand and was just viewing it for the first time without any pre-knowledge of the anti-semetism in the gospels. I’ve seen other passion movies and I don’t really remember thinking they were anti-semetic or I never came away from the movie thinking that “the Jews killed Christ.” I think in this particular movie the dark tones and violence had an awful lot to do with how we processed the outcome and who was at fault.
February 8th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
When I was Christian, I never spent time thinking about who killed Jesus so I see what you are saying.
The thing I wonder is….if a person believes the Jews killed Jesus because the person believes that the Bible is a record historical facts, is that person antisemitic?
Question #2: If somehow historical evidence came to light that demonstrated that the Jews did kill Jesus, would the NT still be considered antisemitic?
February 9th, 2008 at 8:37 am
DR. Charme,
I read the two articles concerning the Pope’s change in the prayer. I can honestly say I never remember hearing this prayer. However, I don’t know if the Pope was honestly trying to soothe relations between the Jews and Catholics because the new version was just as damaging as the old version. If he really wanted to extend the laurel leaf he would have eliminated the prayer altogether. As for the Christian news-wire article, there will always be fanatics!!! A thought occurred to me the other day. The Hebrew religion is the “parent” religion and Christianity is the “child” or spin-off. Shouldn’t the Hebrew religion be attacking Christianity and shouldn’t Christians look up to the Jewish faith as the true original faith????
February 9th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Mary,
That’s a really good point but I don’t think that many Christians see it that way. As we discussed in class last week, many believe that Christianity is the new and improved version, thus no recognition of the Jewish faith “as the true original faith” is necessary.
On another note, there’s an article that was published this week in the Chronicle of Higher Education about “Hispanic Antisemitism.” The sub-heading reads: “Latin America has a pattern of prejudice that is little known but increasingly worrisome.” The article and others trace the roots of antisemitism in Latin America.