Anti-Judaism in the New Testament
The New Testament, the foundation of the Christian faith, was written by the end of the first century. The majority of the New Testament was written by Jews who became followers of Jesus, and all but two books ( Luke and Acts) are traditionally attributed to such Jewish followers.
The New Testament emerged during a period of transition from the pluralism of early Judaism and the growing authority of the rabbis after 70 CE, making no easy generalizations about the nature of Judaism at that time possible. [1]
Douglas Hare has suggested a division of the anti-Judaism present in the polemic of the gospels. [2]
Prophetic anti-Judaism identifies a type of anti-Judaism in which Judaism is critical of itself. Hare believes this is characteristic of Jesus himself, who as a leader of a controversial sect within Judaism, sought to reform Israel and criticized other religious leader who failed to do so. [2]
Jewish-Christian anti-Judaism criticizes the Jewish community for failing to accept the new belief of the Christian community that Jesus's death and resurrection are central to a correct responce to God. Hare connects this type of anti-Judaism to the work of Christian missionaries attempting to convert an unwilling Israel to accept the Christian gospel. Here the Christian missionaries are also willing to discard certain aspects of Judaism in light of the Christian message, such as the Torah, the Temple, and its ritual commandments. Hare believes this redefinition of key Jewish symbols was the most threatening to Jewish identity and lead to the eventual part of ways between the religions. [2]
Hare calls his final category Gentilizing anti-Judaism which moves beyond show a concern for Israel and its repentance, and holds that Israel's failure to believe is fatal and that God has rejected the Jewish community. This Gentizing anti-Judaism is the foundation of the Christian belief of supersessionism which holds that the Jews have been rejected as God's people and replaced by the new community — the followers of Christ.
The Gospels were written in an enviroment where fellowship with Jesus was already seen as distinct from and competitive with Judaism. [1] This created an apologetic tension which Rosemary Ruether described as the " anti-Judaic left-hand" of Christology. [1]
The Mathean Jews are liars in respect to the ressurection (Matt. 28:15), and willful murderers who implicate their own children in the resurrection (see blood curse.) [1]
Luke's Gospel contains a unique scene of Jesus's rejection by his own people (Luke 4:16-30). [1]
The Gospel of John contains an anachronistic scene of "the Jews" [3] excluding his followers from the synagogue in his own lifetime (John 9:22; 12:42; cf. 16:2). [1]
Arguments have been put forth to explain away John's use of term "the Jews" in his gospel, including that this refers to zealots for the old way of Israel, or that his is making a geographic contrast between Judeans and Galileans. [1]
Jews in this gospel are almost always mentioned in terms of divine rejection. [4]
In the non- canonical Gospel of Thomas, Jesus asks his followers if they have become as obtuse as Jews in their failure to recognize him as the messiah (1.43). [1]
Paul of Tarsus's writings represent the vanguard of the New Testament claim that the covenant with Abraham was not to be restricted only to Jews, Abraham's decendants, after the "flesh". [1]
Paul, coauthoring with Sylvanus and Timothy, tells his audience in 1st Thessalonians (2:13-20) that " you suffer the same things from your compatriots as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and persecuted us; they do not please God, and are opposed to everyone, trying to prevent us from speaking to the Gentiles that they may be saved, thus constantly filling up the measure of their sins. But the wrath of God has finally begun to come upon them." [1]
The privledged people of God in Paul's vocabulary was not "Jews" or "Judaism" but " Israel" and " Israelite." [1]
John G. Gager argues Paul's works were canonized for their anti-Jewish perspective, and that Paul provided the theoretical structure for Christian anti-Judaism from Marcion through Martin Luther, and F. C. Baur down to Rudolf Bultmann. [5]
Gnosticism which had a decidedly Jewish origin, did not become anti-Judaic until a later date. Thus Paul's epistles written against the teachings of the gnostics (Collosians, the Pastoral Epistles, and those of Ignatius) Judaism is constantly attacked alongside Gnosticism. [6]
Paul's allegory of Sarah and Hagar encouraged the thinking of the two faiths in oppositional rather than transitional terms. [7]
The Epistle of Barnabas displays Paul's anti-Judaism in its highest developed form. [8]
The author here rejects not only the Jewish nation, but the whole cultus of ordinances from the Old Testament. [4]
One last books of the New Testament to be written dismisses the primary institution of Judaism to have survived the destruction of the Temple as a "synagogue of Satan" (Rev 2:9).
A number of passages in the New Testament that explicitly reject the Jewish faith, notably:
- Jesus speaking to a group of Pharisees: "I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me, because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father. They answered him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do what Abraham did. ... You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But, because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? He who is of God hears the words of God; the reason why you do not hear them is you are not of God." ( John 8:37-39, 44-47, RSV)
- Stephen speaking before a synagogue council just before his execution: "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it." ( Acts 7:51-53, RSV)
- "Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie — behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and learn that I have loved you." ( Revelation 3:9, RSV).
Some biblical scholars point out that Jesus and Stephen are presented as Jews speaking to other Jews, and that their use of broad accusation against Israel is borrowed from Moses and the later Jewish prophets (e.g. Deut 9:13-14; 31:27-29; 32:5, 20-21; 2 Kings 17:13-14; Is 1:4; Hos 1:9; 10:9). Jesus once calls his own disciple Peter 'Satan' (Mk 8:33). Other scholars hold that verses like these reflect the Jewish-Christian tensions that were emerging in the late first or early second century, and do not originate with Jesus. Today, nearly all Christian denominations de-emphasize verses such as these, and reject their use and misuse by antisemites.
Drawing from the Jewish prophet Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 31:31-34), the New Testament taught that with the death of Jesus a new covenant was established which rendered obsolete and in many respects superseded the first covenant established by Moses ( Hebrews 8:7-13; Lk 22:20). Observance of the earlier covenant traditionally characterizes Judaism. This New Testament teaching, and later variations to it, are part of what is called supersessionism. However, the early Jewish followers of Jesus continued to practice circumcision and observe dietary laws, which is why the failure to observe these laws by the first Gentile Christians became a matter of controversy and dispute some years after Jesus' death (Acts 11:3; 15:1ff; 16:3).
The New Testament holds that Jesus' (Jewish) disciple Judas Iscariot ( Mark14:43-46), the Roman governor Pontius Pilate along with Roman forces ( John 19:11; Acts 4:27) and Jewish leaders and people of Jerusalem were (to varying degrees) responsible for the death of Jesus (Acts 13:27); Diaspora Jews are not blamed for events which were clearly outside their control.
After Jesus' death, the New Testament portrays the Jewish religious authorities in Jerusalem as hostile to Jesus' followers, and as occasionally using force against them. Stephen is executed by stoning (Acts 7:58). Before his conversion, Saul puts followers of Jesus in prison (Acts 8:3; Galatians 1:13-14; 1 Timothy 1:13). After his conversion, Saul is whipped at various times by Jewish authorities ( 2 Corinthians 11:24), and is accused by Jewish authorities before Roman courts (e.g., Acts 25:6-7). However, opposition from Gentiles is also cited repeatedly (2 Corinthians 11:26; Acts 16:19ff; 19:23ff). More generally, there are widespread references in the New Testament to suffering experienced by Jesus' followers at the hands of others (Romans 8:35; 1 Corinthians 4:11ff; Galatians 3:4; 2 Thessalonians 1:5; Hebrews 10:32; 1 Peter 4:16; Revelation 20:4).
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Chilton, Bruce D. (2005). "Christian Reconstruction of Judaism: The Adversus Iudeuos Writings from the New Testament until Origen". The Brill Reference Library of Judaism. 23 (Judaism from Moses to Muhammad: An Interpretation : Turning Points and Focal Points): 81. ISBN 9004145133.
- ^ a b c Smiga, George Michael (1992). Pain and Polemic: Anti-Judaism in the Gospels. Cleveland: Paulist Press. pp. 12–13. ISBN 0809133555.
- ^ A. Reinhartz argues that using double-quotes around the phraseology "sweeps the problem of the anti-Judaism in the Gospel [of John] under the rug"Fuglseth, Kåre (2005). Johannine Sectarianism in Perspective. Brill Academic Publishers. p. 76. ISBN 9004144110.
- ^ a b Harnack, Adolf (1909). New Testament Studies. III.: The Acts of the Apostles. Translated by John Richard Wilkinson. New York: G.P. Putnam's sons. pp. xxv.
- ^ Porter, Stanley E. (2005). Paul And His Opponents. Brill Academic Publishers. p. 60. ISBN 9004138919.
- ^ Pfleiderer. Op. cit. p. 195.
- ^ Bergren, Thomas A. (2004). "Mother Jerusalem, Mother Church: Desolation and Restoration in Early Jewish and Christian Literature". Journal for the Study of Judaism. 89 (Things Revealed: Studies In Early Jewish And Christian Literature). Brill Academic Publishers: 258. ISBN 9004138854.
-
^ Pfleiderer, Otto (1877). Paulinism: A Contribution to the History of Primitive Christian Theology. Vol. II. London, Edinburgh: Williams and Norgate. p. 129.
{{ cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) ( help)
Anti-Judaism in the New Testament
The New Testament, the foundation of the Christian faith, was written by the end of the first century. The majority of the New Testament was written by Jews who became followers of Jesus, and all but two books ( Luke and Acts) are traditionally attributed to such Jewish followers.
The New Testament emerged during a period of transition from the pluralism of early Judaism and the growing authority of the rabbis after 70 CE, making no easy generalizations about the nature of Judaism at that time possible. [1]
Douglas Hare has suggested a division of the anti-Judaism present in the polemic of the gospels. [2]
Prophetic anti-Judaism identifies a type of anti-Judaism in which Judaism is critical of itself. Hare believes this is characteristic of Jesus himself, who as a leader of a controversial sect within Judaism, sought to reform Israel and criticized other religious leader who failed to do so. [2]
Jewish-Christian anti-Judaism criticizes the Jewish community for failing to accept the new belief of the Christian community that Jesus's death and resurrection are central to a correct responce to God. Hare connects this type of anti-Judaism to the work of Christian missionaries attempting to convert an unwilling Israel to accept the Christian gospel. Here the Christian missionaries are also willing to discard certain aspects of Judaism in light of the Christian message, such as the Torah, the Temple, and its ritual commandments. Hare believes this redefinition of key Jewish symbols was the most threatening to Jewish identity and lead to the eventual part of ways between the religions. [2]
Hare calls his final category Gentilizing anti-Judaism which moves beyond show a concern for Israel and its repentance, and holds that Israel's failure to believe is fatal and that God has rejected the Jewish community. This Gentizing anti-Judaism is the foundation of the Christian belief of supersessionism which holds that the Jews have been rejected as God's people and replaced by the new community — the followers of Christ.
The Gospels were written in an enviroment where fellowship with Jesus was already seen as distinct from and competitive with Judaism. [1] This created an apologetic tension which Rosemary Ruether described as the " anti-Judaic left-hand" of Christology. [1]
The Mathean Jews are liars in respect to the ressurection (Matt. 28:15), and willful murderers who implicate their own children in the resurrection (see blood curse.) [1]
Luke's Gospel contains a unique scene of Jesus's rejection by his own people (Luke 4:16-30). [1]
The Gospel of John contains an anachronistic scene of "the Jews" [3] excluding his followers from the synagogue in his own lifetime (John 9:22; 12:42; cf. 16:2). [1]
Arguments have been put forth to explain away John's use of term "the Jews" in his gospel, including that this refers to zealots for the old way of Israel, or that his is making a geographic contrast between Judeans and Galileans. [1]
Jews in this gospel are almost always mentioned in terms of divine rejection. [4]
In the non- canonical Gospel of Thomas, Jesus asks his followers if they have become as obtuse as Jews in their failure to recognize him as the messiah (1.43). [1]
Paul of Tarsus's writings represent the vanguard of the New Testament claim that the covenant with Abraham was not to be restricted only to Jews, Abraham's decendants, after the "flesh". [1]
Paul, coauthoring with Sylvanus and Timothy, tells his audience in 1st Thessalonians (2:13-20) that " you suffer the same things from your compatriots as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and persecuted us; they do not please God, and are opposed to everyone, trying to prevent us from speaking to the Gentiles that they may be saved, thus constantly filling up the measure of their sins. But the wrath of God has finally begun to come upon them." [1]
The privledged people of God in Paul's vocabulary was not "Jews" or "Judaism" but " Israel" and " Israelite." [1]
John G. Gager argues Paul's works were canonized for their anti-Jewish perspective, and that Paul provided the theoretical structure for Christian anti-Judaism from Marcion through Martin Luther, and F. C. Baur down to Rudolf Bultmann. [5]
Gnosticism which had a decidedly Jewish origin, did not become anti-Judaic until a later date. Thus Paul's epistles written against the teachings of the gnostics (Collosians, the Pastoral Epistles, and those of Ignatius) Judaism is constantly attacked alongside Gnosticism. [6]
Paul's allegory of Sarah and Hagar encouraged the thinking of the two faiths in oppositional rather than transitional terms. [7]
The Epistle of Barnabas displays Paul's anti-Judaism in its highest developed form. [8]
The author here rejects not only the Jewish nation, but the whole cultus of ordinances from the Old Testament. [4]
One last books of the New Testament to be written dismisses the primary institution of Judaism to have survived the destruction of the Temple as a "synagogue of Satan" (Rev 2:9).
A number of passages in the New Testament that explicitly reject the Jewish faith, notably:
- Jesus speaking to a group of Pharisees: "I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me, because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father. They answered him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do what Abraham did. ... You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But, because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? He who is of God hears the words of God; the reason why you do not hear them is you are not of God." ( John 8:37-39, 44-47, RSV)
- Stephen speaking before a synagogue council just before his execution: "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it." ( Acts 7:51-53, RSV)
- "Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie — behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and learn that I have loved you." ( Revelation 3:9, RSV).
Some biblical scholars point out that Jesus and Stephen are presented as Jews speaking to other Jews, and that their use of broad accusation against Israel is borrowed from Moses and the later Jewish prophets (e.g. Deut 9:13-14; 31:27-29; 32:5, 20-21; 2 Kings 17:13-14; Is 1:4; Hos 1:9; 10:9). Jesus once calls his own disciple Peter 'Satan' (Mk 8:33). Other scholars hold that verses like these reflect the Jewish-Christian tensions that were emerging in the late first or early second century, and do not originate with Jesus. Today, nearly all Christian denominations de-emphasize verses such as these, and reject their use and misuse by antisemites.
Drawing from the Jewish prophet Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 31:31-34), the New Testament taught that with the death of Jesus a new covenant was established which rendered obsolete and in many respects superseded the first covenant established by Moses ( Hebrews 8:7-13; Lk 22:20). Observance of the earlier covenant traditionally characterizes Judaism. This New Testament teaching, and later variations to it, are part of what is called supersessionism. However, the early Jewish followers of Jesus continued to practice circumcision and observe dietary laws, which is why the failure to observe these laws by the first Gentile Christians became a matter of controversy and dispute some years after Jesus' death (Acts 11:3; 15:1ff; 16:3).
The New Testament holds that Jesus' (Jewish) disciple Judas Iscariot ( Mark14:43-46), the Roman governor Pontius Pilate along with Roman forces ( John 19:11; Acts 4:27) and Jewish leaders and people of Jerusalem were (to varying degrees) responsible for the death of Jesus (Acts 13:27); Diaspora Jews are not blamed for events which were clearly outside their control.
After Jesus' death, the New Testament portrays the Jewish religious authorities in Jerusalem as hostile to Jesus' followers, and as occasionally using force against them. Stephen is executed by stoning (Acts 7:58). Before his conversion, Saul puts followers of Jesus in prison (Acts 8:3; Galatians 1:13-14; 1 Timothy 1:13). After his conversion, Saul is whipped at various times by Jewish authorities ( 2 Corinthians 11:24), and is accused by Jewish authorities before Roman courts (e.g., Acts 25:6-7). However, opposition from Gentiles is also cited repeatedly (2 Corinthians 11:26; Acts 16:19ff; 19:23ff). More generally, there are widespread references in the New Testament to suffering experienced by Jesus' followers at the hands of others (Romans 8:35; 1 Corinthians 4:11ff; Galatians 3:4; 2 Thessalonians 1:5; Hebrews 10:32; 1 Peter 4:16; Revelation 20:4).
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Chilton, Bruce D. (2005). "Christian Reconstruction of Judaism: The Adversus Iudeuos Writings from the New Testament until Origen". The Brill Reference Library of Judaism. 23 (Judaism from Moses to Muhammad: An Interpretation : Turning Points and Focal Points): 81. ISBN 9004145133.
- ^ a b c Smiga, George Michael (1992). Pain and Polemic: Anti-Judaism in the Gospels. Cleveland: Paulist Press. pp. 12–13. ISBN 0809133555.
- ^ A. Reinhartz argues that using double-quotes around the phraseology "sweeps the problem of the anti-Judaism in the Gospel [of John] under the rug"Fuglseth, Kåre (2005). Johannine Sectarianism in Perspective. Brill Academic Publishers. p. 76. ISBN 9004144110.
- ^ a b Harnack, Adolf (1909). New Testament Studies. III.: The Acts of the Apostles. Translated by John Richard Wilkinson. New York: G.P. Putnam's sons. pp. xxv.
- ^ Porter, Stanley E. (2005). Paul And His Opponents. Brill Academic Publishers. p. 60. ISBN 9004138919.
- ^ Pfleiderer. Op. cit. p. 195.
- ^ Bergren, Thomas A. (2004). "Mother Jerusalem, Mother Church: Desolation and Restoration in Early Jewish and Christian Literature". Journal for the Study of Judaism. 89 (Things Revealed: Studies In Early Jewish And Christian Literature). Brill Academic Publishers: 258. ISBN 9004138854.
-
^ Pfleiderer, Otto (1877). Paulinism: A Contribution to the History of Primitive Christian Theology. Vol. II. London, Edinburgh: Williams and Norgate. p. 129.
{{ cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) ( help)