← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · jay
Thread ID: 9095 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2003-08-17
2003-08-17 02:52 | User Profile
The KC Paper investigates the Mel Gibson issue in this article:
[url=http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascitystar/living/religion/]http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascityst...iving/religion/[/url] The killing of Christ What do the Gospels say, and why? Who killed Jesus? For centuries Christians and Jews have debated this question. And it still hasn't been laid to rest. By HELEN T. GRAY / The Kansas City Star
Then it talks about "Christian anti-Semitism"ÃÂ No mention of Jewish anti-Christianity", tho...
[url=http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascitystar/living/religion/6509622.htm]http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascityst...ion/6509622.htm[/url]
Posted on Sat, Aug. 16, 2003
A sampling of early Christian anti-Semitism
In the history of Christianity, some of the most slanderous comments about Jews have spilled from the mouths of men considered the fathers of both Catholicism and Protestantism.
It's from these writings and sermons that some of their followers concluded Jews were "Christ killers."
Here is a sampling:
Ignatius Bishop of Antioch: "For if we are still practicing Judaism, we admit that we have not received God's favor -- it is wrong to talk about Jesus Christ and live like Jews. For Christianity did not believe in Judaism, but Judaism in Christianity." -- Epistle to the Magnesians (A.D. 98-117)
Justin Martyr: "The custom of circumcising the flesh, handed down from Abraham, was given to you as a distinguishing mark, to set you off from other nations and from us Christians. The purpose of this was that you and only you might suffer the afflictions that are now justly yours; that only your land be desolated, and your cities ruined by fire, that the fruits of your land be eaten by strangers before your very eyes; that not one of you be permitted to enter your city of Jerusalem." -- Dialogue with Trypho (Between A.D. 138 and 161)
Origen of Alexandria: "We may thus assert in utter confidence that the Jews will not return to their earlier situation, for they have committed the most abominable of crimes, in forming this conspiracy against the Savior of the human race -- hence the city where Jesus suffered was necessarily destroyed, the Jewish nation was driven from its country, and another people was called by God to the blessed election." (A.D. 185-254)
St. John of Chrysostom: -- "The synagogue is worse than a brothel -- it is the den of scoundrels and the repair of wild beasts -- the temple of demons devoted to idolatrous cults -- the refuge of brigands and debauchees, and the cavern of devils. It is a criminal assembly of Jews -- a place of meeting for the assassins of Christ..." (A.D. 344-407)
St. Augustine: "The Jews who slew him (Jesus), and would not believe in him, because it behoved him to die and rise again, were yet more miserably wasted by the Romans, and utterly rooted out from their kingdom, where aliens had already ruled over them..." -- The City of God (A.D. 354-430)
St. Jerome: "The Jews seek nothing but to have children, possess riches and be healthy. They seek all earthly things, but think nothing of heavenly things; for this reason they are mercenaries." The Jews in the Roman Empire. (A.D. 374-419)
Martin Luther: "What then shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews? Since they live among us and we know about their lying and blasphemy and cursing, we can not tolerate them if we do not wish to share in their lies, curses, and blasphemy...Let me give you my honest advice.
"First, their synagogues should be set on fire...
"Secondly, their homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed...
"Thirdly, they should be deprived of their prayer-books and Talmuds in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught.
"Fourthly, their rabbis must be forbidden under threat of death to teach any more...
"Fifthly, passport and traveling privileges should be absolutely forbidden to the Jews..." -- On the Jews and Their Lies 1543
John Calvin: "Their (the Jews') rotten and unbending stiffneckedness deserves that they be oppressed unendingly and without measure or end and that they die in their misery without the pity of anyone." -- A Response to Questions and Objections of a Certain Jew
Information obtained from yashanet.com and The Roots of Christian Anti-Semitism by Malcolm Hay; the online encyclopedia wikipedia.com; www.humanitas-international.org; www.remember.org.