3/13/10

Christian Anti-Semitism Goes Back a Long Way

Kevin at biblicalia has posted the Ending of Second Oration Against the Jews: "Roger Pearse has posted and released to public domain a translation of the until recently missing ending of the Second Oration Against the Jews by St John Chrysostom."

The text from the acid-tongued orator (died 407 CE) contains such gems as,
Now then, let me strip down for the fight against the Jews themselves, so that the victory may be more glorious—so that you will learn that they are abominable and lawless and murderous and enemies of God.  For there is no evidence of wickedness I can proclaim that is equal to this.
We can only reiterate that scholarship aside, it is always hurtful for us to revisit how far back Christian antisemitism goes and what grave and unfathomable damage it has done to our ancestors.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is only one example out of many you could cite. Antisemitism in Christiany precedes the Church Fathers like Chrysostom to the time when the Gospels were written. However, it is at the time Chrysostom, Ambrose and Augustine that the venom was seriously established, and it was downhill from there until Vatican II in 1965.

Gabriel Wilensky

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Richard said...

I am confident that Pope Benedict XVI is well on his way to re-establishing the downhill momentum.

Tzvee Zahavy said...

Sad to report we have received antisemitic comments on this posting. We reiterate how hurtful this hate speech has been over the centuries and how much pain and suffering it has done to our people. Instead of learning from the failures of the past, and repenting and becoming better human beings, a cadre of contemporary antisemites have come here to comment and posted elsewhere on the web about this posting additional hate speech about the Jews. I feel sorry for these hate filled people and their neighbors and families. In their lives dedicated to hatred they seek to remove value from the world, to tear down the worth of others, to leave behind a legacy of desolation and destruction which can bring nothing but sadness to themselves and their communities.

Anonymous said...

here is the fruit of such ancient hatred in a modern sermon http://roshpinaproject.com/2011/10/05/british-preacher-stuart-olyott-claims-jews-are-not-jews/