Lessons From the Historical Christian Anti-Jewish Prejudice

One of the dark sides of the history of Christianity which seems to be pretty well acknowledged today but still isn't understood well enough is “Christian” anti-Judaism. This article should encourage readers (Christians especially) to think more deeply and critically about anti-Judaism in Christianity and generally about religious prejudice against those who believe differently.

Jewish rejection of Jesus

Jewish rejection of Jesus as the Messiah always posed a problem for Christians and quite naturally so. When pagans were rejecting Christ in those first centuries of pagan power in Roman Empire that was neither surprising nor difficult to cope with for Christians - it might be difficult to bare the persecution but not hard to understand that pagans do not believe in Jesus neither in monotheistic God or biblical morality, for that matter.

Jewish disbelief in Jesus was an entirely different matter. Here are people who have the Bible (Christian Old Testament), who read the prophets regularly in their Synagogues and who are of the same tradition, blood and ancestry as were the apostles and Jesus himself, yet they refuse to believe in Jesus as Messiah and Lord. Even after long discussions, persuasion and Bible reading. “How on earth can they not see?” was the question in Christian minds.

This by itself was not such a big problem for Jewish people themselves until western civilization didn't become Christianized. By early Middle Ages Jewish disbelief became a silent, many times unconscious but increasingly strong disturbing factor in Christian society.

Historian at Stanford and an expert on anti-Semitism Gavin Langmuir describes Jewish disbelief in Jesus as something which was perceived by Christians as the greatest threat and danger exactly because it questioned such basic propositions which “had to be believed”. Feelings of threat and danger together with Christian power to sanction then landless and mostly powerless Jews, dependent on hospitality of Christian cities, was a perfect formula for darker side of human nature to run riot in Christians. Persecutions, fanciful accusations and “satanisations” of the Jews which followed and increased with time are not unknown.

Easiness of falling into Anti-Semitism

I will not go into discussion of the link between historic Christian anti-Judaism and Nazi anti-Semitism here. But it is not difficult to see how religious views (in this instance Christian) can easily be used in the service of power and in order to justify horrific actions.

Even gross evil can become a normal thing when majority gets used to it. And the prejudice and hate towards Jewish people indeed was and still is for many something quite normal and “logical” thing. It has a long and rich tradition into which an anti-Semite beginner today can just plunge into. Not much creative imagination is needed (although for centuries anti-Semitism did give birth to very imaginative stories and conspiracy “theories” indeed!).

How Christians perceive Jewish “No” today

Today's Christian-Jewish Relations have been built on many painful lessons of history but also on many positive encounters between two faiths and peoples. Generally, Jewish people are not seen as a disturbing phenomenon by Christians anymore. Yet, many Christians still struggle greatly with Jewish disbelief in Jesus. Some, like dispensationalists for example, have incorporated the Jewish people and the State of Israel in their end-time scenarios as fulfillment of their understanding of Old Testament prophecies.

It seems that they want to conquer and explain theoretically the presence and prosperity of Jews (actually for them still a “threat of disbelief”) by quite imaginative interpretations of the Bible which for real experts in biblical research are exegetically completely bogus. I do not doubt these explanations offer comfort. But at least one should first ass Jews themselves how they explain and understand their own prosperity, religion and attitude to the Land of Israel, and how they themselves project their future, before boxing them into the preconceived simplistic explanations which they would never endorse.

Attitude towards a religious “other” in general

The story of Christian prejudice towards the Jewish people only shows how difficult it is for all of us to explain the presence or wellbeing of people who do not share with us some very basic beliefs which are among the most important we hold. “How can he be happy if he is a "disbeliever" and does not share this deep blessing of knowing God as we know Him?” This is a general question which many serious and well meaning believers of any of the three monotheistic religions have had to encounter.

My Christianity simply had to develop and transform through years of thinking and dialoguing with non-Christians from which I have learned so much, also about God. In the process it simply lost its exclusivist edge and enabled me to incorporate prosperity of several other religious traditions as God's gifts to others in a special way which I do not necessarily fully understand. Not now anyway.