Download Brief Outline of the History of Jewish–Christian Relations

Brief Outline of the History of Jewish–Christian Relations
1ST CENTURY (30-130): THE “JESUS MOVEMENT” IS INITIALLY ENTIRELY JEWISH
The Church is one among several “enthusiastic” Jewish movements. There are ongoing debates about the
admission of Gentiles into local churches and the extent of their observance of the Torah. After two Jewish
revolts, the distinction between Judaism and Christianity increases. Polemics between local churches and
synagogues appear in the Gospels and other NT texts. Churches become increasingly Gentile.
2ND-3RD CENTURIES: CHRISTIANITY AND RABBINIC JUDAISM REJECT EACH OTHER
Judaism has a high social status in the Roman Empire, but the Church is subject to periodic violent persecution
by Rome. Church leaders seek to answer pagan charges that Christianity is a heretical deviation from Judaism.
They are also threatened by the popularity of Jewish practices among Christians. Christian apologists develop
anti-Jewish theologies. Rabbinic Judaism becomes increasingly normative for Jews. Christianity and Jewish
self-understanding grows more and more oppositional to each other.
4TH-5TH CENTURIES: CHRISTIANITY’S ASCENDANCY
Christianity becomes the imperial religion in 380 and gradually uses the Empire’s legal system to restrict
Jewish influence. Various law codes ban Jews from civil offices or serving as judges in cases involving
Christians. The building of new synagogues or conversion to Judaism is also prohibited.
5TH-10TH CENTURIES: ROME FALLS, CHRISTENDOM RISES
After the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, Europe develops into a Christian society called
Christendom. Gradually, the loss of the right to own land marginalizes Jews. They eventually come to fill a
needed economic niche as money-lenders and traders because of prohibitions of usury. Jews face periodic
forced baptisms, coerced debates of rabbis with Christian theologians, and synagogue and Talmud burnings.
11TH-15TH CENTURIES: OUTBURSTS OF ANTI-JEWISH VIOLENCE AND SUPERSTITION
The Crusades help unleash murderous violence against Jews. In the first Crusade, the soldiers marching to the
east killed about 10,000 Jews. In various places Jews were charged by irrational mobs with desecrating hosts
and killing Christian children on Passover. A desecration charge in 1298 resulted in the deaths of about
100,000 Austrian and German Jews. The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) required Jews to wear identifying
badges. The Black Death (1347-1350) was blamed on Jews. There are periodic expulsions of Jews: German
states (1100s), England (1290), France (1306), Spain (1492).
16TH-18TH CENTURIES: THE GHETTO
Many urban Jews are confined to ghettoes, walled quarters often locked at night. Most trades and professions
are closed to Jews; they monopolize pawn-brokerage, the second-hand clothing trade, and peddling. Some
Protestant Reformers target Jews for conversion then denounce them when they resist.
LATE 18TH-19TH CENTURIES: EMANCIPATION?
The rise of liberal democracies, the Industrial Revolution, and the decline of Christendom gives Jews a degree
of “emancipation.” Some rise to eminence in finance and education, setting the stage for the charge of a global
Jewish financial conspiracy. Racial antisemitism spreads. Racists view the Semitic “race” as physically, morally,
and culturally inferior. The Dreyfus affair, in which a French Jew is convicted of espionage with fake evidence,
shows entrenched European antisemitism. The Zionist movement seeks a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
EARLY 20TH CENTURY: CAPITALISTS, COMMUNISTS, AND FELLOW CITIZENS
Jews are variously blamed for the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, the defeat of the Axis powers in World War I,
and the worldwide economic depression. During World War II, the Nazi genocide kills six million Jews,
including 1.5 million children. In 1948, the State of Israel is established in a “War of Independence” with the
newly defined Arab states in the region.
MID-LATE 20TH CENTURY: CHRISTIAN SELF-EXAMINATION AND A NEW ERA
After World War II, many western churches critique the received “teaching of contempt” for Jews. This
launches an unprecedented era of Jewish and Christian dialogue, collaboration, and reform of earlier
antipathies and negative theologies in both communities that continues to the present.
Philip A. Cunningham