Persecution of Christians: Encyclopedia II - Persecution of Christians - Jewish persecution of Christians

Persecution of Christians - Jewish persecution of Christians

The New Testament reports that the earliest Christians suffered persecution at the hands of the Jewish leadership of the day, commencing with Jesus himself. It also reports the beginning of persecutions by the Romans (see below). However the definition of Jewish is frequently used in an undiscriminating way that has been the cause of later controversy. For details see Jews in the New Testament.

The first Christians were born and raised under Judaism, as Christianity began as a sect of Judaism. The earliest examples of "Jewish persecution of Christians" could better be understood perhaps as examples of "Jewish persecution of other Jews," that is, sectarian conflict. However, it is clear that the creed even of early Christianity showed enough disparity with orthodox Judaism of the time (namely the idea of a Trinity and of Christ as Lord), to make this an ambiguous assumption

According to the New Testament accounts, persecution of Jesus' followers continued after his death. Peter and John were imprisoned by the Jewish leadership, including high priest Ananias, who however later released them (Acts 4:1-21). Another time, all the apostles were imprisoned by the high priest and other Sadducees, only to be freed by an angel (Acts 5:17-18). The apostles, after having escaped, were then taken before the Sanhedrin again, but this time Gamaliel (a Pharisee well known from Rabbinic literature) convinced the Sanhedrin to free them (Acts 5:27-40), which the Sanhedrin did, after having flogged them.

The New Testament recounts the stoning of Stephen (Acts 6:8-7:60) by the members of the Sanhedrin. Stephen is remembered in Christianity as the first martyr (derived from the Greek word "martyros" which means "witness"). Stephen's execution was followed by a major persecution of Christians (Acts 8:1-3), led by a Pharisee named Paul of Tarsus (also called Saul), throwing many Christians into prison. According to the New Testament, this persecution continued until Paul converted to Christianity, after reportedly seeing a bright light and hearing the voice of Jesus on the road to Damascus, where he was travelling to carry out more imprisonment of Christians (Acts 9:1-22). Acts 9:23-25 reports that "the Jews" in Damascus then tried to kill Paul. They were waiting for him at the town gates, but he evaded them by being lowered over the city wall in a basket by other Christians and then escaped to Jerusalem. Understandably, he had difficulty at first convincing the Christians in Jerusalem that he, their persecutor, had truly converted and was now being persecuted himself (Acts 9:26-27). Another attempt on his life was made, this time by "the Grecians" (KJV), referring to a group of Hellenistic Jews (Acts 9:29), whom he debated while in or around Jerusalem.

There is some debate over why Paul, before his conversion, and other Pharisees persecuted Christians. According to Paula Fredriksen, in From Jesus to Christ, the most likely reason was that Christian Jews were preaching the imminent return of the King of the Jews and the establishment of his kingdom. To Roman ears, such talk was seditious. Romans gave Jews at that time limited self-rule; the main obligations of Jewish leaders were to collect taxes for Rome, and to maintain civil order. Thus, Jewish leaders would have to suppress any seditious talk. In cases where Jewish leaders did not suppress seditious talk, Jewish leaders were often sent to Rome for trial and execution.

Persecution of Christians - Later Jewish persecution of Christians

During the famous Bar Kochba Rebellion of AD 135, Christians refused to fight, as a result of which, according to Justin Martyr, they were "commanded to be punished severely, if they did not deny Jesus as the Messiah and blaspheme him."[1]

In pre-Islamic Yemen, a Jewish king called Dhu Nuwas came to power and persecuted Christians in his realm, and massacred Christian communities in Najran in about 524; apparently this was intended as retaliation for Christian Byzantine persecutions of the Jews.[2] According to Muslim tradition, he was the person cursed in the Quran for burning believers alive (Quran 85:4-8.)

In the early sixth century, Khosrau II, King of Persia from 591 to 628, 'invaded Asia Minor and Syria at the head of a large army. The Jews joined the Persians in great numbers under the leadership of Benjamin of Tiberias, a man of immense wealth, by whom they were enlisted and armed. The Tiberian Jews, with those of Nazareth and the mountain cities of Galilee, marched on Jerusalem with the Persian division commanded by Shahrbaraz. Later they were joined by the Jews of southern Palestine; and supported by a band of Arabs, the united forces took Jerusalem by storm (July, 614). Ninety thousand Christians are said to have perished. ... In conjunction with the Persians, the Jews swept through Palestine, destroyed the monasteries which abounded in the country, and expelled or killed the monks. Bands of Jews from Jerusalem, Tiberias, Galilee, Damascus, and even from Cyprus, united and undertook an incursion against Tyre, having been invited by the 4,000 Jewish inhabitants of that city to surprise and massacre the Christians on Easter night. The Jewish army is said to have consisted of 20,000 men. The expedition, however, miscarried, as the Christians of Tyre learned of the impending danger, and seized the 4,000 Tyrian Jews as hostages. The Jewish invaders destroyed the churches around Tyre, an act which the Christians avenged by killing two thousand of their Jewish prisoners. The besiegers, to save the remaining prisoners, withdrew.' According to the "Jewish Encyclopedia", 'The immediate results of these wars filled the Jews with joy. Many Christians became Jews through fear. A Sinaitic monk embraced Judaism of his own free will, and became a vehement assailant of his former belief.'[3]

According to modern day Jewish views, the followers of Judaism may not have been responsible for these atrocities. They dimiss accusations against the Jews as Christian propaganda which needs to be read with an eye to its intended audience and its intended effect. However, the episodes they seek to explain away are as well-attested as any events in ancient history, and probably better attested that many stories about the Holocaust.

• Antiochus Strategos, The Sack of Jerusalem: e-text excerpt of the Persian sack of Jerusalem, 614.

In Ethiopia, Queen Gudit, who persecuted Christians around 970 AD and helped bring down the Kingdom of Aksum, is said in Ethiopian chronicles to have been Jewish, though some modern scholars have cast doubt on this, suggesting that she may have been a pagan[4].

In contemporary Israel, conservative Jewish residents of Jerusalem's Meit Sharim district have been accused of spitting and otherwise molesting Christians (especially Armenian or Palestinian ones) who pass through their neighborhood. The Israeli government has been accused of intentionally denying residence visas to Christian clergy, owing to its dissatisfaction with the influence of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Jewish persecution of Christians", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki