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A Chronology of Early Christian/Jewish Relations

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A Chronology of Early Christian/Jewish Relations A Chronology of Early Christian/Jewish Relations By Mark Dreistadt In the Western world we are not often taught about the horrors inflicted upon the Jewish people by those who called themselves Christians. What we do not understand is that often the Jewish people were seen by the Church as an enemy. And over the centuries, thousands of Jews were killed at the hands of those waging war in the name of Christ. Early Roman Period: 63 BC – 96 AD Beginning in 32 AD : • Circumcision, reading the Torah, eating unleavened bread at Passover forbidden. Penalty is death. • Christianity was originally a Jewish sect… Jesus was a Jew; all the disciples were Jews; the first adherents to the teachings of Jesus • Temple to Roman god, Jupiter, erected on Temple Mount. were Jews. • Temple to Roman god, Venus, erected on Golgotha. • As Jews, many early Christians kept Sabbath; observed Kosher; lived according to Jewish customs and practices; and celebrated the 200 AD: Jewish feasts. • Roman Emperor Severus forbade religious conversions to Judaism. • Non-Jewish Christians were told in Romans 11:20 not to be arrogant towards the natural branches, the Jews. Judaism is clearly the root of the Christian faith; Gentiles were grafted in. 306 AD: • Synod of Elvira banned marriages, sexual intercourse, community Early Roman Period: 63 AD – 96 AD contact between Christians and Jews. 66 AD: • The Great Jewish Revolt began in Caesarea and ended at Byzantine Period: 313 AD – 636 AD Masada in 73 AD. 70 AD: 313 AD: • 60,000 Jews killed by the Roman army in the siege of Jerusalem. • Constantine became a Christian. • 100,000 Jews taken into captivity and scattered throughout the • Constantine published the Edict of Milan extending religious tolerance Roman Empire. to Christians. • Judaism no longer recognized as a legal religion. • Edict of Milan stripped many rights from Jews, including the ability to live in Jerusalem. Late Roman Period: 96 AD – 313 AD 325 AD: • Council of Nicaea separated the celebration of Easter from the 132 AD: Jewish Passover. They stated: “For it is unbecoming beyond measure that on this holiest of festivals we should follow the customs of the • Bar Kochba led hopeless three-year revolt against the Roman Empire. Jews. Henceforth let us have nothing in common with this odious 500,000 Jews killed; thousands taken into captivity; the rest exiled and people...We ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the scattered throughout the known world. Jews...our worship follows a...more convenient course...we desire • Judaism no longer recognized as a legal religion. dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews...How, then, could we follow these Jews, who are almost 135 AD: certainly blinded.” • Serious Roman persecution of Jews and Jewish customs began. 337 AD: 538 AD: • Christian Emperor Constantius created a law making the marriage of a • The 3rd and 4th Councils of Orleans prohibited Jews from appearing Jewish man to a Christian woman punishable by death. in public during the Easter season. Canon XXX decreed that “From the Thursday before Easter for four days, Jews may not appear in the company of Christians.” 5 339 AD: • Marriages between Christians and Jews prohibited. Christians • Converting to Judaism became a criminal offense. prohibited from converting to Judaism. 4 343-381 AD: 561 AD: • The Laodicean Synod approved Cannon XXXVIII: “It is not lawful • Bishop of Uzes expelled Jews from his diocese in France. [for Christians] to receive unleavened bread from the Jews, nor to be partakers of their impiety.” 5 612 AD: 367 – 376 AD: • Jews not allowed to own land, be farmers, or enter certain trades. • St. Hilary of Poitiers referred to Jews as a perverse people who God has cursed forever. 613 AD: • St. Ephroem referred to synagogues as brothels. • Very serious persecution began in Spain. • Jews given the option of either leaving Spain or converting to 379-395 AD: Christianity. • Emperor Theodosius the Great permitted the destruction of • Jewish children over 6 years of age taken from their parents and given synagogues if it served a religious purpose. a Christian education. • Christianity became state religion of the Roman Empire. Arab Period:Arab 636 CE Period: – 1099 CE 636 AD – 1099 AD 380 AD: • Bishop of Milan responsible for burning a synagogue; he referred to it 692 AD: as “an act pleasing to God.” • Cannnon II of the Quinisext Council stated: “Let no one in the priestly order nor any layman eat the unleavened bread of the Jews, nor have 415 AD: any familiar intercourse with them, nor summon them in illness, nor receive medicines from them, nor bathe with them; but if anyone • Bishop of Alexandria, St. Cyril, expelled Jews from that Egyptian city. shall take in hand to do so, if he is a cleric, let him be deposed, but if a • St. Augustine wrote “The true image of the Hebrew is Judas Iscariot, layman, let him be cut off.”5 who sells the Lord for silver. The Jew can never understand the Scriptures and forever will bear the guilt for the death of Jesus.” 694 AD: • The 17th Church Council of Toledo, Spain defined Jews as serfs of the 418 AD: prince. This was based, in part, on the beliefs of Chrysostom, Origen, • St. Jerome, who created the Vulgate translation of the Bible wrote Jerome, and other Church Fathers that God punished the Jews with of a synagogue: “If you call it a brothel, a den of vice, the Devil’s perpetual slavery because of their alleged responsibility for the refuge, Satan’s fortress, a place to deprave the soul, an abyss of execution of Jesus. 5 every conceivable disaster or whatever you will, you are still saying less than it deserves.” 722 AD: • Leo III outlawed Judaism. 489-519 AD: • Jews baptized against their will. • Christian mobs destroyed synagogues in Antioch, Daphne, and Ravenna. 855 AD: 528 AD: • Jews exiled from Italy. • Emperor Justinian (527-564) passed the Justinian Code. It prohibited Jews from building synagogues, reading the Bible in Hebrew, 1050 AD: assembling in public, celebrating Passover before Easter, and testifying • The Synod of Narbonne prohibited Christians from living in the against Christians in court. 3 homes of Jews. 535 AD: 1078 AD: • The “Synod of Claremont decreed that Jews could not hold public • Pope Gregory VII decreed Jews could not hold office or be superiors office or have authority over Christians.” 3 to Christians.6 • Synod of Gerona forced Jews to pay church taxes. 1096 AD: 1191 AD: • The First Crusade launched. Although the prime goal of the Crusades • Akko retaken by Richard the Lionhearted. was to liberate Jerusalem from the Muslims, Jews were a secondary • Akko became base of operations and Capital of the Kingdom of target. As soldiers passed through Europe on the way to the Holy Land, Jerusalem for 100 years. large numbers of Jews were challenged: “Christ-killers, embrace the Cross or die!” 1214 AD: • Guibert of Nogent (1053-1124) Reported that Crusaders of Rouen said: “We desire to combat the enemies of God in the East; but we have • Fourth Letern Council required Jews and Muslims to wear special under our eyes the Jews, a race more inimical to God than all the clothing and a badge. others…” The Crusaders in Rouen and elsewhere in Lorraine mas sacred Jews who refused baptism. 1215 AD: • 12,000 Jews killed in the Rhine Valley alone during the first Crusade. • Fourth Lateran Council expanded anti-Jewish decrees in Europe, forced This behavior continued for 8 additional crusades until the 9th in 1272. Jews to wear a Yellow Patch, the “Badge of Shame”. 1222 AD: Crusader Period: 1099 AD – 1291 AD • Archbishop of Canterbury forbade Jews from building new synagogues, owning slaves, or mixing with Christians. 1099 AD: • Crusaders established the Kingdom of Jerusalem. 1278 AD: • Crusaders forced all Jews in Jerusalem into a central synagogue and • Edict of Pope Nicholas III required compulsory attendance at set it on fire. Those who tried to escape were forced back into the conversion sermons. burning building. Everyone burned alive. 1290 AD: 1104 AD: • Jews expelled from England. • Crusaders conquered Akko and expanded the Port. They held the city for 83 years. 1291 AD: • Crusaders defeated by Mamluks at siege of Akko and Crusaders 1121 AD: essentially came to an end. • Jews exiled from Flanders (now part of present-day Belgium). The historical account of pain and persecution 1130 AD: by those who called themselves Christians • Some Jews in London allegedly killed a sick man. Jewish people in inflicted upon the Jewish people is unspeakable the city required to pay 1 million marks as compensation. … and it didn’t end with the Crusades. In the years to follow Christians would be directly or indirectly 1146 AD: responsible for numerous untold horrors these chosen people of God would be forced to endure. • Second Crusade began. French monk, Rudolf, called for destruction of the Jews. Christian persecution of the Jews continued… • Jews were blamed for the Black Plague 1179 AD: (1347) and killed in masse • Canon 24 of the Third Lateran Council stated: “Jews should be • Jews exiled from Naples, Genoa, Venice slaves to Christians and at the same time treated kindly due of humanitarian considerations.” Canon 26 stated that “the testimony of • Spanish Inquisition Christians against Jews is to be preferred in all causes where they • Holocaust use their own witnesses against Christians.” 7 We cannot change the reprehensible actions of our forefathers, but we can alter the course of the 1180 AD: future. We cannot take back what was done to so • French King of France, Philip Augustus, arbitrarily seized all Jewish deeply offend the heart of God.
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