The roots of antisemitism and genocide in Christian antiquity

Abstract

During the first several centuries of Christianity, several key patristic writers forged what has come to be known as the adversus Judaeos (“against the Jews”) tradition. Contributions to the development of this anti-Jewish theology came from the books and sermons of leading Christian thinkers such as Justin, Irenaeus, John Chrysostom, and Augustine. Collectively, they shaped the denigration of the Jews as a people, which persisted over the centuries and seeded a drawn-out genocide that ultimately consumed some one million people. Though Augustine argued that Jews should be kept alive, their continued existence was miserable and socially marginal. He thus must be included among the perpetrators of the Jewish genocide because he enhanced Jewish degradation. The writings of the patristic period exemplify many of the traits that modern researchers have identified as central to the growth of a genocidal context. These include the creation of an image of a group of people as inherently inferior and lacking any legitimate land claims, and the emergence of vitriolic language to portray them. Such a group can then be viewed as living on the margins of a society, lacking a role in civil society. Thus, the patristic era can truly be said to have established genocide as morally and religiously justified. This legitimization set a pattern for setting Christians against Jews over the centuries, and continued in contemporary times in places such as Rwanda, the most Catholic country in Africa. The patristic period clearly shaped a genocidal mentality within the churches.