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ANTI-SEMITISM AND THE NEW TESTAMENT

It is a tragic fact that a number of NT texts have been used to promote anti-Semitism through the history of the Church down to and including the modern era. These texts have been ripped out of their original framework and historical contexts; they have been absolutized and repeatedly used to demonize the Jewish people; they have been employed to justify the persecution of Jews in the last 2000 years, culminating in the murder of 6 million Jews in the Nazi Holocaust.

A few of the more notorious examples may be noted here. The Gospel of Matthew, which is full of polemic against the Jews, records the crowd that calls for the crucifixion of Jesus crying out, “His blood be on us and on our children” (Matt. 27:25). The bitter words against “the Jews” in the Fourth Gospel come to their climax in the statement: “You are from your father the devil” (John 8:44). Commenting on the suffering of the Christians of Thessalonica, Paul says that the churches of Judea also suffered from “the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out; they displease God and oppose everyone by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. Thus they have constantly been filling up the measure of their sins; but God’s wrath has overtaken them at last” (1 Thess. 2:14-16). In the letter to the church in Smyrna, John the Seer writes: “I know the slander on the part of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan” (Rev. 2:9; cf. 3:9).

In addition to the theme of the responsibility for the death of Jesus — the crime later described as “deicide” — many passages are concerned with judgment upon the Jews for their unbelief in the message of the gospel. Often heavily rhetorical language can be used of the Pharisees in particular: e.g., “hypocrites,” “child(ren) of hell,” “blind fools,” “blind guides,” “brood of vipers” (Matt. 23). Another key element is the theme of the displacement of Israel by the Church: e.g., “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom” (Matt. 21:43); “Let it be known to you [Jews] then that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen” (Acts 28:28, following a quotation of Isa. 6:9-10, applied to the Jews who do not believe in the gospel); “Many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:11-12).

It is a great irony that these words, written by Jews, should be used to justify anti-Semitism. Jesus himself was a Jew, and the author of the Fourth Gospel states that “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). All of the first Christians were themselves Jews and moreover regarded their faith as not alien to, but the culmination of, the hope of Israel (cf. Acts 28:20). The fact is that the vitriolic language reflects an intramural debate, with Jews arguing against Jews, Christian Jews against the Jews of the synagogue. This type of blistering language is reminiscent of that used by the OT prophets in their criticism of Israel. The harshness of the polemic furthermore reflects the conventions of ancient rhetoric.

Clearly it is wrong to regard this material as anti-Semitic (i.e., involving racial prejudice), and even the word anti-Judaism is not adequate, although to be sure there is polemic against Judaism in the NT. Because the material in question is time-bound and historically conditioned, the following mitigating factors must be kept in mind: (1) the exceptionally harsh criticism of the Jews in the NT reflects not merely intramural argument but hostility resulting from the Jewish persecution of Christian Jews; (2) much of the NT polemic is directed against the leadership rather than the people as a whole; (3) to apply any of this material to Jews or Judaism of the present is to be guilty not merely of anachronism, but of a grave misunderstanding and misuse of it. Even if the NT puts the responsibility for the death of Jesus upon the Jews, that generation (and their children) have long since passed from the scene and so it makes no sense to put the blame on modern Jews. Of course, Christians who are theologically aware will realize that the real responsibility for the death of Jesus falls upon themselves as much as upon the Jews.

Given the history of the tragic abuse of this material, Christians must now regard themselves as under permanent obligation to go out of their way to emphasize what these passages do not mean. Christianity and anti-Semitism are mutually exclusive.

Donald A. Hagner

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ANTI-SEMITISM AND THE NEW TESTAMENT

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)