General Principles

The historical relationship between Judaism and Christianity has not been peaceful, and it has left us with a polemical literature which is a very rich source for scholarly investigation. Through the ages, Christian thinkers had made Judaism the object of attack, hoping thereby to convince Jews to abandon their ancestral faith. From the earliest days of the new religion, when Christianity was just emerging from Judaism, Christians sought to demonstrate to Jews that Jesus was the expected messiah and that the doctrines he taught were true. At first, the debate was three-sided, with Jews, Christians, and pagans all taking part. As Europe became Christianized, the Jews remained as the only nonconverted minority. They therefore became the object of intensified pressure. Since Christianity had its origin in the Jewish religion and saw itself as the true heir to biblical Israel, the presence of Jews in its midst was often a source of discomfort.

The Christian attempt to missionize the Jews took many forms. Jews were often forced to listen to conversionary sermons and to participate in public disputations concerning the merits of their faith. At times, Jews were offered financial inducements to change their religion. In extreme cases, Christians made converts by means of forced baptisms. As the Christians tried to win over the hearts and minds of the Jews, they developed a wealth of arguments to aid their cause. Many of these contentions were collected in works given such titles as Adversus Judaeos or Contra Judaeos, though these polemical treatises were not the only literature produced by the Christian attack upon Judaism.

Many Jews did not remain passive in the face of the Christian challenge to their religion. Even in the early periods of Christianity, when Judaism was not unduly pressured by the new faith, arguments were formulated to combat the Christian claims. Talmudic and midrashic literature offers evidence that Jews were aware of the story of Jesus as related in the Gospels and basic Christian doctrines, against which they argued. In a later period, Jewish thinkers in Muslim countries polemicized against Christianity, even though neither Judaism nor Christianity was dominant, and the Jews were not under compulsion to convert to Christianity. It was in Western Europe, however, that the defense of Judaism, with its concomitant attack on Christianity, reached its fullest development.