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3 - Anti-Judaism in Early Christian Writings

from Part I - The Classical Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2022

By
Pierluigi Piovanelli
Edited by
Steven Katz
Steven Katz
Affiliation:
Boston University
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Summary

This chapter surveys philo- and alter-Jewish attitudes in some early Christian writings (the Book of Revelation, the Ascension of Isaiah, Marcion’s Antitheses, the Gospel of Judas, and the First Revelation of James). Contrary to commonly held opinion, the circles that produced these texts were more sympathetic toward Judaism than the radically anti-Jewish bishop, Ignatius of Antioch, and other proto-orthodox Fathers.

Keywords

anti-JudaismMarcionPhilo-JudaismBook of Revelation
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Antisemitism , pp. 57 - 65
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

Further Reading

Bibliowicz, A. M., Jews and Gentiles in the Early Jesus Movement: An Unintended Journey (New York, 2013). Extremely helpful at putting the sectarian polemics between different early Christian groups and mainstream ancient Judaism into historical perspective.Google Scholar
Chazan, R., From Anti-Judaism to Anti-Semitism: Ancient and Medieval Christian Constructions of Jewish History (Cambridge, 2016). A long-term approach to the history of Christian anti-Judaism.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, A. T., ed., Antisemitism and the Foundations of Christianity (New York, 1979). Eleven specialists discuss and put into perspective R. Radford Ruether’s main theses on the early Christian origins of antisemitism. It contains, among others, an important essay on patristic authors by D. P. Efroymson.Google Scholar
Gager, J. G., The Origins of Anti-Semitism: Attitudes toward Judaism in Pagan and Christian Antiquity (Oxford, 1983). An excellent synthesis written by one of the first proponents of the New Perspective on Paul.Google Scholar
Katz, S. T., ed., The Cambridge History of Judaism, vol. 4: The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period (Cambridge, 2006). Besides many valuable contributions, this volume contains well-informed overviews of early Christian anti-Judaism by P. Richardson, P. Fredriksen, and O. Irshai.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lieu, J. M., Neither Jew nor Greek? Constructing Early Christianity (London, 2002). A useful collection of essays by one of the best specialists of the formation of early Christian identities.Google Scholar
Ruether, R. R., Faith and Fratricide: The Theological Roots of Anti-Semitism (New York, 1974). The influential work of a feminist scholar who exposed the early Christian roots (the “other side of Christology”) of what would later become modern antisemitism.Google Scholar
Schwartz, J., and Tomson, P. J., eds., Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries: The Interbellum 70‒132 CE (Leiden, 2018). A collection of up-to-date studies on the critical period between the two Jewish-Roman Wars.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simon, M., Verus Israel: A Study of the Relations between Christians and Jews in the Roman Empire (135–425), trans. H. McKeating (Oxford, 1986). A true classic. Simon was among the first historians to argue that Judaism remained a living and active force even after the end of the Second Jewish-Roman War.Google Scholar
Taylor, M. S., Anti-Judaism and Early Christian Identity: A Critique of the Scholarly Consensus (Leiden, 1995). The author emphasizes the rhetorical, identity-building dimension of many early Christian anti-Jewish polemics.Google Scholar
Wilson, S. G., Related Strangers: Jews and Christians 70–170 C.E. (Minneapolis, MN, 1995). An extremely well-informed synthesis based on fresh examination of the primary sources.Google Scholar
Wilson, S. G., ed., Anti-Judaism in Early Christianity, vol. 2: Separation and Polemic (Waterloo, Ont., 1986). This volume provides an in-depth survey of 2nd-century Christian authors in relation to Judaism.Google Scholar

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