Perspectives on Racism: The Christian Roots of Anti-Semitism
A detailed history and analysis of the evolution of anti-
Semitism is beyond the scope of this chapter, but some
mention of the role of the Christian church is essential.
Jesus was a Jew, faithful to the law of Moses and the
teachings of the prophets. He was called 'Rabbi'; his last
words on the cross were from the psalms. Like other Jews who
were religious nationalists, the Roman government considered
Jesus a threat because of his preaching and the increasing
size of his following. On Jesus' Passover trip to Jerusalem
the Roman procurator ordered his arrest and execution. His
followers, the Nazarenes, continued to practise Judaism
until many years later, when Paul, who had never met Jesus,
transformed his teachings, removed most of the traditional
Jewish practices, and laid the foundation for a Christianity
that became separate from and hostile to the very Judaism
out of which it emerged. By the time the Gospels were
written they reflected this increasing bias against
traditional Judaism, and told the story of Jesus in such a
way that it seemed the real enemies of Jesus were not-
Gentiles, or even the Romans who put him to death, but the
Jews. With each successive author of the Gospels, the Jews
were increasingly, though falsely, painted as the
persecutors of Jesus and those who drove him to his death.
According to Patterson (1982) it was in this way that
hostility against the Jewish mainstream resulting from the
fierce competition in the first century between early
Christianity and Judaism (or, until Paul, between two
different sects of Judaism) became a permanent part of the
Christian Bible and later of Christian teaching and ritual.
Thus, generations of Christians to this day have grown up
influenced by the negative pictures of Jews painted in these
scriptures (and literally painted as menacing stereotypes of
evil in frescos and murals on church walls) - sources that
many Christians, with no understanding of either the
historical context or the historical facts, consider to be
sacred and infallible accounts of history.
[Continued]
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Anti-Semitism in
Canada
Realities, Remedies & Implications for Anti-Racism
Dr. Karen Mock