Theology Today - Vol 41, No. 3 - October 1984 - ARTICLE

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Whence Anti-Semitism?
By W. Eugene March

THE existence and persistence of anti-Semitism is a scandal. This terrible reality haunts the history of the Christian church. To the horror of' thoughtful Christians, anti-Semitism seems to have flourished especially well in the countries of the West where Christianity has claimed its greatest influence. Relationships between Jews and Christians continue to be poisoned by deep seated anti-Jewish feelings widespread among Christians. John Gager's The Origins of Anti-Semitism sets out to illumine some of the sources of anti-Semitism. For all those who hope to see the end of anti-Semitism and who wish to foster positive relationships between Christians and Jews, Gager's study, deserves a careful scrutiny.

Gager's task is not easy. A consensus, of sorts, exists with respect to the origins of anti-Jewish attitudes and actions. Anti-Semitism has usually been "explained" by modern Christian writers in one of three ways. Some claim that anti-Semitism is strictly a modern phenomenon with no roots in antiquity at all. This position is usually aimed at clearing the church of any charge of being responsible for anti-Semitism. Others contend that the beliefs and practices of modern anti-Semitism stem from the Enlightenment with its revival of a classical paganism quite hostile to Jews and Judaism. If, then, the church evidences any anti-Semitism, it is the result of having been affected by the writers of the Enlightenment rather than being a primary source of such ideas. A third approach has been to acknowledge the fact that Christianity has indeed contributed to Western anti-Semitism while at the same time emphasizing the antecedent and superior character of pagan sources. The result of this approach, again, is to deny any primary responsibility to Christianity as a source for anti-Semitism.

Gager carefully analyzes both pagan and Christian materials, and his research presents quite a different view of antiquity than that which is assumed in the positions described above. There was much greater

W. Eugene March is Professor of Old Testament at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. A graduate of Austin College and Austin Seminary in Texas, he received his doctorate from Union Theological Seminary in New York. In recent years. Dr. March has been involved in preparing and writing a program paper on Jewish-Christian relations for the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. U.S.A. This present article is a review-essay on The Origins of Anti-Semitism: Attitudes Toward Judaism in Pagan and Christian Antiquity, by John G. Gager. Professor of Religion. Princeton University: New York. Oxford University Press, 1983, pp. 312. $24.95.

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diversity than has been supposed. Some pagans and some Christians may have been anti-Jewish, but not all of either group. "Our study has led to the conclusion that neither in paganism nor in Christianity is there evidence for a consistently negative understanding of Judaism" (p. 268). If Gager is correct, and I believe he is, the old consensus is wrong. The basis is laid for a new search for the origins of anti-Semitism and perhaps for a new conversation between Christians and Jews about their historic and on-going relationship.

In the past decade, a number of studies have appeared, challenging long-held notions about the character of Judaism, the innocence of Christians with respect to anti-Semitism, and the role of the New Testament with respect to anti-Semitism. Particularly the work of Lloyd Gaston, Charlotte Klein, Rosemary Ruether, E. P. Sanders, and Krister Stendahl may be mentioned. In Part I, Gager sketches some of the issues that have emerged in the present debate as a way, to set the stage. But prejudice is difficult to challenge just because it cares so little for the facts. As a reminder of previous and continuing scholarly, bias, Gager quotes G. F. Moore's warning. penned in 192l. that "Christian interest in Jewish literature has always been apologetic or polemic rather than historical" (p. 31 ). To describe accurately the origins of anti-Semitism requires a re-examination of the historical data. This work has begun in recent years, and Gager sets as his major aim an additional contribution to such an historical reconsideration.

Pagan responses to Judaism in antiquity are given attention in Part II of Gager's work. The unquestioned assumption that anti-Semitism was normative in pagan relations with Jews is shown to be untenable. By searching beyond the sources usually put forward as representing ancient opinion on this issue, Gager develops quite a different picture. Rather than being in a state of decline and disrepute, Judaism was flourishing in the century prior to and following the rise of Christianity. Far from being viewed as a primitive religion or as hopelessly legalistic, many Greeks and Romans expressed great respect for Judaism. Some adopted certain aspects of Jewish practice while quite a few embraced Judaism as converts. Judaism was a thriving religion of great appeal in this period.

To be sure. at times there was official opposition to Judaism of a political sort. And there were those who saw Judaism as anti-Roman and thus to be restricted and repressed. We have known that all along. What is startling is the large number or sources Gager presents which are in no way hostile to Jews or Judaism. The anti-Semitism which has been presumed to be rampant among paganism in antiquity, did not exist. There were some who opposed Jews and Juadism, but there were many others who took quite a different position. Paganism as the source or anti-Semitism cannot be demonstrated. As Gager sums up his

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presentation of the evidence:

Despite the traumatic events of the Jewish revolts of 66-73 and 115-117, both official Roman policy and unofficial expressions of sympathy for Judaism remained remarkably constant through the middle of the second century c.e. The evidence surveyed also indicates that antipathy to Judaism arose largely from political sources. This was as true for Alexandria as it was for Rome. This conclusion is supported by the fact that following the final outburst of Jewish anti-Romanism in the revolt of Bar Cochba, after which Judaism no longer posed a political threat to the Empire, signs of antipathy towards Judaism virtually disappear from the scene. There remain isolated pockets of distemper, but their sporadic occurrence substantiates the view that the earlier difficulties were largely political in origin (pp. 87-88).

III

The critical role of Christianity in the origins of anti-Semitism is the concern of Part III of Gager's study. One of the primary, issues that requires clarification is the character of the intra-Christian debate between those who wished to rid Christian practice of all traces of Judaism and those, on the other hand, who sought to preserve some aspects of Jewish practice. In the early, decades of the Christian movement, there were many, according to Gager, who actively sought to "Judaize" Christianity. Observance of the Sabbath, circumcision, and dietary laws were considered valuable and critical traditions to be preserved. These Judaizers were countered by, others, like Paul, who did not believe that Gentile Christians needed to adopt such Jewish practices.

Gager is certainly not the first to have noted this controversy nor to have recognized its importance for the later development of Christianity. He does, however, clearly sketch the way in which this intraChristian dispute came to produce a literature that was read as anti-Jewish. At the beginning of the rise of Christianity there was a fairly pluralistic set of opinions expressed with respect to Judaism, but in the course of time an anti-Jewish position began to become normative. This attitude is first most clearly expressed by, the apologists of the second century c.e., but it has its roots in earlier sources.

In considering the New Testament, Gager is careful to show that in earlier settings texts that later came to be read as anti-Jewish may have in fact been directed at Judaizers. Though these texts were later used against Jews by the apologists, originally they were part of an intraChristian conversation and not directed at Jews at all. Nonetheless, many passages in the New Testament, and particularly the writings of Paul, came to be read as anti-Jewish.

How then did this happen? According to Gager there are two main sources of what was to become the real basis for Christian anti-Judaism. First, there is evidence of a number of public debates that took place between Christians and Jews as the church and synagogue became ever more separated toward the close of the first century c.e. Christians drew

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upon the interpretations of their teachers to refute Jewish debators. Lists of texts and counter-texts were drawn up. The aim of each participant was to discredit the other. Both Christians and Jews had much to gain and much to lose in these debates. One of the final lines of argument used by Christians in these disputes was the claim backed up with texts taken out of context that Israel had forfeited her right to be God's people because of the hostility shown to Jesus.

The second source which Gager identifies was the development of certain radical types of Christianity which we now label Marcionite and Gnostic. Among these groups, the writings of Paul were used to defend the claim that there was no relationship to be acknowledged between Christians and Jews. There was no continuity whatsoever between the two religions. At the same time, other radical Christians of a Judaizing type fought against Paul and the Gentile Christianity which under his influence spread. They sought to suppress his teachings and his writings. They saw no reason to separate from Judaism and wanted to continue Jewish practice.

The reaction of Paul's "friends," according to Gager, to these two extremes was to create a New Testament which featured Paul's writings but in such a way as to temper his teaching on both sides of the issue. For Gager, the book of Acts, as it appears in the New Testament as a preface to Paul's writings, underscores the point:

Against Marcion, it [Acts] affirms Paul's full cooperation with the believers in Jerusalem, and thus the historical continuity of the church with Israel with the proviso of course that the Jews had forfeited their claim to be the true Israel. Against those who repudiated Paul as apostate from the law and alienated from the "mother church" from the outset, Paul appears in Acts as fully recognized and commissioned by the Jerusalem elders. Significantly, these same elders proclaim the full equality, of Gentile believers, free of any requirements based on the Mosaic commandments (pp. 190-191 ).

If this analysis is correct, and Gager makes a very good case, a primary source for anti-Semitism is the New Testament itself. Created in the midst of a bitter rivalry among various groups of Christians, claiming to represent the -truth" and in a climate of growing competition and challenge between Christians and Jews, the writings of the New Testament become more and more polemic. In the process of defining the character of Christianity, the pressure became ever greater to deny the validity of Judaism. While many of the documents had a very intra-Christian intention in their original settings, a subsequent generation, removed from the intense rivalries which had prompted these writings, came to read and teach them generally as anti-Jewish.

Gager concluees Part III, and his analysis of the place Paul came to have in the orthodox anti-Jewish position, with a question: "Is the anti-Judaism truly Paul's own, or does it belong to the interpretative assumptions of his readers?" (p. 191). To answer his own query, he devotes the last seventy or so pages to a very stimulating reconsideration of Paul's position on the Torah and Israel for Christians. The study, is

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carefully done and persuasive. The anti-Judaism claimed to be found in Paul by later "orthodox" leaders is not there. Such an interpretation only became possible because in a later setting the original audience and intention of Paul's writings were forgotten. For the most part Paul was locked in debate with Christian Judaizers, not Jews. So far as Gager can determine, Paul never said that the Torah was of no value for Jews, nor that Israel had ceased to be beloved by God. Paul's problem was to demonstrate that Gentiles had been claimed by God, not that Jews were not.

Paul's gospel was not aimed at making Jews happy with him, but neither was it primarily intended to discredit them. It was aimed at a totally different group, Judaizers, a group whose vitality and numbers have not been appreciated because later orthodoxy declared them heretical. To use Paul as a basis for anti-Jewish sentiment, then, is to misuse him. As Gager sums it up, "This is not to say that Paul's gospel gains legitimacy from a Jewish perspective as a result of the interpretation proposed here. It is only to say that he never proclaimed his gospel at the expense of Jews or the Torah as such" (p. 264).

This is a remarkable study. It is troubling and provocative because it upsets so many, previously unchallenged assumptions. It will offend many because it locates the primary source for the theoretical basis of anti-Semitism in the New Testament. Nonetheless, the analysis of paganism in antiquity, and the careful examination of the New Testament literature, especially the writings of Paul, will provide a new basis for reflection. So long as Christians maintain a false innocence, Jews have every reason to be suspicious. If Christians wish to enter serious dialogue with Jews, they need to reconsider their own origins. Gager's book will help in that exploration.