Anti-Judaism

Anti-Judaism denotes a spectrum of historical and contemporary ideologies that are fundamentally or partially rooted in opposition to Judaism. It encompasses the rejection or abrogation of the Mosaic covenant and advocates for the supersession of Judaism and Jewish identity by proponents of other religious, political-ideological, or theological frameworks, which assert their own precedence as the "light unto the nations" or as the chosen people of God. The opposition is often perpetuated through the reinterpretation and appropriation of Jewish prophecy and other Hebrew biblical texts, reflecting a complex interplay of belief systems that challenge Jews' internally and externally conceived distinctiveness. David Nirenberg posits that the theme has manifested throughout history, including in contemporary and early Christianity, Islam, nationalism, Enlightenment rationalism, and in socioeconomic contexts.
Douglas R. A. Hare found at least three anti-Judaisms in history. The first is prophetic anti-Judaism: the criticism of Judaism's beliefs and religious practices. The second is Jewish Christian anti-Judaism: the form taken amongst Jews who believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Jewish Messiah. The third type he defined was gentilizing anti-Judaism, which emphasizes the gentile character of the new movement and asserts God's formal supersessionist rejection of Jews as a people. Most [|scholarly analyses] appear concerned with the phenomenon described by the third type.
According to Gavin I. Langmuir, anti-Judaism is based on "total or partial opposition to Judaism as a religion—and the total or partial opposition to Jews as adherents of it—by persons who accept a competing system of beliefs and practices and consider certain genuine Judaic beliefs and practices inferior."
As the rejection of a particular religion or particular way of thinking about God, anti-Judaism is distinct from antisemitism. An example of religious anti-Judaism is the Islamic doctrine known as.

Terminology

The term "anti-Jewish" is often colloquially used interchangeably with terms such as "antisemitic", "anti-Hebrew", or "anti-Judaism". Although these designations share a commonality—hatred towards a group of people—each term encompasses unique ideologies and prejudices. Jeanne Favret-Saada, author of the 2014 HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory article "A Fuzzy Distinction: Anti-Judaism and Anti-Semitism," explains the ways in which historians often conflate anti-Judaism and antisemitism, failing to distinguish between Christian anti-Judaism and Nazi antisemitism. Favret-Saada argues that the combination of these distinct ideologies diminishes the Christian role in the evolution from anti-Judaism to antisemitism. Anti-Judaism encapsulates those who oppose the Jewish religion and religious system. The term refers to Christian animosity towards Judaism as a religion. Anti-Judaism historically included attempts to convert Jews to Christianity. In contrast, the term "antisemitic" is more modern and secular term, categorizing Jews as a racial or ethnic group. Antisemites hate and target Jews for their ethnic Jewish identity rather than religious beliefs.

Pre-Christian Roman Empire

In Ancient Rome, religion was an integral part of the civil government. Beginning with the Roman Senate's declaration of the divinity of Julius Caesar on 1 January 42 BCE, some emperors were proclaimed gods on Earth and demanded to be worshiped accordingly throughout the Roman Empire. This created religious difficulties for those Jews, who were monotheists and adhered strictly to Jewish law, and worshipers of Mithras, Sabazius and early Christians. At the time of Jesus's ministry, the Jews of the Roman Empire were a respected and privileged minority whose influence was enhanced by a relatively high level of literacy. The Jews were granted a number of concessions by the Romans, including the right to observe Shabbat and to substitute prayers for the emperor in place of participation in the imperial cult. They had been exempted from military service on the Sabbath, for example. Julius Caesar, who never forgot the debt he owed to Antipater the Idumaean for playing a decisive role in the Siege of Alexandria, was supportive of Jews, allowing them uniquely a right to assembly and to collect funds for Jerusalem. His enmity toward Pompey, who had conquered Jerusalem and defiled the Holy of Holies, enhanced his status among Roman Jewish leadership, as he ordered the reconstruction of the walls of Jerusalem after the destruction wrought by Pompey. He may also have cultivated Jews as clients to buttress his position in the East against the latter. At times, he treated High Priest of Israel Hyrcanus II on equal terms by writing to him as Rome's pontifex maximus. Jews reacted to Julius Caesar's assassination by mourning him publicly in Rome.
The crisis under Caligula has been proposed as the "first open break between Rome and the Jews", even though problems were already evident during the Census of Quirinius in 6 CE and under Sejanus.
After the Jewish–Roman wars, Hadrian changed the name of Iudaea province to Syria Palaestina and Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina in an attempt to erase the historical ties of the Jewish people to the region. However, this argument has been pointed out as a mere assumption, with no basis in historical sources, according to other scholars. After 70 CE, Jews and Jewish proselytes were only allowed to practice their religion if they paid the Fiscus Judaicus, and after 135 were barred from Jerusalem except for the day of Tisha B'Av. Frequent Jewish uprisings, xenophobia, and Jewish prerogatives and idiosyncrasies, were at the root of anti-Jewish feelings in some segments of Roman society. These confrontations did cause temporary erosions in the status of the Jews in the empire. Reversals in the relationship were temporary and did not have a lasting impact.
Consul Titus Flavius Clemens was put to death in 95 CE for "living a Jewish life" or "drifting into Jewish ways", an accusation also frequently made against Early Christians, and which may well have been related to the administration of the Jewish tax under Domitian. The Roman Empire adopted Christianity as its state religion with the Edict of Thessalonica on 27 February 380.

Christian anti-Judaism

Early Christianity and the Judaizers

as a sect of Judaism. It was seen as such by the Jewish early Christians, as well as Jews in general. The wider Roman administration most likely would not have understood any distinction. Historians debate whether or not the Roman government distinguished between adherents of Christianity and Judaism before 96 CE, when Christians successfully petitioned Nerva to exempt them from the tax levied specifically on Roman Jews on the basis that they were not Jews. From then on, practising Jews paid the tax while Christians did not. Christianity is based on Jewish monotheism and includes the Hebrew Bible in its canon as the Old Testament, as well as Jewish liturgy and the Seven Laws of Noah.
The main distinction of the early Christian community from its Jewish roots was the belief that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, as in the Confession of Peter, but that in itself would not have severed the Jewish connection. Another point of divergence was the questioning by Christians of the continuing applicability of the Law of Moses, though the Apostolic Decree of the Apostolic Age of Christianity appears to parallel the Noahide Law of Judaism. The two issues came to be linked in a theological discussion within the Christian community as to whether the coming of the Messiah annulled either some, or all, of the Judaic laws in what came to be called a New Covenant.
The circumcision controversy was probably the second issue during which the theological argument was conducted in terms of anti-Judaism, with those who argued for the view that biblical law continued to be applicable being labelled Judaizers or Pharisees. The teachings of Paul, whose letters comprise much of the New Testament demonstrate a "long battle against Judaizing." However, James the Just, who after Jesus's death was widely acknowledged as the leader of the Jerusalem Christians, worshiped at the Second Temple in Jerusalem until his death in 62, thirty years after Jesus' death.
The destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE would lead Christians to "doubt the efficacy of the ancient law", though Ebionism would linger on until the 5th century. However, Marcion of Sinope, who advocated rejecting the entirety of Judaic influence on the Christian faith, would be excommunicated by the Church in Rome in 144 CE.

Anti-Judaic polemic

Anti-Judaic works of this period include De Adversus Iudeaos by Tertullian, Octavius by Minucius Felix, De Catholicae Ecclesiae Unitate by Cyprian of Carthage, and Instructiones Adversus Gentium Deos by Lactantius. The traditional hypothesis holds that the anti-Judaism of these early fathers of the Church "were inherited from the Christian tradition of Biblical exegesis" though a second hypothesis holds that early Christian anti-Judaism was inherited from the pagan world. Miriam S. Taylor argues that theological Christian anti-Judaism "emerge from the Church's efforts to resolve the contradictions inherent in its simultaneous appropriation and rejection of different elements of the Jewish tradition."
Modern scholars believe that Judaism may have been a missionary religion in the early centuries of the Christian or common era, converting so-called proselytes, and thus competition for the religious loyalties of gentiles drove anti-Judaism. The debate and dialogue moved from polemic to bitter verbal and written attacks one against the other. However, since the last decades of the 20th century, the view that a proselytizing struggle between turn of the era Judaism and early Christianity may have been the main generator of anti-Jewish attitudes among early gentile believers in Jesus is eroding. Scholars have revisited the traditional claims about Jewish proselytizing and have largely concluded that active Jewish proselytizing was a later apologetic construct that does not reflect the reality of first century Judaism.
A statement about whether scrolls could be left to burn in a fire on the Sabbath is attributed to Tarfon. A disputed interpretation identifies these books with the Gospels : "The Gospels must be burned for paganism is not as dangerous to the Jewish faith as Jewish Christian sects." The anonymous Letter to Diognetus was the earliest apologetic work in the early Church to address Judaism. Justin Martyr wrote the apologetic Dialogue with Trypho, a polemical debate giving the Christian assertions for the Messiahship of Jesus by making use of the Old Testament contrasted with counter-arguments from a fictionalized version of Tarphon. "For centuries defenders of Christ and the enemies of the Jews employed no other method" than these apologetics. Apologetics were difficult as gentile converts could not be expected to understand Hebrew; translations of the Septuagint into Greek prior to Aquila would serve as a basis for such cross-cultural arguments, also demonstrated was Origen's difficulties debating Rabbi Simlai.
Though Emperor Hadrian was an "enemy of the synagogue", the reign of Antoninus Pius began a period of Roman benevolence toward the Jewish faith. Meanwhile, imperial hostility toward Christianity continued to crystallize; after Decius, the empire was at war with it. An unequal power relationship between Jews and Christians in the context of the Greco-Roman world generated anti-Jewish feelings among the early Christians. Feelings of mutual hatred arose, driven in part by Judaism's legality in the Roman Empire; in Antioch, where the rivalry was most bitter.