My son, the Christian?!

CHAPTER 8: What have we done to deserve this?

And now for the big one. Why does the world all hate us Jews so much? It's a big question and I'd like us to consider what reasons people give. Is it religious, like between Muslims and Hindus in Asia? Is it about land, like over the Falkland Islands? Is it economic, blaming us for the financial misfortunes of others? Is it because of our insularity, the way 'they stick together', just like every immigrant group in this country? How about the supposed world-wide Zionist conspiracy for taking over the world, just like those attributed to the Freemasons, Catholics or countless cult groups?

Historically, it has in fact been all of these, all have been given as reasons for hating the Jews. Yet it is my belief that it has also been none of them. That's confused you, so let me explain. Let's say you've been invited out to a party but you have absolutely no desire to go; it's an old school reunion, and you were the one they all used to pick on! You need an excuse, and fast. You phone them up and tell them that you've already planned to go elsewhere. There's a silence on the phone and you panic. Your conversation continues like this : "Oh yes, and our car's acting up .... and my husband's feeling a bit peeky .... and I can feel a headache coming on ... ". Basically you pile on the excuses as if the sheer quantity of them somehow makes it more acceptable for your absence at the party. Meanwhile your schoolfriend has seen through all of this and is saying to herself, "She doesn't really want to come to my party, does she"? If you'd just given one reason and left it there it would have been alright, but by giving excuse after excuse you create confusion and doubt in the other's mind. Returning to my story and fitting it all together we arrive at the situation that, because so many justifications have been given for hating the Jews, it's a smokescreen hiding the real situation; the truth is that people in general just don't like them. Deep down they don't really know why and are quite happy to believe any explanation put forward by others, and the more reasons the better - it helps to justify these irrational thoughts.

So how does this anti-Semitism surface? Are all non-Jews natural anti-Semites? Do all anti-Semites want to kick us all into the sea? Anti-Semitism can surface in many ways and here are a few examples:

* As I take notes from the 'Encyclopaedia of the Jewish Religion' in the reference library, I notice that of the 420 pages, only the 2 pages containing the entry 'Jew' are slashed with a razor blade!

* 'Some of my best friends are Jews' (all time classic), usually followed by something like 'but we have rules ... / it's more than my job's worth ... / now if it were up to me, but ...', then ending with the denouement concerning a golf club or a party or somewhere where the last person they'd like to see there would be a Jew!

* The use of 'Jew' in any other way than as a proper noun. As a common noun ("don't be such a Jew", meaning "don't drive such a hard bargain"), or verb ("to Jew", meaning "to cheat"). I suppose we have to stifle a giggle when we discover that a 'Jewish piano' is another name for a cash register and then consider that without real 'Jewish pianos' the world would be robbed of much of its music, including the 'Star Spangled Banner', 'White Christmas', 'Easter Parade' and 'Rhapsody in Blue'.

* It can be unconscious, inasmuch as it can be handed down in a 'traditional' sense e.g. in popular songs. Did you know that the origin of the affirmation Hip Hip Hooray is a chant used while wiping out Jews in medieval villages? The word Hip was originally Hep, an acronym for Hierosolyma Est Perdita (Jerusalem is lost).

* Little ditties like 'Roses are red, violets are blue-ish, if it wasn't for Jesus we'd all be Jewish!' Gentiles may say, "how odd of God to choose the Jews", but I would answer, "if he hadn't so presumed, you Gentiles would be doomed!"

* I've just discovered that, for no special reason, 50 Jewish graves in a local cemetery have been desecrated. Why don't you ever hear this happen to Christian graves, or Muslim graves?

So we've established that anti-Semitism exists and in many ways. Now before we reach conclusions let's look at some of the historical landmarks of anti-Semitism and try to develop some themes. But first let us define exactly what anti-Semitism is.

anti-Semitism : A hatred of Jews and all things Jewish.

While we're doing that we'll compile a list of the Top Ten anti-Semites of all time. This will be in historical order, not in order of nastiness and will not necessarily contain the people who would be in your list, but we've got to start somewhere, haven't we?

1. Pharaoh Amunhotep II

First in our list of twisted tyrants is the Pharaoh King of Egypt at the time of the 'Exodus'(1) - the book of the Bible not the book of Leon Uris. I've called him the 'obstinate' because of his unwillingness to shrug his shoulders and say, 'enough, already!' as we shall soon see. The Jews (or Israelites as they were then known) were there as forced labour and had grown greatly in numbers since their arrival at the time of Joseph, about whom we read in the last chapter. Pharaoh feared their numbers and doubted the loyalty of his immigrant workforce in times of war. The harder he worked them the greater their numbers became (where did they get their energy from?) and he decided to limit their size by killing all newborn boys. But, the Bible tells us, he missed one, Moses.

Moses became a hero of the Israelites, albeit, as you find again and again in the Bible, a flawed hero. When commissioned by God for the task of rescuing his people after talking face to face with the Creator of the Universe, he had the cheek to answer, 'Thanks for the job, Lord, but send someone else!' He'd also managed to forget to circumcise his son and was saved from divine displeasure by the swift hand of his wife, who lobbed off the offending flesh just in time.

Returning to our nasty old Pharaoh we then read that, despite witnessing countless miracles at the hands of God working through Moses, he refused the Israelites a termination of employment. In fact he made them work even harder. This action didn't exactly endear his people to Moses, whom they blamed for all this misfortune. But God had other plans and decided to show his power by visiting a series of plagues on the Pharaoh and the Egyptian people. Water was changed to blood, frogs hopped down from the sky and gnats were formed from dust. The Pharaohs magicians had no trouble duplicating the first two, but the third one got them stumped and they advised their boss to stop his stubbornness and let the Israelites go. But would he listen? No! Then came clouds of flies, followed by a terrible plague on the livestock. But still the Pharaoh would not listen (must have been a vegetarian). Next came horrible boils. Either the magicians had these on their feet or it may have been the booze to deaden the pain, but we read that they couldn't even stand up in front of Moses. Then came the worst hailstorm ever witnessed, that killed all who were exposed to it. This perturbed Pharaoh and he relented and the storm stopped. But, true to form he changed his mind and he got a plague of locusts for his trouble. They invaded the land and ate everything they could, like a school outing to MacDonalds. But did he learn? No! So next total darkness came over the land for three days and this seemed to be Pharaoh's last straw, but anger took hold of him and he refused to listen any more to Moses and sent him away.

The last plague was the worst, the death of every firstborn son in the land. The Israelites had to daub the blood of a lamb on their doorframes, for this plague to skip them over or 'pass them over', from which we get the Passover festival. The Egyptians had had enough by now, despite their Pharaoh, and urged the Israelites to leave, and even gave them parting gifts. This became the Exodus, the 'departure' of the Israelites from their Egyptian captivity.

Now you'd think that our (anti-) hero, Pharaoh Amunhotep II would have bitten the bullet and put it all down to experience, and find some other unfortunates to press into service on his pyramids. But I told you he was obstinate and had to earn his place in our list of anti-Semites, so off he went in his chariot, after the Israelites, followed by every other chariot in Egypt, to 'head them off at the pass'. Our story ends with the parting of the Red Sea and the drowning of the whole Egyptian army. This leads us to the saying, 'You can lead a Pharaoh to water, but you can't make him think!', which loosely means that there are some situations where you can't possibly win, so just stop and think and you won't get your feet wet!

So how do we summarise this character? Firstly he liked the idea of cheap labour and was motivated not by hate of the Israelites, but by the thought of losing them, his slave labour force. But we must not forget his 'culling' exercise to limit their numbers, the killing of all new born males. Unfortunately for him, this act turned full circle and ended up with the death of his own first born son. He wasn't an anti-Semite in the strictest sense, in that his hatred wasn't irrational - his anti-Semitism was fed by his greed and pride, but nevertheless I think he did enough to warrant his inclusion. Our next anti-Semite is also found within the pages of the Bible.

2. Haman the Horrible

Our second tyrant lived in Persia about 2,500 years ago (2). We read about how King Ahasuerus of the Persian Empire got rid of his wife for answering him back once too often and, in her place, installed the lovely Esther as queen. Despite her craving for gefilte fish and her Barbra Streisand record collection (unconfirmed reports), he was unaware of her Jewish background. He was also unaware of the presence of her Uncle Mordechai, whom she regularly visited, until Mordechai had a stroke of luck. One day he was just sitting on his favourite chair by the city gate minding his own business, when he accidentally overheard a plot to kill the king. Being a shrewd man he figured that he could help himself if he handled the situation carefully and so he told the king and the plot was thwarted. In this way Mordechai gained favour with the king.

All seemed well for the moment and the Jews of the day could sleep well at night (apart from the insomniacs) ... but not for long, because this is when Haman came on to the scene. A descendant of the ancient Amalekites, old enemies of the Israelites, he managed to worm his way through the ranks until he became the chief minister to the King, a sort of Home Secretary. Now this man was a severe ego-maniac who demanded that all court officials regularly kneel down in honour to him. They all did this, except one, Mordechai. Mordechai, being a good Jew, refused to bow to any man as, according to the Law of Moses, this was idolatry (though he also had chronic rheumatism of the knee, but that's another story). Haman was enraged at this and, on finding out that Mordechai was Jewish, tricked the King in ordering not just the death of Mordechai, but the death of every Jew in the kingdom! They then drew lots (they cast the 'pur', which is where we get the name Purim, the festival that commemorates these events), to find out what day to execute this dastardly deed.

Thanks to the bravery (and good cooking) of Esther this plot was thwarted and Haman (and his ten sons) was hanged on the very gallows he had made especially for Mordechai. These gallows were 75 feet high which seems a little excessive to me. I thought Jews were meant to be stiff-necked, not long-necked! It seems that Haman wasn't the only one that hated the Jews as thousands of others were waiting for the edict to legally do away with the Jews. This edict never came, but the tables were turned and their own 'death warrants' were sent to the Jews, who cheerfully obliged by annihilating them.

Now Haman was a true anti-Semite. Why kill just the one Jew who crossed you when you've got the power to destroy the whole nation of them! This was to become the motif for true anti-Semites through history and Haman was to set the pattern for people such as Hitler in later years. Purim, for the Jews, is in fact the most joyous day in the Jewish calendar and Jews to this day commemorate the death of Haman by eating him, something that Jews are rather expert at (eating, that is, not eating people!). Little did this twisted man know that he would be remembered through the ages as a triangular pastry filled with poppy-seeds, called Hamantaschen.

3. Antiochus Epiphanes the completely barmy

You may think I'm a little extreme in my above description of this man, but I'm in good company, as the Jews at the time nicknamed him Epimanes, a play on words which means (more or less) 'completely barmy'. He was the king of Syria just over 2100 years ago when Judea, the land of the Jews, was in the hands of the Greeks. Ancient Greece wasn't just about Archimedes in his bath and Pythagoras and his triangles, it also gave the world Antiochus. You'll get an idea of the man if I tell you that while the Jews called him Epimanes, he called himself Ephiphanes, which meant 'divine'. Yes folks, he thought he was a god. He also thought that the whole world was ready for Greek culture, which in those days was a lot more than just cheap package tours and moussaka (as it is these days too!). So he embarked on a campaign of Hellenization and gave particular attention to the Jews, in order to 'remove their superstitions and to give them Greek customs'. His aim was to erase Judaism forever and make all the Jews become Greeks. He did this, craftily, by passing laws, punishable by death, for anyone practising Judaism, keeping the Sabbath or even found in possession of sacred scrolls. Shades of the Nazis and definitely setting a pattern for future anti-Semites. In every town and village in Judea altars were set up to Greek gods and sport was made almost compulsory (though there is no record of any Jewish success in the early Olympic games). Now, as history will show, you can't wipe out Judaism without wiping out Jews, and these actions produced many martyrs. These were the first Jewish martyrs in history and many stirring stories come to us from this period, notably the story of Hannah. Antiochus captured her and her seven sons. One by one he tortured and killed each son in front of her, hoping that she would recant her religion. But she held out and with a broken heart died with a prayer on her lips.

The last straw was on the 25th day of Kislev in the Jewish calendar, 168 years before the Common Era (B.C.E.), Antiochus's soldiers brought a statue of Zeus, the main Greek god, into the Temple in Jerusalem and built an altar in honour of this god. This was the holiest place in Jewish life and it was the ultimate insult to the Jews and their God. This provoked a national stirring, leading to the uprising led by the family of Mattathias, notably his son Judah. He led his men into battle with the cry 'Who among the Gods is like our God?' If you put together the first Hebrew letters of these words you get the word Maccabee. This word also meant 'hammer', referring to the hammer blows dealt to the enemy. So these were the famous Maccabees, forerunners of the great sporting heroes of modern day Israel (a little ironic when you consider that the Maccabee uprising was against sport and such activities).

When the (eventually) victorious Judah and his men entered the Temple in Jerusalem they found it in total disarray and completely defiled by the altar and the idol. They destroyed all that was impure and rededicated the Temple to God. This is commemorated to this day by Hanukkah, which is the Festival of Dedication. This day was also the 25th day of Kislev, an exact anniversary of the initial desecration of the Temple. We are also told of the miracle that took place in the Temple, showing God's pleasure in the actions of his people. They had only sufficient oil to light the Menorah, the great lamp, for one day, but miraculously it lasted a full eight days, by which time new oil had been prepared by the priests.

So what became of the mad Antiochus? Who knows? Who cares? I would have liked to report on some grizzly end comparable to a 75-foot noose or a belly-full of the Red Sea, but we are told of his death in the city of Gabae (3). Although justice demands that he should have been eaten alive by rats while choking on a fish-bone, it seems that he probably died of consumption.

4. St John Chrysostom

John Chrysostom was the Bishop of Constantinople, in the fourth century of the Common Era (C.E.). Of the early Church Fathers he was "the most distinguished of preachers, excelling in spiritual and moral application". He was named, after his death, chrysostomos, which meant 'golden-mouthed' (4), on account of the pearls (or gold nuggets) of wisdom that poured forth from his lips.

But were all of his utterances so godly and golden? No, not when it came to the Jews. And why not? To explain further we need to digress a little and have a quick look at early Church history.

The New Testament - a manual for Jew-haters?

I am ashamed to say it but more acts of anti-Semitism have been committed in the name of Christianity than any other cause in history. A cold look at the facts would suggest that It is one of the greatest ironies of history that a faith based on the life and death of a Jew and spread first by fellow Jews, would be by far the most vicious persecutor of the Jewish race! And all in the name of its Jewish founder!

We must therefore conclude that the writings of Christianity are at least as anti-Semitic as the preachers and followers of this faith. Or must we? If I were to leave the discussion at this point then I present myself as a puzzle to you. Why would I, a Jew, follow a religion that hates me enough to kill me, let alone write a book defending it! Now believe me when I say that I have read the New Testament (the Brit Hadashah in Hebrew) many times and I haven't once thought about calling myself a dirty Jew or Christ-killer, or even embarked on a campaign of self-loathing! I haven't found a single anti-Semitic statement in it at all, but I can see how it can be used by those who are already driven by hate to start with. The key to this is a handy little device used by many people through the ages. This device is known as 'taking things out of context'.

Do-it-yourself Truth-twisting made easy

Many cult groups have rewritten the Bible, changing key passages to make the words fit their doctrines? David Koresh, the lunatic 'Messiah' at the heart of the Waco siege, identified himself with the Persian King Cyrus from the Book of Isaiah and totally corrupted the scriptures to fit in with his paranoia and megalomania. Other people have discerned the date for 'the end of the world' countless times from scripture only to be proved wrong again and again.

Once the Church had moved away from its Jewish origins, the Church Fathers were keen to show the world how the favours of God had moved from the old flesh-and-blood natural Israel to the spanking new spiritual Israel, the Church. They reasoned that the Jews had had their chance, and failed. "Didn't they bring it on themselves?", they argued. "For surely they not only rejected Jesus, their Messiah, but they killed him as well!". Let's see how much truth-twisting needed to be done to get to this conclusion.

So, who killed Jesus?

The two passages of the New Testament that have been used most to condemn the Jews are found in the Book of John (or Yochanan in Hebrew) and the Book of Matthew (Mattityahu).

If you read the first passage, found in Chapter 8 and starting at verse 44 of the Book of John, you read "You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire ... He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God." From these words some early Christians said, "the Jews are of the devil, therefore they are our enemies and an offence to God". But, if you read the verses in the context of the whole chapter you get a different flavour. What is being condemned here is not the Jews as a people, but just the stubbornness of the religious leaders, or in fact anyone, Jew or Gentile, who resists the message, including many so-called 'Christians' throughout history. If you want to take words out of context then how about earlier in the same book when it says "Salvation is from the Jews"? To Christians, one's salvation is of the utmost importance, but here the very person (Jesus) who is apparently condemning the Jews, is also telling Christians that they owe everything to them. One can also take it further and interpret the verses where Jesus likens Gentiles (non-Jews) to "dogs" as a rule to encourage Jews to keep their Gentile "brothers" in kennels and feed them only on the best quality sheep hearts and kangaroo entrails!

The truth is that it suited these early Christians to have a low opinion of the Jews, who rejected their Jesus and therefore, they said, must be rejected by him. So to justify themselves they scoured the Scriptures and pulled out the phrases that seemed to agree with their position, conveniently ignoring the many places where the very opposite is told. In one such place, in the Book of Romans, Chapter 11, we read the words, "Did God reject his people? By no means!" You can't get a more explicit statement. Yet the blindness of hatred knows no bounds and under this condition people will read what they want to read from Scriptures.

The second passage is found in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 27 and verse 25. The scene is the end of the Roman trial of Jesus, just prior to his death. The Jews present proclaim, "let his blood be on us and our children". This verse has been the one verse that has fuelled the most senseless hatred of Jews and earned them the proud title of "Christ-killers". That may be the fact of history, but, in retrospect, there are at least 5 great big holes in this argument:

1) It was the Romans who actually killed Jesus. They were the occupying powers of the land and this death was just one of many Jewish crucifixions carried out by them. Should we not condemn their descendants, which, incidentally includes most of the Popes, as well as Luciano Pavarotti?

2) Reading the whole story in its context we read that it was the chief priests who stirred up the crowd to make this proclamation. Perhaps they threatened the people, or offered them reward. Whatever they did it's clear that the Jewish mob certainly wasn't an impartial jury and was clearly wasn't in its right mind!

3) Anyone who knows anything about the Christian religion knows that without the death of Jesus there would be no Christian religion! Someone had to kill him! Perhaps they should be thanking the Jews for taking on this burden! (even though they didn't do it - see 1)

4) As he was dying Jesus actually forgave all those who were involved in his death by saying, "forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing". As a central part of Christianity is forgiveness, wouldn't it have been more consistent if Christians follow the words of their founder ? If he could forgive the Jews and Romans, shouldn't his followers do the same?

5) Jesus knew well in advance of his death and even spoke about it, saying "I lay down my life ... No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord". He knew all along of his willing death. You can no more blame the Jews for his death than you can blame the actors for the outcome of a tragic play.

So, in summary, perhaps Christians should listen to and follow the lead of their Lord and founder. Forget the words of an emotional ( and probably scared) mob. Rather than commenting on the words of the Jewish mob perhaps it would have been more 'Christian' to offer the forgiveness that Jesus offered the Jews.

What made the Early Christians commit such errors?

A natural question to ask. These early Christians weren't an ignorant rabble, they were learned men who were zealous in defending their faith, often to the death. So why couldn't they read the scriptures, in the correct context, and make the same conclusions as to the role and destiny of the Jew, as we can now looking back over 19 centuries? To do so we need to get inside their minds and the world they lived in. But first, let us go right back to the beginning.

Hey! The Church was Jewish, once!

Jesus was Jewish, as were all of his early followers, not a foreskin among the lot of them! After his death, when, what was later to be known as Christianity, was born, the first Gentiles were soon grafted into this new faith. In those days one of the chief discussion points were 'How can a Gentile join this new faith without becoming a Jew first?' rather than its (ironic) modern day equivalent, 'how can a Jew join this faith without losing his Jewishness first?' The early believers still kept the old traditions, visited synagogues and the Temple and offered this new faith, which many saw as a natural progression of the Jewish faith, to Jews first. In those days and unlike now, Christianity was Jewish through and through. As it distanced itself from the Jewish people, so it grew further and further away from its Jewish roots.

This parting of the ways between the Jewish Christians, who were known as the Nazarenes and Gentile Christians, who took the name Christians (Messianists), took place over a period of about a hundred years and, due to the lack of detailed records, the causes are not too clear. It seems that a factor was the sense of alienation they felt in being rejected by their fellow Jews for following Jesus on one hand, and viewed on with suspicion by Gentile Christians on the other hand. The Gentile Christians, once they had been freed from particularly Jewish obligations (such as circumcision and dietary laws), moved further and further away from both the Jewish practices and the Jewish Christians.

Now the Jews were still under Roman domination and were a constant thorn in the side of their Latin masters. They revolted one time too many and the Romans became very angry. 'The Jews are revolting', said the Roman Senator to Caesar. 'Don't we know it', Caesar replied, 'their noses are far too large!'. 'Looked in a mirror lately?', added the Senator, just before being led to the lions. Of course the Roman nose is comparable to the Jewish nose in size and curvature, so perhaps the Senator had a point. The year was 70 C.E. (Common Era) and the Roman Titus had just laid siege to Jerusalem, which finally fell, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of Jews and the final destruction of the Temple. The revolt finally ended three years later at Masada, where the Jewish Zealots committed suicide rather than fall into the hands of the hated Romans. Masada has been revered ever since as a symbol of Jewish defiance and even to this day in the State of Israel it is where, in a solemn ceremony, young Jewish soldiers swear their allegiance to the State.

But a few years before, in 67 C.E., the whole Jewish Christian community fled from Jerusalem to Pella, in modern-day Jordan. 5 It is probable that they took heed to a prophecy uttered by Jesus over 30 years earlier, "When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains ..." (in the book of Luke, Chapter 21, verse 20) This ensured their survival but it was at the expense of any relationship with the rest of their fellow Jews. They were seen as cowards and traitors and it was a significant split between Jewish Christians and the Jewish world. The final split was to come about sixty years later, at the time of the Second Jewish revolt against Rome, the revolt led by Bar Cochba. The Jewish Christians supported their fellow Jews on this one up to the fateful point when Rabbi Akiva foolishly pronounced Bar Cochba as the Jewish Messiah. This act was as popular amongst the Jewish Christians as a Jewish Pope would be for modern-day Catholics (although the first few Popes and a later medieval one were all Jewish). If this wasn't bad enough, by now the split between the Jewish Christians (Nazarenes) and their Gentile brothers had become permanent. Accusations were flying backwards and forwards; the Gentiles criticised them for their adherence to Jewish customs and were, in turn, accused of apostasy. All of these events guaranteed a split from which the Nazarenes were never to recover and Jewish Christianity largely disappears from the history books until the nineteenth century.

After the death of Jesus' chums, who, as I have said, were all Jewish, the next generation of leaders of the Church were mainly Gentile and were spread throughout the Middle East and Eastern Europe. This is when we can identify the one issue that signalled the parting of ways between Jew and Gentile in the Church. The issue was over the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, the day on which God rested. The Gentile Christians were by now anxious to make a final separation with their Jewish roots and to announce to the world their view that they were the 'inheritors of the promise', the New Israel. The Sabbath was a heaven-sent (excuse the pun) opportunity. The Sabbath day was too Jewish and it was decided to change the day of rest and worship to the Sunday, the Lord's Day, the day of Jesus' resurrection. Despite the fact that God didn't have a say in the matter (and would probably have preferred that his day off and that of his followers coincided!) and that Sunday was a pagan Roman day of sun-worship, it was the first step away from the roots and towards the pagan community in which they lived. This, and the later adoption of December 25th as Christmas Day (The Roman day of Saturnalia, a day of orgy and revelry) and Easter (a pagan fertility festival), went totally against the teaching of their leader Jesus who told them to "be in the world, but not of the world".

The Jewish Christians were doomed. By the middle of the second century C.E. they had been totally and completely alienated by the Jewish community and the (Gentile) Church was now calling itself Israel. The Church had committed the Jewish people to the dustbin of history, as the rejected people of the Old Testament, and now any Jew who wanted to be a Christian had to somehow lose his 'Jewishness' so as not to confuse the Gentile Church! I don't think there were plastic surgeons in those days, though I'd imagine it was the customs they had to give up, not their appearance!

Now the next point is important, so pay attention here! If we go back to the start of Christianity, Christians, whether Jewish or Gentile, both considered themselves part of 'Israel'. The Gentiles saw themselves as grafted into Israel rather than replacing Israel. The Church was in balance, made up of Jews and Gentiles, exactly as the New Testament writers intended. But by the second century this had changed, the Gentiles had taken control and the process of removing Jewish influences, or de-Judaizing had started, sowing the seeds of Christian anti-Semitism.

So here we have Stage One of Christian anti-Semitism : the rejection of the Jews on the basis of their supposed replacement by the Church.

Back to St John

Which brings us back to the Fourth Century C.E. and our friend, St John Chrystostom. Known as the golden-mouthed by his friends and followers, on account of his eloquence in promoting modest Christian principles, I have perhaps placed doubts in your mind as to his attitude to the Jew. Now you have probably guessed that perhaps he was one of those Gentile Christians who considered themselves members of the New Israel. Correct! But as far as the Jews, the natural Israel is concerned, these are his words (contained within his 'Eight Orations against the Jews') :

"The synagogue is not only a whorehouse and a theatre; it is also a den of thieves and a haunt of wild animals ... not the cave of a wild animal merely, but of an unclean wild animal ... The Jews have no conception of things at all, but living for the lower nature, all agog for the here and now, no better disposed than pigs or goats, they live by the rule of debauchery and inordinate gluttony. Only one thing they understand: to gorge themselves and get drunk".(6)

Can you believe these words? Chrysostom wasn't alone in expressing these sentiments, it's just that his writings have survived longer than those of his contemporaries. You can imagine a small rabble meeting in a darkened room in a sordid part of town and spewing out such views out of ignorance and hatred. But coming from the mouth of the 'greatest of Christian preachers', who was renowned for his moral teaching, it is unbelievable! We are now entering a situation that becomes very difficult to understand. It would be understandable for this Christian leader to preach his views on the "rejection of the Jews", but then, out of common humanity, also urging forgiveness and understanding. After all, this is what Jesus taught (the forgiveness, not the rejection)! If Chrysostom hadn't been so riddled with the anti-Semitism virus perhaps he would have read for himself and taught others about God's continuing love for his people, the Jews. Instead, we get these jewels from this 'saint' of the Church:

"As for me, I hate the synagogue ... I hate the Jews ..." (7)

Now you may think that I had been uncharitable with Chrysostom, because, after all, we only picked on some of his writings, ignoring the rest of his life's work. Perhaps we can allow him one little lapse, he may have been having a 'bad hair day' when he wrote those horrible things ... no, certainly not! We can only judge historical figures by the effect they have on the world and the anti-Semitic writings of Chrysostom, along with many other Church fathers such as Augustine, Tertullian, Origen, Irenaeus , and many others, set the tone for treatment of the Jews in subsequent years.

So, we leave this gentleman and reach Stage Two of Christian Anti-Semitism : the abuse of the Jews on the basis of their supposed replacement by the Church.

For the next few hundred years the Church justified its antagonistic position towards the Jews by pointing out the idolatry of the Jews during biblical times, which somehow marked them as an especially unholy people. Sure, the Jews worshipped the odd golden calf or two and cavorted about occasionally at a dodgy altar, but, let's face it, haven't we all! Our particular idols today are the talking box in our living room that hypnotises us for up to 6 hours a day (or more) or the spotty teenager with the sparkling voice and clever agent, or how about those overpaid young men kicking a ball around for the delight of several million lazy older men! But I'm afraid, for these early Christians it was a case of "physician, heal thyself!", because, while the Jewish idolaters were quietly studying the word of God in drab yeshivas in Palestine, many 'pure' Christians were arguing among themselves and corrupting themselves and their religion with the most unbiblical practices from the pagan world, such as goddess worship and celibacy.

And there's more! By then Christianity, through Emperor Constantine, had become the state religion, which meant that now there was a good living to be made as professional Christians. Overnight the common man found out that whereas yesterday he had been a pagan, indulging in vile practices and worshipping a nice selection of gods, today he was officially Christian (whatever that meant), now worshipping only one God (and his mother, Mary). It didn't stop the vile practices though and, as no-one was given Bibles to read (that was left to the clergy), they had no idea what was acceptable behaviour. Mind you no-one seemed to mind how you treated the Jew, in fact the clergy positively encouraged nasty behaviour towards this 'accursed' people. The 'official version' of Christianity though was, at that time, by and large a trillion miles away from anything written about in the New Testament and God showed what he thought about this state of affairs by allowing them to sink into the 'Dark Ages' ...

5. Pope Innocent III

Do you remember the scene in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, when the cowboy, Robin, had just defeated the evil Indians (well Robin Hood did have a strong American accent, so please forgive my confusion). It was the wedding ceremony for Robin and Maid Marion. Then suddenly there is a commotion and a large entourage appears. It is King Richard the Lionheart (or rather Sean Connery), fresh from the Crusades, coming back to his beloved homeland to put things right.

Of course this is rubbish, in actuality Richard cared little about his country and couldn't even speak the language. But it is not only Hollywood that sanitises history, you should try reading history books on the period known as the Crusades! In one account we read that "The Crusades, attracting people from all the countries of Europe, were a striking example of both the unity and the religious zeal of medieval Europe." (8) It would be truer to say that they not only represented one of the most sorry and ill-conceived actions of the Christian Church, but, for the Jewish world, it was a tragedy.

Now the incumbent on the Throne of Saint Shi'mon (sorry, St Peter), was Innocent the Third. He was said to possess a superb intellect, was resolute and flexible and there was no-one who could match him in handling persons and situations Yet, as with the "saintly" Chrysostom, he did not set a particularly good example when it came to the Jews. He was a fanatical supporter of the Crusades and, as an encouragement, cancelled all interest on debts owed to Jews by the Crusaders. He also, except at the very end of his life, turned a blind eye to the atrocities committed by "Soldiers of Christ" and Christian pilgrims, during their holy mission to rid the Holy Land (now Israel) of the Arabs.

* On May 3rd 1096 the Jews of Speyer, in the Rhineland, were massacred by French and German Crusaders.

* In Worms, Jews hiding from the Crusaders in the Bishop's palace were mercilessly hunted and eventually committed suicide rather than being put to death by "Christians".

* Near Mainz 1014 Jews, including children, were slaughtered.

* In Jerusalem during the First Crusade, Jews were driven into a synagogue and burnt alive.(9)

Now, inevitably, we reach Stage Three of Christian Anti-Semitism : the killing of the Jews on the basis of their supposed replacement by the Church.

To be fair, it wasn't just Jews who were massacred. This mob of "pilgrims", inflamed by disease, hunger and religious fanaticism, killed all in their path, including other Christians in the lands to the east, whom they mistook for infidels. Thankfully most of these Crusaders were to perish, if not at the hand of disease or hunger, then at the hand of the Moslems, who were in control of the Holy Land, and, believe it or not, were a lot more civil to their Jewish brothers and generally left them alone. But let us not forget that, by and large, the Crusaders were ignorant peasants, led by greedy and evil men, both from the ruling classes and the Church. The blame for the treatment meted out to the Jews falls fairly and squarely at the feet of men like Pope Innocent III. Again, to re-iterate, these men were in no way following the teachings of Jesus, when it came to the Jews. We again see the powerful effects of this virus called anti-Semitism particularly when mixed with the very human vices of power, ignorance, pride and jealousy.

We now start to see new developments in the treatment of Jews by the Church.

* Jews were again and again accused of murdering Christian children and using their blood to make Passover Matzoh bread. This was a popular Easter-time pastime for European peasants. These were known as ritual murders and were usually accompanied by massacres of Jewish populations.

* Jews were accused of blaspheming the Christian faith in their writings, particularly in the Talmud. At the very least this resulted in book-burnings. (Shades of the 'Satanic Verses' here - the Moslems were not the first!)

* The Jews were accused of causing the Black Death, the plague that swept through Europe, by poisoning wells. The 'justification' for this is that fewer Jews died from this plague than 'Christians', though the real reason was that the Jews were simply following the sensible health and sanitation guidelines in the Bible and other Jewish writings, which the 'Christians' couldn't possibly do as the few of them who could actually read would have been totally unfamiliar with the Bible, which was purposely held back from the common people.

* In 1215, in a proclamation held by Pope (not so) Innocent III and endorsed by nearly 1500 leading Churchmen, Jews had to henceforth wear a yellow badge to identify themselves (it didn't start with the Nazis, the "Christians" thought of it first).

* The first Jewish ghettos were established, where Jews could avoid the economic and social pressures that they would otherwise suffer. Economically they were barred from owning land or property and were forced into the only occupation that "Christians" felt they were suited to - moneylending. So Jews didn't enter the world of finance and commerce by choice, though they became good at it, too good at it sometimes - if they did too well, the "honest Christians" could always kill them and get their money back!

* In Spain it was ruled that Jews were forbidden to eat with or talk to a "Christian" in case they converted them. It wouldn't have been difficult as most Christians knew little of their "faith" beyond the basics and most Jews, who had a much higher standard of education, would have run rings around them, theologically speaking. (10)

* European nations in turn decided that the best way to deal with the "Jewish problem" was to get rid of them and let someone else deal with them. So, during these years Jews found themselves ping-ponged across Europe. They were expelled from England in 1290, from France in 1306 and finally from Spain in 1492, as we'll read about soon.

So in addition to killing them, we reach Stage Four of Christian Anti-Semitism : the marginalisation and then banishing of the Jews on the basis of their supposed replacement by the Church.

In a pamphlet put out by the London Catholic Truth Society in the 1950s there is an interesting entry under the heading, "Persecution and Inquisition". It says "The Catholic slaying of unbelievers lies almost entirely between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries..." This conveniently forgets that the 'slaying of Jews' started much earlier than the thirteenth century and arguably has carried through to the twentieth century, with a pogrom in Catholic Poland carried out as late as 1946 (11), when there were hardly any Jews left in the country! We get the message here that persecuting Jews is so acceptable that it is not worth mentioning. Even more incredible is the entry under 'Jews, post-Biblical history of' in the New Catholic Encyclopaedia (Vol. 7, page 980)', where it says ' .. the post-Biblical era, which for the Jewish people on the whole was an almost uninterrupted period of suffering and persecution. Even the unfriendly attitude that Christendom has shown the Jews throughout the centuries must be considered here' Who else, Mr Encyclopaedia, do you think were persecuting the Jews at this time? Don't kid yourself, just take the blame like a man. The Catholic Church has a lot to answer for! But, as we'll find out later, the Protestant Churches don't fare much better.

6. Tomas de Torquemada

As an option to death or banishment, a Jew could always "convert" to Christianity. Unlike in the early Church, when the transition was relatively painless and straightforward, in fifteenth-century Spain it was a different story. These converts were known as Conversos or Marranos ("swine").(12) It didn't really matter how deep their new Christian convictions were, they were still hated on account of their racial origins. Here are examples of the formal declarations these Marranos had to make:

"I do here and now renounce every rite and observance of the Jewish religion, detesting all its most solemn ceremonies and tenets that in former days I kept and held ... I renounce the whole worship of the Hebrews, circumcision, all its legalisms, unleavened bread, Passover, the sacrificing of lambs, the feast of Weeks, Jubilees, Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles, and all other Hebrew feasts, their sacrifices, prayers ..... in one word, I renounce absolutely everything Jewish ..."

From this we can only deduce that Christianity, in those days, was deeply insecure! A session of psychoanalysis wouldn't have been a bad idea .. perhaps that nice Mr Freud could have ... I'm sorry, my mind is wandering, but it all seems so ridiculous. It is at this point that you get to realise that anti-Semitism, in those days, wasn't just religious. Here we have Jews who yielded to the pressure and became Christians, but they still weren't left in peace. But now it gets worse.

"No-one escapes the Spanish Inquisition!" was the catch-phrase of a particularly surreal Monty Python sketch on television. This was no joke, because no-one did escape the Spanish Inquisition, no-one escaped from the Grand Inquisitor, Tomas de Torquemada.

Set up to stamp out "heresies" in general, the Inquisition came down heavily, not so much on the Jewish population in general, but on the Marranos, the Jewish Christians. It was said, by W.N.Carter, in "The Shame of Christendom"

"The Devil never devised a more effective instrument of Jewish scorn and hatred of the name of Christ than the Inquisition."

No wonder there is a stigma the size of Mount Everest concerning "conversion" to Christianity these days.

W.N.Carter gives us a particularly gruelling account of how bad the Inquisition was.

"Few places have witnessed such foulness as the Quemadero, or Place of Burning, in Seville. A high platform occupied the centre; at each corner stood a statue said to represent one of the four major prophets. To this awful place miserable creatures who had pined in filthy cells, been torn upon the rack, tortured until they were almost robbed of reason and yet had bravely refused to deny the faith of their fathers, were dragged. Every accompaniment that could inspire terror was heaped upon them. They were garbed to represent devils. A long yellow frock covered them from head to toe, surmounted by a high conical cap and decorated with a flaming cross, hideous demon figures and the lurid fires of hell. These wretched victims were bound to the figures of the prophets. A further horror was added when the decayed bodies of Jews who died in their faith were dug out of their graves, piled upon the centre of the scene, and set on fire, so that the dead and dying together dissolved in flames and smoke".

So, given the unspeakable track record of the Church in the treatment of Jews it is no wonder that the Jewish people, on the whole, reject Christianity unreservedly. Yet, as I have mentioned more than once, the actions of these Christians had little, or nothing to do with the words of Jesus. In looking at their motives one must consider such things as pride, hate, jealousy, greed, ignorance and just about every other base emotion known to man. But, above all, it is the curse of the anti-Semitism virus, whatever its cause, that has infected the hearts and minds of people, encouraging them in their actions, just as a cold virus inevitably produces sore throats, runny noses and so on.

7. Martin Luther

But wait, I can hear the sound of hoofbeats in the distance. Is it the cavalry, coming to rescue the Jews from the madness that surrounds them? The world is changing. A new movement, the Reformation, sweeps through Europe, promising liberation from the ignorance and tyranny of the Catholic Church. The key figure in this movement is Martin Luther, the founder of the Lutheran Church. Luther makes a bold proclamation. "Let's start reading our Bibles!", he says. (The cavalry approaches nearer, salvation is surely close at hand). He reads his Bible and discovers that Jesus was Jewish. He writes a pamphlet, That Jesus Christ was born a Jew (1523), which affirms the Jewish descent of Jesus. (The horses are so close now ...) He denounces the wickedness of Popes and priests in their attitude to Jews (even closer, I can see the whites of their eyes ...) He advocates a loving attitude to them, to win them to Christianity. But ....

Twenty years later. He was near the end of his life. He'd achieved much, founded a church, helped found a major religious movement.

But very few Jews had converted to Christianity!

Martin Luther's love turned to hate. He changed his attitude towards them (the cavalry has long since disbanded and gone home). He became hostile to them and issued a new set of pamphlets, one of them titled On the Jews and their Lies (1543). In these writings here are a list of words he used to describe these people he once wrote so favourably about: "venomous ... thieves ... disgusting vermin ... a pestilence and misfortune for our country ... children of the devil (that old chestnut!) etc. etc.".

He proposed the following remedies: 1). Set fire to their synagogues 2). Homes should be broken down and destroyed 3). Deprive them of their sacred books 4). Rabbis should be forbidden to teach 5). Passport and travelling privileges withdrawn 6). Stop them from moneylending (although it was the only 'acceptable' trade for them) 7). Give them hard physical labour.

His conclusion was this: "To sum up, dear princes and nobles who have Jews in your domains, if this advice of mine does not suit you, then find a better one so that you may all be free of this insufferable devilish burden - The Jews."

"Find a better one!" These were prophetic words indeed, particularly when we consider the legacy of this German preacher - in "Mein Kampf", a book that needs no introduction, we read that Luther was one of Hitler's heroes.

Isn't it strange when we look back at three of the Christian leaders in our list? All three, St John Chrysostom, Pope Innocent III and Martin Luther were considered spiritual giants, then and now. To give them their dues they did contribute much to the Christian world in their teachings and attitude. Yet all three publicly produced such venomous anti-Jewish material that, largely through their efforts, the Christian world was inflamed in hatred against the Jewish population. First there was rejection, then abuse, then forced conversions, torture, death and banishment. Would these things have happened if it were not for the teachings of leaders such as these? It is a mystery beyond human comprehension. There is something deeply unnatural about anti-Semitism, particularly Christian anti-Semitism.

Light Relief (and don't we need it?)

Before we move to more modern times, let us, in the way of light relief, offer another list, a list of 5 assorted trivia concerning Jews. All of these appear in the book The Jewish Paradox, by M. Hirsh Goldberg. (13)

1. Many Medieval Christians actually believed that Jews had horns and a tail. This was due to a mistranslation of a passage in the Book of Exodus in the Bible that described Moses as he came down from Mount Sinai. The Hebrew used the word for a 'ray of light' shining from his forehead. This was mistranslated as 'horns'. Michaelangelo actually sculpted Moses the Lawgiver with a nice set of horns!

2. It was believed that Jews had a characteristic smell, that would disappear as soon as they convert!

3. One piece of research on the Jewish nose concluded that it was the hereditary outcome of a habitual expression of indignation.

4. Still on noses, yet another study found that most Jews do not have a Jewish nose, but a Greek nose.

5. The German leader Bismarck once said that Germany's male nobility should marry Jewish women, to "improve their race"! (Of course he didn't realise that offspring would legally be Jewish, which would have been quite interesting!)

Now, carrying on with our list of nasties, we skip a couple of centuries.

8. Houston Stewart Chamberlain

The nineteenth century saw the decline of the repressive form of Christianity and society, as a whole, was singing a new song. It was the age of enlightenment, the French Revolution, the gradual emancipation of the Jews. Anti-Semitism needed to find new fertile soil and it wasn't long before it found it, in Germany. The Nazis may have provided practical 'solutions', but all the groundwork, the theory, was laid in the nineteenth century. Germany had many contenders for this position in my list and Chamberlain, in fact, was only half-German, the other half being British.

German philosophers such as Ghillany, Arndt and Jahn were now producing work of the most venomous nature towards the Jews. Ludwig Feuerbach said "Eating is the most solemn act or even initiation into the Jewish religion" (Some truth in that!) He then continues, "... When the seventy elders climbed the mountain with Moses, then 'they saw the God of Israel ... they stayed there before God; they ate and they drank'". (Yes, this is OK, it's what it says in the Bible.) But then he concludes, "The sight of the highest being therefore only amused their appetite". (14) This is contempt for Judaism, just a small step from fully blown anti-Semitism.

German philosophers and scientists now switched off their brains, which was a little ironic as this was supposed to be the Age of Reason. Self-justification and hatred bypassed their natural reason as they began to put forward strange new theories about racial origins. It was summed up in the phrase "purity of the blood". These people began to imagine that they were of the Aryan race, a mythical people originating in India. These people were seriously wacko! They were the people who also put forward theories such that Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden only spoke German to each other! Well, anyway, this Aryan race was the most superior of all, the race to conqueror all before them. The problem is that, in their long history (that included a strange migration from "swarthy brown-faced" India to "tall blond" Germany) they were in constant battle with the inferior ... the sub-human ... the evil Jew! Yes, the sub-human and inferior and tainted Jewish chosen-race, always seemed to thwart the intentions and destiny of the superior Aryan master-race! A bit of a contradiction I detect there, not that it worried them or put them off their stride!

In 1899, Houston Stewart Chamberlain put all these myths together in a book called Foundations of the Nineteenth Century. (15) It was a 1500 page book and was packed with attacks on the Jews, such as "The Jewish race is altogether bastardised, and its existence is a crime against the holy laws of life." This book sold almost 1 million copies, a best-seller yet! A million hearts willing to be diseased by lies and hatred. One could also imagine the million young German hearts and consciences anaesthetised in advance against the horrors of the Holocaust, forty years later!

Chamberlain wasn't the only anti-Semite in his family. His father-in-law was Richard Wagner, Hitler's favourite composer. Wagner, whether composing music or writing books, dedicated his life to anti-Semitism. It became a driving obsession and in 1881 he wrote this to the King of Bavaria: "I regard the Jewish race as the born enemy of pure humanity and everything that is noble in it; it is certain that we Germans will go under before them, and perhaps I am the last German who knows how to stand up as an art-loving man against the Judaism that is already getting control of everything".

So the scene was set for the silly little man with the moustache (and I don't mean Charlie Chaplin).

9. Hitler and the Holocaust

Now for the difficult one. What can I add to the millions of words written and tears shed on this subject? To me it seems to prove the existence of the virus of anti-Semitism, an irrational disease that can inflame the mind while deadening the conscience. The Germans, whether you wish to believe it or not, were one of the most cultured, civilised societies at the turn of the century. Yet a few decades later these people were engaged in, or supporting, or turning a blind eye to, the most inhuman evil activities ever conceived in the mind of man. But consider this. If Haman, or the Inquisition, or the Medieval State Church had the 20th Century transportation systems or technologies of death and destruction, wouldn't they have done the same? The ultimate aim of anti-Semitism is not simply hatred of the Jews, but the extinction of the Jews. Wouldn't earlier anti-Semites, who also considered Jews to be inferior, sub-human or demonic, have chosen the same 'solution', rather than the 'inconvenience' of conversion, pogrom or deportation? We'll never know, we can only guess.

We can get a flavour of the mindless hatred that drove these Nazis from this extract from a letter by Hugh Millar in The Jewish Quarterly, talking about the Holocaust. "It is distinguished not by the extent of its violence nor the depths of its cruelty (both of which, although spectacular, are not unique), but by the sheer irrationality of the racial hatred which propelled it. The full dimensions of this irrationality become apparent when one considers that the Nazis pursued their extermination programme with undiminished vigour right through to the end of the war, despite the fact that it diverted valuable resources from their increasingly desperate military effort, and so, arguably, hastened their defeat".

There are many individual stories that work together to make up the Holocaust, six million of them, in fact. Each story tears at the heart and begs to be told, demands to be remembered. Yet we can't do them justice, just as these victims suffered without justice. So there will be no stories and no statistics. This sad story has been extensively documented in so many other places.

But before we pour out our righteous indignation against the Germans, though, what about the world community at large? In 1938, just before the start of the Second World War there was a conference in Evian, in France attended by 32 nations with the objective of discussing the future of the European Jews. The Jews at that time were still free to move but it was clear to many right-minded people that, by staying within the clutches of the Nazi state, they were putting themselves in great danger. So these delegates sat round a table and asked each other, "who's going to take in these Jews to save them from this fate?" Do you know the outcome of this conference? Out of the millions of Jews in central Europe, the danger zone, only a few thousand were accommodated by these nations. One by one they all gave reasons why they couldn't take Jewish refugees - they would have loved to have taken them, but their hands were tied! Golda Meir, the future Israeli leader, was there. She commented, "I don't think that anyone who didn't live through it can understand what I felt at Evian - a mixture of sorrow, rage, frustration and horror. I wanted to get up and scream at them all,' don't you know that these 'numbers' are human beings, people who may spend the rest of their lives in concentration camps, or wandering around the world like lepers, if you don't let them in."

Hitler saw the report of this conference and saw this indifference as the 'all clear' for the commencement of the next stage of his master plan. Four months later came Kristallnacht, the 'night of the broken glass', the first major step of the Final Solution against the Jews.

What the Holocaust seemed to represent was a climax, a final explosion of hatred that had been building up for thousands of years. It did lead though, however painfully, to the formation of the State of Israel. This seems to indicate that the sufferings of the Jews could be near to an end - or could it have just entered a new phase?

10. Haj Amin al-Husseini

The final anti-Semite in our list was in fact a Semite too, by definition, being an Arab. He was a member of one of the two major Arab dynasties in Palestine, the others being the Nashashibis. This other family produced more rulers, giving the world Abdullah and Hussein (of Jordan) and Feisal (of Iraq). These were the days of European colonialism and Britain and France managed to control most of the Middle-East between them. Haj Amin al-Husseini was appointed the Grand Mufti by the British in 1921. He was a Muslim extremist and violently opposed Zionism (the idea of Israel being a Jewish homeland) and was partial to the Islamic 'blessing' of Jihad (holy war).

He so hated the Jews that his activities included:

* On August 1929 he inspired a massacre of Jews praying at the Western Wall, their holiest place in Jerusalem. (16)

* During World War II he moved to Germany and became an associate of Hitler. He worked on the assumption that as we both have the same hated enemies (the Jews), we can be friends. If he only knew what Hitler thought of him (a member of a sub-race) and what his fate was to be in the New Reich!

This was the calibre of man, a power mad tyrant, who claimed to represent the views of the Palestinian Arabs. They deserved better.

A final word

So that completes a brief overview of anti-Semitism, through the words and actions of ten influential anti-Semites. There have been many other sorry episodes left out, such as the Russian pogroms and life in the ghetto, but there is simply no space to document these in this book. Anti-Semitism knows no bounds and is not confined to one people or faith. Although institutional Christianity seemed to hold the monopoly up until the Age of Reason, we must not forget that Adolf Hitler, arguably the greatest anti-Semite of all, had a bitter hatred of Christianity and filled his camps up with dissenting Christians as well as Jews.

But the most important thing of all concerning 'Christian Anti-Semitism' and perhaps the main point of this chapter, is that it should never have existed. There is nothing in the Christian Bible that promotes it. Jesus always said that the core of their faith was love and forgiveness, not hate and vengeance. Even the Catholic Church, the main villains of the piece, have finally admitted their error, officially announcing at Vatican Council II in 1965 that the Jews "should not be presented as rejected by God or accursed" (17). Historically, when you look at Church history, as we have done, from the Early Church right through to Martin Luther and what was known as the Reformation, one important fact sticks out - the common person was never given a Bible to read! Bible reading and interpretation was in the hands of the leaders and teachers, who had their own agendas to fulfil and used the Bible to justify their own vices, be it lust for money, power, or just good old-fashioned lust! As soon as the Bible was put in the hands of the masses, people read it and, at the very least, saw no basis for anti-Semitism and at best saw many justifications for a positive attitude towards their Jewish brethren. We will read about some of these people in the next chapter. And this is still the case. Christians today are not like 'Christians' of yesteryear. Anyone who reads the Bible would have no excuse for reading Anti-Semitism into it, unless, like John Chrysostom and Martin Luther, their judgement is clouded by their own desires. We can see the effects of this when we consider the vast number of cult groups around today, such as the one involved in the 'Waco siege'. These groups, on the whole, spring up when one man, usually possessing a charismatic personality, picks up the Bible and says, "hold on, there's something new here ... I must tell the world ...", to which I would add, " ... and gather followers, particularly young female ones and rich ones and let them share my unique paranoia". The Bible does not work like that and, thankfully, these days the vast majority of Christians are sensible and only take out of the Bible the messages that were originally put into it.

So, given what you have read in this chapter, do you blame the Modern Jew for resisting the claims of Jesus Christ ? Who would want to follow such a religion that claims that we killed their founder and that slaughters us on a whim ? Isn't that what Jewish people would say? We need to understand the inbred distrust that Jewish people have and why, for instance, my Mum had so much of a problem with the cross in the first Church service she attended. We need to get educated about Church History and the follies of the past if we are to communicate our faith to the Jew.