After learning about the Holocaust, I’ve asked myself many times how this could have happened. Why would anyone believe it’s acceptable to massacre an entire people? This is my reasoning for writing my paper on how Christian theology influenced anti-Semitism. Much of the Holocaust appears to have it’s beginning with Christian theology. I will begin my paper with the early writings of Christians and continue chronologically until after World War II.
The Apostle Paul was one the first people to criticize the Jewish people. At first, he tried to explain to the Christians not to adopt a superior attitude towards the Jews.
IF THE PART OF THE DOUGH OFFERED AS FIRST FRUITS IS HOLY, THEN THE WHOLE BRANCH IS HOLY; AND IF THE ROOT IS HOLY, THEN THE BRANCHES ARE ALSO HOLY…DO NOT BOAST OVER THE BRANCHES. IF YOU DO BOAST, REMEMBER THAT IT IS NOT YOU THAT SUPPORT THE ROOT, BUT THE ROOT SUPPORTS YOU.
[ROMANS 11]
At one point this appeared to be Paul’s feeling towards the Jews and the Christians. His sentiment appeared to change, according to Christian suppressionists. In the text Romans, many of Paul’s statements were misinterpreted by those Christians to make themselves appear more superior to the Jewish people.
…INCLUDING US WHOM HE HAS CALLED, NOT FROM THE JEWS ONLY BUT ALSO FROM THE GENTILES? AS INDEED HE SAYS IN HOSEA, "THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY PEOPLE I WILL CALL ‘MY PEOPLE,’ AND HER WHO WAS NOT BELOVED I WILL CALL ‘BELOVED.’" "AND IN THE VERY PLACE WHERE IT WAS SAID TO THEM, ‘YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE,’ THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED CHILDREN OF THE LIVING GOD,"
…GENTILES, WHO DID NOT STRIVE FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS, HAVE ATTAINED IT, THAT IS, RIGHTEOUSNESS THROUGH FAITH; BUT ISRAEL, WHO DID STRIVE FOR THE RIGHTEOUSNESS THAT IS BASED ON THE LAW, DID NOT SUCCEED IN FULFILLING THAT LAW… [ROMANS 9]
"In proclaiming his Christian message Paul stressed that the Jewish nation had been rejected by God, and the new Covenant had superseded the old," said David Cohn-Sherbok, in his book The Crucified Jew. "In these ways the New Testament laid the foundations for later Christian hostility to the Jewish nation…and served as the basis for the early Church’s vilification of the Jews." (Cohn-Sherbok)
Another early Christian writing which may have encouraged Jewish hatred is the Gospels of John. Sch...
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When a young boy is found brutally murdered in a small Prussian town called Konitz, once part of Germany, now part of Poland, the Christians residing in the town lash out by inciting riots and demonstrations. Citing the incident as an act of Jewish ritual murder, better known as blood libel, Christians rendered blame on the Jews. Helmut Walser’s Smith, The Butcher’s Tale, details the murder account and the malicious consequences of superstitious belief combined with slander and exaggerated press propaganda. Foreshadowing the persecution of Jews which would take place three decades later, Smith analyzes and explains the cause and effect of anti-Semitism in Imperial Germany at the turn of the century. Utilizing Smith’s book as a primary source,
When one reads the New Testament, a contradiction appears in reading Paul and James’ teachings concerning ‘faith’ and ‘works’. There is also question about the word ‘justified’ as to its meaning. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, Paul writes this “16 yet we know that a person is justified[a] not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.[b] And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ,[c] and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law,” in 2:16. (NRSV) And in Galatians 3:6-7 says this, “6 Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” 7 so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham.” (NRSV) Paul also stated in Romans a similar idea, “28 For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law,” in 3:28. In chapter 4 of Romans, Paul uses Abraham as an example from
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Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah. A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. Print.
Marendy goes on to discuss more persecution of Jews by Christians up to the Holocaust. Once he reaches this point in history he begins to explain how Christian views seem to change and even ask forgiveness from the Jewish community for the atrocities done to them over the centuries. One figure the essay focuses on is Pope John Paul II. Marendy describes the Pope’s efforts as, “trying to build a fundamentally new and enduring relationship between the Catholic Church and Jews” pg. 18. Marendy
Norton, James R. The Holocaust: Jews, Germany, and the National Socialists. New York: Rosen Pub., 2009. Print.
Hello and welcome to this special edition of ‘World in Focus.’ Tonight we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Shoah (also known as the Holocaust). I’m Audra Kahill and I thank you for joining me tonight. In our program we have Eliezer Wiesel, a holocaust survivor, sharing his experiences. We will also focus on the Catholic Church’s struggles throughout the Shoah and discuss reasons for changed emphasis between Pope Pius XII’s Christmas address to the 1965 Papal Document on Non-Christian Religions. We will also explore how the teachings of Jesus and the Catholic Social Teachings are modelled through André Trocmé, a rescuer of the Jews.
Paul was inspired by God to write Romans. Before Paul preached justification by faith the other apostles were still trying to do what they felt God wanted then to do. Paul taught that obedience to the law is not enough to live a proper christian life. The other apostles did not know about a body of Christ for Gentile or Jew. I don't think the phrase "body of Christ" is mentioned anywhere else in the bible.
Harris calls Paul “the most influential apostle and missionary of the mid-first-century CE church and author of seven to nine New Testament letters” (H G-33). It would be quite an accolade to receive such recognition, but what makes it even more remarkable is that Paul, or Saul, (Saul was his Judean name and Paul was his Roman name (footnotes B 1943)) originally persecuted the ekklesia or “church”. Paul went from persecuting the ekklesia or “church” to being its “most influential apostle and missionary”. Why and how did Paul make such a drastic change? The answer to the question can be found in various books of the New Testament including some of the letters that Paul wrote. This answer also aids in the explanation of how and why Paul argue with the Ioudaioi.
Paul often quotes or refers back to the Old Testament to give his teachings merit. Moo states a book like this is necessary when one reads Romans as current day Christians are often Old Testament illiterate. For example, when Paul speaks of the “righteousness of God”, he is using a term from the Old Testament which can mean one of three things. It can either speak about God’s justice, God’s promised relationship, or God’s saving ability. Moo believes here, Paul is referring to the final meaning, of God’s saving grace, in this section. The readers of this letter would have also been drawn to Paul’s mention of all who believe, showing this letter was not simply addressed to Jews but Gentiles as well. They would have also realized Paul was stating God’s saving grace was limited to a person’s response. While God calls all, only those who respond in faith are drawn into relationship with
With Jerusalem destroyed, Paul and others followers of the Jerusalem Church, which was a section of Judaism, began to spread the word of Jesus throughout Rome and the surrounding area to Gentiles. No one had a greater effect on spreading Christianity than Paul did, Paul was actually quite radical as he preached the teachings of Jesus Christ to Gentiles as they too could get God’s salvation. This can also be seen by looking at The New Testament as fourteen of the twenty-seven books in The New Testament have been linked to Paul. With Paul and other apostles spreading the word of Jesus after his death and resurrection the Early Church and Judaism began to clash which then caused the teachings of Jesus to break off. In short the Roman Jewish War gave the teachings of Jesus Christ the ability to take hold in ancient Europe which allowed those teachings to break off and form a new religion,
Carson, D, & Moo, D. (2005) An introduction to the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
One of the most important books of the Bible Paul ever wrote was the book of Romans. Romans is considered by most christians today, the summarization of why we believe what we believe and why Christ died on the cross. The book of Romans was written in the time of Paul who was going all throughout the world and the places God called him to to spread the news of the Gospel. The book of Romans was written for both Jews and Gentiles. It was written for the Gentiles to break the idea that only Jews were worthy of a relationship with God. It was a way for the Gentiles to be freed of the idea that there was a class system in the kingdom of God. It was to let them know they could be saved and brought into paradise just by faith. Conversely, the book
Jewish opposition to the gospel has not subsided. Even today many Christians deal with the backlash of preaching the Gospel just as Paul did with the Jewish people of his time. As Paul preached in the synagogues, people began to believe in and receive Jesus Christ, causing much of the Jewish community of the time to resist the teachings of Paul. Paul’s response to the Jewish resistance was to simply preach to the Word of God to all that would hear it, including Gentiles. The more people that the Gospel would be preached to, the more the Word of God would begin to spread.