Sunday, October 14, 2007

Christianity and the Jews

Robert Wolfe, a Harvard graduate, former teacher at SUNY, and author of The Origins of the Messianic Ideal is giving a series of lectures at AACI on the history of the Jews. I went to his first lecture on "Christianity and the Jews" and found it very illuminating. Here is my edited version of his presentation. He pointed out two main elements, namely that (I) the Greco-Roman Empire was in conflict with the Jews long before Christianity developed, and (II) that Christianity was largely a product of Hellenistic (assimilated) Jews designed for a Greek audience.

I. The Romans regarded the Jews as a subversive element in the Empire, in that they opposed many basic aspects of Greco-Roman culture. For example, while the Romans became increasingly dependent on slavery to run the Empire and its industries, the Jews became more opposed to slavery. Jews believed in the sabbath, but Romans found this wasteful. Romans used crucifixion routinely to punish people, but Jews regarded it as cruel. Romans expected all citizens of the Empire to worship idols of the Caesars, while Jews refused to do so. Jews practised circumscision, while Greeks regarded this as cruel and primitive. In general, Jewish culture was less violent and more humanistic than Greco-Roman culture. These differences led to a culture clash that lasted for hundreds of years before Christianity itself became a major factor.
For several hundred years there was warfare between the Jews and the Seleucids, who were a Greek Macedonian dynasty that inherited part of Alexander the Great's Empire in what is now Syria, with capital Antioch. They were conquered by the Romans in 63 bce, although the eastern Roman Empire remained Greek in culture and language. The Romans also conquered the Jews in 63 bce with the defeat of the Maccabees (Hasmoneans), the last authentic Jewish sovereigns. The last Maccabee King, Antipater, was crucified by the Romans in 40 bce, and then Herod was placed on the throne of Judea and remained a Roman puppet king until he died in 4 bce. The Temple was destroyed in 70 ce. In 132 ce, Emperor Hadrian banned circumscision. Jewish independence came to an end in 135 ce in the so-called Second Jewish War when the revolt of Simon bar Kochba was crushed. As described by Josephus in "The Jewish Wars" ca. 1 million Jews were killed during these campaigns. This may be an exaggeration, but a Roman historian put the figure killed in the Second Jewish War at 580,000, still a large number.
In 43 ce it was estimated that the Jewish population of the Roman Empire was ca. 7 million, ca. 10% of the total population of the Empire of ca. 60 million. There were an additional ca. 1 million Jews in Babylonia (now Iraq) outside the Empire. The Emperor Trajan attacked Babylonia and crushed Jewish revolts throughout the Empire, in what is now Libya, Egypt, Syria and Turkey. By the end of the bar Kochba revolt in 135 ce approximately one third of all Jews had been killed. This is a much more severe conflict than usually acknowledged, and was devastating to the Jews. They lost their sovereignty, they lost one third of their people and they were dispersed and enslaved.

II. The early Christians were Hellenized Jews or Greeks and all their writings were in Greek, not in Aramaic, that was the language of the Jews of the Levant. A characteristic feature of Christianity is the Eucharist, the eating of the flesh and the drinking of the blood of a (Jewish) man - Jesus! This distasteful ritual was anathema to Jews, but was firmly within the Greco-Roman tradition. Ironically, Jesus himself was probably an Essene and against ritual slaughter of animals in the Temple in Jerusalem.
The most important sacred and secret Greek rituals, the Eleusian mysteries were devoted to such a myth. They focussed on Orpheus and on Dionysius/Bacchus, the God of wine, who was supposedly devoured by the mythical Titans to prevent him becoming "King of the Universe." During these mysteries it is believed that the adherents ate the flesh of a human baby representing Dionysius. By 100 bce this "Orphic cult" included a "magic baby" that was considered to be half-God and half-human. There were several other cults that included "cannibalism" such as the Adonic cult of Rome and the Isis-Osiris cult of Egypt, in which "Osiris" was torn apart and eaten by the adherents in order to be reborn. The eating of bread and drinking wine as the flesh and blood of Christ was also a ritual of the Gnostics, a spiritual religion in which Christ was considered to be God. So it was no great stretch for the eastern Greco-Roman Empire to transform itself into the Byzantine (Orthodox) Christian Empire.
The precise formulation of Orthodox and Catholic Christianity as we know them today were decided upon by the Emperor Constantine, the first Emperor to convert to Christianity. Both his mother and wife were Christians, but at that time with the Empire in disarray and Judaism decentralized, there were many Christian and other cults for Romans to choose between, including the worship of Mithras (of Persian origin) that was a male only religion, and the worship of Isis that was a female-dominated religion. Others included the Ebionites, who were a Jewish sect of Aramaic speaking Jews who worshipped Christ as a man, but had no Eucharist. Then there were the Marcianites, who wanted to rid Christianity of all Jewish elements.
In 325 ce Constantine convened the Council of Niceae, and with 318 out of 1800 bishops, chose between these options to decide what Christianity would actually be. Between those who considered Christ to be divine and those who thought him to be just a man, Constantine chose a compromise and decided that Christ was "the son of God". This Nicene creed was adopted by the Bishops and henceforth anyone believing otherwise (such as the Arians who opposed this formulation), was a heretic and subject to being killed. Then Constantine declared this version of Christianity the official religion of the Empire, with himself as its Head, and all other religions were banned.
So Christianity became a jumble of Jewish elements (the Old Testament, the ten commandments, Messianism, the ethical and humane side, etc.) and Greek elements (no circumscision, the Eucharist, crucifixion, the focus on the devil/ underworld, eating of pork, etc.). But, the Greek antagonism towards Jews (i.e. anti-Semitism) continued within Christianity.

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