The Protestants and the Jews
This is the third in the series of reports on the excellent presentations of Dr. Robert Wolfe, who incidentally speaks coherently for an hour without consulting any notes.
The Protestants were more favorable to the Jews than the Catholics and the Orthodox Christians. There were several reasons for this. The Protestants believed in going back to the original Biblical sources rather than relying on the established Catholic interpretations of the sacred literature, and many of them studied Hebrew in order to do so. The Protestant King James version of the "Old" Testament was checked with Rabbis for accuracy. Cromwell was responsible for re-admitting the Jews to England, even though his Bill to do so was at first rejected by Parliament, it was eventually adopted. Martin Luther, the leader of the Protestant reformation, was at first friendly to the Jews, expecting them to convert to the "true" version of Christianity, but when they didn't he became very hostile and anti-Semitic, similar to the pattern of Mohammed. Many Protestant practices were considered to be "Jewish" by the Catholics.
Here is an important example. In 1215, at the Lateran Council, the Catholic Church decided on the doctrine of "the real presence." This was the theological doctrine that during the Eucharist or Mass, the bread and wine consumed were miraculously transformed into the real body and blood of Christ. This process, known as "trans-substantiation," was and still is a central tenet of Catholicism. During the following 300 years or so until the Protestant Reformation, Jews were persecuted for many reasons, and one of the most prominent became the so-called "desecration of the host," the host being the wafers that were the body of Christ that were considered to have magical powers by the peasantry (although not so much by the Church itself). Wafers were found "weeping blood" as a result of having been touched or harmed by Jews, and this alone resulted in massacres of tens of thousands of Jews. It was another version of the "blood libel."
The Protestants rejected the concept of "the real presence" and some of them, including Luther, replaced it with the idea of "cons-substantiation" namely that the wafer and wine represented the body and blood of Christ, but were not actually it! To Catholics this put the Protestants and the Jews on the same side, but nevertheless once the Protestant revolt began, persecutions of Jews for desecration of the host stopped.
The beginning of the Protestant Reformation coincided with the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492. At that time Catholic Spain was the largest most powerful state in Europe, aligned as it was with the German Holy Roman Empire. In Muslim Spain the situation of the Jews had at first been good, the Muslim regime was tolerant, leading to the famous "Golden Age." Unfortunately however that lasted for only ca. 100 years. As the Christians became more powerful and successful in their war with the Muslims, the Muslim rulers were replaced with ever more extreme leaders from North Africa, the Almoravids and Almohades. In order to induce them to leave the Arab side, the Christians promised inducements to the Jews, that included the responsibility for "tax farming" namely collecting taxes from the peasants. This lead to anti-Jewish riots that the Christian monarchy used as an excuse to force Jews to convert to Catholicism, resulting in large numbers of so-called "conversos." The Inquisition that followed these conversions was not directed at the Jews, but at the conversos, who were regarded as insufficiently sincere in their conversions, and who were often imprisoned, tortured and murdered (thereby allowing the Church and the monarchy to steal their wealth and property). At the same time Ferdinand and Isabella decided to at last rid themselves of the "burden" and expelled the remaining Jews from Spain.
The Sephardic Jews took refuge in Portugal for a while (where they were cruely treated and forced to convert in 1505), and in North Africa, where they were tolerated. But, the two places where they were welcomed was in Protestant Holland (which had been a Spanish colony) and Muslim Turkey (and its colonies in the Balkans), on the grounds that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, since both considered the Spanish their enemy. The Turks accepted the Jews also because although they are Muslim, they had long been more tolerant than their Arab enemies, most of whom they occupied (Syria, Egypt, Arabia, and Iraq).
Another factor that made the Protestants more sympathetic to the Jews was the idea that evolved that the Jews must be restored to their Land before the second coming of their Messiah, Jesus. In fact, a whole movement of so-called Christian Zionism developed in the nineteenth century based on this idea, that included Lord Balfour and Winston Churchill. This partly resulted from the Christian idea that the Muslims should not control the Holy Land (that lead to the Crusades) and since few Christians wanted to go and live there and the Jews (in principle) did, that would be better for Protestant Christianity. Now the largest group of pro-Zionists in the world (larger than the Jewish population) are the approximately 40 million fundamentalist Christians in the USA.
A curious role in this development was played by the book, the "Zohar" which was a kabbalistic work written in Aramaic and attributed to the teachings of the 2nd century Rabbi Simon Bar Yochai, but actually written in Spain by Moses de Leon in the 13th century. This book was authentic however in its Zionism, and was studied widely and influenced many Jewish and Christian philosophers with its messianic prophesies, that included the return of the Jews to Zion (kabbala later dropped this emphasis).
From the 1520's onwards, Sephardic Jews immigrated into the Holy Land, in what was then part of the Turkish Empire. The shulchan aruch was written by Joseph Caro in Tzvat and influenced Ashkenazi practices. Donna Gracia and her nephew Joseph Nasi (the Duke of Naxos) became friends with the Turkish Sultan (before Weizmann tried the same thing) and influenced him to allow Jews to settle there. A constant trickle of Jews contributed to the development of the Yishuv.
At the same time the Treaty of Westphalia divided Europe into Catholic and Protestant regions, with an agreement not to continue religious wars. But, the Jews in some areas were very vulnerable and in 1649 there was a rebellion of Ukrainian peasants lead by Chielmenicki against their Polish conquerors, and tens of thousands of Jews were massacred. This lead to an upsurge in Zionism (get us out of here!) and along came Shabbtai Zvi, a mystic and self-proclaimed messiah. Many thousands of Jews left from all over the Christian world to join him in Israel. But he was arrested and forced to convert to Islam. Nevertheless, the Christians in Europe had seen that Jews were ready to down everything and leave for Zion.
Although the Turks had allowed the first and second Aliyot, during WWI the Jews were pro-British (e.g. the Nili spy ring) and the Turks persecuted them. But, once the British defeated the Turks in WWI the way was open for the expression of Protestant Christian Zionism in the form of the Balfour Declaration of 1917, to clear the way for a recognized return of the Jews to their Land.
The Protestants were more favorable to the Jews than the Catholics and the Orthodox Christians. There were several reasons for this. The Protestants believed in going back to the original Biblical sources rather than relying on the established Catholic interpretations of the sacred literature, and many of them studied Hebrew in order to do so. The Protestant King James version of the "Old" Testament was checked with Rabbis for accuracy. Cromwell was responsible for re-admitting the Jews to England, even though his Bill to do so was at first rejected by Parliament, it was eventually adopted. Martin Luther, the leader of the Protestant reformation, was at first friendly to the Jews, expecting them to convert to the "true" version of Christianity, but when they didn't he became very hostile and anti-Semitic, similar to the pattern of Mohammed. Many Protestant practices were considered to be "Jewish" by the Catholics.
Here is an important example. In 1215, at the Lateran Council, the Catholic Church decided on the doctrine of "the real presence." This was the theological doctrine that during the Eucharist or Mass, the bread and wine consumed were miraculously transformed into the real body and blood of Christ. This process, known as "trans-substantiation," was and still is a central tenet of Catholicism. During the following 300 years or so until the Protestant Reformation, Jews were persecuted for many reasons, and one of the most prominent became the so-called "desecration of the host," the host being the wafers that were the body of Christ that were considered to have magical powers by the peasantry (although not so much by the Church itself). Wafers were found "weeping blood" as a result of having been touched or harmed by Jews, and this alone resulted in massacres of tens of thousands of Jews. It was another version of the "blood libel."
The Protestants rejected the concept of "the real presence" and some of them, including Luther, replaced it with the idea of "cons-substantiation" namely that the wafer and wine represented the body and blood of Christ, but were not actually it! To Catholics this put the Protestants and the Jews on the same side, but nevertheless once the Protestant revolt began, persecutions of Jews for desecration of the host stopped.
The beginning of the Protestant Reformation coincided with the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492. At that time Catholic Spain was the largest most powerful state in Europe, aligned as it was with the German Holy Roman Empire. In Muslim Spain the situation of the Jews had at first been good, the Muslim regime was tolerant, leading to the famous "Golden Age." Unfortunately however that lasted for only ca. 100 years. As the Christians became more powerful and successful in their war with the Muslims, the Muslim rulers were replaced with ever more extreme leaders from North Africa, the Almoravids and Almohades. In order to induce them to leave the Arab side, the Christians promised inducements to the Jews, that included the responsibility for "tax farming" namely collecting taxes from the peasants. This lead to anti-Jewish riots that the Christian monarchy used as an excuse to force Jews to convert to Catholicism, resulting in large numbers of so-called "conversos." The Inquisition that followed these conversions was not directed at the Jews, but at the conversos, who were regarded as insufficiently sincere in their conversions, and who were often imprisoned, tortured and murdered (thereby allowing the Church and the monarchy to steal their wealth and property). At the same time Ferdinand and Isabella decided to at last rid themselves of the "burden" and expelled the remaining Jews from Spain.
The Sephardic Jews took refuge in Portugal for a while (where they were cruely treated and forced to convert in 1505), and in North Africa, where they were tolerated. But, the two places where they were welcomed was in Protestant Holland (which had been a Spanish colony) and Muslim Turkey (and its colonies in the Balkans), on the grounds that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, since both considered the Spanish their enemy. The Turks accepted the Jews also because although they are Muslim, they had long been more tolerant than their Arab enemies, most of whom they occupied (Syria, Egypt, Arabia, and Iraq).
Another factor that made the Protestants more sympathetic to the Jews was the idea that evolved that the Jews must be restored to their Land before the second coming of their Messiah, Jesus. In fact, a whole movement of so-called Christian Zionism developed in the nineteenth century based on this idea, that included Lord Balfour and Winston Churchill. This partly resulted from the Christian idea that the Muslims should not control the Holy Land (that lead to the Crusades) and since few Christians wanted to go and live there and the Jews (in principle) did, that would be better for Protestant Christianity. Now the largest group of pro-Zionists in the world (larger than the Jewish population) are the approximately 40 million fundamentalist Christians in the USA.
A curious role in this development was played by the book, the "Zohar" which was a kabbalistic work written in Aramaic and attributed to the teachings of the 2nd century Rabbi Simon Bar Yochai, but actually written in Spain by Moses de Leon in the 13th century. This book was authentic however in its Zionism, and was studied widely and influenced many Jewish and Christian philosophers with its messianic prophesies, that included the return of the Jews to Zion (kabbala later dropped this emphasis).
From the 1520's onwards, Sephardic Jews immigrated into the Holy Land, in what was then part of the Turkish Empire. The shulchan aruch was written by Joseph Caro in Tzvat and influenced Ashkenazi practices. Donna Gracia and her nephew Joseph Nasi (the Duke of Naxos) became friends with the Turkish Sultan (before Weizmann tried the same thing) and influenced him to allow Jews to settle there. A constant trickle of Jews contributed to the development of the Yishuv.
At the same time the Treaty of Westphalia divided Europe into Catholic and Protestant regions, with an agreement not to continue religious wars. But, the Jews in some areas were very vulnerable and in 1649 there was a rebellion of Ukrainian peasants lead by Chielmenicki against their Polish conquerors, and tens of thousands of Jews were massacred. This lead to an upsurge in Zionism (get us out of here!) and along came Shabbtai Zvi, a mystic and self-proclaimed messiah. Many thousands of Jews left from all over the Christian world to join him in Israel. But he was arrested and forced to convert to Islam. Nevertheless, the Christians in Europe had seen that Jews were ready to down everything and leave for Zion.
Although the Turks had allowed the first and second Aliyot, during WWI the Jews were pro-British (e.g. the Nili spy ring) and the Turks persecuted them. But, once the British defeated the Turks in WWI the way was open for the expression of Protestant Christian Zionism in the form of the Balfour Declaration of 1917, to clear the way for a recognized return of the Jews to their Land.
posted by Jack Cohen at 8:42 PM
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