Jesus was born within the Jewish world, lived as Jewish person, and spoke His message to the Jewish community of first-century Israel. Yet, for a good part of two millennia the followers of Jesus in the historical Catholic Church as well as within Protestantism, with some exceptions, have not only misrepresented His original teachings but have often persecuted His own people. Modern antisemitism finds some of its roots in the distortion of biblical texts aided by the eventual separation of Christianity from its Jewish context.[1]

As the decades passed beyond the first century CE and more Gentiles entered the community of Jesus-following faith, Christianity gradually became cut off from its first-century Jewish milieu. The Council of Nicaea in 325 CE reflects this departure in that Jewish leadership was absent and the Jewish holiday of Passover was replaced with Easter. Messianic Jewish theologian Mark Kinzer describes the Nicene Council’s concern for calendar changes so that Christians would cease following “the custom of the Jews.” He states, “The bishops rejected any sign that the Church was dependent on the Jewish people for its faith or way of life.”[2] The distancing of Christianity from its Jewish roots also occurred due to the strengthening and cohesion of rabbinic Judaism after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem as well as various Jewish revolts against Rome and Jewish exile from the land in the second century CE.

The early church fathers like Justin Martyr (100–165 CE), John Chrysostom (347–407 CE), and Augustine (354–430 CE) looked at New Testament texts in light of the destruction of the Temple, Jewish exile, and Roman persecution of the Jewish people in the first and second centuries. These church fathers developed consistent hateful messages in their writings. Their ideas included the Jewish people’s responsibility for the death of Jesus, their suffering as divine punishment for rejecting Jesus, Judaism’s inferiority, and the church’s replacement of Israel as God’s chosen people (supersessionism). Once the Roman world formally adopted Christianity as its state religion in the fourth century CE, these anti-Jewish teachings spread and were more formally concretized.

Influenced by early church fathers, many church leaders throughout the centuries often set Jesus against His Jewish community by misinterpreting New Testament texts rather than seeing its Jewish authors as describing an internal Jewish debate about religious observance and the way to follow God (Matthew 12, 23; Mark 7). These types of disputes were common among Jewish sects before and after the first century CE and were similar to the Hebrew prophets’ condemnation of ancient Israel for a lack of sincere obedience or for idolatrous practices (Jeremiah 6; Ezekiel 14; Isaiah 29). Messianic Jews and many Christians today, particularly within evangelical circles, agree those texts present a Jewish family exchange as expressed by the Lausanne Movement: “When Jesus argued with the Pharisees and other Jewish groups, he was having an internal ‘family argument’ where voices are strongly raised but never in an anti-Jewish way.”[3]

Yet, non-Jewish church leadership—from the early church fathers to Catholic and Protestant clergy—wielded New Testament texts as a weapon of derision and eventual persecution so that Jewish people viewed Jesus as repugnant and an outsider to Judaism. With time, Christians started to impose restrictions on Jewish people, including, at times, on travel, dwelling places, and livelihood. Rather than Christians displaying the love of Jesus to the community from whom Jesus came, many Christians over time called Jewish people Christ-killers, mandated conversion, and sent them to their death.

Anti-Jewish theology heightened during the Middle Ages when additional myths of blood libel and host desecration[4]became ingrained in Christian societies, leading to violence against Jewish people as well as expulsions from countries like England (1290), France (1306), and Spain (1492). Anti-Jewish writings from the church fathers inspired later Christian triumphalism like the Crusades (1096–1291), during which Christian armies strove to cleanse the holy land of “infidels,” killing both Muslims and Jewish people. The Middle Ages ended with further persecution and expulsion of the Jewish people from Spain and Portugal during the Inquisition, when the Catholic Church targeted Jewish converts in its pursuit to root out what it considered heresy.[5]

The Reformers of the Roman Catholic Church in the sixteenth century continued an antagonistic stance toward the Jewish people. Martin Luther’s attempts in Germany at restoring the church to its biblical foundation initially encouraged Luther’s hope for Jewish people’s faith in Jesus. But when they continued to reject Jesus, Luther lost patience. He offered a litany of attacks against the Jewish people in his treatise On the Jews and Their Lies. Luther may not have intended his writings to lead to Nazi persecution of the Jewish people, but they were used by the regime.[6]

A couple of decades after the Holocaust, institutional churches like the Catholic Church started to rethink their theology toward the Jewish people. The Second Vatican Council (1962–65) under Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI helped foster a transition in relations between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people through “The Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions,” or Nostra Aetate. This document attempted to repeal the accusation that all Jewish people are responsible for the death of Jesus and re-establish the importance of the role of the Jewish people in Christian theology.

In modern times, churches have generally moved away from the extreme rhetoric of the church fathers and the acts of violence in the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, replacement theology still undergirds a large portion of church teachings, evidenced for example when churches transfer Israel’s blessings to themselves or see themselves as the new Israel. This theology may not signal overt antisemitism that leads to brutality, yet it undermines the place of the Jewish people in God’s heart and plan, the accuracy of Scripture, and the witness of Christians toward Jewish people.

Correcting Church Wrongs

It will be difficult to repair centuries of church teaching that fueled anti-Jewish hate and actions. Christians first need to learn this history of hatred, persecution, and antisemitism by those who called themselves Christian. Christians can grasp the original Jewish context of the New Testament by reassessing the New Testament verses that were used in distorted ways against the Jewish people for centuries. Accepting biblical verses that speak of the Jewish people’s ongoing chosenness (Romans 11:28) and their full return to God as a nation (Zechariah 12:10, 13:1; Ezekiel 36:25; Matthew 23:39; Romans 11:23–26) can help challenge supersessionist interpretations. Acknowledging that Jesus laid His own life down will combat the notion of Jewish guilt for Jesus’ death (John 10:18).

Above all, approaching Jewish people with humility is a critical step toward undoing the long history of pride that led to antisemitic teaching and acts that have made Jesus anathema to Jewish people. As the Jewish apostle Paul wrote to Gentile followers of Jesus, “Do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you” (Romans 11:18).