The Origins of Anti-Semitism: Attitudes toward Judaism in Pagan and Christian Antiquity

321 Pages·1985·14.46 MB·English

by  John G. Gager

THE ORIGINS OF ANTI-SEMITISM
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THE ORIGINS
OF ANTI-SEMITISM
Attitudes Toward Judaism
in Pagan and Christian Antiquity
JOHN G. GAGER
New York Oxford
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1985
Oxford University Press
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Copyright © 1983 Oxford University Press, Inc.
Published by OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, Inc.,
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016-4314
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Gager, John G.
The Origins of Christian Anti-Semitism
Includes Bibliographical references and index.
1. Christianity and antisemitism. 2. Judaism--
Relations—Christianity. 3. Christianity and other
religions- Judaism. 4. Philosemitism—Rome.
5. Paul, the Apostle, Saint--Attitude towards
Judaism. I. Title.
BM535.G33 1983 296.3'872 82-24523
ISBN 0-19-503316-7
0-19-503607-7 ppr
Printing (last digit): 9 8
Printed in the United States of America
PREFACE
This book originated in a grandiose dream for a doctoral dissertation.
Instead, I settled for a much more manageable project on pagan views
of Moses. (Moses in Greco-Roman Paganism [Nashville, 1972]). The
question of manageability aside, the present book simply could not have
been written at that time. The work of Rosemary Ruether, Lloyd Gaston,
and Menahem Stern has been utterly indispensable to my own. This as-
sertion reflects my strong belief in the corporate character of all human-
istic scholarship. Our labor is part of an unbroken conversation—inherited
from our predecessors, transmitted through and sometimes modified by
ourselves, and passed on to our successors. But our enterprise is corporate
in yet another sense, for the ultimate concern of all humanistic scholar-
ship is what it means to be human. At its most fundamental level, this
book is intended to address the question of what it means to be human
by examining reactions to Jews and Judaism in Western antiquity. The
undertaking as a whole rests on the contention that certain conversations,
begun in antiquity, continue to shape our lives today. Particular voices in
these conversations—the dominant ones I fear—have repeatedly repre-
sented our common humanity in the meanest and narrowest terms. At
times they have threatened civilization itself. Other voices, potent in the
beginning but eventually lost or garbled in the disquieting triumph of
Christianity, hold a promise of preserving our common humanity without
sacrificing particularity.
My own work, it should be obvious, is heavily indebted to both
predecessors and contemporaries. My debt to the former is acknowledged
vi PREFACE
primarily in the footnotes of this work. Among contemporaries, special
mention must be made of Lloyd Gaston, of the Vancouver School of
Theology; and my former teacher, Krister Stendahl, of the Harvard
Divinity School. My editor, Cynthia Read, provided me with invaluable
assistance at various points in the completion of the manuscript.
A final note about the use of ancient sources. In dealing with pagan
texts, I have tried to be exhaustive. In general I have relied on Menahem
Stern's monumental two-volume compendium, Greek and Latin Authors
on Jews and Judaism (Jerusalem, 1974 and 1980; a third and final volume
is projected). In treating Christian materials, the same procedure is neither
possible nor desirable. Here I have striven to be judiciously selective
rather than comprehensive. Some very recent publications, most notably
H. Conzelmann's Heiden-Juden-Christen. Auseinandersetzungen in der
Literatur der hellenistisch-romischen Zeit (Tubingen, 1981), receive no
attention here. The bearing of my own work on such publications will
be clear to any who care to read them. Conzelmann's work makes it pain-
fully clear just how difficult it is to change the course of long-established
conversations.
CONTENTS
Introduction 3
Part I Anti-Semitism and Anti-Judaism: The Modern Debate 11
1 From Jules Isaac to Rosemary Ruether 13
2 Consensus and Crisis in the Response to Ruether 24
Part II Judaism and Judaizing Among Gentiles: Attractions and
Reactions 3 5
3 The Greek and Roman Encounter with Judaism: Philosophy and
Politics 39
4 The Later Roman Encounter with Judaism: The Politics of
Sympathy and Conversion 55
5 Against the Stream: Sympathy for Judaism in Imperial Rome 67
6 Roman Policy Toward Judaism and the Rise of Christianity 89
7 The Dialogue of Paganism with Judaism in Late Antiquity:
Philosophers and Magicians 102
Part III Christianity, Israel, and the Torah 113
8 Judaizing and Anti-Judaism in the Christian Tradition 117
9 Controversies and Debates Between Jews and Christians 134
viii CONTENTS
10 Anti-Judaism in the Theological Response to Marcion and the
Christian Gnostics 160
11 Paul's Friends and Enemies 174
Part IV The Case of Paul 193
12 On Reinventing Paul 197
13 Has Christ Abrogated the Torah? Has God Rejected His
People? 213
14 What Circumstances Gave Rise to Paul's Extended Discussion of
Israel, the Torah, and the Gentiles? 230
15 What Was the Heart of Paul's Argument with the Jews, His
Kinsmen by Race? 247
Conclusion 265
Notes 271
General Index 307
Index of Biblical Passages 312
THE ORIGINS OF ANTI-SEMITISM