Religious antisemitism

Religious antisemitism is the aversion to or discrimination against Jews as a whole based on religious doctrines of supersession, which expect or demand the disappearance of Judaism and the conversion of Jews to other faiths. This form of antisemitism has frequently served as the basis for false claims and religious antisemitic tropes against Judaism. Sometimes, it is called theological antisemitism.

Some scholars have argued that modern antisemitism is primarily based on nonreligious factors, John Higham is emblematic of this school of thought. However, this interpretation has been challenged. In 1966, Charles Glock and Rodney Stark first published public opinion polling data, which showed that most Americans based their stereotypes of Jews on religion. Since then, further opinion polling in America and Europe has supported this conclusion.

Father Edward Flannery, in his 1965 book The Anguish of the Jew: Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism, traces the first clear examples of specific anti-Jewish sentiment back to Alexandria in the third century BCE. Flannery writes that it was the Jews' refusal to accept Greek religious and social standards that marked them out. Hecataetus of Abdera, a Greek historian of the early third century BCE, wrote that Moses "in remembrance of the exile of his people, instituted for them a misanthropic and inhospitable way of life." Manetho, an Egyptian historian, wrote that the Jews were expelled Egyptian lepers who had been taught by Moses "not to adore the gods". The same themes appeared in the works of Chaeremon, Lysimachus, Poseidonius, Apollonius Molon, Apion and Tacitus. Agatharchides of Cnidus wrote about the "ridiculous practices" of the Jews and of the "absurdity of their Law", and how Ptolemy Lagus was able to invade Jerusalem in 320 BCE because its inhabitants were observing the Sabbath. David Nirenberg also charts this history in Antijudaism: The Western Tradition.

Christian religious antisemitism is often expressed as anti-Judaism (i.e., it is argued that the antipathy is to the practices of Judaism). As such, it is argued, antisemitism would cease if Jews stopped practicing or changed their public faith, especially by converting to Christianity. However, there have been times when converts were also discriminated against, as in the case of the liturgical exclusion of Jewish converts, which occurred during the late 15th and 16th centuries, when Christianized Marranos or Iberian Jews were accused of secretly practicing Judaism or Jewish customs.

Frederick Schweitzer and Marvin Perry write that the authors of the gospel account sought to place responsibility for the Crucifixion of Jesus and his death on Jews rather than the Roman emperor or Pontius Pilate. As a result, Christians for centuries viewed Jews as "the Christ Killers". The destruction of the Second Temple was seen as a judgment from God to the Jews for that death, and Jews were seen as "a people condemned forever to suffer exile and degradation". According to historian Edward H. Flannery, the Gospel of John in particular contains many verses that refer to Jews in a pejorative manner.

In 1 Thessalonians 2:14–16, Paul states that the Churches in Judea had been persecuted by the Jews who killed Jesus and that such people displease God, oppose all men, and had prevented Paul from speaking to the gentile nations concerning the New Testament message. Described by Hyam Maccoby as "the most explicit outburst against Jews in Paul's Epistles", these verses have repeatedly been employed for antisemitic purposes. Maccoby views it as one of Paul's innovations responsible for creating Christian antisemitism, though he notes that some have argued these particular verses are later interpolations not written by Paul. Craig Blomberg claims that viewing them as antisemitic is a mistake, but "understandable in light of [Paul's] harsh words". In his view, Paul is not condemning all Jews forever, but merely those he believed had specifically persecuted the prophets, Jesus, or the 1st-century church. Blomberg sees Paul's words here as no different in kind than the harsh words the prophets of the Old Testament have for the Jews.

The Codex Sinaiticus contains two extra books in the New Testament—the Shepherd of Hermas and the Epistle of Barnabas. The latter emphasizes the claim that it was the Jews, not the Romans, who killed Jesus and is full of antisemitism. The Epistle of Barnabas was not accepted as part of the canon; Professor Bart Ehrman has stated, "the suffering of Jews in the subsequent centuries would, if possible, have been even worse had the Epistle of Barnabas remained".

Many early and influential Church works—such as the dialogues of Justin Martyr, the homilies of John Chrysostom, and the testimonies of the church father Cyprian—are strongly anti-Jewish.