Antisemites in the Early Church

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TODO: explain how the views expressed here don’t necessarily define Christians today.

Jerome (c. 347–420)

• Jerome is the patron saint of translators and was instrumental to producing the Latin Vulgate. He’s also the patron of librarians, archivists, students, and scholars.

• Catholics venerate Jerome on September 30 during his obligatory memorial, complete with its own liturgy and readings. The United Nations even formally recognizes September 30 as International Translation Day in his honor. The Catholic Order of Saint Jerome was founded in 1373 CE and continues to maintain about 18 convents.

• The Eastern Orthodox venerate “Blessed Jerome” as they call him on June 15. He’s celebrated for his asceticism and biblical scholarship.

• Jerome learned Hebrew from Jewish teachers, relied on rabbinic traditions, and had close contact with Jewish communities. He was also an antisemite.

• Jerome says that we pray in “synagogues of Satan,” and that if there was ever a community to hate, it is the Jews.

Jerome, Letter 84.3 – I came again to Jerusalem and Bethlehem. With what labor, at what price, I had Baraninas as my teacher by night! For he feared the Jews, and showed himself to me as a second Nicodemus. ... If it is right to hate any people and to detest any nation, I hold the circumcised in a remarkable hatred, for to this day they persecute our Lord Jesus Christ in the synagogues of Satan. Will someone object to me that I had a Jew as my teacher?

Veni rursum Jerosolymam et Bethleem. Quo labore, quo pretio Baraninam nocturnum habui praeceptorem! Timebat enim Judaeos, et mihi alterum exhibebat Nicodemum. ... Si expedit odisse homines, et gentem aliquam detestari, miro odio adversor circumcisos. Usque hodie enim persequuntur Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum in synagogis Satanae. Objiciat mihi quispiam, cur hominem Judaeum habuerim praeceptorem?

• Jerome says that our prayers cannot be heard, since our hands are full of Jesus’ blood. He condemns even our children in this way.

Jerome on Jonah 1:14 – Does not the voice of the sailors seem to us to be the confession of Pilate, who washes his hands and says, “I am clean of the blood of this man” (Matthew 27:24)? The gentiles do not want Christ to perish; they testify that it is innocent blood. And the Jews say, “His blood be on us, and on our children” (Matthew 27:25). And so, if they lift up their hands, they will not be heard, for they are full of blood.

Nonne nobis videtur nautarum vox, Pilati esse confessio, qui lavat manus suas, et dicit: Mundus sum ego a sanguine viri hujus (Matth. XXVII, 25). Nolunt Christum perire gentes, innocentem sanguinem protestantur. Et Judaei dicunt: Sanguis ejus super nos, et super filios nostros. Et ideo si levaverint manus, non exaudientur, quia plenae sunt sanguine.

Jerome on Matthew 27:25-26 – This curse rests upon the Jews to the present day, and the blood of the Lord is not taken away from them. Hence He speaks through Isaiah: “If you lift up your hands to Me, I will not hear you, for your hands are full of blood.” The Jews leave a fine inheritance to their children, saying: “His blood be on us, and on our children.” ... Barabbas the robber, who stirred up riots among the crowds and was the author of murders, was released to the people of the Jews: that is, the devil, who reigns in them to this day, and that is why they cannot have peace.

Perseverat usque in praesentem diem haec imprecatio super Judaeos, et sanguis Domini non aufertur ab eis. Unde per Isaiam loquitur: Si levaveritis ad me manus, non exaudiam vos. Manus enim vestrae plenae sunt sanguine. Optimam haereditatem Judaei filiis relinquunt, dicentes: Sanguis ejus super nos, et super filios nostros. ... Barrabbas latro, qui seditiones faciebat in turbis, qui homicidiorum auctor erat, dimissus est populo Judaeorum, id est, diabolus, qui usque hodie regnat in eis, et idcirco pacem habere non possunt.

• Jerome even says our prayers sound like pigs and asses.

Jerome on Amos 5:23 – The beautiful songs of the Levites, with which they praised God, He calls a tumult and a confused noise, because praise is not beautiful in the mouth of a sinner, and they were also accustomed to offer these same songs to idols. So too the prayer and psalms of the Jews, which they sing in the synagogues, and the composed praise of the heretics, are a tumult to the Lord, and, so to speak, the grunting of a pig and the braying of asses, to whose cries the works of Israel are better compared.

Pulchra cantica Levitarum, quibus laudabant Deum, tumultum vocat, sonitumque confusum; quia non est pulchra laudatio in ore peccatoris, et haec eadem idolis offerre quoque consueverant. Judaeorum quoque oratio et psalmi, quos in synagogis canunt, et haereticorum composita laudatio tumultus est Domino, et ut ita dicam, grunnitus suis, et clamor asinorum, quorum magis cantibus Israelis opera comparantur.

• Jerome gleefully mocks the mourners of Tisha b’Av as they weep over the destruction of the 2nd Temple.

Jerome on Zephaniah 1:15-16 – And this is to be said not only of the captivity, but of the present day: the treacherous tenants, after killing the servants and at last the Son of God, are forbidden to enter Jerusalem except to lament, and they pay a price to be allowed to weep over the ruin of their city, so that those who once bought the blood of Christ now buy their own tears; not even their weeping is free. On the day that Jerusalem was captured and destroyed by the Romans, you may see a mourning people come, decrepit little women and old men gathering, laden with rags and years, showing the wrath of the Lord in their bodies and in their dress. A crowd of wretches assembles, and while the gibbet of the Lord gleams, and His Anastasis shines, and the banner of the cross blazes from the Mount of Olives too, a wretched people laments the ruins of its temple, and yet is not pitiable. While tears are still on their cheeks, their arms bruised and their hair disheveled, the soldier demands a fee so that they may weep longer. And can anyone who sees this doubt the day of trouble and distress, the day of calamity and misery, the day of darkness and gloom, the day of cloud and whirlwind, the day of the trumpet and the blast? For even in their mourning they have trumpets, and, according to the prophecy, the voice of the festival is turned into lamentation.

et hoc non tantum de captivitate dicendum est, sed usque ad praesentem diem, perfidi coloni post interfectionem servorum, et ad extremum Filii Dei, excepto planctu, prohibentur ingredi Jerusalem, et ut ruinam suae eis flere liceat civitatis, pretio redimunt, ut qui quondam emerant sanguinem Christi, emant lacrymas suas: et ne fletus quidem eis gratuitus sit. Videas in die quo capta est a Romanis et diruta Jerusalem, venire populum lugubrem, confluere decrepitas mulierculas, et senes pannis annisque obsitos, in corporibus et in habitu suo iram Domini demonstrantes. Congregatur turba miserorum, et patibulo Domini coruscante, ac radiante ἀναστάσει ejus, de Oliveti monte quoque crucis fulgente vexillo, plangere ruinas templi sui populum miserum, et tamen non esse miserabilem: adhuc fletus in genis et livida brachia, et sparsi crines, et miles mercedem postulat, ut illis flere plus liceat; et dubitat aliquis, cum haec videat, de die tribulationis et angustiae, de die calamitatis et miseriae, de die tenebrarum et caliginis, de die nebulae et turbinis, de die tubae et clangoris? Habent enim et in luctu tubas, et, juxta prophetiam, vox solemnitatis versa est in planctum.