Biblical and Historical Roots of Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism has long been considered the “world’s oldest hatred”. Examinations into the origins of this opposition to the Jewish people, beliefs, and practices have made use of various methodologies and taken different angles in an attempt to understand this historical “Jewish question”. An historical, and even historiographical, approach is taken by Roth and Rubenstein in the first chapters of their “Approaches to Auschwitz”. They look at the roots of anti-Semitism in terms factual events throughout history, reaching back to pre-Christian Greek, Roman, and Egyptian civilizations, as well as early Christian-dominated Roman society.
While the above approach might provide an historical understanding of Anti-Judaism’s origins, it may fail to explain its perpetuation throughout history, or the origin of hatred of other groups (ie: the “dislike of the unlike”). Instead, a historiosophical approach, which intertwines history, an understanding of human nature, and a literal and hermeneutical examination of the influence of historical texts (such as the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament), can be posited. This, it is hoped, would not only explain the roots of Anti-Semitism, but its propagation throughout space and time, and even the origin of the general hatred of one group (often the majority) for another (the minority).
The approach presented by Roth and Rubenstein provides numerous examples throughout history of the formation and promulgation of anti-Semitism. This started as far back as the Hellenistic period, in which the nontraditional monotheistic Jewish beliefs and accompanying practices, notably that of circumcision and self-segregation, were seen as primitive, barbarous, and elitist. It also appeared in Alexandria and Egypt, in which the allegedly anti-Egyptian biblical narrative of Exodus was supplanted with an anti-Judaic version. The extreme claims in these versions would later stir influential apologetic thought in the church. The predominantly-Christian Roman Empire and surrounding regions of the middle first millennium set into stone the growing anti-Semitic sentiment of the time, making such things as interfaith marriage and various forms of Jewish interaction with Christians illegal. While all of these facts of history do well to show how anti-Semitism came about in various regions, it does not scratch the surface of understanding the true origins of anti-Semitism in terms of Jewish and Christian doctrine.
It is human nature to want to categorize everything, from species to regions and peoples. Categorization makes the world easier to comprehend. It is in this nature that, throughout history, societies have distinguished the differences between groups of people, attempting at once to instill a clearer sense of independence and self-identity while also identifying others as the cause of their problems. For Judaism, the singling-out may have started within their own Scriptures, and was later motivated by historical actions and Christian supersessionism. This probably began with the biblical identification of the Jewish people as being separate, and apparently above, other groups. Combined with strong religious convictions and other institutional practices, such as that of levirate marriage and its placing of importance on Hebrew lineage through the first-born son, Jewish faith may have set itself up to be “that group” which outsiders choose to blame for alleged problems in society. This would set the course of future “dislike of the unlike”.
The onset of Christianity would further the anti-Judaic polemic. The New Testament’s replacement theology appeared to supersede previous Jewish doctrine, rendering obsolete any original covenant. Seemingly anti-Judaic Christian Scriptures, such as Jesus’ statements to the Jews in chapter 8 of John, would fuel future hatred, as would the belief that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus. This apparent biblical “teaching of contempt” does well to explain the origin of anti-Semitism and its subsequent propagation through time. This can then be combined with humanity’s innate desire to categorize, stereotype, and assign blame, as well as Judaic self-segregation, to make clear how anti-Semitism has lasted. By identifying groups as “insiders” or “outsiders”, and assigning labels to each, the “world’s oldest hatred” is allowed to take root and spread.
