Saint John Chrysostom (c.347-407) :
Eight Homilies Against the Jews
Introduction
John Chrysostom is considered a "doctor of the Church", and among the
greatest of the Greek Fathers. He was bishop of Antioch at the time of these sermons,
although he became archbishop of Constantinople in 398. He was admired for his eloquence
and gifts in preaching. As an introduction to these sermon, below is the discussion by
James Parkes.
Bibliographical Hints
To find out more about this subject see:
John Chrysostom, Discourses against Judaizing Christians, translated by Paul
W. Harkins. The Fathers of the Church ; v. 68 (Washington : Catholic University of America
Press, 1979)
This is apparently the most up to date translation, and should be used by anyone wanting
to comment on these texts in written work. It is also a mealy mouthed translation of the title.
Grissom, Fred Allen, Chrysostom and the Jews : studies in
Jewish-Christian relations in fourth-century Antioch, Thesis (Ph. D.)--Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary, 1979.
Meeks, Wayne A. and Robert L. Wilken, Jews and Christians in Antioch in the first
four centuries of the common era, Scholars Press for the Society of Biblical
Literature, c1978.
Wilken, Robert Louis, John Chrysostom and the Jews : rhetoric and reality in the
late fourth century (Berkeley : University of California Press, 1983)
At the request of Catholic University of America I have had to remove these texts, which turn out to be Harkins; translation. This will of course leave the texts still online at the Catholic anti-Semetic site at http://holywar.org/txt/chrysostom.html and show the utter wrongheaded ness of those in the posted reactions claimed the texts were inferior to Harkin's text.
This timimg is unfortunate in that in the UK in the past month Simon Schama has presented a TV history of the Jews which excoriates Chrysostym based on these texts., (it will soon be on PBS). I intend to make it VERY clear that one Dr Thomas Gallagher and CUA are the culpable parties in this timimg.
CHRYSOSTOM AND THE JEWS OF ANTIOCH, pp. 163-166
from James Parkes: The Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue: A Study in the
Origins of Antisemitism, (New York: JPS, 1934)
While in their writings Hilary and Eusebius introduced the pagan world to this strange
version of Jewish history, Chrysostom expressed similar theories with much greater
violence from his pulpit at Antioch. In eight sermons which he delivered in 387 he speaks
with a bitterness and lack of restraint unusual even in that place and century {PG Vol
97). If it were not for the exegetical background which has already been shown, it would
be impossible to explain, let alone excuse, his tone. Christianity was no longer in any
danger. He himself had not, like Athanasius, ever known any persecution from the Jews, and
the period of trial under Julian had been very short. Even had they been a menace in old
times, the rich and powerful Jewish community of Antioch was now hemmed in, like every
other, by numerous imperial edicts issued under Christian inspiration. Moreover,
Chrysostom was a man whose character excited the admiration of his contemporaries. If he
was hated by politicians for his unswerving firmness, he was loved by the multitudes, and
his commentaries on the gospels are still read and studied in the Orthodox Church because
of their deep spiritual beauty.
Such was the man who in eight sermons covering more than a hundred pages of closely
printed text, has left us the most complete monument of the public expression of the
Christian attitude to the Jews in the century of the victory of the Church. In these
discourses there is no sneer too mean, no gibe too bitter for him to fling at the Jewish
people. No text is too remote to be able to be twisted to their confusion, no argument is
too casuistical, no blasphemy too startling for him to employ; and, most astonishing of
all, at the end he turns to the Christians, and in words full of sympathy and toleration
he urges them not to be too hard on those who have erred in following Jewish practices or
in visiting Jewish synagogues. Dealing with the Christians, no text which urges
forgiveness is forgotten: dealing with the Jews only one verse of the New Testament is
omitted: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do'.
The only explanation of his bitterness contained in the sermons themselves is the too
close fellowship between Jews and Christians in Antioch. There is no single suggestion
that the Jews were immoral or vicious; no suggestion that Christians were actually
corrupted by the contact, either in their morals or their orthodoxy. Only one contemporary
event is referred to at all, apart from general denunciations of the visiting of the
synagogue at times of Jewish feast or fast. This was the case of a Christian woman who was
taken into a Jewish house to take an oath in a business affair, because the Christian with
whom she had to deal believed that an oath taken in the Jewish manner was more binding
than any other. What the actual affair was we are not told. To Chrysostom's eyes the crime
was that a Christian woman had been taken into a Jewish house, not that she had been
seduced or taught heretical doctrine or anything else. It was enough that she had been
made to enter the house [Sermon I:3].
There is no material in these sermons for a study of contemporary Jewish life. Events
and beliefs of centuries earlier are quoted as though still accepted. On the strength of
Psalm xcvi, 37, he states that they ' sacrificed their sons and daughters to devils: they
outraged nature; and overthrew from their foundations the laws of relationship. They are
become worse than the wild beasts, and for no reason at all, with their own hands they
murder their own offspring, to worship the avenging devils who are the foes of our
life" [Sermon I:6]. It seems almost as if his hearers in Antioch objected to so
monstrous a statement, for in his sixth sermon he returns to the charge, and says that
even if they no longer murder their own children, they have murdered the Christ, which is
worse [Sermon VI:2, 3]. The synagogues of the Jews are the homes of idolatry and
devils, even though they have no images in them [Sermon I:3; based on Jer. vii:11]. They
are worse even than heathen circuses [Sermon I:3. The very idea of going from a church to
a synagogue is blasphemous [Sermon II:3]; and to attend the Jewish Passover is to insult
Christ. To be with the Jews on the very day they murdered Jesus is to ensure that on the
Day of Judgment He will say ' Depart from Me: for you have had intercourse with my
murderers' [Sermon III:5 and VI:8] . Some say that the synagogue is hallowed by the
fact that the Holy Books of the Law are to be found in it. One might just as well say that
the temple of Dagon was hallowed by the Ark being in it, even though the Ark destroyed the
idol to prove the opposite [Sermon I:5, ref to I Sam V]. It is truer to say that the fact
that these Books are to be found in the synagogues makes them more detestable, for the
Jews have simply introduced these Books, ' not to honour them, but to insult them, and to
dishonour them' [Sermon I:5 and VI:6]. The Jews do not worship God but devils
[Sermon I:3, based on John 8:19], so that all their feasts are unclean [Sermon
I:6]. God hates them, and indeed has always hated them. But since their murder of Jesus He
allows them no time for repentance [Sermon VI:1]. It was of set purpose that He
concentrated all their worship in Jerusalem that He might more easily destroy it
[Sermon IV:6]. The Jewish pretence that their misfortunes are due to Rome are not worthy
of attention. ' It was not by their own power that the Caesars did what they did to you:
it was done by the wrath of God, and His absolute rejection of you' [Sermon VI:3].
It is childish in the face of this absolute rejection to imagine that God will ever allow
the Jews to rebuild their Temple or to return to Jerusalem. Their experience under Julian
should convince them of that [SermonV, passim. The whole sermon is an insulting sneer at
their misfortunes and exile, and a gloating over the certainty of their damnation. Cf. the
sermon ' That Christ is God: addressed to Jews and Pagans ' in the same volume]. When it
is clear that God hates them, it is the duty of Christians to hate them too; and he begins
his sixth sermon with a revolting analogy of a beast in the arena, who has tasted blood,
and longs for it again. So he, Chrysostom, having once begun to denounce the Jews, cannot
leave off [Sermon VI:1] for he who has no limits in his love of Christ must have no limits
in his battle with those who hate Him [Sermon VII:1]. ' I hate the Jews ' he exclaims
roundly, for they have the Law and they insult it'.
But when in the last sermon he comes to address those miserable sinners who had been
frequenting Jewish celebrations his tone is unrecognizable. He insists that they must be
dealt with gently, for the true attitude to a sinner is 'whenever we hear any good of him,
to tell it to all; but when we hear any evil or wicked thing, to keep it to ourselves, and
do all in our power to change It [Sermon VIII:3]. It is evident that Chrysostom's Jew was
a theological necessity rather than a living person. If he looked different from the
actual Jews living in Antioch it was part of the malice of the Jew, one of the snares of
the devil, set to catch the unwary Christian. The comment of a Catholic theologian on
these sermons is worth quoting [Murawski]: ' Das Gebot der Nächstensliebe wird man in
diesen Reden nicht wiederfinden, und ebensowenig werden solche Reden fähig gewesen sein
die Juden mit Sympathie für das Christentum zu erfüllen '. [ English: "One will not
find the requirement to love one's neighbour in these speeches, nor will such
speeches have been able to fill the Jews with any sympathy for Christianity".]
Source.
John Chrysostom: Eight Homilies Against the Jews [Adversus Judeaus], Patrologia
Greaca, Vol 98
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© Paul Halsall, August 1998 [email protected],
Updated, and last two homilies added, May 2002. CUA Material removed 2nd October 2013
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