If I were to guess the place where Christian anti-Semitism began I would probably guess Alexandria, Egypt, because Alexandria was the hot-bed of pagan anti-Semitism. It was Alexandria that produced what we might call the first Judaphobic–or proto Anti-Semitic–writings.
Produced over a period of three centuries, the Judaphobic writers of Alexandria spread their doctrines throughout the Greco-Roman world. By the first century Alexandria boasted the largest Jewish population in the Roman world. But in spite of the fact that two-fifths of the city was Jewish, Alexandria’s home-grown Judaphobia had made it the most anti-Jewish city in the ancient world. Finally, in 38 AD, the hatred that had been fomenting in Alexandria for many years spilled over into anti-Jewish riots. As a result of these riots two delegations were sent to Rome. One of these groups– the one defending the pagans–was led by one of the leading Judaphobes of the age, a man by the name of Apion.
Apion has been called the first Titan of Anti-Semitism. He is well deserving of the title. Apion was one of those responsible for stirring up the hatred of the pagan population of Alexandria and once the riots started he helped fan the flames. Later, Apion was appointed the head of the delegation that was sent to the Emperor to formally present charges of disloyalty against the Jews of Alexandria (Philo was the head of the Jewish delegation).
Once in Rome, Apion decided to stay. There he opened a school, and there he propagated his ideas until his death in 45 AD.
In his school and in his writings Apion taught three great themes that would be picked up by the church and repeated down through the centuries: (1) He cast aspersions on the racial origins of the Jews (2) He questioned their patriotism and loyalty as citizens (3) He accused them of secretly practicing human sacrifice and cannibalism.
To put things in historical perspective, there were no Gentile Christians at the time all of these things were happening. At the time of the Alexandrian riots the conversion of the first gentile, Cornelius, was still about two years away. Acts tells us that Saul’s persecution (which had occured several years before these events) had resulted in the church being spread throughout Judea and Samaria, as far north as Phoenicia and Syria, and as far west as Cyprus. So Christianity was spreading, but it was still an exclusively Jewish institution. Its final split from Judaism was years away.
One would like to think that the Judaphobia of Alexandria was confined just to Egypt. Unfortunately it spread to Rome, the home of the second largest Jewish population in the Greco/Roman world. Unfortunately, long before a church was planted in Rome, proto anti-Semitism was there waiting for it. In time the Church of Rome would become its most formidable champion.
We know, for example, of Apollonius Molon. Apollonius was a famous Alexandrian rhetorician. He was the teacher of both Cicero and Julius Ceaser. He also has the distinction of being the first man to compose an entire work against the Jews. In it he charges them with misanthropy and atheism; “The worst among the barbarians, lacking any creative talent, they did nothing for the good of mankind, they do not believe in any god.”
The works of other anti-Jewish writers were also well known in Rome. For example, Damocritus had written that every seven years the Jews would capture a stranger, lead him to the Temple, offer him as a sacrifice, and cut him into small pieces. This charge would later be picked up by the church. Many Jews would lose their lives because of it.
Pagan Rome never became the hotbed of Judaphobia that Alexandria was. Generally speaking, the Romans were tolerant of the Jews and made special allowance for their distinctive religious practices. Most of the Emperors could not have cared less about them. Others, such as Hadrian, were openly hostile to them. Most were ambivalent.
But the upper classes were a different matter. Many leading Roman thinkers, such as Horace, Ovid, Nero’s advisor, Seneca, and the historian, Tacitus, were openly hostile to them. Seneca called them a “most wicked nation.” Tacitus wrote that they are, “sinister, shameful, and have survived only because of their perversity.”
This, then, was the environment that greeted the unknown Christians who planted the church in Rome; a church destined to become the most influential in all of Christendom (The later claim that the church of Rome was founded by Peter is really nothing more than the self-serving mythology of a church well infected with the spirit of Diotrephes).
Rome was certainly not Alexandria, but the seeds of the doctrines that would form the core of Christian anti-Semitism had already been planted; and, as we will see, by the time the Apostle Paul wrote his epistle to the Romans they had begun to germinate in the Roman church.
Posted in Anti-Semitism, Bible, Theology
