Отношение к христианству со стороны иудейства

“The Jews are hostile to Christians, and the Greeks persecute them,” - with these words the author of the “Epistle to Diognetus” characterizes the position of Christians in a world hostile to them (5.17). Judaism was an old and well-known enemy of Christianity. There were too many points of contact between Christianity and Judaism for us not to notice at the very first time the deep gulf that separated them on the most fundamental issues; In this same connection, there is an explanation for the stubborn hatred with which Judaism treated the new renegades, and precisely at a time when many different movements emerged on Jewish soil, which were decisively rejected by the rabbis who led the people. The question of the relationship between Christianity and Judaism did not lose its urgency in the 2nd century. Did the Jews really make a fatal mistake by not recognizing Jesus of Nazareth as the true Messiah? Doesn’t the Law of Moses have an eternal and binding meaning for everyone? By what right do Christians call themselves the true Israel, while denying this to the children of Abraham? By what right do they consider their sacred books, the dear heritage and property of their history, their property and on the basis of them prove the foolishness and condemnation of the chosen people? But disagreements on theological issues were closely intertwined with issues of a national character, since the messianic aspirations of the Jews were thoroughly imbued with national aspirations. If Christians recognized in Jesus of Nazareth, shamefully executed, the Messiah who was foretold by the prophets and who gave meaning to their entire previous history, and His messianic dignity was considered a necessary condition for salvation at the coming judgment, if they rejected the eternal and absolute meaning of the Jewish law, in understanding it they stood on the basis of allegorical interpretation not according to the instructions of the rabbis and did not consider restoration necessary Jewish cult in the church of heavenly Jerusalem, then they deviate from the traditions of their fathers and are traitors to the people's cause. Jews and Christians were divided by something more than theological differences: a chasm of feelings formed, which excluded the possibility of mutual understanding. One only has to imagine the extremely heightened national excitement of the Jewish people, which even after the terrible catastrophe of 70 was strong enough to cause a new uprising of Bar Kokhba, and the depth of embitterment that was a natural consequence of the failure and national humiliation and defeat, and then the cruel hatred of Christians, these traitors, who in the disasters of the Jewish people saw the punishing hand of God, a terrible judgment on a people who rejected their Messiah: what brought horror and despair to the Jews caused joy and satisfaction in Christians. The hatred rooted in such deep soil was aggravated by constant hostile clashes between Christians and Jews, which were a consequence of their neighborhood in their place of residence. In most cities where Christian communities arose, there were Jews for a long time, and it was the most important strongholds of the Christian mission - large harbors and ports in the East, Rome in the West - that were also the centers of life for Jews in the diaspora. This cohabitation gave constant reasons for displeasure. The hostility of the Jews towards Christians became extremely passionate due to the jealousy that the spread of Christianity aroused among the Jews. The mission of the Christians addressed the same circles that Jewish propaganda had hitherto counted on, i.e., the souls of those who were looking for monotheism, confidence in eternal life, sinlessness and moral purity and who in this desire did not find satisfaction in philosophy. In these circles, Christian propaganda affected Jewish propaganda. The attractive power of Judaism after 70, and especially after the uprisings under Trajan and Hadrian, should have decreased significantly; Moreover, Christianity offered the same benefits that Judaism made attractive, but in a form much more acceptable to the Greeks, and the communication of which was ensured by the recent coming from heaven of the Son of God and the celebration of the sacraments. Christianity, further, spoke out beyond the narrow confines of national boundaries. Those who adhered to Christianity found that there was no difference between Jew and Greek. In the Churches, for example, natural Greeks were in first place; there was no difference between full-fledged and proselytes, who in Jewish communities were considered only as members of the second and third rank. These were the main reasons why the Christian mission defeated the Jewish one. Christian writers themselves, on occasion, triumphantly point out this fact. In explaining Isaiah 54:1, “she who is forsaken has many more children than she who has a husband,” the author of 2 Clement says: “Our people seem to have been forsaken by God, but now we who believe are more numerous than those who think that they have God” (2.3). The author of the Epistle of Barnabas emphasizes with particular expressiveness the prophecy about the two nations in the womb of Rebekah and Jacob's blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh: in them he sees an indication of the relationship between the newest people of Christians and the most ancient Jewish [(Barnab. 13)]. Given this state of affairs, it is clear that the Jewish communities fought against Christianity with all the means at their disposal. Around the year 100, the daily synagogue prayer (Schmone Esre) included the following words: “And let there be no hope for heretics, and let all who do evil perish quickly, and let all be immediately destroyed; and strike and crush and cast down and humble quickly, immediately, in our days. Blessed are You, O Lord, who destroys enemies and humbles the arrogant." 308 By introducing this formula, the daily damnation of heretics was achieved. This measure was supposed to exclude heretics from communication with devout Jews in the synagogue (since if a heretic dared to say this prayer, he cursed himself), and on the other hand, to keep the devout from deviating into heresy. In addition to the curse of Christians in this general formula of the curse of heretics, deliberate curses were also directed against them. St. Justin repeatedly reproaches the Jews for cursing in synagogues those who believe that Christ was crucified by them, and trying to prove that He was crucified as the enemy of God and the damned; they curse Him and those who believe in Him (Dial. 16; 47; 93; 95; 96; 108; 117; 137). The Jews, of course, were ready to subject Christians to bloody persecution: this is proven by events from the time of the uprising led by Bar Kochba. St. Justin says: “(The Jews) consider us enemies and adversaries and, like you (the pagans), kill us and torture us whenever they can; You can verify this for yourself. And in the former last Jewish war, Bar Kochba, the leader of the Jewish indignation, ordered only Christians to be subjected to terrible torment if they did not renounce Jesus Christ and did not blaspheme Him” (Apol. I, 31.5-6). But, not having the right and opportunity to subject Christians to direct persecution, the Jews with greater zeal acted as accusers of Christians before the Roman government, as was the case in the trial of the grandsons of Judas and Simeon, son of Cleopas 309, or incited the population against them, as evidenced, for example, by Martyrium S. Polycarpi. It contains undoubtedly genuine news about the event it describes. When Polycarp remained firm before the proconsul and the herald loudly announced this among the stadium, the pagans and Jews who lived in Smyrna demanded his death with indomitable fury and a loud cry (12.1–2). When Polycarp was condemned to be burned at the stake, the masses began to drag firewood and brushwood, and the Jews turned out to be especially zealous, as was usually the case, according to the author, in other cases (13.1). When, finally, Christians sought to receive the body of the martyr, the main opponents were the Jews (17.2; 18.1). Such a hostile attitude towards Christians on the part of the Jews of Smyrna was attested in later times: information from the Martyrium of Pionius, who suffered in the persecution of Decius, speaks of the significant participation of Jews in the persecution of Christians (cap. 3; 4; 13; 14). In addition, all kinds of suspicions and slander against Christians, widespread in the pagan world, mostly had their source in the Jews and were fed by them. Christian writers directly level this particular charge against them. St. Justin writes: “Other nations are not as much to blame as you for this injustice that occurs in relation to us and to Christ; for you are the authors of their evil prejudice against the Righteous One and against us, His followers. When you crucified Him, the only blameless and righteous man, by whose stripes all those who come to the Father through Him are healed, and when you learned that He had risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, as was foretold in the prophecies, then you not only did not repent of your atrocities, but also sent chosen people from Jerusalem to the whole earth to proclaim that the godless Christian heresy had appeared, and to spread slander against us, which all Those who don’t know us usually repeat it. Thus, you are the cause of injustice not only for your own, but also for all other people” (Dial. 17.1; cf. 108; 117). This same characteristic accusation of the Jews that they were the culprits of those bad rumors that were widespread in pagan circles is repeated by later writers: Tertullian calls the Jewish people a breeding ground (seminarium) for slander against Christians (Ad nations I, 14) and in the Jews he indicates the source of slander against them (Adv. Judaeos 13). Origen says that rumors about Oedipal incest and the Thyestes suppers of Christians were started precisely by the Jews (Contra Celsum VI, 27), and definitely testifies that Celsus, who he refuted, knew and used the works of the Jews against Christians. Thus, Judaism was everywhere the bitter enemy of Christianity; and whatever the Jews could do to the detriment of Christianity, they did with great zeal. Schürer [E.] Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes [im Zeitalter Jesu Christi]. [Leipzig, 1898.] Bd. 2, 2. S. 461. Euseb., Hist. eccl. III, 19–20.7; 32. Eusebius, following Igisippus, calls the accusers who denounced the descendants of Judas (“the Savior’s brother according to the flesh”) and Simeon of Jerusalem “heretics” (III, 19; 32.2–3), but then reports that these accusers themselves came from the Jewish royal family (III, 32.4). – Ed., Ed.