Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

History of the Christian Church: Ante-Nicene Christianity A.D. 100-325, by Philip Schaff. 1889, 1960

Jewish Complicity in the Persecution of the Early Christians in the Roman Empire

Scholar Philip Schaff, of Union Theological Seminary, originally wrote this work in 1883. (p. vii). My review is based on the 5th edition (1889), which was copyrighted in 1910, and reprinted in 1950.

This work offers a solid overview of early Christian history. This volume is especially useful in understanding the government of the early Church, the martyrdom of the early Christians, and the history of the major heresies that beset the Church.

The information about to be presented does not fit with the ethos of Vatican II, but it is a historical fact that needs to be told. The reader should also keep in mind the Jewish spokesmen who say that Poles and Christians must variously “Come to terms with the past”, “Engage in moral reckoning”, and “Confront the dark chapter in (one’s) history”. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

JEWISH COMPLICITY IN THE PERSECUTION OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS

The following account in based on the works of Dio Cassius, Fr. Munter, Deyling, Ewald, Milman, Schurer, and the Jewish historian Gratz (Graetz).

Schaff writes, (quote) The Jews had displayed their obstinate unbelief and bitter hatred of the gospel in the crucifixion of Christ, the stoning of Stephen, the execution of James the Elder, the repeated incarcerations of Peter and John, the wild rage against Paul, and the murder of James the Just…They caused the death of Symeon, bishop of Jerusalem (107); they were particularly active in the burning of Polycarp of Smyrna; and they inflamed the violence of the Gentiles by calumniating the sect of the Nazarenes…A pseudo-Messiah, Bar-Cochba [Bar Kokhba](son of the stars, Num. 24:17), afterwards called Bar-Cosiba (son of falsehood), put himself at the head of the rebels, and caused all the Christians who would not join him to be most cruelly murdered. (unquote). (pp. 36-37).