St John Chrysostom and the Jews Q&A

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St John Chrysostom and the Jews

Q. (from AK from FL)

A few days ago I came across a quote in a book entitled The History of the Holocaust by Yehuda Bauer that was very disturbing: "The Jews sacrifice their children to Satan. ... They are worse than wild beasts ... they know only one thing: to satisfy their stomachs, to get drunk, to kill and beat each other up like stage villains and coachmen. ... I hate the Jews, because they violate the Law. I hate the Synagogue because it has the Law and the Prophets. It is the duty of all Christians to hate the Jews." -- St John Chrysostom The source of this quote is Fred Gladstone Bratton's The Crime of Christendom (Boston 1969), pp. 84-85. I realize it could be a complete fallacy or simply taken out of context. I wonder if you can offer some sort of explanation. Thank you.

A.

AK, texts such as this can be very disconcerting. The text you mention does make the late-20th century reader squirm a bit. Some of us remember coming across it ourselves. Your question is characteristic of your inherently Christian belief that we are called to love everyone, even our enemies. We did a bit of research and found out a number of important things.

First, The Crime of Christendom book that Yehuda Bauer used as the source for his information identifies the original source of this text as St John Chrysostom's homilies "Against the Jews." In fact, this is incorrect. The actual name of this set of homilies is "Against the Judaizers" -- meaning those Christians who wanted to behave as the Jews. This is important since all the material in them would be addressing other Christians on the issue of Christian identity, rather than condemning people who are Jewish.

Second, the way oratorical language was used in the early 300s is much different than the speeches we hear today. This type of rhetoric was an art form and was used much in the same way that we create "straw men." The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines a straw man as "an imaginary argument or adversary set up only to be easily confuted." In a similar fashion, St John is emphatically urging people not to think that Christianity, and therefore salvation, is based upon following rules, but by loving God.

Third, the extracts that Mr. Bratton quotes are from over 100 pages of text. The footnote at the bottom of the page reads, "All the above quotations are from Chrysostom's eight 'Homilies Against the Jews,' in Patrologia Graeca (Paris: Garnier, 1857-1866) 48:843-942." It makes one wonder about the context in which these relatively few sentences were mentioned over many pages. The mistranslation of the word "Jews" (see first comment) plus this extremely broad citation would seem to indicate that Mr Bratton is much more concerned with making a specific point than with presenting the true meaning of St John's words.

Fourth, we would be remiss not to mention that St John, like many of the early fathers, spoke using the same language he found in the Bible, especially in the prophetical books. A quick reading of any of the books of the prophets shows that they were often very harsh in their attempt to exhort the people. They would use Israel as an example of disobedience and of sanctifying external religious practices. They did this speaking to other Israelites. Similarly, the early fathers, would use these same words referring to the Church, which they saw as the continuation and fulfillment of Israel.

Finally, your question brings up a point that needs to be addressed. As we study our Faith, sometimes we become aware of incidents in the history of our Church that can often seem scandalous. We should not be disheartened by these. As Christians and members of the Church, we need to remember that the Church is made up of sinners. The Scriptures attest to this. Even our understanding of saints acknowledges this. While all of us are called to be holy as God is holy, there is only One who is truly holy, and that is God. It is He that makes the Church holy, not us or any member of it -- whether we are alive or asleep in Christ. Our holiness comes to the extent that we attach ourselves to Him. Hope this answers your question.

For more information on the Orthodox Church and Jews see:

• Again magazine vol. 19, no. 4 available from Conciliar Press
• John Chrysostom and the Jews by R. Wilken (University of California, 1983)

Check out your parish and public libraries. Next issue:

On Hell and Judgement

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source:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080724094915/http://yya.oca.org/pages/ChurchwidePrograms/Yo_Mail/back-issues/1998-09-15.html#rq


Chrysostom wrote of the Jews and of Judaizers in eight homilies Adversus Judaeos (against the Judaizers).^[1] At the time he delivered these sermons, Chrysostom was a tonsured reader and had not yet been ordained a priest or bishop.

source:
http://orthodoxwiki.org/John_Chrysostom