Antisemitism in Early Christianity - Early Origins

Early Origins

There have been philosophical differences between Christianity and Pharisaic/Rabbinic Judaism since the outset, as detailed in the article: Split of early Christianity and Judaism. Debates between the Early Christians - who at first understood themselves as a movement within Judaism, not as a separate religion - and other Jews initially revolved around the question whether Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah or not, see Rejection of Jesus, which extended to the issue of the Divinity of Jesus. Once gentiles were converted to Christianity, the question arose whether and how far these Gentile Christians were obliged to follow Jewish law as part of following Jesus, such as Paul's Letter to the Galatians, an issue referred to as the "Judaizer" controversy. It was decided, at the Council of Jerusalem, that gentiles did not have to follow all of Jewish law, only the Apostolic Decree (Acts 15:19-29), which many scholars ancient and modern see as paralleling the Noahide Laws of Judaism. But some further claim that Paul also questioned the validity of Jewish Christian's adherence to the Jewish law in relation to faith in Christ, see Law and Gospel, Pauline Christianity, Biblical law in Christianity, and Paul of Tarsus and Judaism.

The increase of the numbers of Gentile Christians in comparison to Jewish Christians eventually resulted in a rift between early Christianity and Judaism, which was further increased by the Jewish-Roman wars (66–73 and 132–135) that drove Jews into the diaspora and further diminished Jewish Christians and the Christians of Jerusalem.

Also, the two religions differed in their legal status in the Roman Empire: Judaism, restricted to the Jewish people and Jewish Proselytes, was exempt from obligation to the Roman state religion and since the reign of Julius Caesar enjoyed the status of a "licit religion", as long as they paid the Fiscus Judaicus instituted by Nero. Christianity however was not restricted to one people (however, neither was Judaism, see Proselyte and Conversion to Judaism) and as Jewish Christians were excluded from the synagogue, according to one theory of the Council of Jamnia, and as they refused to pay the Fiscus Judaicus, they also lost the protection of the status of Judaism. Since the reign of Nero Christianity was considered to be illegal and Christians were frequently subjected to persecution, differing regionally. In the 3rd century systematic persecution of Christians began and lasted until Constantine's conversion to Christianity. In 390 Theodosius I made Christianity the new state religion, see State church of the Roman Empire. While pagan cults, Manichaeism, and Christian heresy were suppressed, Judaism retained its legal status as a licit religion, though anti-Jewish violence still occurred. In the 5th century, some legal measures worsened the status of the Jews in the Roman Empire.