User:Richardshusr/Ancient persecution of non-Jews by Jews
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The Jewish people have been victimized by anti-Semitism and religious persecution throughout history. There are also a number of claims that Jews, in turn, have persecuted or oppressed some groups. With all such accounts — whether documenting the alleged early practises of Jews, Christians, or Muslims — the validity of the material is treated skeptically by modern historians, with the stories often viewed as partial or fabricated. In addition, during the period between the destruction of the ancient Jewish kingdoms and 1948, Jews did not have a state or any substantial self-rule; thus insofar as Jews showed rancor toward other groups it was generally anomalous and isolated and did not rise to the level of systematic persecution.
For information about the interaction between Judaism and other religions in the modern state of Israel, see Religion in Israel.
Contents |
Ancient Judaism and other religions
| Religious discrimination and persecution |
|---|
| By victimized group
Anti-clericalism |
| By method
Abuse · Censorship · Desecration |
| Historical events
Inquisition · French Wars of Religion |
In post-exilic Judaism, after the Babylonian captivity, concern for orthodoxy led to tensions between Jews and Samaritans. Under the Hasmonean king John Hyrcanus, the Samaritan temple at Mount Gerizim was destroyed and the Idumeans were subjected to forced conversion to Judaism. [1]
Further conflicts arose when Israel came under the control of the Roman empire. In this context, the Christian New Testament describes persecution of early Christians by the Romano-Jewish authorities. It is not known to what extent these persecutions, if they occurred at all, were essentially motivated by imperial politics, rather than religion.
Attempts to establish pagan practices in Jerusalem led to violent conflicts, erupting in two major rebellions against Rome. During the Bar Kochba rebellion of 135, Christians refused to fight. According to an unverified account by early Christian apologist Justin Martyr, Simon commanded Christians "to be led away to terrible punishment," if they did not deny Jesus as the Messiah. [2]
According to an account by early Christian leader John of Ephesus, Dhu Nuwas was a Jewish king in pre-Muslim Yemen. John of Ephesus' account, reproduced by a number of medieval historians, details that Dhu Nuwas came to power, persecuted Christians in his realm, and massacred Christian communities in Najran in about 524; ostensibly as retaliation for Byzantine persecutions of the Jews. [3] According to Muslim tradition, he was the person cursed in the Qur'an for burning believers alive (Quran 85:4-8).
Much of the Christian writing about alleged Jewish oppression needs to be read with an eye to its intended audience and its intended effect. At the time of Khosrau II's sack of Jerusalem in 614, Antiochus Strategos was a monk at the monastery (lavra) of St Sabas in Jerusalem, according to whose account, Jews took the opportunity to persecute the Christians. [4] This may also be a vivid libel against the Jews of Jerusalem that takes its literary cues from the hagiographic tradition and invented parallels with Scripture. Such kind of propaganda was often designed to inflame anti-Semitism.
In Ethiopia, Queen Gudit, who allegedly persecuted Christians around 970 and helped bring down the Kingdom of Aksum, is said in Ethiopian chronicles to have been Jewish, though some modern scholars have cast doubt on this, suggesting that she may have been a pagan. [5] [6] [7]
See also
- Religion in Israel
- Historical persecution by Christians
- Historical persecution by Muslims
