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28 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must for every Jewish library, June 10, 1999
By A Customer
Christian Anti-Semitism: A History of Hate, by William Nicholls. Jason Aronson, Inc. , 499 pp, $40.00.In William F. Buckley's essay on anti-Semitism Bill is very troubled about some of his friends. In his heart of hearts he doesn't want to believe that these people, people he believes are decent humans, can really be anti-Semites. Nevertheless, he must honestly come to terms with the fact that these same people seem to be obsessed with Jews. As a Jew born in the United States I always believed that I not only knew who I was as a Jew, but understood the non-Jewish world as well. There were, surely, some things I couldn't understand. It seemed that Christians could never talk about their religion without reference to mine. Whatever was positive in theirs was counterpoint to something negative in mine. More extraordinary was the fact that negative ideas that were ascribed to Judaism weren't even true. I always passed this off as ignorance on their part. Professor Nicholls' book, Christian Anti-Semitism: A History of Hate, allowed me to see Bill Buckley's observation in a new light. It was not Joseph Sobran or Patrick Buchanan who were obsessed with Jews, but Christianity itself. True to its title, a goodly portion of the book deals with the history of Christian anti-Semitism. In this sense the book can be compared to such classics as J.R. Marcus's The Jew in the Medieval World or J. Trachtenberg's The Devil and the Jews. Nicholls' real interest, however, is in the theological claims of Christianity and how they logically result in anti-Semitism. Nicholls starts with Jesus himself. Building mostly on the work of contemporary scholar Geza Vermas, he draws a picture of Jesus not as a founder of a new religion, but as a Torah observant Jew of the first century. Traditionally, if Jews mentioned Jesus at all, his name would be suffixed with "may his bones be ground to dust." I must admit that I still find it difficult to say his name without a bottle of Listerine close at hand. Nevertheless, our picture of this man has come to us through Christianity. Would it not be the ultimate irony if not only has Christianity been slandering Judaism, but that it has been slandering this man as well? Nicholls deals one by one with the claims about Jesus made by Christians and their gospels. Did Jesus oppose the Jewish law and the rabbis of his day? Did Jesus claim to be the Messiah? To each of these questions and others he answers a resounding, No! The picture he does draw is that Jesus was one of a number of healers and miracle workers and preachers not unlike others of his time. It was also not unusual in times of troubles for some to look to such individuals as prophets or even the Messiah himself. Even the earliest claims of the new movement were based on readings of the scriptures which were at variance with those of the rabbis of that time. The real substance of the book is how a messianic fervor surrounding one man became transformed into the Christian myth and why this myth was anti-Semitic. Nothing based on Jewish tradition predicted a dead messiah. As time went on and Jesus did not return, the new sect looked for evidence of this new kind of messiah in the Torah. They came to see the "Old Testament" not as the Torah, but as a cryptogram of Christian prophecy. Non-Christian Jews had no reason to read the Torah in this strange way. Paul then took the critical step of seeking converts among the gentiles. Not only did he not require them to convert to Judaism first, but he strongly discouraged it. The church rapidly became non-Jewish. The gentile church claimed for itself the sole right of interpretation of the Jewish scripture. It claimed that its interpretation was the same as that of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It claimed the Jews had willfully distorted the plain meaning of their own scriptures. The Jews must therefore have deserted G-d and their own covenant. The first anti-Semitic Christian act was, therefore, the theft of the Torah. The rest of the anti-Semitic claims were really an attempt to justify the first. Nicholls lays out a detailed historical record in Christian Anti-Semitism: A History of Hate. Suffice it to say that anti-Semitism is not an ugly accretion to the pure religion of Christianity. It is one of its organizing principles. Nicholls himself is from a Christian background and has great sympathy for those wishing to create a Christian theology that is not inherently anti-Semitic. He, however, does not believe it is possible, because any Christianity based on Jesus would have to deal with the real historical Jesus, the Jew. "To put it another way, there cannot be a Christ without Jesus....Contemporary Christians cannot ignore the historical Jesus. What we are coming to know about Jesus does not fit what Paul said about him." Nicholls' book is an exciting, well-balanced read. The scholarship upon which his book is based is only now starting to be absorbed by Christians. Nicholls claims to be no prophet. I believe, however, if you wish to gain a glimpse of the future, you should read this book.
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