What did the Jews ever do that was so bad? According to past (and some present) Christians, the answer is: be themselves.

One simply speaks the word ‘Jew’ and a wave of dark and terrible history comes to mind. According to the texts we have covered in class, such as The Prioress's Tale that pinpoints just how dangerous the Christians thought the Jews to be in medieval times, we know that Christians (I use the term loosely) have hated Jews as long as history dictates, but have we ever really known why there has been so much hate cast in that direction? I have a guess, but first, Martin Luther, who is seen as such a hero to the Christian church, will be the focus.

Title page of On the Jews
and Their Lies (in German)

The same Martin Luther that stood up to the Catholic Church in their wrongdoings for the people wrote an entire treatise called On the Jews and Their Lies that contains continuous bashing of the entire belief and people. He even went so far as to command that their schools, homes, and synagogues be set on fire and their property and money confiscated. He coins them “poisonous envenomed worms” and wished them all to be eradicated. Or, as we today would say, Luther writes a whole lot of antisemitism. This shows just how much powerful people of the Christian church hated all Jewish people and reiterates the hate that came before Luther's time, with his time being compared to medieval times. However, as I’m guessing many did, he started out trying his hardest to convert them and argued in their defense when others threw disgust their way but became overly enraged when he wasn’t able to convert them. So many acted in this way that they began to teach those after them to hate with few ever asking why. Christians have a history of forcing people to convert and becoming angry/killing them when they do not wish to do so with good examples being the Crusades or any time England went from one ruler to another and good citizens were burned at the stake for their “impertinence.” While the Christians did not focus their hate on only the Jews, it seems that most of their hate was directed there.

Here we see the yellow Jewish nose
sweating nervously in a lineup.

For years we have been asking why someone would hate an entire people/race and be so prejudiced against traits they have been assigned like large noses and the color yellow. It can be seen as what politicians to do each other today by focusing on tiny details and bringing them out to poke fun at them. With the Christians believing that Jesus was born a Jew and is the messiah and Jews believing Jesus was an ordinary man, one can quickly see how the Christians became offended and saw it fit to convert them. The differences in how each group followed the Word of God, and how closely yet vaguely the Jews interpreted the Word, must have embarrassed the Christians and made them feel belittled and like they were poor followers of Christ. And, as mentioned above, angry Christians with a hurt sense of pride have done awful things throughout history. Having experienced constant switches between beliefs when each ruler with a different belief system came must have convinced the Christians of the time that it was easy to convert anyone. Encountering the Jews steadfast beliefs must have thrown them for a loop, causing them to act mindlessly. However, God chose to give everyone free will and, from a Christian standpoint, one of the hard things about sharing the Gospel that you believe in so whole-heartedly is that not everyone will choose to believe as you do. Christians of today are less ruthless and hateful, or at least we would like to think there are some good ones left. On the plus side, no one is burned at the stake anymore, at least not literally.