are we jewish?

who has been traditionally held responsible for the death of Jesus? was it the pharisees, or pilate, or the jews in general?

in catholic tradition, the jews are held responsible. they are the ones who "crucified our Lord" or simply "Christ killers". in our modern world, this inherent despise for the jewish people led to such events like the expulsion of jews in russia or the holocaust under hitler. but in reality, it was most of the "christian" world that despised the jews. certainly, zionism has been a facet of our globalizing world in reaction to the holocaust, but israel is quickly loosing the world's sympathy through its harsh and violent responses to terrorism.

because of our cultural distaste for jews, it might seem from our western perspective that early christians were all gentile. while by the second century, most of the church was gentile, this was not so from the beginning. initially, the church was primarily composed of jews. in fact, christianity was not considered a new religion, but a fulfillment of judaism. the apostles were all jewish, and their first converts were all jewish. and contrary to modern revisionist history, the apostle paul never rejected his judaism. so what changed? how did christianity lose its jewish foundation?

one must remember who held the power in the church for nearly 1300 years, rome. the roman church soon grew to prominence in the roman world into which christianity was birthed. throughout the next few hundred years, prominence developed into preeminence. although a hiccup ocurred about 1000 AD when the greek church refused to accept roman authority, the roman church continued its primacy unabated until the 16th century. here, the protestant reformation firmly took hold of europe and the world. while the roman church remained in a position of power, its dominion was severely hindered.

one would think that when the protestants rejected roman doctrine that they might have returned to the church's jewish foundation, but too many years and traditions stood in the way. our hebrew heritage remained hidden in the intolerance of men like martin luther (notorious for disliking jews).

ultimately, the preeminence of the roman church seems to account for the rejection of jewishness. but why did this ever begin? why would a church reject its own foundations?

in order to understand the roman perspective about judaism, we must look at back into the 1st century in rome. when the good news of the messiah Jesus was proclaimed throughout the roman world to the jewish people, controversy immediately was sparked. we see that the roman-backed sadducees were the most antagonistic to the new sect of judaism. they did not want to lose the power they had gained from selling their birthrights to the romans. thus, from the acts of the apostles we find the early persecution of christians was from within judaism. however, the conflicts that arose throughout the empire soon came to the attention of the roman authorities. not understanding the nature of the conflict, the roman emperor claudius considered it merely a "jewish" problem. as recounted in the acts of the apostles and the roman historian suetonius, in 51 AD emperor claudius expelled all jews from rome, but his actions were limited to the capital city rome. not many years later, the emperor domitian found similar reason to enforce strict laws against "jewish practices". again, his decree had a relatively small scope and mainly applied to rome and asia minor.

after claudius, although jewish christians were forced out, there certainly remained some gentile christians. and in the course of generations, these gentile christians could easily forget the jewish traditions that the first christians had taught. then, with the laws against jewish practices, it would not be unlikely that these gentile christians would neglect their more jewish practices. most definitely it would not seem to make sense to hold on to jewish traditions that were not even originally one's own traditions, unless they had direct impact upon the christian faith. so in course of time, the church that remained in rome would have forgotten its jewishness entirely.

one might ask, however, who's to say that my perspective is not merely revisionist and that the years and years of tradition in christianity are the way it always was?

this is a legitimate misgiving. however, look at the rest of the church outside of the church in rome. what were their practices? had they remained more true to their jewish foundations? we see that the universal church was divided in its remembrance of jewish practices. we find the christian historian Socrates Scholasticus writing in the 5th century that the entire church celebrated passover and the resurrection of Jesus on the 14th day of nisan (the jewish day based upon the lunar calendar, rather than roman solar calendar) with the exception of the church in rome and alexandria. additionally, the historian sozomen insists that the christians at his time (also 5th century) still kept the sabbath on saturday, minus the church in rome.

it would seem that in the first centuries of christian history that the roman church was an exception to the widespread inclusion of jewish tradition incorporated into gentile christian churches around the world. if these jewish traditions were so widespread, then why would they all have been forgotten through the next thousand years? certainly, there is no clear answer to that, but it would seem very likely that because the roman church had such prominence in the early church its own distinctly non-jewish perspective would be pushed into the rest of the church. additionally, we find as christianity became the official religion of the roman empire that more and more of its traditions were influenced by the church in rome and by roman culture itself.

in contrast with years of tradition, i think that it makes most sense that the christian heritage was always intended to be distinctly founded upon its jewish background. we can never downplay the fact that Jesus was a jewish rabbi. but how should this apply to our lives in the westernized church? are we called to embrace judaism again? are we called to merely remember it? or should we even care?

in closing, here is a thought:

are christians, regardless of ethnicity, jewish? (Romans 9:4-8)