A History of Contempt

St. Justin: "For the circumcision according to the flesh, which is from Abraham, was given for a sign, that you may be separated from other nations and from us, and that you alone may suffer that which you now justly suffer, and that your land may be desolate and your cities burned with fire, and that strangers may eat your fruit in your presence and not one of you may go up to Jerusalem."

St. Hippolytus: "Ills…will befall them in the future age on account of the contumacy and audacity which they exhibited toward the Prince of Peace."

Origen: "Their rejection of Jesus has resulted in their present calamity and exile. We say with confidence that they will never be restored to their former condition. For they committed a crime of the most unhallowed kind, in conspiring against the saviour."

St. Gregory: Jews are "slayers of the Lord, murderers of the prophets, enemies of G-d, haters of G-d, adversaries of grace, enemies of their father’s faith, advocates of the devil, brood of vipers, slanderers, scoffers, men of darkened minds, leaven of the Pharisees, congregation of demons, sinners, wicked men, stoners, and haters of goodness."

St. Jerome: "…serpents, haters of all men, their image is Judas…their psalms and prayers are the braying of donkeys…"

St. John Chrysostom: "I know that many people hold a high regard for the Jews and consider their way of life worthy of respect at the present time. This is why I am hurrying to pull up this fatal notion by the roots… A place where a whore stands on display is a whorehouse. What is more, the synagogue is not only a whorehouse and a theater: it is also a den of thieves and a haunt of wild animals… not the cave of a wild animal merely, but of an unclean wild animal…

When animals are unfit for work, they are marked for slaughter, and this is the very thing which the Jews have experienced. By making themselves unfit for work, they have become ready for slaughter. This is why Christ said, "ask for my enemies, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them to here and slay them before me."

St. Augustine: "Judaism is a corruption. Indeed, Judas is the image of the Jewish people. Their understanding of the Scriptures is carnal. They bear the guilt for the death of the saviour, for through their fathers they have killed the Christ."

St. Thomas Aquinas: "It would be licit to hold Jews, because of their crimes, in perpetual servitude, and therefore the princes may regard the possessions of Jews as belonging to the State."

Martin Luther: "If we are to remain unsullied by the blasphemy of the Jews and do not wish to take part in it, we must be separated from them, and they must be driven out of the country."

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Adolf Hitler: "I believe that I am today acting according to the purposes of the Almighty Creator. In resisting the Jew, I am fighting the Lord’s battle."

Next: A History of Persecution

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