Biblical Antisemitism

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

This will serve as a rebuttal against Conservative Evangelical Christians that believe supporting Israel and the Jewish people is a religious obligation. The references used in this note are only a scratch on the surface of the antisemitism in the Bible and I encourage everyone to do their own research on this issue. I am in no way promoting violence towards any particular person, group of people, nationality, religion, etc. I am merely "preaching" what the Bible has to say on this issue, so, uh, religious freedom and freedom of speech ;)

Origins of the Jews

The Jews were originally known as Bani Israel in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). They were chosen by YHVH* to be his nation of people; a sort of blatant religious racism that only the Jews could have come up with. It all started with the promise made by YHVH to Abraham, "And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and between thy seed after thee in their generations, by a perpetual covenant: to be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee." [Genesis 17:7] This promise was repeated to Bani Israel with the words "Because thou art a holy people to YHVH thy God: and he chose thee to be his peculiar people of all nations that are upon the earth." [Deuteronomy 14:2] Unfortunately for Bani Israel, this promise was not unconditional; it came with some conditions, the biggest one being the requirement that they hear the voice of YHVH and keep his commandments. In the eloquent words of the Bible, "If therefore you will hear my voice, and keep my covenant, you shall be my peculiar possession above all people: for all the earth is mine." [Exodus 19:5] One of the ways that this would manifest itself is when Bani Israel would be a holy and priestly nation. "And you shall be to me a priestly kingdom, and an holy nation. Those are the words thou shalt speak to the children of Israel." [Exodus 19:6] Unfortunately for Bani Israel, there was the threat that if they did not keep the covenant, their status as chosen people would pass from them.

A Warning to the Jews

"Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem unto Messiah the King shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah the King be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of thee war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." [Daniel 9:24-27]

To put it simply, the Book of Daniel is one of the main prophetic books in the Bible. The above text is a prophecy explaining what would happen if Bani Israel did not reform themselves. From the time that the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem goes out, they will have 70 weeks to set things straight. 70 weeks is 490 days which according to the Day-Year principle** would equal out to 490 years which is the time allotted to Bani Israel to reform and repent if they wished to remain the chosen people. Also contained within the above text is a second prophecy that discusses the coming of the Jewish Messiah. From the same starting point, the time that the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem goes out, there would be "seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks" before the coming of the Messiah. That is to say, seven weeks plus sixty weeks plus two weeks for a grand total of sixty-nine weeks which equals 483 days (or, in this case, years). Once the Jewish Messiah arrived, there would be a grand total of 1 week (7 years) left in the promise made to the Jews. Half way through this week (3 1/2 years), the Messiah would be "cut off" (killed) from (by) his people. After another half-week (3 1/2 years), the covenant that YHVH gave to the Jews would end.

A Prophecy Fulfilled

According to Ezra 7:7, 12-13 the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem went out in the 7th year of the reign of Artexerxes the King (457 BCE). If we take this year and add the 483 years until the arrival of the Jewish Messiah, we get to the year 27 CE. According to Biblical archaeologists and historians, it was in the year 27 CE that Jesus the Nazarene (Isa al-Masih) was baptized and his mission as the Jewish Messiah began. After 3 1/2 years (1/2 of the final week) spent proselytizing with his disciples, he was crucified to death. His disciples continued to proselytize to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel" [Matthew 15:24] for the rest of the week (3 1/2 years). Unfortunately, the Jews did not fulfill their end of the original covenant and their status was removed from them. Jesus supposedly said, while speaking to the Jews, "Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God*** will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom." [Matthew 21:43] This was the penalty for failing to uphold the racist covenant that began all of this.

Gentiles for the win!

"So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means! But through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? If the dough offered as first fruits is holy, so is the whole lump; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the richness of the olive tree, do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you. You will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off. And even the others, if they do not persist in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree." [Romans 11:11-24]

"And if you be Christ's (Messiah's), then you are the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise." [Galatians 3:29]

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." [Galatians 3:28]

The above three quotes from the New Testament explain the result of the disobedience of the Jews so clearly that I barely feel the need to elaborate. The promise was stripped from the Jews and given to the followers of Jesus.

A Cursed People

In the Book of Matthew, Jesus cursed the Jews seven times for their transgression. These are known as the seven woes.

"But woe to you, Jews, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them. Woe to you, Jews, hypocrites! For you cross the sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the sanctuary is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the sanctuary is bound by the oath.' You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the sanctuary that has made the gold sacred? And you say, 'Whoever swears by the alter is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that is on the altar is bound by the oath.' How blind you are! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the alter, swears by it and by everything on it; and whoever swears by the sanctuary, swears by it and by the one who dwells in it; and whoever swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by the one who is seated upon it.

Woe to you, Jews, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!

Woe to you, Jews, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Jew! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside may become clean.

Woe to you, Jews, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of bones of the dead and all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Woe to you, Jews, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous, and you say 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would have not taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' Thus you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your ancestors. You snakes, you brood of vipers! How can you escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets, sages, and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town, so that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the alter. Truly I tell you, all this will come upon this generation." [Matthew 23:13-36]

A People to be Killed and Persecuted

The major fundamental belief of Christianity is the death and resurrection of Jesus the Nazarene. It is well known that Jesus was executed by crucifixion; a Roman method. However, are the Romans the ones who are responsible for the death of Jesus? Rather, the Romans were merely carrying out the deed that the Jews had ordered. Pontius Pilate was clear that Jesus had committed no crime, rather, that the Jews could do with him what they wanted. So they got the Roman soldiers to execute him. This deed, the killing of Jesus, rests solely on the shoulders of the Jews as is evident by their own attitude towards the event. "Then the Jews as a whole answered, 'His (Jesus') blood be on us and on our children!'" [Matthew 27:25] Clearly, whether killing Jesus was right or not, all Jews are responsible for it. I doubt anybody would argue with me when I say that killing Jesus is a very bad thing, so I won't even go into why I believe so. Rather, I would like to focus on the punishment for murder. According to the Jews' own law "Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death." [Exodus 21:12]. This is repeated later when it is said, even more clearly, that "Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death." [Leviticus 24:17] Since it is clear that the Jews as a whole are responsible for this crime, it is only moral of us to kill and persecute the Jewish people of today.

The Jews in the Qur'an

لتجدن أشد الناس عداوة للذين آمنوا اليهود والذين أشركوا ولتجدن أقربهم مودة للذين آمنوا الذين قالوا إنا نصارى ذلك بأن منهم قسيسين ورهبانا وأنهم لا يستكبرون

Surely You will find the most hostile of all people towards the faithful to be the Jews and the polytheists, and surely you will find the nearest of them in affection to the faithful to be those who say ‘We are Christians.’ That is because there are priests and monks among them, and because they are not arrogant. [Surat al-Ma'idah 5:82]

Notes

*The term YHVH refers to the tetragrammaton which are four hebrew letters that make up the name of God in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). Usually transliterated as Yahweh or Jehovah, the tetragrammaton is nearly always translated as the Hebrew word adonai which is then translated into English as "Lord".

**The Day-Year principle is a method of understanding prophecy in the Bible whereby one day represents one year.

***The tetragrammaton is never used in the New Testament, rather the word here is the Greek κύριος which means Lord. It is commonly translated as God.