Why and How Gentile Christians Left Their Jewish Roots – Part I

Introduction

Did Adonai intend for there to be two streams of God's people—Judaism and Christianity? Did God desire a pure Biblical faith, or the creation of two distinct religious institutions? What were the seeds of separation that formed this chasm? Just where did the split occur? This article will question various conventions established in Christianity in the hopes of challenging the reader's relationship to any particular belief system, encouraging him to strive toward a more Biblically-based faith.

The study of the early Christian Church is crucial to our understanding of how and why Christians parted ways from their Messianic Jewish brothers and ultimately separated from their Hebraic roots. The following survey illustrates the chasm that developed quickly between Jewish people and the Christian church after the first and second centuries, as well as how Christianity systematically substituted pagan practices for biblical ones. The events of this turbulent time in Jewish-Christian history mark what would be an 1,800-year split that God never intended for His redeemed. The following is easily verified in Church history books and in the writings of the early Church Fathers.

Soon after the deaths of the apostles, seeds were sown in the body of Messiah that would eventually cause non-Jewish believers to separate from Jewish believers. This can be demonstrated simply by noting that the early Church Fathers—some of whom were even contemporaries of the Apostles—began to introduce anti-Semitic¹ doctrines and practices.

The Church Fathers Spoke!

First, Israel's birthright as Adonai's chosen people was stolen. The so-called Epistle of Barnabas (written approximately 135 CE) spiritualized the Tanakh, claiming that it only prefigured Messiah and the Christian Church:²

"Do not add to your sins and say that the covenant [the Tanakh] is both theirs and ours. Yes! It is ours; but they thus lost it forever."

One of the most eloquent Church Fathers, John Chrysostom (circa 344-407 CE), whose name means "golden mouth," denounced the Jews in the strongest language:

"They sacrificed their sons and daughters to devils; they outraged nature and overthrew their foundations of the laws of relationship. They are become worse than the wild beasts, and for no reason at all, with their own hands, they murder their offspring, to worship the avenging devils who are foes of our life . . . They know only one thing, to satisfy their gullets, get drunk, to kill and maim one another . . . The Jews are the most worthless of all men. They are lecherous, greedy, rapacious. They are perfidious murderers of Christ. The Jews are the odious assassins of Christ and for killing God there is no expiation possible, no indulgence or pardon. Christians may never cease vengeance, and the Jews must live in servitude forever. God always hated the Jews. It is incumbent upon all Christians to hate the Jews."³

From as early as the second century Christian leaders began to repress the inherent Hebraic nature of the Apostolic writings (New Testament) and instead teach anti-Semitic doctrines. Below are a few selected quotes from some of the early Church Fathers.

In Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew, Justin Martyr emphasized that what had previously belonged to Israel was now the property of Christians. The Tanakh was a central part of this transference. The Scriptures are "not yours but ours," Justin stated emphatically to Trypho. That is, the Church has replaced Israel as Adonai's children and people.⁴ Here is a direct quote from Justin Martyr:

"For the law [Torah] promulgated on Horeb is now old, and belongs to yourselves alone; but this [new covenant] is for all universally. Now, law placed against law has abrogated that which is before it, and a covenant which comes after in like manner has put an end to the previous one; and an eternal and final law—namely, Christ—has been given to us, and the covenant is trustworthy, after which there shall be no law, no commandment, no ordinance."⁵

Jerome (author of the Latin Vulgate) and Augustine taught that the Jewish people were eternally accursed by God. Ignatius, third bishop of Antioch, said that "The Christian faith does not look to Judaism, but Judaism looks to Christianity."⁶ In 339 CE, it was considered a criminal offense to convert to Judaism. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, Italy, praised the burning of a synagogue as an act pleasing to God. Tertullian and Origen called the Jewish people "Christ killers" and "deiciders (God-killers)." Augustine, a Roman Catholic theologian, called the Jewish people "sons of Satan." Augustine was highly influenced by Marcion, a heretic, who lived during the second century and called Adonai "an evil god."

The following three canons are from the Council of Laodicea (364 CE):

• Canon 29. "Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honoring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ."

• Canon 37. "It is not lawful to receive portions sent from the feasts of Jews or heretics, nor to feast together with them."

• Canon 38. "It is not lawful to receive unleavened bread from the Jews, nor to be partakers of their impiety."

Christianity—Religion of Rome

These teachings flourished and took root within the hearts and minds of the early non-Jewish believers. Until the time of Constantine, believers had suffered many persecutions. However, after Constantine won the battle of the Milvian Bridge, he issued the Edict of Milan in 313 CE. Although this edict did not make Christianity the official religion of the empire, Constantine claimed to be a Christian, put an end to the persecution of believers and put Christianity on an equal footing before the law with other religions of the empire. Furthermore, Constantine showered favors upon the Church. He granted large sums of money, and erected magnificent Church buildings in numerous places (Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Constantinople and elsewhere) and granted many other privileges.

With a sitting Emperor confessing Christianity, it was no longer a shame to be a Christian. Now, being a Christian could even secure great material and social advantages such as political, military and social promotion. As a result, many heathens and pagans entered the Church—of course they brought their pagan influences with them. Because of the deepening spiritual vacuum in the leadership of the Church of the Western Roman Empire, the Church leaders were more than happy to pacify the heathens by allowing them to continue their pagan practices in the name of Christianity. As a result, the heathens brought into the Church numerous unscriptural practices and "doctrines of men," which superseded the Word of God and brought further corruption and apostasy into the Church. Constantine subsequently translated theology into government policy. In spite of this development, Adonai had faithfully preserved a remnant of truly faithful followers throughout Church history, but they were always the minority and always persecuted.

The above quotations and historical facts have not been cited to condemn these men, but to show that soon after the deaths of the apostles, there was a deliberate separation from anything Jewish, resulting ultimately in the suppression of the Hebraic nature of the Scriptures and faith in the Messiah Yeshua. Furthermore, this separation manifested itself in an overt disdain for the Torah. History records the unfortunate result that the disciples of these early Church fathers learned and practiced their anti-Semitism, disdain for the Tanakh, and spiritualization of Scripture. Hence, by the end of the fifth century the following unscriptural practices and "doctrines of men" were deeply rooted within the Western Roman church:

• Prayers for the dead

• Belief in purgatory

• Penance

• The view that "The Lord's Supper" is a sacrifice that must be administered by priests

• The division of the Church into a clergy and laity

• Worship of martyrs

• Worship of relics

• Salvation by works

• Monasticism

• Asceticism

• Worldliness

• Ascription of magical powers to relics

Most of us can readily understand the obvious dangers of the "doctrines of men" listed above. What most of us don't readily realize is that repression of the Hebraic roots of the faith has been just as dangerous. Perhaps if the non-Jewish believers had remained grounded in their Hebraic roots, they possibly would not have succumbed to the "doctrines of men" listed above. By the 1500's we can add the following items to the list of unscriptural practices and "doctrines of men" engaged in by those who called themselves followers of Messiah:

• Worship of Mary

• Payment of indulgences

• Wars fought with "Christian" armies

• Political corruption

• Inquisitions

• The Word of God taken from the common man

• Greed, idolatry, pagan festivals, and more

• Persecution of the Jewish people as heathens and heretics

• The Spanish Inquisition

In 1480, during the Spanish Inquisition, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain established a tribunal to purge the Church of those who clandestinely clung to their Jewishness. Wholesale arrests followed. In 1481 the first victims were burned at the stake. Over the years an estimated 30,000 Jewish people were consigned to the flames.

It is obvious by any standard, that by the early fifteenth century the condition of Christianity was best described as APOSTATE—separated from the Jewish people with a prejudicial misunderstanding of the Scriptures. Furthermore, it is easy to understand why the Reformation (in the 1600s) was necessary. Surely, the prophecy of the apostle Paul found a significant fulfillment in the Church era before the Reformation.

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods (1 Timothy 4:1-3).

Martin Luther

One particular example of anti-Semitic teachings in the Church that we would like to expose pertains to Martin Luther. Luther (1483–1546 CE) originally favored the Jewish people in the hope that they would accept his form of the faith, even praising their contribution to Christianity. However, most people aren't aware that later in his life, when he did not succeed in converting the Jewish people, his attitude towards them changed dramatically. The following are quotes taken from Martin Luther's On the Jews and Their Lies (published 1543 CE).

• "The rabbis should be forbidden to continue teaching the Law [Torah]."

• "Therefore be on your guard against the Jews, knowing that wherever they have their synagogues, nothing is found but a den of devils in which sheer self-glory, conceit, lies, blasphemy, and defaming of God and men are practiced most maliciously and veheming his eyes on them."

• "In brief, dear princes and lords, those of you who have Jews under your rule—if my counsel does not please you, find better advice, so that you and we all can be rid of the unbearable, devilish burden of the Jews, lest we become guilty sharers before God in the lies, blasphemy, the defamation, and the curses which the mad Jews indulge in so freely and wantonly against the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, this dear mother, all Christians, all authority, and ourselves. Do not grant them protection, safe-conduct, or communion with us . . . With this faithful counsel and warning I wish to cleanse and exonerate my conscience."

• "Accordingly, it must and dare not be considered a trifling matter but a most serious one to seek counsel against this and to save our souls from the Jews, that is, from the devil and from eternal death. My advice, as I said earlier, is: First, that their synagogues be burned down, and that all who are able toss sulphur and pitch; it would be good if someone could also throw in some hellfire . . . Second, that all their books—their prayer books, their Talmudic writings, also the entire Bible—be taken from them, not leaving them one leaf, and that these be preserved for those who may be converted . . . Third, that they be forbidden on pain of death to praise God, to give thanks, to pray, and to teach publicly among us and in our country . . . Fourth, that they be forbidden to utter the name of God within our hearing. For we cannot with a good conscience listen to this or tolerate it . . ."

As you can see, in light of diatribes like this and others, an almost insurmountable wedge had been inserted between Christians and Jews. This wedge mainly manifested itself between the Jewish people and the emerging Western Roman Church. Thus far, we have looked at numerous quotes from the early Church Fathers to demonstrate how they deliberately rejected beliefs and practices considered “Jewish.” Most of the quotations pointed to a rejection of Jewish people and Judaism. Furthermore, we saw that many of the doctrines of the emerging Western Church were anti-Semitic in nature.

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Taking a Closer Look at the Beliefs of the Emerging Western Church

A cursory examination of the anti-Semitic doctrines of the Church Fathers may lead one to believe that the basis of their antagonism was a rejection of Judaism. However, as we begin to analyze their writings, we find a consistent rejection of the Torah of Moses as the root cause. In our previous quotation from Justin Martyr, it is easy to see that the basis for the rejection of anything “Jewish,” was the premise that the Torah had been “abrogated” and superseded by the New Covenant. In the minds of the Church Fathers, what further need was there for the Torah with its “old” commandments. Since the Church Fathers also taught that the Jewish people were “Christ killers,” those who remained steadfast to Judaism were viewed as accursed by God, who had cast them and their Torah off to establish a “new Israel.” This mindset, that the Torah had been abrogated (and replaced by the New Covenant), became the basis for the separation of the Western Roman Church from the early Jewish believers in the Messiah. The clearest picture we have of the actual faith and practices of the early Jewish believers comes from the book of Acts. A brief perusal of the book of Acts confirms that the early believers in Messiah understood that the Torah had not been abrogated. Furthermore, their faith and practices were consistent with one based on the Torah-submissive lifestyle modeled and taught by Yeshua in Matthew 5:17-20. This lifestyle was firmly rooted in the foundation of the Torah. The book of Acts informs us that there were tens of thousands of Jewish believers in the Messiah (Acts 5:14; 21:20; 22:12) who zealously kept the Torah commandments of Moses. These early Jewish believers met regularly in synagogues (Acts 9:2; 22:19), on the Sabbath (Acts 13:5; 17:1-4), celebrated the feasts (Acts 2; 18:21; 20:6, 16; 24:11; 27:9) and by their own sworn testimony confessed that they kept the Torah of Moses (Acts 24:14; 25:8; 28:17) even as Yeshua taught they should. These Torah-submissive Jewish believers who were called Nazarenes (Acts 24:5) and their offspring were to become the victims of the seeds of separation sown by the Western Roman Church. One of the earliest records of the developing antagonism between Torah-submissive Jewish believers and non-Jewish believers concerns statements by Ignatius, Bishop at Antioch, approximately 98–117 CE. Ignatius argued:

". . . against the Judaizing tendencies of his territory, which, not far geographically from Palestine, had suffered the influences of the synagogue and of the Judaeo-Christians."⁷

In this statement Ignatius is lamenting the fact that some of the practices in Antioch had been influenced by the non-Messianic and Messianic Jews. With our knowledge of the Torah-based lifestyles of the early Messianic believers, we should not be surprised that any customs, ceremonies or practices within the body of Messiah would reflect Judaism. What is surprising, however, is the lament by Ignatius concerning the “influences” of the Jewish believers. Elsewhere Ignatius writes, ". . . if we are still practicing Judaism, we admit that we have not received God’s favor . . . it is wrong to talk about Jesus Christ and live like the Jews . . ."⁸

In these statements Ignatius has certainly made “Jewish” practices and the Christian lifestyle mutually exclusive. However, as we shall see, what Ignatius rejected as “Jewish” were actually the commands of ADONAI from the Torah. Some of the most revealing statements concerning the Messianic Jewish believers of his time were made by the Church Apologist, Epiphanius of Salamis, 370 CE.⁹

We shall now especially consider heretics who . . . call themselves Nazarenes; they are mainly . . . Jews and nothing else. They make use not only of the New Testament, but they also use in a way the Old Testament of the Jews; for they do not forbid the books of the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings . . . so that they are approved of by the Jews, from whom the Nazarenes do not differ in anything, and they profess all the dogmas pertaining to the prescriptions of the Law and to the customs of the Jews, except they believe in Christ . . . They preach that there is but one God, and his son Jesus Christ. But they are very learned in the Hebrew language; for they, like the Jews, read the whole Law, then the Prophets . . . They differ from the Jews because they believe in Christ, and from the Christians in that they are to this day bound to the Jewish rites, such as circumcision, the Sabbath, and other ceremonies . . . Otherwise, this sect of the Nazarenes thrives most vigorously in the state of Berea, in Coele-Syria, in Decapolis, around Pella, and in Bashan . . . After they departed from Jerusalem, they made their start from here, as all the disciples dwelt in Pella, having been admonished by Christ to depart Jerusalem and emigrate because of imminent danger.

From this quote we see that by the fourth century the relationship between the descendants of the original Jewish believers and the Western Roman Church had deteriorated to one of overt antagonism. By referring to the Jewish believers as “heretics,” the Church clearly showed it had theological disagreements with them. By stating that they are “mainly . . . Jews and nothing else,” the Church was clearly practicing anti-Semitism towards the Jewish believers. More importantly, we can also see why the Nazarenes were viewed as heretics. Twice Epiphanius mentions that the Nazarenes make use of the Tanakh.¹⁰ He also states that they continued to practice “customs of the Jews,” and “Jewish rites,” including circumcision and the observance of Sabbath. The Jewish people who practiced Pharisaic Judaism and those who were Messianic both shared one thing in common. In the words of Epiphanius, they both “profess all the dogmas pertaining to the prescriptions of the Law and to the customs of the Jews.” Thus, we see that the Nazarenes were viewed as heretics because they continued to uphold the Torah as the basis for their faith and practice in Messiah Yeshua and the customs of the Jews. This aversion to the Torah as the “old” covenant that had passed away was the main factor motivating the Church to persecute Jewish people who practiced Judaism and those who believed in Yeshua as the Messiah. The quote from Epiphanius demonstrates he knew that the Nazarenes¹¹ of his time were the direct descendants of the earliest Jewish believers in the Messiah. It also provides evidence that the Jewish believers of his time (400 CE) continued to live Torah-submissive lifestyles as taught by Yeshua in Matthew 5:17-20, and demonstrated in the book of Acts. In fact, we can continue to trace the presence of Torah-submissive Jewish believers through many centuries by examining the writings of their detractors who continued to ostracize and persecute them. The Church Father Jerome (author of the Latin Vulgate) described the Nazarenes as:¹²

“. . . those who accept Messiah in such a way that they do not cease to observe the Old Law . . .”

Once again, we see that it was obedience to the Torah that caused the Nazarenes to be viewed as different from the Church. We have seen testimony from early Church history that the Jewish believers in the Messiah continued to observe the Torah. There is also historical evidence that they existed well into the thirteenth century. The History of the Sabbath and the First Day of the Week records for us:

"As late as the eleventh century Cardinal Humbert still referred to the Nazarenes as a Sabbath-keeping Christian body existing at that time."¹³

Furthermore, the author states:

"And these so-called ‘Judaizing Christians’ were none other than the Nazarenes mentioned by Cardinal Humbert . . . the true Israel of God, who amid all the persecutions through which they had passed, bore the reproach of Christ more than any other Christian party, wandering about as ‘pilgrims and strangers’ to preach the faith of Jesus and the commandments of God.”¹⁴

These Jewish believers in Messiah were called Pasaginians, who were “so named by the Italians from the Latin word ‘passagium,’ meaning ‘passage,’ because of the ‘wandering, unsettled life of these people.”¹⁵ Concerning the Pasagini, the Catholic writings of Bonacursus says:

"Let those who are not yet acquainted with them, please note how perverse their belief and doctrine are. First, they teach that we should obey the law of Moses according to the letter – the Sabbath, and circumcision, and the legal precepts still being in force. Furthermore, to increase their error, they condemn and reject all the Church Fathers, and the whole Roman Church."¹⁶

Furthermore, Gregorius of Bergamo wrote about the Nazarenes (Pasagini) in 1250 CE stating:

". . . there still remains the sect of the Pasagini. They teach . . . that the Old Testament festivals are to be observed, circumcision, distinction of foods, and in nearly all other matters, save the sacrifices. The Old Testament is to be observed as literally as the New; circumcision is to be kept according to the letter."¹⁷

All these quotations show how the Western Roman Church has reacted to the Jewish believers in Messiah. In all the quotes above, it is plain to see that hostility towards the Jewish believers had its basis in a rejection of the Torah of Moses. This brief survey of the antagonism between the Western Roman Church and the Messianic Jewish believers has shown us why the Church felt it necessary to sever its ties with the Jewish believers. Not only had the Western Roman Church rejected the Torah as “old,” they began to despise Jewish people, thinking themselves better. It will be shown later that the seeds of separation were planted and nurtured predominantly by the Western Roman Church (as opposed to the Eastern churches, e.g., those of Asia Minor). Therefore, it is very interesting that of all the epistles Paul wrote, it was the epistle to the Romans where he wrote his most impassioned pleas to the non-Jewish believers, 1) admonishing them to not think Adonai had rejected His people Israel, and 2) not to arrogantly boast against the natural branches. Unfortunately, by their own written testimony, history has shown that the non-Jewish believers of Rome did not heed Paul’s admonition.

I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid . . . Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee . . . Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee . . . For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in (Romans 11:1, 18-21, 25).

1. Discrimination against or hostility toward the Jewish people.

2. "The Church" is the established entity that institutionalizes the Christian religion. This is a distinct entity from the "body of Messiah" which transcends the institution of the Church and more properly describes the body of believers that has existed both in and out of the Christian religion.

3. Murray Dixon. The Rebirth and Restoration of Israel, Chichester: Sovereign World, 1988, p. 80.

4. Marvin Wilson, Our Father Abraham, Eerdmans Publishers, 1989, p. 89.

5. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho.

6. Epistle of Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, to the Magnesians, 115 CE.

7. Samuele Bacchiocchi, Ph.D., From Sabbath to Sunday: A Historical Investigation of the Rise of Sunday Observance in Early Christianity, The Pontifical Gregorian University Press, 1977, p. 213.

8. Ignatius, Epistle to the Magnesians.

9. Epiphanius; Panarion 29.

10. Tanakh, a Hebrew word designating the Torah, Prophets and Writings; equivalent to what is called the Old Testament.

11. The Nazarenes of Acts 24:5.

12. Jerome; On. Is. 8:14.

13. J.N. Andrews & L.R. Conradi, History of the Sabbath and the First Day of the Week, 4th ed., Review and Herald Publishing, 1912 edition, p 545.

14. Ibid., p 547.

15. Richard Chamberlin, “The Forgotten History of Messianic Judaism,” Petah Tikvah, petahtikvah.com.

16. Luana Fabry, “How Long, O Lord, How Long?: A History of Anti-Semitism,” http://www.fan.net.au/~sos/hist.htm.

17. Ibid.