Paul and Antisemitism in 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16

People who call themselves Christians have been accused of antisemitism and, it is alleged, their antisemitism was motivated by the New Testament. Not the earlier written portions of the New Testament, some have affirmed, but by the later writings of the New Testament (Pieter van der Horst). Van der Horst asserts that the first New Testament writings, like the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, “which are the historically more reliable ones,” he alleges, viewed Jesus as “a messenger of God to the Jews and as a member of the Jewish people.”

He wanted to prepare them for what he saw as the approaching end of time and God’s imminent kingdom. Jesus was not planning to initiate a new religion. The writer of a later book, the Gospel of John, has Jesus make anti-Semitic remarks. That book, however, is much less historical. (Horst)

We would argue with several of these presuppositions (Jesus saw himself as fulfilling and bringing new things to the faith in Yahweh, Matthew 9:17, ‘Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved’; the Gospel of John is accurately historical and does not have Jesus making antisemitic remarks). One presupposition is that earlier New Testament writings were not antisemitic while later ones were. But van der Horst himself points to Paul’s remarks in 1 Thessalonians 2:14 through 16 as antisemitic,

the Jews, ¹⁵ who killed the Lord, Jesus, and the prophets, and persecuted us, and are not pleasing to God, and are opposed to all humanity, ¹⁶ restraining us from speaking to the Gentiles in order that they might be saved, so as to always fill up to the full their sins. And His wrath has always reached them.

Yet 1 Thessalonians is one of the earliest New Testament writings, and, despite his claim, it is not antisemitic.

Paul was a Semite, a descendent of Shem (a Shemite), who followed the God/Man who, in his human nature, was also a Semite, a Jew (of course, there are Semites other than the Jews, as, for example, Arabs). Many on Paul’s team were Semites or Jews. Paul raised money among his churches (mostly Gentile members) for the poor believers, Jews, who were in Jerusalem and Judea. Paul declared in his letter to the Romans,

^9:1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit— ² I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh. ⁴ They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; ⁵ to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. (NRSVA)

Paul prophesied in Romans 11,

¹³ Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry ¹⁴ in order to make my own people jealous, and thus save some of them. ¹⁵ For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead!…²⁵ So that you may not claim to be wiser than you are, brothers and sisters, I want you to understand this mystery: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. ²⁶ And so all Israel will be saved; as it is written,

‘Out of Zion will come the Deliverer; he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.’ ²⁷ ‘And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.’

²⁸ As regards the gospel they are enemies of God for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved, for the sake of their ancestors; 29 for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. (NRSVA)

Paul was not antisemitic. Jesus was not antisemitic. Paul did not hate Jews. He was antiJudaistic. He was against the prevailing stance most Jews took toward faith in Jesus as Messiah. He saw the majority of his fellow Jews as hardened by God against Christian faith until the full complement of Gentile believers came to Christ. They were enemies of God and His gospel for the sake of the Gentiles who would believe. They were invitees to the banquet who had refused the invitation, leaving room for those who were not Jews to come.

And it is true that factions within this prevailing Jewish perspective had persecuted Paul as they had done the prophets before him. And yes, this prevailing Jewish perspective was responsible for getting Jesus killed, manipulating and using the Romans to accomplish it. And Paul can point to the historical instances of God’s judgment coming upon Israel repeatedly in the past when their sin reached its max, something he anticipated for his people yet again.

In the Wikipedia article on Antisemitism and the New Testament, we find this argument, with my response to each point:

According to Rabbi Michael J. Cook, Professor of Intertestamental and Early Christian Literature at the Hebrew Union College, there are ten themes in the New Testament that have been sources of anti-Judaism and antisemitism:

1. The Jews are culpable for crucifying Jesus– as such they are guilty of deicide.

It is certainly true that the New Testament, the Gospels, describe the Jewish leadership as demanding of Pilate that he crucify Jesus, but it does not lay this guilt on all the Jews. You can’t kill God, but the God/Man could be killed, so in a sense that might be called deicide. It is a wrong perspective of the Gospel account, however, to blame all Jews of culpability for Jesus’ death. As Christians, Jew and Gentile, know, Jesus died for our sin, making all of us guilty for his death.

2. The tribulations of the Jewish people throughout history constitute God’s punishment of them for killing Jesus.

The New Testament does not directly teach this, though no doubt some have inferred it.

3. Jesus originally came to preach only to the Jews, but when they rejected him, he abandoned them for gentiles

Jesus never did abandon the Jews, nor did his apostles. Whenever Paul came to a community where he would preach the gospel, he started in the synagogue. He always preached to the Jews first. As he says in Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” The New Testament does not teach that the Jews have been abandoned.

4. The Children of Israel were God’s original chosen people by virtue of an ancient covenant, but by rejecting Jesus they forfeited their chosenness – and now, by virtue of a New Covenant (or “testament”), Christians have replaced the Jews as God’s chosen people, the Church having become the “People of God.”

The New Testament does not teach that the Jews forfeited their “chosenness.” As we saw in Romans 11:28, “As regards the gospel they are enemies of God for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved, for the sake of their ancestors.” And the New Covenant is an Old Testament promise for Israel (Jeremiah 31) that believers have been admitted to (Hebrews 8) but have not replaced Jews in its fulfillment. Its ultimate fulfillment will include the Jews (Romans 11:26-29)

5. The Jewish Bible (“Old” Testament) repeatedly portrays the opaqueness and stubbornness of the Jewish people and their disloyalty to God.

Yes, exactly, not the New Testament but the Old Testament, the Jewish Scriptures, portray Israel this way. Is the Old Testament and Judaism therefore antisemitic? Of course not! So why would the New Testament (which was written mostly by Jews) be antisemitic for showing this continued stubbornness with regard to believing in Jesus?

6. The Jewish Bible contains many predictions of the coming of Jesus as the Messiah (or “Christ”), yet the Jews are blind to the meaning of their own Bible.

Isaiah predicted that Israel would be blind to what God was doing (Isaiah 42:18-25). Is Isaiah antisemitic?

7. By the time of Jesus’ ministry, Judaism had ceased to be a living faith.

The New Testament does not teach this. There were many godly Jews with living faith, some of the key players being John the Baptist and his family, Jesus and his family, and his disciples. There were Pharisees who had a living faith, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea.

8. Judaism’s essence is a restrictive and burdensome legalism.

Jesus and his apostles did accuse the leadership of the Jews, especially that of the sect of the Pharisees, which was the most popular teaching of the day, of burdensome legalism. Most of the common people felt the burden of this teaching.

9. Christianity emphasizes love, while Judaism stands for justice and a God of wrath.

Christianity and Judaism alike emphasize love, justice and God’s wrath.

10. Judaism’s oppressiveness reflects the disposition of Jesus’ opponents called “Pharisees” (predecessors of the “rabbis“), who in their teachings and behavior were hypocrites (see Woes of the Pharisees).

Jesus does accuse the Pharisees as a whole, not every individual, of hypocrisy. Did that make Jesus antisemitic? It did not. For Christians to derive from Jesus’ teaching that all Jews deserve punishment is heretical.

This, of course, is the problem with accusing the New Testament of being the source of antisemitism. People who say they believe in the New Testament and Jesus, who take wrong perspectives on the New Testament, do not demonstrate that the fault is the New Testament. The Christian preachers of antisemitism are false in their teaching, misrepresenting the message of the New Testament.

Antisemitism has been a characteristic of many cultures, Roman, Nazi, et al. Prejudice looks to any source for justification of its hatred. Many antisemites have used the New Testament to support their disgusting bias. True Christians should have no part in this.