Antique anti-Semitism

Due to the fact that the term “ anti-Semitism ” itself appeared only in the 19th century, its application to the events of antiquity is regarded by some modern anti-scholars as an anachronism ^[1] . So, Bezalel Bar-Kochba ( Eng. Bezalel Bar-Kochba ) in the preface to the monograph The Image of the Jews in Greek literature. The Hellenistic period warns that it will use the term “anti-Semitism” exclusively in quotation marks, although it indicates that attempts to replace the term with something else are also problematic ^[2] . Nicholas de Lange believes that the deep hatred of the Jews, which is usually understood as anti-Semitism, did not exist in antiquity ^[3] . Candidate of historical sciences Alexander Grushevoy writes that anti-Jewish attacks by Greek and Roman authors cannot be called anti-Semitic, if we mean by anti-Semitism a situation where every member of the society understands the essence of such accusations. According to Grushevoy, at that time it was nothing more than aristocratic xenophobia ^[4] . In relation to this thesis, the doctor of historical sciences Irina Levinskaya agrees with him ^[5] . Victor Cherikover writes that criticism and misunderstanding of Jewish customs by the Roman, Greek and Greek-speaking elites should be called "anti-Judaism" ^[6] .

However, there are other views on this issue. So Louis Feldman Anti-Semitism in the Ancient World) considers government, social and intellectual anti-Semitism ^[7] . A number of historians and ethnologists, including such anti-scholars as Menachem Stern ^[8] , Solomon Lurie ^[9] and Arkady Kovelman ^[10] , Angelo Segre ^[11] , John Geiger ^[12] , Lawrence Shifman ^{[ 13]} and Jaan Sevenster ^[14] view conflicts between Jews and ancient pagans as a forerunner and source of modern anti-Semitism. The term “anti-Semitism” is used in relation to conflicts of the ancient time in many scientific works of both the XX ^[15] and the 21st centuries ^[16] .

Irina Levinskaya notes that the use of any term ("anti-Semitism", "anti-Semitism", "hatred of the Jews") does not mean a single phenomenon that has remained unchanged from antiquity to the present day ^[17] .

According to a number of researchers, ^[18] anti-Semitism arose and developed in the world of ancient paganism. The historian Salo Baron believed that ^[19] :

Almost every note in the cacophony of medieval and modern anti-Semitism was voiced by a choir of ancient writers

Original text

Almost every note in the cacophony of medieval and modern anti-Semitism was sounded by the chorus of ancient writers

Solomon Lurie agrees with this thesis. However, Irina Levinskaya notes, despite a partial similarity, the presence of significant differences in ancient and modern accusations against Jews.

Leon Polyakov writes that the emergence of such hostility towards the Jews, which goes beyond inter-clan rivalry and deserves to be called "anti-Semitism", dates from the majority of specialists in the 3rd century BC. e. ^[20]

Most of the modern anti-Semitic argumentation comes from ancient prejudices, one of the centers of which was Alexandria , about the III – II centuries BC. e. ^{[10] The} original distributors were Egyptian writers of this period, accusing the Jews of various malicious affairs. The motives for the accusations were religious, and economic, and political. Edward Flannery noted that the Hellenization of the Middle East and the resettlement of the Jewish diaspora in the Mediterranean made conflict inevitable, since the Greeks considered everything that was not written in Greek to be barbaric and could not understand and accept claims of superiority by the Jews whom they considered from a cultural point of view, no one ^[21] .

Louis Feldman in Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World. Attitudes and interactions from Alexander to Justinian ”concludes that not all ancient intellectuals supported a negative attitude towards Jews ^[22] . Menachem Stern points out that “anti-Semitic sentiments are alien to Gekatey , and his attitude towards Jews is rather sympathetic” ^[23] .

The historian Jona Lending dates the first recorded case of anti-Semitism in 474 BC. e. He speaks of a biblical episode of a failed plan for the extermination of Jews in the Achaemenid empire described in Esther’s book . According to the Bible, the court king Artaxerxes by the name of Aman tried to convince the king to destroy the Jews living in the empire, who, according to Aman, are prone to disobeying the royal authority. At the same time, Landing notes that it remains unclear how this story is a real event ^[24] .

One of the first theorists of anti-Semitism, historians call the Egyptian priest Manethon , who lived under Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-246 BC) ^{[10] [25] [26]} . In his account of the exodus of Jews from Egypt, Jews are represented as “unclean”: lepers , blind, and lame. According to the Manetho, they were expelled from Egypt to propitiate the gods, but later, united with the Hyksos shepherds, they conquered Egypt, rob it, desecrate temples, etc. The follower of the Manetho, Mnasei of Patra , the disciple of Eratosthenes , first launched such a widespread subsequently the legend that the Jews worship in their temple a golden donkey head. The accusations of Manetho were repeated by Lysimachus , Posidonius , Molon, and other Greek authors ^{[27] [28]} . Although many scholars deny Manethon’s anti-Semitism, believing that some of the attributed anti-Jewish texts were not written by him, Menachem Stern , who examined this issue in detail, concluded that “there is no serious reason to deny Manethon’s authorship” and, in addition, even without controversial fragments, an analysis of other texts “reveals it anti-Semitism is quite significant ” ^[8] . Antikoved Boris Turaev wrote that anti-Jewish historians repeated the version of the expulsion of "lepers" ^[29] .

The writer Apion (1st century A.D.), repeating the accusations of his predecessors ^[30] , also accused the Jews of human sacrifice and cannibalism . In one of the books, Apion wrote that the Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes was in the Jerusalem temple and there a Greek turned to him, who claimed that he was specially fed for subsequent murder and eating. The Jewish historian Josephus ridiculed this work, indicating that in Judaism there are no human sacrifices and that there simply could not be a Greek pagan in the described part of the temple ^[31] . Nevertheless, this accusation subsequently became a source for the emergence of blood libel ^{[32] [33]} . Walter Laker calls Apion one of the ideologists of anti-Semitism of this period ^[34] .

Another accusation that arose during that period was often repeated subsequently - the so-called “ double loyalty ”. Jews who were in the public service, and especially in the army, were accused of protecting the interests of their co-religionists more than of the state. Such an accusation was made, in particular, by Apion ^[7] .

In addition to the above allegations, Jona Lending also notes ^[24] :

• accusation of laziness related to observance of Shabbat traditions;
• the accusation of antisociality related to the fact that the Jews lived separately to be closer to the synagogues ;
• the circumcision tradition was considered barbarism and a means of preventing assimilation .

For the educated pagan of those times, there was no difference between Jews and Christians . Even when they began to be distinguished, exactly the same accusations were made against Christians as against Jews. The Christian church and Christians were generally accused of hatred of the entire human race, of performing disgusting rituals. Christians, their opponents claimed, indulge in all kinds of debauchery and incest, worship the head of a donkey, and practice ritual killings. This is precisely what the pagans previously accused the Jews of.

The accusations of the Egyptian priests did not lead to any practical consequences at that time. On the contrary, it is known that during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Ptolemy III Evergett, the number of Jews in Alexandria increased significantly. As Ilya Cherikover wrote, “throughout the entire Hellenistic period, anti-Semitism does not go beyond the purely literary framework” ^[35] . Louis Feldman notes that the gap between ancient intellectuals and the people was so great that their attacks on Jews almost never led to mass violence ^[7] . Almost the only case of real persecution is the destruction by the Egyptians of the Jewish temple in Elephantine in 411 BC. e. ^{[36] [37] [38]}

The situation changed dramatically during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–164 BC) in 169 BC. e. Antiochus invaded Jerusalem , ravaging and desecrating the Temple , which, by his order, was turned into the sanctuary of Zeus of Olympia ^[26] . Menachem Stern calls the attempt of Antiochus to impose a ban on the national religion and compulsion to accept someone else's religious cult an exceptional occurrence for the ancient world ^[39] . This triggered a Jewish rebellion led by Judas Maccabees. ^[26]

In 38 BC e. a Jewish pogrom occurred in Alexandria , which was caused by the desire of the Greeks to prevent Jews from obtaining civil rights. Historians note the pogrom’s reliance on anti-Semitic ideology ^{[40] [41]} . Egyptian Prefect Avl Aviliy Flack, in response to a complaint from the Jewish community, forbade Saturday celebrations and decided to restrict the residence of Jews in the city, as a result of which many Jews were evicted from their homes and the houses themselves were looted ^[42] Witness of the pogrom Philo of Alexandria wrote: ^[43]

Unable to tolerate the need anymore, some went (against the habit) to friends and relatives, asking for a living, others, whose noble spirit shunned begging as a slave, unworthy of a free man, decided, unhappy, to go to the market to get food for themselves and family . And falling into the hands of the mob, they were immediately killed, and their corpses were dragged across the city, trampling and turning into a mess, so that there would be nothing to bring to the earth.

- Philo of Alexandria . Against Flacca

Speeches by the local population against Jews in the 1st century BC e. - I century AD e. flashed also on the island of Rhodes , in Rome , Syria and Palestine . Especially strong were the contradictions in the eastern part of the Roman Empire , where the Greek population often smashed Jewish quarters and killed Jews. For example, during the unrest in Damascus for several hours, according to the testimony of Josephus Flavius , 10 thousand Jews were killed ^[42] . In turn, during the reign of Trajan, the movement swept the broad Jewish masses in Cyrene, Egypt, on the island of Cyprus, and many thousands of Greeks and Romans became victims of this movement ^[42] .

The confrontation between the Jewish and Greek communities in Caesarea ended in 59 , according to the same Flavius, the killing of 20 thousand Jews ^[44] . The Caesarea massacre became a prologue to the war of mutual extermination between the Jews and the Hellenized population ^[45] .

There is information about the expulsion of the Jews from Rome in 139 BC. e. ^[47] The reasons for the exile are the attempts of the Jews to introduce the Romans to their sacred rites and customs ^[48] .

The hostile attitude towards the Jews in Rome began with the accession of the emperor Tiberius . In 19, the Jewish religion was banned, and 4,000 Jews were conscripted and sent to Sardinia with the proviso that if they die in the fight against the robbers, the state will not lose anything. Later, Jews were expelled from Rome under the emperor Claudius in the year 50 , and the persecution of Christians during the time of Nero , according to the historian Alexander Tyumenev , was due only to the fact that this small sect at that time consisted of immigrants from Judea , and religious differences the Romans did not pay attention ^{[49] [50]} .

Mass deportations of Jews from Palestine were carried out by the Romans in the 70s and 130s . e. after the Judean Wars and the Bar Kochba rebellion ^[51] . After the destruction of Jerusalem, Jews were forbidden to approach the city under the threat of death ^[52] . In addition, Emperor Hadrian imposed bans on religious instruction and the performance of rites, including the celebration of the Sabbath. ^[53]

Alexander Grushevoy notes that after the defeat of anti-Roman uprisings and the mass extermination and slavery of the dissatisfied, the stage of improving the situation of Jews in Rome began, which began in 212 , when the Jews were equalized with other citizens of the empire. This stage lasted until 305 , when Emperor Constantine came to power. From that moment on, the situation of the Jews continuously worsened until the Arabs conquered Palestine ^[54] , except for the brief reign of Julian the Apostate (361–363), who was an opponent of Christianity and even intended to restore the Jerusalem Temple ^[55] .

A brief Jewish encyclopedia writes that the persecution of the Jews in the ancient world was rare, although very severe, especially during the reign of Hadrian ^[26] . The unprecedented nature of the persecution of the Jewish religion by Antiochus IV is noted by Menachem Stern ^[56] .

Researchers of the causes of the emergence of anti-Semitism in the ancient world are divided according to their approaches into two groups: substantialists and functionalists ^[57] . The former see the cause of the negative attitude in the Jews themselves, the latter see the causes in separate local and specific conflicts. Among the supporters of the substantial approach, in addition to the Nazis and anti-Semites, there are well-respected academic researchers, including Theodor Mommsen and Eduard Meyer , as well as E. M. Smallwood ^[58] , Jaan Sevenster and P. Schaefer. The functional approach was developed by Yitzhak Heineman , and later by Ilya Bikerman and a number of other scientists.

Irina Levinskaya notes that the problem of hostility towards Jews in antiquity continues to be the subject of discussion and controversy. A consensus satisfactory explanation for this phenomenon has not yet been found. With reference to de Lange, she identifies the reasons for this state of affairs ^[59] :

• the controversy of the subject itself;
• terminological problems;
• subjectivity of researchers;
• extreme fragmentation of sources.

Субстанционалистское объяснение

Профессор Соломон Лурье пишет, что исходя из повсеместного распространения антисемитизма он «возник не вследствие каких-либо временных или случайных причин, а вследствие тех или иных свойств, постоянно соприсущих еврейскому народу».

Анализируя причины появления антисемитизма везде, где поселялись евреи, он отмечает существование двух равно неприемлемых для науки позиций: что евреи были много хуже иных народов и что евреи были много лучше иных народов ^[60] .

Представляющий первый взгляд римский историк Тацит писал ^[61] :

(V, 4) Иудеи считают богопротивным то, что для нас священно, и, наоборот, то, что у нас запрещено, ибо безнравственно и преступно, у них разрешается. … (V, 5) …иудеи охотно помогают друг другу, зато ко всем прочим смертным враждебны и ненавидят их. Ни с кем не делят они ни пищу, ни ложе, избегают чужих женщин, хотя преданы разврату до крайности и со своими творят любые непотребства; они и обрезание ввели, чтобы отличать своих от всех прочих. … При всем том иудеи весьма заботятся о росте своего народа — убийство детей, родившихся после смерти отца, считают преступлением

— Тацит . История, около 110 г.

Современные еврейские религиозные авторы Д. Шейнин и Б. Левит полагают, что уникальность антисемитизма объясняется иррациональным страхом перед евреями. Причиной этого страха являются, по мнению авторов, «объективно правдоподобные свидетельства избранности евреев как народа Завета» ^[62] . Критикуя этот подход Леон Черняк пишет, что все объяснения такого рода тавтологичны , поскольку объяснение феномена антисемитизма сводится к описанию этого феномена. Это констатация феномена антисемитизма, принимаемая за его объяснение ^[63] .

Во второй группе кроме собственно еврейских авторов Лурье отмечает учёных-христиан, полагающих иудаизм важной предтечей христианства, поднявшийся выше окружающих его язычников . В качестве примера Лурье приводит цитаты Жозефа Ренана ^[64] и Михаэля Фридлендера ^[65] , пишущих об особой нравственной миссии еврейского народа и его историческом предназначении.

Лурье опровергает эти мнения и выдвигает следующий тезис ^[66] . В древнем мире было принято, что покорённый завоевателем народ признавал себя гражданами второго сорта по отношению к гражданам метрополии, стремился походить на полноценных граждан и признавал богов своих завоевателей. Восставая против обид и притеснений малочисленные нации истреблялись поработителями, либо полностью ассимилировались .

Евреи же вели себя принципиально иначе. Своеобразное положение Палестины в качестве поля битвы между соседними государствами, по мнению Лурье,

…дало возможность развиться у евреев сильному национальному чувству, не связанному не только с политическим могуществом, но и с политической независимостью — явление единичное и не имеющее аналогий в древнем мире

Евреи, в отличие от других народов, сохранили своё национальное самосознание и свои национальные обычаи. Евреи полагали себя национально-государственным целым без собственного государства с религиозным центром в Палестине. При этом ассимиляция подвергалась жёсткому общественному неодобрению.

Такая позиция и вызывала у народов, среди которых жили евреи, ненависть к ним. Даже занимая высокое общественное положение евреи продолжали подчёркивать свою «особость» и нежелание принимать местные культурные ценности и обычаи ^[67] . Это и становилось, по мнению Лурье, причиной появления антисемитизма везде, где вне Палестины селились евреи. Сходное мнение высказывает Йона Лендеринг — он отмечает, что возникновение антисемитизма было обусловлено тем, что евреи были узнаваемым меньшинством в любом государстве в связи с религиозными обычаями ^[24] . В противовес этому мнению, Encyclopaedia Judaica утверждает, что в отличие от земель, вошедших в Римскую империю, в Парфянском царстве ненависть к евреям не носила столь серьёзного масштаба ^[68] .

Функционалистское объяснение

Функционалисты полагают национальные и религиозные свойства евреев несущественными в качестве причин антисемитизма. Они рассматривают в первую очередь политические и экономические интересы тех или иных общественных групп. Иногда антисемитизм рассматривается как частный случай ксенофобии, неприязни к чужакам вообще.

Так, Илья Бикерман утверждает, что в диаспоре конфликт евреев-монотеистов и чужого богопочитания возникал, только если евреи становились чиновниками у владыки-чужеземца, поскольку любой царь был главой государственной религии и такое назначение имело также религиозный аспект ^[69] .

Александр Грушевой пишет, что традиционный взгляд на антисемитизм как вызванный самими евреями и повсеместно сопровождающий их неверен, поскольку «антииудейские настроения и их высшая форма — антисемитизм — существуют лишь там, где распространено христианство». А там, где христианство «не является господствующей идеологией, антисемитизма не было и нет (Китай, Индия, мусульманский мир). Существующие же в этих обществах конфликты если и имеют место, то по совершенно иным причинам» ^[70] .

Наиболее известным из античных антисемитских мифов, дожившим до наших дней, является кровавый навет — обвинение в употреблении крови в ритуальных целях. Это обвинение, трансформированное из сочинения Апиона, было популярно среди христиан в Средневековье и до сих пор имеет широкое хождение в мусульманских странах ^[71] . Также в современном мире по-прежнему имеет хождение обвинение евреев в «двойной лояльности» ^{[72] [73] [74] [75]} .

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