Judea and the center of Palestine, Christianity has not yet taken root. (A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People)

347 CE: JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

“The paramount tasks of the emerging Christianity were to overthrow the theological dominance of Judaism, to establish itself as a separate and self–sustaining religion, and to situate Christians as the new and authentic chosen people. The Christian Fathers believed that they were fighting a war with the Jews in which only the victor would reap the reward of eternal life; Judaism was a standing insult and threat to Christianity’s image of itself. Jerome once wrote to Augustine that if converted Jews were allowed to practice even one fragment of their former religion, “they will not become Christians, but they will make us Jews… The ceremonies of the Jews are pernicious and deadly; and whoever observes them, whether Jew or Gentile, has fallen into the pit of the devil. For Christ is the end of the Torah…” John Chrysostom was blunt about it, “Don’t you realize, if the Jewish rites are holy and venerable, our way of life must be false… The Jews… pay honor to the avenging demons, the foes of out life.”

Through anti–Jewish theological myths and defamations, the Church Fathers pictured the Jews no longer as the chosen people, no longer heroes of holiness and moral living; they were instead the earthly representatives of the powers of evil.”

–Robert Michael, Holy Hatred, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 21

It is not clear how a religion gets away with venerating with “sainthood” – over seventeen centuries ongoing –