I found an oldy but goody the other day while reading Paul Lawrence Rose's book German Question/Jewish Question: Revolutionary Antisemitism from Kant to Wagner (1990).
I had read this book many years ago- maybe it was even one of the very first I had ever read on Germany, the Jews, and the early modern period- but I had it opened back up again recently because I was looking into the Young Germany literary movement of which famous Jews like Heinrich Heine and Ludwig Borne were members of during the rough time period coinciding with the political revolutions happening all throughout Europe during the year 1848.
Anyway, right at the beginning of Chapter 1 in this book, which talks about the "Genealogy of Modern Antisemitism", giving a short history lesson, and going all the way back to the early days of Christianity itself, there is a quotation from the great St. John Chrysostom in regard to the Jews.
en.wikipedia.org
Chrysostom really shouldn't even need to be articulated on here; most readers of this forum should generally know who he is, but in this book after telling about Tacitus's indictment of the Jews as "a nation driven by their hatred of the rest of humanity", the author Rose begins to tell of Chrysostom too. And after providing some small amount of the book's context, here's the quote in full:
I mean- yes these allegations all are "cliches", but just like our own modern "stereotypes", cliches too were originally brought about and became what they are/were originally because they carried with them more than a little bit of actual objective truth. But the author, the philo-Semitic Rose, of course, simply brushes these allegations by Chrysostom off as "a repertoire of anti-Jewish cliches"- because of hecking course!
The source that Rose uses to get that quote is J.C. Gager's book The Origins of Anti-Semitism: Attitudes Toward Judaism in Pagan and Christian Antiquity (1958).
It's always been amazing to me since I originally began delving into this JQ material and its history how these authors just like the one quoted directly above, Paul Lawrence Rose, can write these entire 400+ page books intending and declaring to teach people about the "history of anti-Semitism" as well as its reasons and its causes. Yet as soon as they get to the initial parts of the history (in our case Chrysostom) and his own reasoning (stated above in the quoted section), these authors without any investigation whatsoever and without even pausing for a split-second to consider the other side of the story simply brush off the allegation of the "anti-Semite" without even stating either way whether or not the allegation being made is either true or false. And like our modern-day SJWs and JewsMedia that we're all utterly too familiar with, these authors who went to school for this shit and who make it their business to study academically "anti-Semitism" offer no more than a fancy-sounding "Wow. Just. Wow." when it comes to them being face to face with the objective truth of any so-called anti-Semite's assertions!
But the fact remains, Chrysostom said these words in the 4th Century. And many people today like us state the same exact uncomfortable truths. Almost word-for-word too! But it simply never occurs to anybody but us ever that there just might be some sort of historical continuity there as far as truth goes. Nope. It's always just more elaborate versions of the now-too-typical "Wow. Just. Wow." which dodges the uncomfortable truth altogether. And people commonly allow these people to get away with it without even addressing the fact that anti-Semites today are saying the exact same things as anti-Semites centuries ago.
In fact, this reference above by Chrysostom could in fact be the earliest reference we have (at least on this particular thread) either by a Jew or a non-Jew alluding to the Jews' (by now) well-known desire and/or plan to rule the world through global governance centrally from Jerusalem.
I had read this book many years ago- maybe it was even one of the very first I had ever read on Germany, the Jews, and the early modern period- but I had it opened back up again recently because I was looking into the Young Germany literary movement of which famous Jews like Heinrich Heine and Ludwig Borne were members of during the rough time period coinciding with the political revolutions happening all throughout Europe during the year 1848.
Anyway, right at the beginning of Chapter 1 in this book, which talks about the "Genealogy of Modern Antisemitism", giving a short history lesson, and going all the way back to the early days of Christianity itself, there is a quotation from the great St. John Chrysostom in regard to the Jews.

John Chrysostom - Wikipedia

Chrysostom really shouldn't even need to be articulated on here; most readers of this forum should generally know who he is, but in this book after telling about Tacitus's indictment of the Jews as "a nation driven by their hatred of the rest of humanity", the author Rose begins to tell of Chrysostom too. And after providing some small amount of the book's context, here's the quote in full:
Well, what I want to know is: where is the freakin' lie?...The writings of the church fathers, most notably St. John Chrysostom, expanded this charge into a repertoire of anti-Jewish cliches: the Jews are full of hatred for the rest of mankind and are the enemies of all gentiles; they are parasites on the gentile societies that harbor them; they are addicted to money, and through the power of money, they aspire to one day be rulers of the world even though they have, by their innate quarrelsomeness, lost their own state currently.
I mean- yes these allegations all are "cliches", but just like our own modern "stereotypes", cliches too were originally brought about and became what they are/were originally because they carried with them more than a little bit of actual objective truth. But the author, the philo-Semitic Rose, of course, simply brushes these allegations by Chrysostom off as "a repertoire of anti-Jewish cliches"- because of hecking course!
The source that Rose uses to get that quote is J.C. Gager's book The Origins of Anti-Semitism: Attitudes Toward Judaism in Pagan and Christian Antiquity (1958).
It's always been amazing to me since I originally began delving into this JQ material and its history how these authors just like the one quoted directly above, Paul Lawrence Rose, can write these entire 400+ page books intending and declaring to teach people about the "history of anti-Semitism" as well as its reasons and its causes. Yet as soon as they get to the initial parts of the history (in our case Chrysostom) and his own reasoning (stated above in the quoted section), these authors without any investigation whatsoever and without even pausing for a split-second to consider the other side of the story simply brush off the allegation of the "anti-Semite" without even stating either way whether or not the allegation being made is either true or false. And like our modern-day SJWs and JewsMedia that we're all utterly too familiar with, these authors who went to school for this shit and who make it their business to study academically "anti-Semitism" offer no more than a fancy-sounding "Wow. Just. Wow." when it comes to them being face to face with the objective truth of any so-called anti-Semite's assertions!
But the fact remains, Chrysostom said these words in the 4th Century. And many people today like us state the same exact uncomfortable truths. Almost word-for-word too! But it simply never occurs to anybody but us ever that there just might be some sort of historical continuity there as far as truth goes. Nope. It's always just more elaborate versions of the now-too-typical "Wow. Just. Wow." which dodges the uncomfortable truth altogether. And people commonly allow these people to get away with it without even addressing the fact that anti-Semites today are saying the exact same things as anti-Semites centuries ago.
In fact, this reference above by Chrysostom could in fact be the earliest reference we have (at least on this particular thread) either by a Jew or a non-Jew alluding to the Jews' (by now) well-known desire and/or plan to rule the world through global governance centrally from Jerusalem.
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