Jews and Arians

Jews and Arians June 18, 2010

Did Alexandrian Jews support the Arians?  Athanasius charged as much, and his assessment has been found convincing to more than one modern historian.

Victor Tcherikover wrote, “Jews became openly hostile to the new rulers” after Constantine’s conversion, “and proffered assistance to any group of persons or to any social or religious movement in opposition to the official Church.  Thus they certainly supported the Arians, and the Fathers of the Church classed Jews and Arians together as the fiercest enemies of orthodoxy.  The Jewry of the Roman empire, though dispersed and lacking a national center in a state of its own, was nevertheless a considerable force, not to be over-looked by the Christian church.”

Robert Louis Wilken writes: “During the episcopate of Athanasius, Jews and Christians clashed over the appointment of bishops to the see of Alexandria.  The Arian bishop Gregory was appointed to take Athanasius’ place.  When the time came for his entrance into Alexandria, Catholics tried to prevent him from being consecrated, but Philagrius, the prefect of Alexandria, was an Arian supporter.  According to Athanasius this prefect gathered together a large mob of heathens and Jews and set them against the Catholics with swords and clubs.  They broke into the churches and desecrated holy objects, seized the virgins and monks, and burned the Scriptures.”  He credits the report of Theodoret, who claimed that after the consecration of Peter as bishop of Alexandria, “the governor ‘assembled a mob of Greeks and Jews, surrounded the walls of the church, and bade Peter come forth, threatening him with exile if he refused.’”


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