Augustine’s Rhetorical Use of “the Jews,” and What It Meant for Actual Jews

In his extensive writings, especially his polemics against various heretical groups, the church father Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE) made frequent reference to Jews and Judaism. Paula Fredriksen explains the role Jews played in early Christian thought, the inconsistency of Augustine’s approach to the issue, and his attitude toward the real-life Jews of North Africa.

Christianity emerged in the 2nd century CE as a family of warring sects composed almost exclusively of ex-pagan Gentiles. As they faced off against one another, each claiming to be the true community of revelation, these Gentile sects derided their Christian rivals by accusing them of being “Jews,” of being “like the Jews,” or of being “worse than the Jews.” It was in this period that [what some scholars term] “thinking with Jews” became hardwired into Christian theology, [and] thus Christian identity. . . .

[This happened] in part because “Jews” were put forward as a polemical category by [Christian scripture itself]. Paul’s complaints about his apostolic competition (“Are they Hebrews? So am I! . . .”) and Jesus’ complaints about Pharisees, Sadducees, and chief priests shape the [New Testament]; while the Torah and the Prophets are filled with the complaints of Moses, of Jeremiah [and other prophets], and of God about the stony hearts, stiff necks, and spiritual inconstancy of the people of Israel. [Later] this older intra-Jewish polemic mutated into anti-Jewish polemic. . . .

Augustine is both a conspicuous exception to this patristic intra-Christian tradition of anti-Jewish rhetoric and a no less conspicuous, indeed ferocious, continuator of it. His discourse differed according to his enemy. Against those heretics par excellence, the Manicheans, Augustine surprisingly developed original, irenic, and positive ways of “thinking with Jews.” Against the Donatists, [a Christian schismatic group], however, no anti-Jewish calumny was too low, no imputation of malice too vicious. . . .

[And] what about [Augustine’s own day], and the practice of Augustine’s Jewish contemporaries? Did [contemporary] Israel—that perduring community of unbelievers—have any positive relevance for the community of Christ? Augustine considers the Jews’ continuing practice “a marvel to be greatly respected. . . . The Jewish nation under foreign monarchs whether pagan or Christian has never lost the sign of their law, by which they are distinguished from all other nations and peoples.” Some divine initiative must continue to preserve and to protect Jewish practice.

Read more at Ancient Jew Review

More about: Anti-Semitism, Augustine of Hippo, History & Ideas, Jewish-Christian relations, New Testament

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF