[DouglasKC]

Can you elaborate on your statement “ Anti-semitism was so deeply ingrained into Rome that it followed was a strong force in the early history of protestants today.” There were no pogroms in the high middle ages in Europe with the first pogrom being in the 11th century in Muslim ruled Al Andalus. Early Protestants like luther were not anti Semitic. Bear me out, I know Luther called on horrific acts to be done to Jews. But 1. He called the same on Catholics, on Zwingli Reformed, on peasants, in short on anyone who disagreed with him. 2. He had no problem with Jews who converted to luther’s way of thinking.

I think the proper way to look at Luther and the Jews was that he was willing to put aside his hatred because his hatred of Catholicism was more important to him . He was trying to build a coalition against the all powerful Catholic church. When the Jews refused to come on board as protestants he let loose his true feelings and this permeated the modern church for centuries ...and to a certain extent still does. Any Christians that advocate keeping the holy days of the bible or God's sabbaths are often automatically branded as an outsider, a heretic or worse. I think this is a cultural remnant of the anti Jewish sentiment that permeated the Roman empire at all levels for centuries.

[Cronos]

Luther didn’t hesitate to call Zwingli, a fellow Protestant leader, “son of the devil” for disagreeing with Luther.

Luther did not hate Jews racially - an anti-Semite hates them for their race, not for their religious views. It is a difference. Luther hated EVERYONE who’s religious and other views differed from him.

“this permeated the modern church for centuries” — There was no anti-semitism based on race among any of the Christian churches unless one includes German “Positive Christianity” among those ranks (and I don’t)

“I think this is a cultural remnant of the anti Jewish sentiment that permeated the Roman empire at all levels for centuries.”
—> That’s not correct. Jews were treated well enough under the Romans AFTER 150 AD — they were given trade rights, they were allowed exemptions from Emperor worship (which Christians were not accorded). Outside the Middle East, they thrived - with large Jewish communities in Rome, in Iberia, Greece, etc.

Julian, the only emperor to reject Christianity after the conversion of Constantine, allowed the Jews to return to “holy Jerusalem which you have for many years longed to see rebuilt” and to rebuild the Temple. However Julian was killed in battle on 26 June 363 in his failed campaign against the Sassanid Empire, and the Third Temple was not rebuilt at that time.

If you look at the period from 378 AD (Roman empire becomes Christian) to 1000, there are no pogroms or acts against Jews. There is prejudice in Iberia from the 700s onwards because Jews were aiding the Muslims in their conquest of Iberia (this is similar to Jewish support for Muslims in the Middle east etc - the Jews probably saw a community of stern monotheist warriors as somehow possible converts to rabbinical Judaism or help for rabbinical Judaism)