Below I have collected a list of resources pertaining to the Catholic understanding of the Jews. Included are historical Catholic writers, Church Fathers, Ecumenical Councils, and more. Composition year is provided when possible in the headings. If you would like to suggest an addition, modification, or would like to provide further details please email resources+jews@fretheim.blog with the information. There must be an English text available, either in digitally or in print.
Special thanks to Amery for providing many of the resources found in this collection.
Dialogue with Trypho by St. Justin Martyr, Church Father (155-160)
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Catholic University of America Press (Print | Digital)
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Outside the New Testament, our earliest complete witness to Christian apologetic against the Jews remains the Dialogue with Trypho, written by Justin Martyr, a convert to Christianity from traditional Greek religion. The Dialogue purports to be a two-day dialogue that took place in Asia Minor between Justin and Trypho, a Hellenized Jew. Justin argues extensively on the basis of lengthy Old Testament quotations that Christ is the Messiah and God incarnate, and that the Christian community is the new Israel. In the beginning of the work Justin recounts how he converted to Christianity.
The Dialogue remains of great, and varying, interest. It has important information on the development of Jewish-Christian relations, on the development of the text of the Old Testament, and on the existence and character of the early Jewish Christian community. Justin’s story of how he became a Christian is one of our earliest conversion accounts. The Dialogue is an ideal textbook for classes investigating the development of religion in Late Antiquity since it touches on many aspects of religion in the Roman Empire.
– Catholic University of America Press
On the Keeping of Easter by Emperor Constantine the Great (325)
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Christian Classics Ethereal Library (Digital)
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Emperor Constantine the Great’s letter to those who were not present at the Council of Nicaea.
It was declared to be particularly unworthy for this, the holiest of all festivals, to follow the custom of the Jews, who had soiled their hands with the most fearful of crimes, and whose minds were blinded. … We ought not … to have anything in common with the Jews, for the Savior [Jesus Christ] has shown us another way; our worship follows a more legitimate and more convenient course; and consequently, in unanimously adopting this mode, we desire, dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews, for it is truly shameful for us to hear them boast that without their direction we could not keep this feast. How can they be in the right, they who, after the death of the Savior, have no longer been led by reason but by wild violence, as their delusion may urge them? They do not possess the truth in this Easter question; for, in their blindness and repugnance to all improvements, they frequently celebrate two passovers in the same year. We could not imitate those who are openly in error. How, then, could we follow these Jews, who are most certainly blinded by error? for to celebrate the passover twice in one year is totally inadmissible. But even if this were not so, it would still be your duty not to tarnish your soul by communications with such wicked people [the Jews].
Letter #40 by St. Ambrose (374-397)
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St. Ambrose begs Theodosius to listen to him, as he cannot be silent without great risk to both. He points out that Theodosius though God-fearing may be led astray, and points out that his decision respecting the restoration of the Jewish synagogue is full of peril, exposing the bishop to the danger of either acting against the truth or of death. The case of Julian is referred to, and the reasons given for the imperial rescript are met, especially by the plea that the Jews had burnt many churches. St. Ambrose touches on the temple of the Valentinians, whom he declares to be worse than heathen, and points out what a door would be opened to the calumnies of the Jews and a triumph over Christ Himself. The Emperor is lastly warned by the example of Maximus not to take the part of Jews or heretics, and is urged to clemency.
Discourses Against Judaizing Christians by St. John Chrysostom, Church Father and Doctor of the Church (386-387)
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Logos Bible Software (Digital)
Catholic University of America Press (Print | Digital)
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St. John Chrysostom’s Discourse Against Judaizing Christians are eight homilies or sermons with a unifying theme: the correction of certain abuses in a fourth-century Christian community. Judged by modern tastes the Discourses may seem lengthy, and Chrysostom himself admits that they taxed his energies when he complains of having become hoarse. In Antioch of the late fourth century two highly divisive forces contributed to deteriorating Judaeo-Christian relations: very successful Jewish proselytizing, and Christian Judaizing. Both activities profoundly disturbed a vigilant leader and eloquent preacher such as Chrysostom was.
These Discourses, frequently interrupted by applause from the audience, present in their historical context one facet of the deteriorating relations. Antedating Chrysostom by some two centuries, emerging views that the Jews were a people cursed and dispersed in punishment for their unbelief and deicide were gaining credence; witness some statements by Irenaeus in Lyons and Tertullian in northern Africa. In the course of time certain passages of sacred Scripture began to be reinterpreted, when occasion presented itself, in such a way as to endow the polemics with divine authority.
– Catholic University of America Press
Letter #1 by St. Peter Damian, Doctor of the Church (1049)
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League of St. Peter Damian (DOC)
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Presentation of theological matters pertaining to Christian relation against the Jews.
Dialogue against the Jews by Petrus Alfonsi, convert to Christianity from Judaism (1109)
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Logos Bible Software (Digital)
Catholic University of America Press (Print | Digital)
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Petrus Alfonsi’s Dialogue Against the Jews (ca. 1109) breaks new ground in the history of Christian anti-Jewish polemics. As a recent convert from Judaism, Alfonsi introduced an intimate knowledge of Jewish literature and contemporary practice absent from earlier Christian sources. This knowledge enabled him to attack for the first time the Talmud (or, more broadly, post-biblical Jewish literature) as a source of Jewish error, with arguments drawn from philosophy and theology, astronomy, medicine, and physics. Equally important, Alfonsi’s Dialogue contains an extensive anti-Muslim polemic to explain not only why he abandoned Judaism but also why he rejected Islam and chose the Christian faith.
For these reasons the Dialogue has been described as the most important anti-Jewish text of the Latin Middle Ages. This assessment is based not only on its innovative argumentation but also on the fact that it was one of the most popular medieval anti-Jewish polemics written. It was cited, often verbatim, by later Christian polemicists like Peter of Blois and used by Peter the Venerable. Alfonsi’s Dialogue was known to Joachim of Fiore, who adapted its illustration of the mystery of the Trinity contained in the tetragrammaton; summarized by Vincent of Beauvais, who included a long extract from the Dialogue in his popular Speculum historiale; exploited by Raymund Martini in his monumental Pugio Fidei; and utilized by Abner de Burgos in his Mostrador de Justicia. It was also likely employed by Pablo Christiani to prepare for the public disputation at Barcelona (1263 C.E.) and later by Jerome de Santa Fe for the disputation at Tortosa (1413-1414 C.E.).
– Catholic University of America Press
Against the Inveterate Obduracy of the Jews by Bl. Peter the Venerable (1141-1150)
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Catholic University of America Press (Print | Digital)
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Peter the Venerable (d. 1156), the powerful abbot of Cluny, left behind not only extensive letter collections, but also polemical treatises intended to refute contemporary challenges to Christianity. Perhaps the most important is Against the Inveterate Obduracy of the Jews (Adversus Judeorum inveteratam duritiem), written between Against the Saracens (ca. 1150) and Against the Petrobrusians (ca. 1139-41).
Against the Inveterate Obduracy of the Jews represents a turning point in medieval anti-Jewish polemics. On the one hand, the polemic’s intention—to bring about the conversion of the Jews—is predicated on an assumption that Jews are rational agents who may be persuaded of Christian truths by philosophical argument, empirical evidence, and biblical exegesis. On the other hand, Peter the Venerable also introduced the notion that the Jews’ enduring “blindness” stems from a persistent strain of irrationality, for which they themselves are responsible. Peter traces this irrationality to the medieval Jews’ commitment to the Talmud.
Peter is the first medieval Christian author to name the Talmud explicitly. The Jewish convert to Christianity, Petrus Alfonsi, had ridiculed Talmudic folklore in his Dialogue against the Jews. Peter the Venerable borrowed from but also surpassed Alfonsi’s critique, as even his use of the name Talmud indicates.
– Catholic University of America Press
Canon 26 of the Third Ecumenical Council of the Lateran Council (1179)
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Papal Encyclicals Online (Digital)
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“Jews and Saracens are not to be allowed to have christian servants in their houses, either under pretence of nourishing their children or for service or any other reason. Let those be excommunicated who presume to live with them. We declare that the evidence of Christians is to be accepted against Jews in every case, since Jews employ their own witnesses against Christians, and that those who prefer Jews to Christians in this matter are to lie under anathema, since Jews ought to be subject to Christians and to be supported by them on grounds of humanity alone. If any by the inspiration of God are converted to the christian faith, they are in no way to be excluded from their possessions, since the condition of converts ought to be better than before their conversion. If this is not done, we enjoin on the princes and rulers of these places, under penalty of excommunication, the duty to restore fully to these converts the share of their inheritance and goods.”
Canon 69 of Fourth Ecumenical Council of the Lateran (1215)
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Papal Encyclicals Online (Digital)
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“It would be too absurd for a blasphemer of Christ to exercise power over Christians. We therefore renew in this canon, on account of the boldness of the offenders, what the council of Toledo providently decreed in this matter : we forbid Jews to be appointed to public offices, since under cover of them they are very hostile to Christians. If, however, anyone does commit such an office to them let him, after an admonition, be curbed by the provincial council, which we order to be held annually, by means of an appropriate sanction. Any official so appointed shall be denied commerce with Christians in business and in other matters until he has converted to the use of poor Christians, in accordance with the directions of the diocesan bishop, whatever he has obtained from Christians by reason of his office so acquired, and he shall surrender with shame the office which he irreverently assumed. We extend the same thing to pagans.”
Disputation of Paris (1240)
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The Trial of the Talmud, Mediaeval Sources in Translation (Print)
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By the early thirteenth century, European Jewish life was firmly rooted in the directives and doctrines of the Babylonian Talmud. In 1236, however, an apostate named Nicholas Donin appeared at the court of Pope Gregory IX, claiming that the Talmud was harmful and thus intolerable in a Christian society. Pope Gregory sent Donin off throughout Europe in 1239 with a message to secular authorities and leading clergy: Donin’s allegations were to be carefully investigated, and - if substantiated - the Talmud was to be destroyed. Only one European ruler acted on the papal injunction, the pious King Louis IX of France, who convened a trial of the Talmud in Paris. This unprecedented event is richly reflected in a variety of sources, both Christian and Jewish, here brought together in English translation for the first time.
– The Trial of the Talmud
Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274)
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St. Thomas speaks about the Jews in various locations in the Summa. Below are a few articles for you to explore:
- STh., III q.42 a.2
- STh., II-II q.10 a.10
- STh., III q.47 a.6
- STh., II-II q.10 a.6
St. Thomas Aquinas Letter to Margaret of Flanders (1271)
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If a Jew should sin, should this person be punished with the financial penalty, since he seems to have nothing aside from usurious money. To which question it seems the response should be, in line with what has been said before, that it is expeditious that he be punished with a financial penalty, in order that he might not accrue some benefit from his iniquity; it also seems to me that the Jew should be punished with a greater fine (or anyone else who practices usury) than anyone else in a similar case, to make the point that the money taken from him be known to be less his entitlement. … Finally you ask whether it is good that Jews throughout your province are compelled to wear a sign distinguishing them from Christians. The reply to this is plain: that, according to a statute of the general Council, Jews of each sex in all Christian provinces, and all the time, should be distinguished from other people by some clothing.
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The guilt of the Jews caused them to be condemned to perpetual slavery.
Council of Basel-Ferrara-Florence (1431-1449)
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Various material relates to the conversion of jews and the broader relation of jews and Christians.
Bull of Union with the Copts, Cantate Domino, Promulgated by Pope Eugenve IV at the Ecumenical Council of Florence (1442)
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“It firmly believes, professes and preaches that all those who are outside the catholic church, not only pagans but also Jews or heretics and schismatics, cannot share in eternal life and will go into the everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless they are joined to the catholic church before the end of their lives; that the unity of the ecclesiastical body is of such importance that only for those who abide in it do the church’s sacraments contribute to salvation and do fasts, almsgiving and other works of piety and practices of the Christian militia produce eternal rewards; and that nobody can be saved, no matter how much he has given away in alms and even if he has shed his blood in the name of Christ, unless he has persevered in the bosom and the unity of the catholic church.”
The Bull Beatus Andreas by Pope Benecdict XIV (1755)
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The Blessed Andreas from the region of the village of Rinn in the Diocese of Brixen, was butchered in the cruelest fashion before the completion of the third year of life in the year 1462 by Jews out of hatred toward the Christian faith.
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From the Bollandists for the date 24 March, we are told – aside from what has been mentioned concerning the blessed boy Simon of Trent – that in the Diocese of Cologne, a boy Johannchen is venerated, who was killed by the Hebrews out of hatred against the [Christian] faith.
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Baillet reports for the same 24th of March, that in Paris a certain boy Richard is venerated as a martyr.
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And likewise, in England another boy with the name William is honored. This boy was murdered by the Jews out of hatred against the [Christian] faith.
Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)
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Logos Bible Software (Digital)
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Articles give an overview of understanding Jews and Judaism.
- Judaism
- History of the Jews
- Judaizers
- Zionists
Nostra Aetate, Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (1965)
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Logos Bible Software (Digital)
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Speaks of the relationship between the Catholic Church and the world, specifically in the context of the modern world in light of the Catholic understanding of human dignity.