The Emperor Julian and the Jews

Michael Adler
1893 Jewish Quarterly Review  
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Stigmatised by his Christian foes as the "Apostate," he has been held up by them to the gaze of the world as an object worthy of deep execration, and nothing has been omitted to impress this opinion of this famous Emperor upon the minds of posterity.1 In his intense fondness for Paganism and ardent with the hope of re-establishing the religion of the ancient gods of Greece and Rome, with its temples, sacrifices and mysteries-a task in which he completely failed-Julian turned his back contemptuously upon the Christianity in which he had been educated, and under the auspices of whose representatives he had witnessed, whilst yet a youth, the murders of his father and kinsmen.2 In spite, however, of the opprobrious epithet of "Apostate" having been added to his name by his opponents, and of the fact that he has been accused of being one of the bitterest persecutors of Christianity, more sober critics have arrived at the conclusion that, although he cannot be pronounced altogether innocent of having harassed and checked the growth of the new belief, he can hardly be looked upon in the same light as 1 Vide the diatribes of Gregory Nazianzen and others of the Church writers infra. Cf. Lecky, Europ. Morals, II., c. iv., p. 262 (9th ed.). 2 When six years old, his father was killed by order of Constantius, a staunch supporter of Christianity. His sole remaining brother, Gallus, was put to death in 354. 591 The Jewish Quarterly Review. Nero, Diocletian, and other persecuting enemies of the Christians.1 But, whatever be the opinion held upon Julian's attitude towards the Christians, all are unanimous in asserting his great friendship towards his Jewish subjects. His wellknown attempt to rebuild the Temple has brought his name into honourable connection with Israel's history, which has nothing but the highest terms of praise and gratitude to bestow upon this heathen Emperor. As in the cases of Pedro the Cruel and Saint Louis of France, Julian is looked upon by Jewish historians through an entirely different medium to that employed by non-Jewish writers. So far from being the monster of iniquity represented by the Church Fathers, Julian was one of the very few rulers of the Roman world who extended the hand of friendship and. good-will to the scattered race of Israel. He thus stands out in marked contrast to the two Christian Emperors who preceded him, Constantine the Great and Constantius, whose treatment of the Jews reflects no credit upon their newly-adopted creed, and leads the reader of history to prefer the heathen Julian to his Christian predecessors. In his numerous writings the "Apostate" Emperor very frequently alludes to Jews and Jewish customs, and manifests an intimate knowledge of both the Old and New Testaments. This paper will therefore treat of:-I. Julian's conduct towards the Jews, his views upon Judaism, and his acquaintance with the Old Testament. II. The proposed rebuilding of the Temple at Jerusalem I. When we consider that Julian only wore the imperial purple for the space of one year and eight months (from For an exhaustive criticism of this question, v. The nEperor Julian, by G. H. Rendall, Hulsean Essay for 1876, c. viii. Cp. also Gibbon, Decline and Fall, c. xxiii.; Farrar, Lives (f the Fathers, I., p. 700 sq. Gwatkin, Studies of Arianism, c. vi., is far less favourable to Julian than Rendall, nd is careful not to omit all the weak points in the Emperor's character. 592 The Emperor Julian and the Jews. November, 361, till June, 363, A.D.)-a brief period, in which he succeeded in making an undying renown for himself as a statesman as well as a warrior, and in the course of which he wrote his masterly satires upon the Roman Emperors' and upon the follies of the people of Antioch,2 a large number of private and oficial letters,3 and a treatise against Christianity,4 the loss the intellectual as well as the moral world sustained by his death at the premature age of thirty-two may well be imagined. Those who are fond of speculating as to "what might have happened," had certain epochmaking events not occurred, have ample field for their imagination) in pondering upon the effect a long reign of a ruler of such powerful genius and vigorous energy as Julian possessed might have worked upon the rapid decline of Rome and the rise of Christianity. Immediately on his accession to the imperial dignity, upon the death of his cousin, the persecuting Constantius, Julian proclaimed a general religious amnesty.5 He extended to all the inhabitants of the mighty Roman world, that reached from the British Isles in the West to Central Asia in the East, the benefits of a free and equal toleration, The various restrictions and burdensome taxes in favour of Christianity, that had been imposed upon Pagans and Jews, were with one stroke repealed. "Ye are all brothers one of another: God is the common Father cf us all,"6 1 he Ccears, a satirical review of the lives of the Roman Emperors. 2 The Misopogo or Beard-hlter, a pungent satire upon the people of Antioch. 3 There are 83 of them. All Julian's writings are in Greek; the best edition is by Spanheim, Paris, 1696, with Latin translation. 4 Contained in Bishop Cyril's reply; text given in Spanheim andMigne Series Graeca, vol. LXXVI. Translated into English (only 25 copies printed) by Thomas Taylor, the Platonist, 1809; reprinted by W. Nevins, 1873. 6 Ammian Marcellinus (heathen contemporary), History, book XXII., 5; Sozomen (Ecclesiastical History), V. 5; Socrates (Ecel. Hist.), book II., c. xxxviii. 23. 6 Cp. Malachi ii. 10: " Have we not all one Father ? Hath not one God created us ?" 593 The Jewish Quarterly Review. exclaims the humane Emperor in one of his letters, and upon this noble principle he acted, depriving the Church authorities of the power given to them by Julian's predecessors, of persecuting all who did not acknowledge their own party cries and doctrines. Heretics of all shades of opinion were recalled from banishment: Arians, Novatians, Donatists, and all the numerous sects of Christianity, who were only too ready to come to blows with each other and with the ruling Athanasian Church of Rome, were ordered to live peaceably together, on severe penalties. The Jews breathed the air of freedom for the first time since the days of Alexander Severus (died 235 A.D.); all the cruel edicts of earlier emperors, especially those of Hadrian (died 138 A.D.), were abrogated, and Julian behaved in a most friendly manner towards the oppressed race. He appears to have personally known many Jews;1 in the famous letter2 to the Patriarch Hillel II., he styles the Jewish Rabbi "his brother" [r7v a8eXtov]. He is said to have established among the Jews of Palestine an order of patricians whom he named "primates," called in the Talmud "Aristoi." These men, who were of superior rank and education, were next to the Patriarch, and were entrusted with magisterial functions.3 The statement he makes in a letter to a heathen pontiff,4 that "there are no poor among the Jews," points to a close knowledge of Jewish affairs, a view that See his references to Jewish customs, infra. a See Part II. of this article. 3 Thus Frankel, ifeba Jerushalmni, c. i., p. 2:-3PtM ' IK 'lLt3DI o'wp)1 '1 inn a 'S:Ki n"Ln Dnin npm tr n mnn w iW Kin rbnwv Drlt'DDW rW1 W211mp ln5rIN DYOKIrDn 1r tl13. The passage in the Jer. Talmud here referred to is Jebamot, end of c. xvi.: "An Ariston asked R. Mana," etc. This R. Mana, argues Frankel (p. 65, ib.), was a contemporary of Julian, who founded this order of 'Aplarot, The "primates" are alluded to in Codex Theod., book XVI., vol. VIII., ?? 8,29; cp. Graetz, IV., pp. 385, 395. Graetz says nothing of their origin; cp. also Hamburger, Real Encycl. II. s.v. Ariston. Frankel's theory is a bold one and has very little foundation. 4 Arsacius was the pagan high-priest of Galatia; this passage is also quoted in Sozomen, book V., c. xvi. The Emperor Julian and the Jews. will be greatly strengthened by reference to his anti-Christian writings. Gibbon's cynical remark,1 that "they (the Jews) deserved the friendship of Julian by their implacable hatred of the Christian name," may have some foundation in fact; for the name of Christian and "persecutor of the Jews" were easily interchangeable in that age, as Church history itself proves. The climax of Julian's friendly attitude towards the Jews was reached in his desire to rebuild the Temple-which subject will be dealt with later. Whether Julian merely favoured Judaism because he was fond of all institutions and customs of antiquity,2 as some critics assert,3 or because it was the parent and determined foe of the Christianity he abhorred,4 or because he approved of the religion as a genuine, pure faith, is a question that each writer must conclude for himself from the evidence before him. That he was possessed of a sincere liking for Judaism is demonstrated to the full, especially in his work against Christianity. This was written during the long winter nights of 362-363, and only fragments, consisting of about three books, have been preserved out of the original seven.5 Some seventy years after Julian's death, Cyril,6 Bishop of Alexandria, who was such a violent I Decline and Fall, c. xxiii. 2 This was a striking feature in his character. He approved of the worship of the Egyptian Isis and Osiris, because of its antiquity. For the same reason he restored many of the decaying cities of Greece, as Athens, Corinth, Argos. 3 E.g., J. F. Muecke, Flavius Claudius Julliaus, vol. II., p. 121; Gieseler's Compendium of Church History (English edition), vol. I., p. 312; Neander's Der Kaiser Julian (English edition), p. 101. 4 This is the view of the Church writers, as Gregory Nazianzen, Chrysostom, Sozomen, Theodoret and their imitators. 5 Cyril himself says there were only three; but probably he only wrote a refutation to three out of the seven. Jerome [Ep. 70 Ad Magnum, Migne, vol. XXII.] states he knew of seven books. Socrates III. 23, quotes a passage that is not in Cyril's extracts. The Emperor Theodosius II. ordered all copies of Julian's polemic to be destroyed. 6 This Cyril (d. 444) is famous as the persecuting Bishop who expelled the Jews from Alexandria. He plays an important part in Kingsley's 595 1 Julian never once applied any other term to the Christians, and according to Gregory Nazianzen, Or. IV., prescribed the use of this name by law. The name Galilean is derived from the phrase (Isaiah ix. 1) 515 Dt13^I, "The district of the nations," i.e., Galilee, where Jews and Pagans dwelt together, the latter forming a majority. Nazareth is in Galilee, and all the apostles came from this region; " Out of Galilee ariseth no prophet" (John vii. 52). Cp. note in Farrar's Life (!f C/hrist, vol. I., p. 65; and Nedarin" p. 49a, 1"'1 1'RDp '53 '3fWa. 2 TrW raXLXaiOv rt arevwpla rXaCiaa iartv d&popz7rwv, Vorb aKovoyia! ruvreOv, bXovaa piy oi,Ev Oeiov... cir' dpoaov rde zrapater7qyvia; rolC JOvtaOv &T7rp riva rqapag JpEtropEvo, riT aOEfortra piv ti rTi 'Iovai'sic paSiovpy,iac, p. 565. 3 a ar piiya rTC rept rbv OeOv 0qn t&af3oXj, p. 737.
doi:10.2307/1450290 fatcat:ulv4vr66jrexbm5lyxdkjh2bge