Was The Pope Jewish?
Posted by Job on January 13, 2008
From Dr. Randy Weiss of Crosstalk.com, who can be reached at randy@crosstalk.org
Judaism brought much to the world of first century
Christianity. I want to explain one bold claim that I
regularly make in my own efforts to cause Christians to
reconsider the facts. I have been quoted many times for
a declaration that sounds odd, yet helps call attention
to a realistic issue. I have said: The first fifteen
popes were Jewish! I state this for effect to establish
the fact that those who assume the Church was not
inhabited by Jews are sadly mistaken. Of course this
requires some explanation.
Eusebius, one of the most famous ancient historians of
the early Church, details that the Jerusalem Church
(the first Church) was led by Jewish bishops until the
Roman invasion under Hadrian (approximately one hundred
years after the death of Jesus). Permit me to quote his
record and provide the names of the first fifteen
Jewish leaders of the original Church in Jerusalem. It
seems that their identity and their Jewishness have
been forgotten by most Gentile Christians.
There were fifteen successions of bishops in that
church, all which, they say, were Hebrews from the
first, and received the knowledge of Christ pure and
unadulterated; so that, in the estimation of those who
were able to judge they were well approved, and worthy
of the episcopal office. For at that time the whole
church under them, consisted of faithful Hebrews who
continued from the time of the apostles, until the
siege took place . . . The first, then, was James
called the brother of our Lord; after whom, the second
was Simeon, the third Justus, the fourth Zaccheus, the
fifth Tobias, the sixth Benjamin, the seventh John, the
eighth Matthew, the ninth Philip, the tenth Seneca, the
eleventh Justus, the twelfth Levi, the thirteenth
Ephres, the fourteenth Joseph, and finally, the
fifteenth Judas. These are all the bishops of Jerusalem
that filled up the time from the apostles until the
abovementioned time, all of the circumcision.
Each name of each Jewish bishop going all the way back
to James, the brother of Jesus is listed in an unbroken
line of Jewish bishops that lasted until the early
decades of the second century. In the earliest era of
the Church, the leaders of the Church were called
bishops. The term Pope was not used as it is
currently understood until much later (perhaps as late
as the ninth century). However, Jewish Popes,
such as Clement, the third alleged to succeed Saint
Peter, were even included within the lineage that the
Church of Rome used to trace their line of Popes
allegedly unbroken all the way back to the Jewish
fisherman. In a very real sense, the Jewish believers
used to run the show and fill the pews. How did we get
left out of modern Christianity? The Jewish leadership
of the Early Church is undeniable and should be
remembered.
Jewish bishops in Jerusalem were obviously the norm
when the primary population of the Church consisted of
Jewish people. What some might find interesting is that
now after nearly 1,900 years, Jerusalem once again has
a Jewish bishop. During Pope John Pauls visit to
Israel in the spring of 2000, he appointed Benedictine
Abbot Jean-Baptiste Gourion to the position of bishop
at a Catholic church near Jerusalem. He was born in
1934 to a Jewish family in Algeria. This book does
contain some critical comments about Pope John Paul II.
However, I believe he deserves recognition for his
foresight in appointing a Jewish bishop to the region
at this critical time in history. I can only hope that
the next pope also grows in sensitivity to the Jewish
people and the problems facing modern Israel.
Some Christian scholars continue to misinterpret the
circumstances whereby Jewish leadership of the Early
Church dissipated. William MacDonald presumes that the
internationals hastily took over from the
children of faithful Abraham. He is not exactly
correct. Father Abraham had many sons; some of
them ran the Church. He ignores that in the middle
of the first century the New Testament was not yet
written. Paul was still in the middle of his
evangelistic efforts. It should not be presumed, as is
often accepted, that the Temple and the Church were
polarized around the Lord Jesus Christ
immediately following Pentecost. Unquestionably, this
polarization occurred, however, it was nearly a century
after that first Pentecost of the Church age featured
in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles.
The dictates of Rome during that century show how the
prevailing worldview differentiated Jews from
Christians–they did not! The Jews of the era were not
separate and distinct from the Christians of that time.
When the Jews of Rome were expelled by Claudius, the
Christians and Jews were all viewed the same–as Jews.
The behavior of Rome against the Jews affected the
Christians exactly as it did the rest of the Jews in
the empire. In the eyes of Rome, Christianity was
indistinguishable from the synagogue.
One need not look beyond the New Testament account in
the Acts of the Apostles to understand the situation.
When Paul came to Corinth in Acts 18:2, he visited with
two Jewish Christians, Aquila and Priscilla. They had
recently left Rome. Their exit was due to an edict by
Claudius demanding that all the Jews of Rome be
expelled. F. F. Bruce makes clear that they were not
converts of the Apostle Paul. Rather, they had become
Christians while living in Rome. In fact, the edict by
Claudius to expel the Jews was likely the result of the
propagation of Christianity among the ranks of the
Jewish community in Rome. This conclusion is justified
by the natural inference from the statement of
Suetonius that because the Jews of Rome were
indulging in constant riots at the instigation of
Chrestus (impulsore Chresto) he expelled them from the
city.
The early Jewish Christians were certainly included as
one category of Jews among many sects of Judaism.
Christianity was indistinguishable from Judaism in
the time of Claudius. However, this condition did
not remain stagnant. It was perfectly
distinguishable by the time Suetonius wrote (c. A.D.
120), and it was well known that it had been founded by
Christ (Christus, not unnaturally confused with the
common slave-name Chrestus, which was pronounced in
practically the same way).
Copyright 2005 by Randy Weiss, Ph.D.
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