But a Sword: Schism of Faith

"Do not assume that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn

‘A man against his father,

a daughter against her mother,

a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’"

Matthew 10:34-36 & Luke 12:49-53

And thus began the struggle between Jews and Christians (who called themselves the New Israel). Jesus' death was only the beginning, a battle cry that began a war of faith. Most of His disciples died for their beliefs. Peter and Paul were both martyred in Rome about 66 AD. After Andrew spread the gospel to what is now the Soviet Union, Turkey, and Greece, he was crucified. Thomas traveled with the word through Syria and possibly India where he was stabbed through by soldiers. Bartholomew went to many places including Arabia and Ethiopia, and although the details of his death are unclear, they mostly point to martyrdom as well. James was mostly within Syria, where he was stoned and clubbed to death. Matthias (the replacement for Judas) ministered in Persia (Iran) where he was killed for not sacrificing to their sun god. John was the only one generally accepted as escaping the others' fate and dying of old age after writing Revelations.

Paul himself, before becoming a Christian, was a very successful hit man against Christians, a hired hand of the Roman empire. The Roman government, although outwardly very tolerant of various religions, hated anything considered superstitious (although what that would mean might change). Many of their emperors would also execute anyone who didn't follow the Roman practices of sacrifice as not sacrificing to their gods meant possible devastation for everyone.

Christians were greatly persecuted in the early years, eventually enacting some sort of revenge through growing anti-Semitism. There is no clear cut delineation where one side rose as definite victor, but there are certainly eras where Christians or Jews could be considered more as the aggressor or oppressor.

By the Middle Ages, many Christians had fed on a steady teaching that Jews were the devil. Jews were already blamed for everything from pestilence, to upheavals, to diseases. Then, the Black Plague hit Europe.

They didn't keep very accurate records, but some claimed Jews died at half the rate of others in Europe. The reason for this: far better sanitation practices. Within the book of Leviticus, one can see teachings of washing hands, disposing of human filth and corpses properly, and even determining contagious diseases for quarantine purposes. This made Christians, who generally had very little access to the Bible in their own language, very suspicious.

Pope Clement VI declared Jews were innocent, but most people, who by now resented both the Church and the King, seemed to believe Jews poisoned the drinking wells. In the 1300's several Jewish communities were exiled and burned to the ground. The town of Mainz defended and killed several attackers, but Christians returned for revenge and destruction. Several communities were destroyed by mobs & some were entirely exterminated. By 1351, there were almost no Jews left in Germany or Low countries.

After the age of enlightenment in the 1500-1600's, religious ideas began to wane. So, leaders used more secular outlets for anti-Semitism, which brought perverted versions of evolution, used already ingrained hatred and fear of the masses, and created a ticking time bomb that Hitler used to create the Holocaust in the 1930's.

Is all this what was meant by Jesus when He said He came to bring a sword? Possibly. His life and death created a schism in Judo-Christianity for generations because we've had a hard time considering each other brothers and sisters. The problem with this is ironic and obvious: We are all followers of the same God. In the present times, we are experiencing a relatively unusual peace between the two faiths. As the world turns against both Jews and Christians, there is a need for brotherhood as it will only get worse. As it says in Mark 3:25, "If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand."

"When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He yielded up His spirit. At that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." Matthew 27:50-51

Sources:
jewishhistory.org
sixmillioncrucifixons.com
christianitytoday.com
Bible