Blessed John Henry Newman (1801–1890) — Anglican priest, Oxford Movement leader, convert to Catholicism, founder of the Birmingham Oratory, and eventually Cardinal — left a substantial body of writing that touches on the Jewish people in their theological relationship to Christianity. The passages below are drawn from his sermons, meditations, and theological lectures. They address the traditional Catholic themes of Jewish rejection of Christ, the theological consequences of that rejection, divine punishment and the Diaspora, supersessionism, Jewish spiritual blindness, and the Church as the fulfilment and continuation of Israel. All passages are verbatim from the texts as published on the Newman Reader (newmanreader.org).
I. Deicide and the Rejection of Christ
Meditations and Devotions — “Twelve Meditations and Intercessions for Good Friday,” Meditation 2: “Jesus the Son of David”
It was the glory of the Jews that the promised Saviour, the Christ, the Sacrifice and Propitiation of the whole human race, the Almighty Liberator, was to be of their race and country—yet, dreadful to say, when He came, they rejected Him, they put Him to death. “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John i. 11). And as they rejected Him, He rejected them. They put Him to death, and He gave them up to their enemies, who burned up their city Jerusalem, cast them out of their country, and they have been a wandering people ever since.
Prayer heading appended by Newman: Let us pray for the Jewish nation, that they may turn to their Lord and God whom they have crucified.
— Meditations and Devotions, “Twelve Meditations and Intercessions for Good Friday,” Meditation 2: “Jesus the Son of David.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/meditations/meditations6.html
Discourses to Mixed Congregations — Discourse 16: “Mental Sufferings of Our Lord in His Passion”
The envy of the Pharisees, the treachery of Judas, and the madness of the people, were but the instrument or the expression of the enmity which sin felt towards Eternal Purity as soon as, in infinite mercy towards men, He put Himself within its reach. Sin could not touch His Divine Majesty; but it could assail Him in that way in which He allowed Himself to be assailed, that is, through the medium of His humanity.
— Discourses to Mixed Congregations, Discourse 16: “Mental Sufferings of Our Lord in His Passion.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/discourses/discourse16.html
Meditations and Devotions — Stations of the Cross, Station I
THE Holy, Just, and True was judged by sinners, and put to death. Yet, while they judged, they were compelled to acquit Him. Judas, who betrayed Him, said, “I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.” Pilate, who sentenced Him, said, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person,” and threw the guilt upon the Jews. The Centurion who saw Him crucified said, “Indeed this was a just man.”
— Meditations and Devotions, Stations of the Cross, Station I. https://www.newmanreader.org/works/meditations/meditations5.html
II. Jewish Blindness, Impenitence, and Obstinacy
Meditations and Devotions — “Twelve Meditations,” Meditation 2: “Jesus the Son of David” (Prayer)
O remember not those old Priests and Scribes, the Pharisees and Sadducees, remember not Annas and Caiphas, Judas, and the insane multitude who cried out “Crucify Him.” In wrath remember mercy. Forgive their obstinacy and forgive their impenitence—forgive their blindness to things spiritual, and their avowed love of this world and its enjoyments. Touch their hearts and give them true faith and repentance.
— Meditations and Devotions, “Twelve Meditations and Intercessions for Good Friday,” Meditation 2: “Jesus the Son of David.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/meditations/meditations6.html
Lectures on Justification — Lecture 13: “On Preaching the Gospel”
The Jews considered their Law, not imperfect, as it was, but perfect; not as a means, but as the end. They rested in it, and though they nominally expected a Messiah, they did not in their thoughts place Him above the Law, or consider Him the Lord of the Law, but made their Law everything, and “the Desire of all nations” nothing. He was the true mode of approaching God, the sole Justifier of the soul; they considered their Law to be such. And so, in the words of the Apostle, “they, being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, did not submit themselves unto the righteousness of God.”
— Lectures on Justification, Lecture 13: “On Preaching the Gospel.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/justification/lecture13.html
Lectures on Justification — Lecture 13: “On Preaching the Gospel”
Thus the Pharisees were more careful of their Law than God who gave it; thus Saul saved the cattle he was bid destroy, “to sacrifice to the Lord;” thus Judas was concerned at the waste of the ointment, which might have been given to the poor. In these cases bad men professed to be more zealous for God’s honour, more devotional, or more charitable, than the servants of God.
— Lectures on Justification, Lecture 13: “On Preaching the Gospel.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/justification/lecture13.html
III. Divine Punishment — The Diaspora as Judgement
Meditations and Devotions — “Twelve Meditations,” Meditation 3: “Jesus the Lord of Grace”
When our Lord rejected His own countrymen, the Jews, who had rejected Him, He chose other nations instead of them. Thus the Holy Evangelist, after saying, “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John i. 11–13), adds, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in His name: who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” That is, so that men believed in Him, whatever was their race or country, He made them His sons and gave them the gifts of grace and the promise of heaven. He had warned the Jews of this, before their time of grace was over. “I say unto you,” He said, “that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matt. xxi. 43). And hence St. Paul, His great Apostle, when he found the Jews would not listen to Him, when they “gainsaid and blasphemed,” shook his garments (Acts xviii. 6) and said, “Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean; from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.” And if God cast off His own people, the Jews, so, much more, will He cast off any other people who cast off Him.
— Meditations and Devotions, “Twelve Meditations and Intercessions for Good Friday,” Meditation 3: “Jesus the Lord of Grace.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/meditations/meditations6.html
Sermons on Subjects of the Day — Sermon 14: “The Christian Church a Continuation of the Jewish“
No one surely can read the twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, and then survey the actual state of the Jews at this time and since our Lord came without being sure that their present state is indeed a fulfilment of the prophecy; yet, observe, they were threatened with the evils which have befallen them, supposing they did not keep their Law; whereas in the event the punishment has come upon them, apparently for keeping it; because they would not change the Law for the Gospel, therefore have they been scattered through the nations. If then the prophecy of Moses is really fulfilled in their case, as we believe it to be, it is implied of necessity, that in rejecting the Gospel they in some way or other rejected their Law; or that the Gospel is the continuation or development of the Law.
— Sermons on Subjects of the Day, Sermon 14: “The Christian Church a Continuation of the Jewish.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/subjects/sermon14.html
IV. Supersessionism — The Church as the New Israel
Sermons on Subjects of the Day — Sermon 14: “The Christian Church a Continuation of the Jewish“
Express and precise as are the sacred writers in declaring that the Gentiles shall be called, and again, that the Jews as a body shall be rejected, still, instead of stating the solemn appointment of God in a simple contrast like this, and thus drawing a line of demarcation between His two Dispensations, they are accustomed to speak of the remnant of Israel inheriting the Gentiles; as if to make the Law run into the Gospel, and to teach us, as St. Paul expressly inculcates, that the promises made to Israel are really accomplished, without any evasion, in the Divine protection accorded to Christians.
— Sermons on Subjects of the Day, Sermon 14: “The Christian Church a Continuation of the Jewish.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/subjects/sermon14.html
Sermons on Subjects of the Day — Sermon 14: “The Christian Church a Continuation of the Jewish“
As the prophecies concerning the reprobate body of the nation are fulfilled in the past and present history of the Jews, in spite of this difficulty, whatever it is, so, in spite of a less difficulty, are the prophecies concerning the elect remnant fulfilled in the history of the Christian Church.
— Sermons on Subjects of the Day, Sermon 14: “The Christian Church a Continuation of the Jewish.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/subjects/sermon14.html
Sermons on Subjects of the Day — Sermon 15: “The Principle of Continuity between the Jewish and Christian Churches”
The existence of a polity, a ceremonial, and a code of laws, under the Gospel, is the very point in which Christianity agrees with Judaism, and in consequence of which the Christian Church may be considered the continuation of the Jewish.
The Gospel has not put aside, it has incorporated into itself, the revelations which went before it. It avails itself of the Old Testament, as a great gift to Christian as well as to Jew. It does not dispense with it, but it dispenses it.
The Jews might quite as justly be charged with Paganism for their rites, as we with Judaism for ours; for ours are not so like the Jewish, as the Jewish were like those of the Pagans. This ought to be insisted on. It has been shown by learned men, that considerable portions of the Mosaic system were either taken from the heathen religions which surrounded it, or at least, from their likeness, must have had a common origin with them. In truth, Judaism was, in God’s mercy, the correction, the restoration, of those degenerate and corrupt religions, just as Christianity is the development and spiritual perfection of the Jewish.
— Sermons on Subjects of the Day, Sermon 15: “The Principle of Continuity between the Jewish and Christian Churches.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/subjects/sermon15.html
Sermons on Subjects of the Day — Sermon 15
How can the Jews be said to have rejected their Law, in rejecting the Gospel? The Gospel is but a development of the Law; and creeds and systems may at first sight be very far removed from certain known originals, and yet, after all, be but developments of them.
— Sermons on Subjects of the Day, Sermon 15: “The Principle of Continuity between the Jewish and Christian Churches.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/subjects/sermon15.html
Lectures on Justification — Lecture 13
I observe, then, that what the Jews felt concerning their Law, is exactly what many upholders of the tenet of “faith only,” feel concerning what they consider faith; that they substitute faith for Christ; that they so regard it, that instead of being the way to Him, it is in the way; that they make it a something to rest in … a system of doctrine has risen up during the last three centuries, in which faith or spiritual-mindedness is contemplated and rested on as the end of religion instead of Christ … just as the Law was perverted by the Jews.
— Lectures on Justification, Lecture 13: “On Preaching the Gospel.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/justification/lecture13.html
V. The Reprobate Condition of the Jewish People
Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. III — Sermon 2: “Wilfulness of Israel in Rejecting Samuel”
While, however, this entire surrender of themselves to their Almighty Creator was an especial duty enjoined on the chosen people, a deliberate and obstinate transgression of that duty is one of the especial characteristics of their history. They failed most conspicuously in that very point in which obedience was most strictly enjoined them. They were told never to act of themselves, and (as if out of mere perverseness) they were for ever acting of themselves; and, if we look through the series of their punishments, we shall find them inflicted, not for mere indolent disobedience, or for frailty under temptation, but for deliberate, shameless presumption, running forward just in that very direction in which the Providence of God did not lead them, and from which it even prohibited them.
And now we have arrived at the point in the history which evidences, more than any other, the perverse ingratitude of the Israelites. Just when God had rescued them from their enemies, given them peace, and by a fresh act of bounty established the prophets in the land as ministers of His word and will, when the heavenly system was just coming into operation, this was the very time they chose to rebel and run counter to His purposes.
— Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. III, Sermon 2: “Wilfulness of Israel in Rejecting Samuel.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume3/sermon2.html
VI. Against Jewish National Restoration (Anti-Zionism ante litteram)
Sermons on Subjects of the Day — Sermon 14: “The Christian Church a Continuation of the Jewish“
On the contrary, I would say that the prophecies in question have in their substance been fulfilled literally, and in the present Dispensation; and, if so, we need no figurative and no future fulfilment. Not that there may not be both a figurative and a future accomplishment besides, but these will be over and above, if they take place, and do not interfere with the direct meaning of the sacred text and its literal fulfilment.
Many persons think it has not yet been fulfilled at all, and is to be fulfilled in some future dispensation or millennium; and many think that it has indeed been fulfilled, yet not literally, but spiritually and figuratively; or, in other words, that the promised reign of Christ upon earth has been nothing more than the influence of the Gospel over the souls of men, the triumphs of Divine Grace, the privileges enjoyed by faith, and the conversion of the elect. On the contrary, I would say that the prophecies in question have in their substance been fulfilled literally, and in the present Dispensation.
Note: Newman here directly refutes both Millenarianism and any doctrine of a future Jewish restoration, holding that the Old Testament prophecies of Israel‘s glory were already literally fulfilled in the Catholic Church.
— Sermons on Subjects of the Day, Sermon 14: “The Christian Church a Continuation of the Jewish.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/subjects/sermon14.html
Sermons on Subjects of the Day — Sermon 14
The word “remnant,” so constantly used in Scripture, is the token of the identity of the Church, in the mind of her Divine Creator, before and after the coming of Christ … the promises made to Israel are really accomplished, without any evasion, in the Divine protection accorded to Christians.
— Sermons on Subjects of the Day, Sermon 14: “The Christian Church a Continuation of the Jewish.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/subjects/sermon14.html
VII. Judaism as Spiritual Inferiority — Hardness of Heart, Moral Licence
Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VI — Sermon 13: “Judaism of the Present Day”
There is one virtue which of old time good men especially had not. Indulgences were allowed the Jews on account of the hardness of their hearts. Divorce of marriage was allowed them. More wives than one at once were not denied them. If there is one grace in which Christianity stands in especial contrast to the old religion, it is that of purity.
— Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VI, Sermon 13: “Judaism of the Present Day.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume6/sermon13.html
Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VI — Sermon 13: “Judaism of the Present Day”
There is no room here for difference in the use of words, and mutual misunderstandings. If we maintain that they have not inward justification, it is not as if they maintained that they had, as if they aspired to it; it is no more than they allow as well as we. They only contend they are justified in their sense, that is, in such sense as we allow they may be, if they have true faith; I mean in that sense in which the Jews were justified, who died, not having received the promise.
— Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VI, Sermon 13: “Judaism of the Present Day.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume6/sermon13.html
Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VI — Sermon 13: “Judaism of the Present Day”
Is it wonderful that those of us who relinquish this Gospel gift, and rest in our faith for salvation, should fall back into a state like the Jews? Is it wonderful that we who are the children of promise should not enjoy the promise, seeing we will not accept it; seeing we think it enough to believe that we already have it, or though God offers it, will not put out our hand to take it? Is it wonderful that we have no command over ourselves, when we do not come to Christ, “that our sinful bodies may be made clean by His body, and our souls washed through His most precious blood?”
— Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VI, Sermon 13: “Judaism of the Present Day.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume6/sermon13.html
VIII. The Jews as Natural Allies of Heresy and Enemies of the Church
The Arians of the Fourth Century — Chapter I, Section 1
The fortunes of the Jewish people had experienced a favourable change since the reign of Hadrian … With their advancement in wealth and importance, their national character displayed itself under a new exterior. The moroseness for which they were previously notorious, in great measure disappears with their dislodgment from the soil of their ancestors; and on their re-appearance as settlers in a strange land, those festive, self-indulgent habits, which, in earlier times, had but drawn on them the animadversion of their Prophets, became their distinguishing mark in the eyes of external observers. Manifesting a rancorous malevolence towards the zealous champions of the Church, they courted the Christian populace by arts adapted to captivate and corrupt the unstable and worldly-minded. Their pretensions to magical power gained them credit with the superstitious, to whom they sold amulets for the cure of diseases; their noisy spectacles attracted the curiosity of the idle, who weakened their faith, while they disgraced their profession, by attending the worship of the Synagogue.
— The Arians of the Fourth Century, Chapter I, Section 1. https://www.newmanreader.org/works/arians/chapter1-1.html
The Arians of the Fourth Century — Chapter I, Section 1
While Judaism inculcated a superstitious, or even idolatrous dependence on the mere casualties of daily life, and gave license to the grosser tastes of human nature, it necessarily indisposed the mind for the severe and unexciting mysteries, the large indefinite promises, and the remote sanctions, of the Catholic faith; which fell as cold and uninviting on the depraved imagination, as the doctrines of the Divine Unity and of implicit trust in the unseen God, on the minds of the early Israelites.
— The Arians of the Fourth Century, Chapter I, Section 1. https://www.newmanreader.org/works/arians/chapter1-1.html
The Arians of the Fourth Century — Chapter I, Section 1
In the obsolete furniture of the Jewish ceremonial, there was in fact retained the pestilence of Jewish unbelief, tending (whether directly or not, at least eventually) to introduce fundamental error respecting the Person of Christ.
— The Arians of the Fourth Century, Chapter I, Section 1. https://www.newmanreader.org/works/arians/chapter1-1.html
The Arians of the Fourth Century — Chapter I, Section 1
In the popular risings which took place in Antioch and Alexandria in favour of Arianism, the Jews sided with the heretical party; evincing thereby, not indeed any definite interest in the subject of dispute, but a sort of spontaneous feeling, that the side of heresy was their natural position; and further, that its spirit, and the character which it created, were congenial to their own.
— The Arians of the Fourth Century, Chapter I, Section 1. https://www.newmanreader.org/works/arians/chapter1-1.html
The Arians of the Fourth Century — Chapter I, Section 1 (on Paulus of Samosata)
Ancient writers inform us that his heresy was a kind of Judaism in doctrine, adopted to please his Jewish patroness.
— The Arians of the Fourth Century, Chapter I, Section 1. https://www.newmanreader.org/works/arians/chapter1-1.html
IX. Newman’s Translation of St. Athanasius — On Jewish Malignity
Note: The following passage is from Newman’s translation of St. Athanasius’s Select Treatises, Epistle I. Newman translated and edited this work, presenting this characterisation of Jewish reasoning as patristic authority.
Select Treatises of St. Athanasius — Epistle I, Section 1 (trans. Newman)
Now such endeavours are nothing else than an obvious token of their defect of reason, and a copying, as I have said, of Jewish malignity. For the Jews too, when convicted by the Truth, and unable to confront it, used evasions, such as “What sign doest Thou, that we may see and believe Thee? What dost Thou work?” [John vi. 30.] though so many signs were given, that they said themselves, “What do we? for this man doeth many miracles?” [John xi. 47.] In truth, dead men were raised, lame walked, blind saw afresh, lepers were cleansed, and the water became wine, and five loaves satisfied five thousand, and all wondered and worshipped the Lord, confessing that in Him were fulfilled the prophecies, and that He was God the Son of God.
— Select Treatises of St. Athanasius, Epistle I, Section 1 (translated by John Henry Newman). https://www.newmanreader.org/works/athanasius/original/epistle1-1.html
X. Jewish Hardness of Heart — Miracles No Remedy for Their Unbelief
Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII — Sermon 6: “Miracles No Remedy for Unbelief”
The sermon text is: “How long will this people provoke Me? and how long will it be ere they believe Me, for all the signs which I have showed among them?” (Numbers xiv. 11)
Age after age God visited them by Angels, by inspired messengers; age after age they sinned. At last He sent His well-beloved Son; and He wrought miracles before them still more abundant, wonderful, and beneficent than any before Him. What was the effect upon them of His coming? St. John tells us, “Then gathered the Chief Priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this Man doeth many miracles … Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put Him to death.” [John xi. 47, 53.]
— Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII, Sermon 6: “Miracles No Remedy for Unbelief.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume8/sermon6.html
Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII — Sermon 6: “Miracles No Remedy for Unbelief”
Hard as it is to believe, miracles certainly do not make men better; the history of Israel proves it. And the only mode of escaping this conclusion, to which some persons feel a great repugnance, is to fancy that the Israelites were much worse than other nations, which accordingly has been maintained. It has often been said, that they were stiff-necked and hard-hearted beyond the rest of the world.
— Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII, Sermon 6: “Miracles No Remedy for Unbelief.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume8/sermon6.html
Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII — Sermon 6: “Miracles No Remedy for Unbelief”
Those evil tempers which the people displayed in the desert, their greediness, selfishness, murmuring, caprice, waywardness, fickleness, ingratitude, jealousy, suspiciousness, obstinacy, unbelief, all these are seen in the uneducated multitude now-a-days, according to its opportunity of displaying them.
— Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII, Sermon 6: “Miracles No Remedy for Unbelief.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume8/sermon6.html
Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII — Sermon 6: “Miracles No Remedy for Unbelief”
We like any thing better than religion, as the Jews before us. The Jews liked this world; they liked mirth and feasting. “The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play;” so do we. They liked glitter and show, and the world’s fashions. “Give us a king like the nations,” they said to Samuel; so do we. They wished to be let alone; they liked ease; they liked their own way; they disliked to make war against the natural impulses and leanings of their own minds … they called it a weariness to frequent His courts; and they found this or that false worship more pleasant, satisfactory, congenial to their feelings, than the service of the Judge of quick and dead; and so do we: and therefore we disobey God as they did.
— Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII, Sermon 6: “Miracles No Remedy for Unbelief.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume8/sermon6.html
Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII — Sermon 6: “Miracles No Remedy for Unbelief”
“O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt Me and My vineyard. What could have been done more to My vineyard that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?” [Isa. v. 3, 4.]
Newman applies this passage from Isaiah directly to the Jewish people’s history of failing to respond to divine gifts.
— Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII, Sermon 6: “Miracles No Remedy for Unbelief.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume8/sermon6.html
XI. The Jewish Rejection of Christ as a Pattern of God’s Providence — and Their Consequent Condemnation
Discussions and Arguments — III, Lecture 8: “Difficulties of the Jewish and Christian Faith Compared”
Most remarkable it is, the Jews were left in the same uncertainty about Christ, in which we are about His doctrine. The precept, “Search the Scriptures,” and the commendation of the Berœans, who “searched the Scriptures daily,” surely implies that divine truth was not on the surface of the Old Testament. We do not search for things which are before us, but for what we have lost or have to find.
— Discussions and Arguments, Lecture III.8: “Difficulties of the Jewish and Christian Faith Compared.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/arguments/scripture/lecture8.html
Discussions and Arguments — III, Lecture 8: “Difficulties of the Jewish and Christian Faith Compared”
Why were the Jews discarded from God’s election? for keeping to their Law. Why, this was the very thing they were told to do, the very thing which, if not done, was to be their ruin. Consider Moses’ words: “If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful Name, The Lord thy God; then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.” [Deut. xxviii. 58, 59.] … Christianity lay beneath the letter; that the letter slew those who for whatever cause went by it; that when Christ came, He shed a light on the sacred text and brought out its secret meaning.
— Discussions and Arguments, Lecture III.8: “Difficulties of the Jewish and Christian Faith Compared.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/arguments/scripture/lecture8.html
Discussions and Arguments — III, Lecture 8: “Difficulties of the Jewish and Christian Faith Compared”
The “all the compassion (if I may use the word) that they received from the Apostles in their perplexity was, ‘because they knew Him not, nor yet the voice of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning Him.'” [Acts xiii. 27.] Or again: “Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing, ye shall hear, and shall not understand,” etc. Or when the Apostles are mildest: “I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsman according to the flesh;” or “I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.” [Rom. ix. 2, 3; x. 2.] Moreover, it is observable that the record of their anxiety is preserved to us; an anxiety which many of us would call just and rational, many would pity, but which the inspired writers treat with a sort of indignation and severity.
— Discussions and Arguments, Lecture III.8: “Difficulties of the Jewish and Christian Faith Compared.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/arguments/scripture/lecture8.html
Discussions and Arguments — III, Lecture 8: “Difficulties of the Jewish and Christian Faith Compared”
I am persuaded that were men but consistent, who oppose the Church doctrines as being unscriptural, they would vindicate the Jews for rejecting the Gospel.
— Discussions and Arguments, Lecture III.8: “Difficulties of the Jewish and Christian Faith Compared.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/arguments/scripture/lecture8.html
XII. The Jews, Antichrist, and the Judicial Punishment of Israel
Discussions and Arguments — II, Lecture 1: “The Times of Antichrist“
The days of the Apostles typified the last days: there were false Christs, and risings, and troubles, and persecutions, and the judicial destruction of the Jewish Church.
— Discussions and Arguments, Lecture II.1: “The Times of Antichrist.”
Discussions and Arguments — II, Lecture 1: “The Times of Antichrist“
First, we have a comment in the instance of Antiochus previous to the actual events contemplated in the prophecy. The Israelites, or at least great numbers of them, put off their own sacred religion, and then the enemy was allowed to come in.
— Discussions and Arguments, Lecture II.1: “The Times of Antichrist.”
Discussions and Arguments — II, Lecture 2: “The Religion of Antichrist“
Our Lord foretold that many should come in His name, saying, “I am Christ.” It was the judicial punishment of the Jews, as of all unbelievers in one way or another, that, having rejected the true Christ, they should take up with a false one; and Antichrist will be the complete and perfect seducer, towards whom all who were previous are approximations, according to the words just now quoted, “If another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” To the same purport are St. Paul’s words after describing Antichrist; “whose coming,” he says, “is … with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the Truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the Truth.”
— Discussions and Arguments, Lecture II.2: “The Religion of Antichrist.”
Discussions and Arguments — II, Lecture 2: “The Religion of Antichrist“
Hence, considering that Antichrist would pretend to be the Messiah, it was of old the received notion that he was to be of Jewish race and to observe the Jewish rites … St. Paul says that Antichrist should “sit in the Temple of God;” that is, according to the earlier Fathers, in the Jewish Temple. The first of them, Irenæus, speaks as follows: “In the Temple which is at Jerusalem the adversary will sit, endeavouring to show himself to be the Christ.” And the second, Hippolytus: “Antichrist will be he who shall resuscitate the kingdom of the Jews.”
— Discussions and Arguments, Lecture II.2: “The Religion of Antichrist.”
Discussions and Arguments — II, Lecture 2: “The Religion of Antichrist“
It seems then, on the whole, that, as far as the testimony of the early Church goes, Antichrist will be an open blasphemer, opposing himself to every existing worship, true and false,—a persecutor, a patron of the Jews, and a restorer of their worship.
— Discussions and Arguments, Lecture II.2: “The Religion of Antichrist.”
XIII. Jewish Incredulity Toward Christ’s Kingdom
Sermons Preached on Various Occasions — Sermon 4: “The Secret Power of Divine Grace”
And that noiseless, unostentatious conquest of the earth, made by the Holy Apostles of Christ, became, as regards the Jews, still more secret, from the circumstance that they believed it would be with outward show, though He assured them of the contrary. The Pharisees looked out for some sign from heaven. They would not believe that His kingdom could come, unless they saw it come; they looked out for a prince with troops in battle array; and since He came with twelve poor men and no visible pomp, He was to them as a “thief in the night,” because of their incredulity, and He was come and in possession before they would allow that He was coming.
— Sermons Preached on Various Occasions, Sermon 4: “The Secret Power of Divine Grace.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/occasions/sermon4.html
XVII. The Psalter’s Jewish Meaning Superseded — Christians Above the Jewish Forms
Sermons on Subjects of the Day — Sermon 18: “Condition of the Members of the Christian Empire”
The very circumstance, then, that Christians use the Psalter, proves that they consider that it has a meaning over and above that Jewish meaning which lies on the surface of it … it cannot be supposed that this Christian meaning contained in it is but occasional or faint; it must run through it; it must be strong, definite, and real; else why should Christians turn aside to use Jewish forms?
— Sermons on Subjects of the Day, Sermon 18: “Condition of the Members of the Christian Empire.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/subjects/sermon18.html
Sermons on Subjects of the Day — Sermon 18: “Condition of the Members of the Christian Empire”
Some free-thinkers have said, What is the book to us, relating, as it does, the history and expressing the feelings of a people who lived two or three thousand years ago? I grant it: if the book of Psalms be but a Jewish book, it is not a Christian book; but the question on which all turns is, whether the Psalms are the mere devotions of an extinct religion or no.
— Sermons on Subjects of the Day, Sermon 18: “Condition of the Members of the Christian Empire.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/subjects/sermon18.html
Sermons on Subjects of the Day — Sermon 18: “Condition of the Members of the Christian Empire”
What is this kingdom as I have already described it? … It was the cry of the Jews of Thessalonica against St. Paul and St. Silas, “These that have turned the world upside down, are come hither also.” [Acts xvii. 6.]
Newman here uses Jewish opposition to the Apostles as the type and pattern of the world’s perennial opposition to the Church.
— Sermons on Subjects of the Day, Sermon 18: “Condition of the Members of the Christian Empire.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/subjects/sermon18.html
XVI. The Jews as Type of Blindness Toward Christ — A Mirror for All Who Resist the Church
Faith and Prejudice and Other Sermons — Sermon 4: “Prejudice and Faith” (1848)
Yet the people of this day, though they read the Scriptures and think they understand them, like the Jews then, who read the Scriptures and thought they understood them, do not understand them. Why? Because like the Jews then, they have been taught badly; they have received false traditions, as the Jews had received the traditions of the Pharisees, and are blind when they think they see, and are prejudiced against the truth, and shocked and offended when they are told it.
— Faith and Prejudice and Other Sermons, Sermon 4: “Prejudice and Faith.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/ninesermons/sermon4.html
Faith and Prejudice and Other Sermons — Sermon 4: “Prejudice and Faith”
And, as the Jews then passed over passages in Scripture, which ought to have set them right, so do Christians now pass over passages, which would, if dwelt on, extricate them from their error. For example, the Jews passed over the texts: “They pierced my hands and my feet,” “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” “He was rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,”—which speak of Christ.
— Faith and Prejudice and Other Sermons, Sermon 4: “Prejudice and Faith.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/ninesermons/sermon4.html
Faith and Prejudice and Other Sermons — Sermon 4: “Prejudice and Faith”
The Church of Christ walks the earth now, as Christ did in the days of His flesh, and as our Lord fulfilled the Scriptures in what was and what He did then, so the Church fulfils the Scriptures in what she is and what she does now; as Christ was promised, predicted, in the Scriptures as He was then, so is the Church promised, predicted, in the Scriptures in what she is now. Yet the people of this day, though they read the Scriptures and think they understand them, like the Jews then, who read the Scriptures and thought they understood them, do not understand them.
— Faith and Prejudice and Other Sermons, Sermon 4: “Prejudice and Faith.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/ninesermons/sermon4.html
Faith and Prejudice and Other Sermons — Sermon 4: “Prejudice and Faith”
It will be well to observe what the cause of their blindness was—it was a false interpretation which they had given to the Old Testament Scriptures, an interpretation which was common in their day, and which they had been taught by the Scribes and Pharisees, who sat in Moses’ seat and pretended to teach them Moses’ doctrine. It was the opinion of numbers at that day that the promised Messiah or Christ, who was coming, would be a great temporal Prince, like Solomon, only greater … These passages they put away from them. They did not let them produce their legitimate effects upon their hearts. They heard them with the ear and not with the head, and so it was all one as if they had not been written; to them they were not written.
— Faith and Prejudice and Other Sermons, Sermon 4: “Prejudice and Faith.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/ninesermons/sermon4.html
XIV. Judaism as Carnal and Literal — The Rejection of the Messiah as a Spiritual Failure
The Arians of the Fourth Century — Chapter I, Section 4
Judaism, on the contrary, being carnal in its views, was essentially literal in its interpretations; and, in consequence, as hostile from its grossness, as the Sophists from their dryness, to the fanciful fastidiousness of the Eclectics. It had rejected the Messiah, because He did not fulfil its hopes of a temporal conqueror and king. It had clung to its obsolete ritual, as not discerning in it the anticipation of better promises and commands, then fulfilled in the Gospel. In the Christian Church, it was perpetuating the obstinacy of its unbelief in a disparagement of Christ’s spiritual authority, a reliance on the externals of religious worship, and an indulgence in worldly and sensual pleasures.
— The Arians of the Fourth Century, Chapter I, Section 4: “The Eclectic Sect.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/arians/chapter1-4.html
The Arians of the Fourth Century — Chapter I, Section 4
The Judaizers admitted at most only His miraculous conception. The Eclectics, honouring Him as a teacher of wisdom, still, far from considering Him more than man, were active in preparing from the heathen sages rival specimens of holiness and power.
— The Arians of the Fourth Century, Chapter I, Section 4: “The Eclectic Sect.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/arians/chapter1-4.html
XV. The Jews as Proof That Precise Religious Commands Do Not Produce Obedience
Tracts for the Times — Tract 6: “The Present Obligation of Primitive Practice”
Contemplate the state of the Jews after their return from the captivity; when their external political relations were so new, the internal principle of their government so secular, GOD’S arm apparently so far removed. This state of things went on for centuries. Who would suppose that the Jewish Law was binding in all its primitive strictness at the age when CHRIST appeared? Who would not say that length of time had destroyed the obligation of a projected system, which had as yet never been realized?
— Tracts for the Times, Tract 6: “The Present Obligation of Primitive Practice.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/times/tract6.html
Tracts for the Times — Tract 6: “The Present Obligation of Primitive Practice”
And does not the conduct of the Jews just prove to us, that, though the commands of CHRIST were put before us ever so precisely, yet there would not be found in any extended course of history a more exact attention to them, than there is now; that the difficulty of resisting the influence, which the world’s actual proceedings exert upon our imagination, would be just as great as we find it at present?
— Tracts for the Times, Tract 6: “The Present Obligation of Primitive Practice.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/times/tract6.html
XVIII. Additional Passages from the Good Friday Meditations — Deicide, Rejection, and Dispersion
Meditations and Devotions — “Twelve Meditations and Intercessions for Good Friday,” Meditation 2: “Jesus the Son of David”
It was the glory of the Jews that the promised Saviour, the Christ, the Sacrifice and Propitiation of the whole human race, the Almighty Liberator, was to be of their race and country—yet, dreadful to say, when He came, they rejected Him, they put Him to death. “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John i. 11). And as they rejected Him, He rejected them. They put Him to death, and He gave them up to their enemies, who burned up their city Jerusalem, cast them out of their country, and they have been a wandering people ever since.
Let us pray for the Jewish nation, that they may turn to their Lord and God whom they have crucified.
O remember not those old Priests and Scribes, the Pharisees and Sadducees, remember not Annas and Caiphas, Judas, and the insane multitude who cried out “Crucify Him.” In wrath remember mercy. Forgive their obstinacy and forgive their impenitence—forgive their blindness to things spiritual, and their avowed love of this world and its enjoyments.
— Meditations and Devotions, Part 2: “Twelve Meditations and Intercessions for Good Friday,” Meditation 2: “Jesus the Son of David.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/meditations/meditations6.html
Meditations and Devotions — “Twelve Meditations and Intercessions for Good Friday,” Meditation 3: “Jesus the Lord of Grace”
When our Lord rejected His own countrymen, the Jews, who had rejected Him, He chose other nations instead of them … He had warned the Jews of this, before their time of grace was over. “I say unto you,” He said, “that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matt. xxi. 43). And hence St. Paul, His great Apostle, when he found the Jews would not listen to Him, when they “gainsaid and blasphemed,” shook his garments (Acts xviii. 6) and said, “Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean; from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.” And if God cast off His own people, the Jews, so, much more, will He cast off any other people who cast off Him.
— Meditations and Devotions, Part 2: “Twelve Meditations and Intercessions for Good Friday,” Meditation 3: “Jesus the Lord of Grace.” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/meditations/meditations6.html
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