Church Fathers

Church Fathers were ancient and Christian theologians and writers that influenced Christianity significantly.

Jewish deicide
Multiple biblical verses have influenced antisemitism, including the Jewish deicide charge that Jews as a people hold the responsibility for killing Jesus Christ. The deicide charge was a commonly held position among the Church Fathers, including Ambrose, Augustine, Eusebius, Gregory of Nyssa, Hippolytus of Rome, Irenaeus, John Chrysostom, Justin Martyr, Melito of Sardis, Ephrem the Syrian, and Tertullian.

Condemnation of synagogues
In the second century, Irenaeus referred to synagogues as “conventicles of heretics” in his Against Heresies. Later Church Fathers also condemned the Jewish places of worship, Ambrose defended the destruction of a synagogue in a letter to the emperor, and Jerome of Stridon claimed that “Jews in their synagogues blaspheme the Christian flock” and “persecute our Lord Jesus Christ in the synagogues of Satan”, and John Chrysostom insulted synagogues as “worse than a brothel”, “it is the den of scoundrels”, ”repair of wild beasts”, “temple of demons devoted to idolatrous cults”, “refuge of brigands and debauchees”, “cavern of devils”, “criminal assembly of Jews”, “place of meeting for the assassins of Christ”, “worse than a drinking shop”, “den of thieves”, “house of ill fame”, “dwelling of iniquity”, “refuge of devils”, “gulf and abyss of perdition”, and stated he hated the synagogue.