Anti-Jewish Church Edicts
The following is a sampling of the edicts and canon laws the organized church issued against Jewish people.
- This order is intended to keep Jews and Christians apart. It forbade Christians to eat with or marry Jewish people, and it forbade Jewish people to observe the Sabbath. (Council of Elvira, circa AD 306)
- Synagogues are outlawed. (Edict of Milan, AD 313)
- Permission is granted to burn Jews who are guilty of breaking the law. (Roman edict, AD 315)
- Jews are excluded from holding high office or having military careers. (Various laws)
- It is decreed that all businesses be closed on Sunday. (Constantine, AD 321)
- Jews are forbidden to live in Jerusalem. (Constantine, AD 325)
- Sunday is declared to be the Sabbath day of rest. (Council of Nicaea, AD 325)
- It was forbidden to associate the celebration of Easter with the Jewish Passover. Easter was ordered to be celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon following the spring equinox. (Canon I of the Synod of Antioch, AD 341)
- It becomes illegal to feast with Jewish people. (Synod of Laodicea, circa AD 343)
- The legal rights of Jewish people become greatly restricted. (Code of Canons of the African Church, AD 419)
- Jewish people are forbidden the right to bring legal accusations, apart from suits against other Jews. (Canon CXXIX, AD 419)
- Christians are forbidden to give their children in marriage to Jewish people. (Council of Chalcedon, AD 451)
Click here to download a PDF of these edicts.
