ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE BIBLE
Director Carl J. Kunz
Gospel Work Fellowship, Inc.
Brooklyn, N. Y.
Sir:---I am in receipt of your letter, in which you offensively declare that I "ought to be ashamed of myself for belonging to a Church that teaches that the Jews are the synagogue of Satan," which she does not.
That Charge is without a basis in fact. Never during my half century of personal contact with priests throughout the United States and Canada, have I heard a single priest utter that declaration. I have seen many of the "Roman Catholic translations of the vulgate" you refer to; but in not one of them have I found warrant for your declaration that "it is found in the footnotes" of them, as asserted in your diatribe.
The declaration, that" Jews are of the synagogue of Satan" was made by St. John, as recorded in the last book of both the Protestant and Catholic Bibles (9:2). Cruden's Protestant Concordance says, as does The Catholic Church, it refers to "the unbelieving Jews, numerous in Smyrna, who at the beginning (of the Christian era) were the most eager persecutors of Christians."
Surely if a person of Jewish parentage, who becomes a Catholic, should "be ashamed of himself," because "the Smyrna Jews" were declared by St. John to have been "the synagogue of Satan;" then should Israelites be ashamed to be Jews, considering what is said about them by Jews in the Jewish Bible. I am referring to condemnatory declaration, such as caused Israel Zangwill, the foremost Jewish author in the English speaking world of the 19th century, to say that "the Bible is an anti-Semitic book.
Israel is the villain, not the hero, of his own story ... To flout the Pharisees was not reserved for Jesus. 'Behold, ye fast for strife and contention,' saith Isaiah (58:4), 'and I smite thee with the fist of wickedness' (Chosen Peoples, N. Y., 1919, pp. 95-101)."
There are many other declarations of an anti-Semitic nature in the Jewish Bible. Here is one (in part) found in Isaiah 1:4-5, which, if stressed in the press or on the platform, would bring forth protests from the Jewish Anti-Defamation Society, and from individual Rabbis, viz:---"Woe to you sinful nation (of Jews), a people laden with iniquity, a wicked seed, ungracious children; they have forsaken the Lord; they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they have gone away backwards. For what shall I smite you more, you that increase transgression ... "
"We Protest," say you, "against all things that cannot be found in the Bible," which is not true.
You do not "protest" against Sunday being the Sabbath Day. Surely that is not in the Bible.
You do not "protest" against the birthday of Christ being called Christmas (Christ's Mass), which is not in the Bible. You celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December, which date is of Catholic Church, and not of Bible origin.
Your "Protest" is a repudiation of St. John, who says in His Gospel, that all Christ taught is not in books (21:25).
Your "Protest" ought to cause you to repudiate the basic Protestant claim, that the Bible, and the Bible only, is the Christian rule of faith. Surely that is not in the Bible.
Your "protest" is, inferentially, a denial of the faith of the Christians of the early centuries, including those who were Martyred for their determined adherence to the teachings of Christ. They could not "protest against all things not in the Bible," as they did not have a Christian Bible. They had what Catholics have today as their primary rule of Christian faith, the Christ established Church; the Church in which, by the grace of God, I have the honor of being incorporated.
Your professed love of the Bible, expressed in your refusal to accept anything Christian not found therein, ought to awaken in you a love of the Catholic Church; the Church that formulated the Divine Library, which she designated "The Bible."
The Catholic Church existed for three-and-a-half centuries before she formed the Canon of Sacred Scripture, made up of all the Books in your Protestant Bible, and some more.
The Bible proves that Christ established a Church, one Church, not any or all of the conglomeration of churches in Protestantism.
The Bible proves that Christ placed His Church under the delegated, universal headship of Peter, the first Pope (St. Matt. 16:18-19).
The Bible proves that Christ, the Good Shepherd, called His Church a "Sheepfold" (not sheepfolds), which He placed in the care of an earthly Shepherd, Peter (St. John 21:15-17).
The Bible proves that Christ commanded you and me, and all the other persons in the world, to "hear the Church," His Church, not Martin Luther's, John Wesley's, or Mary Baker G. Eddy's Church (St. Matt. 18:15-18.)
The Bible proves that Church to be "the pillar and mainstay of truth" (1 Tim. 3:15). Christ declared that the gates of Hell, which includes you Gospel perverters, would never succeed in their endeavor to prevail against that Church; as they have endeavored to prevail ever since the First Pentecost Day, when the Catholic Church began to function (St. Matt. 16:18-19).
The Bible proves that Christ instituted a priesthood according to the Order of Melchisedech (Heb. 7:5-20); made up of "ambassadors" of Christ, such as are Catholic priests (2 Cor. 5:20).
The Bible proves that to Simon-Peter, the first Pope, Christ gave His "Keys," that signify authority; which was been exercised by the 258 occupants of the Chair of Peter.
The Bible proves that the Church Christ established was to be, in modern language, a self-perpetuating Spiritual corporation. One of the evidences of this in the Bible was the selection of Matthias to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judas (Acts 1:26).
There is much more evidence in the Bible to prove the Catholic Church to be the one, and the only Church of Christ; but the length of this letter prompts me to end by saying that your arrogance in declaring that I should be "ashamed of myself" for belonging to the Catholic Church, which is proclaimed in the New Testament as the Old Testament Church full-blossomed, is due, no doubt, to mental blindness, caused by your bigoted attitude toward the Christ-established Catholic Church.
May you be blest, as have I, with the realization that the Catholic Church is the Mystical Body of Christ; and the courage to be a propagator, instead of a maligner, of her sacred cause in your "Outdoor Gospel Work."