Philoxenus of Hierapolis - sometimes called Philoxenus of Mabbug - is one of the lesser-known Christian Fathers of the Church, but he is a fairly important figure in the history of the early Syrian Church being a translator of the Bible as well as a major theologian in his own right. Philoxenus was born circa 440 A.D. in what is now Iraq and eventually became a major opponent of the teachings of Nestorius (i.e., Nestorian Christianity) leading the Christian communities in western Syria (i.e., Antioch and Edessa for example) to reject Nestorius' brand and instead adopt a form of Christianity championed by the Council of Chalcedon.
What is interesting to us about Philoxenus is less his life story - of which we know comparatively little other than an outline - but rather what he has to say in his surviving works (and he was a prolific author) on the subject of the jews. The easiest English translation of the text for the reader to use in order to check my interpretation is that of Wallis Budge, which although old is still quite usable. I have checked the text against more recent comments in relation to it to make sure that there have been no major textual revisions to the passages I have cited/quoted since Budge wrote. To further allow the reader to easily check for themselves I have used page numbers in Budge's work rather than standard classics references.
The principle references that Philoxenus makes to the jews are found in what has come to be known as the 'Ascetic Discourses', which argue at length for a return to the Christian values that Philoxenus held dear and as such are split into broad themes. The first significant mention of the jews in the 'Ascetic Discourses' can be found in discourse four when Philoxenus writes as follows:
'And again in another place our Lord taught His disciples to beware of the cunning of the Pharisees and Sadducees, saying, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees, and of the leaven of Herod;" and thou may know that He here calls cunning and wickedness by the name of leaven, because in another place when the Pharisees said "Herod desires to kill thee," he called Herod a fox because of his cunning, saying, "Go say to this fox"----for because he has no power to do what he desires by authority, behold he contrives artful schemes and plots in order that cunning may take the place of power, even as cunning takes the place of strength in the fox----"by My own freewill will I go, but thy cunning which is outside My freewill, is not able to make Me go forth. To-day and to-morrow I work miracles, and the third day I am perfected." Behold then our Lord warned His disciples against the cunning of Herod and the wickedness of the Pharisees, because while they were doing one thing they taught another. Our Lord did not bid them beware of the doctrine of Moses which the Pharisees taught, but of their traditions which they invented in their cunning that they might be material for the merchandise of iniquity; and of their feigning to be righteous before the children of men; and of their being careful of the honour of God while in their secret works they belittled Him; and of their making long their prayers in order to devour widow's houses; and of their disfiguring their countenances that they might appear to be men who fasted; and of their washing the outside of the cup and platter----that is to say, they beautified and made fair the parts of them which were manifest----being filled within with iniquity and all impurity; and of their adorning their persons outside with a reverent and venerable demeanour to be observed with the eye, being secretly filled with rapine, and deceit, and wantonness, and the desire for all objects of lust. Of all this doctrine then of the Pharisees our Lord commanded His disciples to beware.' (1)
In the above we can see that Philoxenus is casting the Sadducees and Pharisees (i.e., the jews) as being the demons behind the curtain of life. He styles them as being cunning, highly Machiavellian and utterly evil. The Pharisees Philoxenus tells us were a group who practised sophistry in their beliefs in that they pretended to be noble and righteous while in fact being encouraging sin, greed and iniquity all the while. They also supported authority and tradition for their own sake as opposed to engaging in what Philoxenus might style the pursuit of knowledge of the one, true god with a critical attitude towards the convening of secular authority over them.
This is shown in Philoxenus' delightfully spiteful language and dripping sarcasm in relation to what the Pharisees raise their hands in prayer for: in that they prayed for the countenances of ascetics while gorging themselves on food and praying for the relief of the poor and needy while contriving artful schemes to cheat a widow out of her house and livelihood (one wonders given Philoxenus' other comments on this matter [see below] whether the Pharisees were trying to induce said widow to become a proverbial 'sacred prostitute' as well). (2)
Philoxenus also makes the point of telling us that Jesus warned his followers against the Pharisees for precisely this reason, because they acted like the 'painted ladies' of antiquity (i.e., prostitutes) in so far as they would beautify themselves externally to make them look the part of a beautiful and noble soul when their soul had in fact been cultivated almost totally in the rapacious pursuit of vice, sin and wanton pleasures of the flesh.
That this corruption extended to matters related to carnal lust, fornication and copulation in Philoxenus' view can be derived from his comments about how the jews perpetually 'lusted after their neighbour's wives' to such an extent that even Yahweh had to step in and expressly forbid it more than once. (3)
Essentially the Pharisees according to Philoxenus were masters of manipulation, sophistry and propaganda who were rather impressed by themselves and had little regard for the doctrines of god.
This then makes sense of what Philoxenus says about the jews in his fifth discourse on asceticism:
'For that which is rejected by the children of men is a choice thing with God, even as also the Apostles were rejected by all the world, and our Redeemer Jesus also was hated and rejected by all the Jews. So then also whosoever rejects the simple, and despises and is contemptuous of them because of their simplicity, the portion of this audacious man shall be placed with that of the Jews, and scribes, and Pharisees, who rejected Christ and His disciples.' (4)
This is then continued later on in the same discourse as follows:
'He stood before Annas and was silent, and until he adjured Him He spoke not; He was questioned by Pilate and was silent, and until He heard from him the words, "Art thou the king of the Jews?" which made known to Him that he suspected Him of being a rebel against Caesar, He answered them not a word. They carried Him to Herod, who wishing to see and hear from Him great things asked Him questions temptingly; and there also He stood silent and spoke not, and He returned no answer to His questioner. He was esteemed a contemptible man who knew nothing, and a fool who had no answer to give. The Jews and priests thought this because they wished it; but He forsook not the simpleness of a lamb, and the law of simplicity He left not. The Apostle Paul considered Him as one "of no reputation", and the crucifiers considered Him to lack understanding, and His enemies accounted Him to be without knowledge and intelligence, and concerning Jesus Paul spoke against them, "The foolishness of God is wiser than the "children of men".' (5)
This then places Philoxenus' view of the Pharisees as masters of manipulation, sophistry and propaganda in the context of their role in bringing Jesus to trial before Pontius Pilate and his subsequent crucifixion. We can see that Philoxenus is very clear about who the guilty party responsible for murdering Jesus was when he unequivocally states that Jesus was 'hated and rejected by all jews' (not by the Romans mind but by the jews). We can thus see Philoxenus is being very pointed about just who killed the Jesus: the jews and no one else.
Further we should note that Philoxenus also comments about the simplicity of Jesus and that the jews believed him to be a 'contemptible man who knew nothing', which is another way of saying that he was an ignorant country bumpkin with delusions of grandeur. Essentially the jews were playing cock a snoop at Jesus in Philoxenus' view because they believed that their knowledge and mastery of the Law (i.e. the Torah) was profound and thus a penniless carpenter from Galilee could not have possibly have had insights that they did not (much as they did later to the Apostles according to Philoxenus). (6)
This then plays nicely into Philoxenus' snarling sarcasm aimed against at the jews in relation to their being intellectual prostitutes who were all bark and no bite when it came to religious learning, which is also brought up Philoxenus in relation to the Old Testament and god's continuously having to violently correct his eternally wayward 'Chosen People'. (7) It is also suggested - albeit by proxy - by combining this narrative of the eternally straying jews with the necessity of the death of Jesus by them as the jews would; at that moment, have to decide one last time whether or not they would walk to the righteous or the evil path for all eternity. (8) The jews - of course - chose the evil path.
What this also admirably shows us that Philoxenus was not one to mince his words about the jews and especially in relation to the jewish role in the death of Jesus. He didn't prevaricate, minimize, try to over-contextualise or just suggest the jews needed to be forgiven: he simply called it as he saw it. He saw no need to defend the jews, because they had done wrong and in his view: they needed to severely punished for that crime.
That Philoxenus rather despised the jews is also pointedly evidenced by a comment made about Philoxenus in a Syriac manuscript that is a kind of 'life of Philoxenus'.
To wit:
'He opened in this town an immense treasure of doctrine, and filled it with spiritual riches. He composed, first of all, excellent homilies on the commemorative feasts of our Lord, and on all the Dispensation of Christ. He wrote five other books of discourses which enlighten, by means of the Holy Spirit, all those who read them. He wrote six books against the heresy of Nestorius and of Barsauma of Nisibis, and disclosed all the falsehood of the Nestorians by proving that they were "new Jews" and "ancient Pagans."' (9)
The above describes Philoxenus' literary labours of fighting a polemic war against the Nestorians, but what is important is his terms of abuse: 'new jews' and 'ancient pagans'. These seem odd at first, but if we but consider them for a moment then they begin to make sense. If Philoxenus argues that the jews are a mischievous and dangerously subversive people who hate Jesus and his Church then doesn't that rather symbolize a hard-line orthodox cleric's attitude towards perceived heretics (i.e. those who have now adopted the rule the jews play in the Biblical narrative and thus are the 'new jews')?
It does: doesn't it?
As to 'ancient pagans': well, the symbolic derivation here is quite probably also from the jews as well given that they are described throughout the Old Testament as having reverted back to the polytheistic and idolatrous (i.e. pagan) ways by worshipping Egyptian, Babylonian and Canaanite gods and goddesses among others.
These then are probably the 'ancient pagans' of Philoxenus in that he is symbolically lambasting the Nestorians with being like the jews in being dangerous subversives who reject Jesus (also suggested by a comment Philoxenus makes in one of his surviving letters on the subject of the trinity) (10) while also suggesting - via the use of Biblical symbolism that would have much more obvious when he originally wrote - that Nestorians were like the jews of old in their constant straying from the righteous path and were in need of divine correction lest they be lost to god's kingdom forever.
To round off this article on Philoxenus' views on the jews it would be appropriate to quote him in his last vicious comment against them and reflect that Philoxenus - in spite of being relatively obscure - was a fervent Christian opponent of the jews and was in his time a fairly strident example of the heights of Christian anti-Judaism.
To wit:
'He who does not believe that He Who, as man, was apprehended by the Jews and led to the death of the Cross, is the Same Who, as God, in the power of His divinity caused creatures to tremble, shall experience the wandering of Cain all the days of his life.' (11)
References
(1) E. A. Wallis Budge, 1894, 'The Discourses of Philoxenus', 1st Edition, Asher: London, pp. 108-111
(2) For more information see the critical discussion of jews and the concept of sacred prostitution by Stephanie Budin, 2008, 'The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity', 1st Edition, Cambridge University Press: New York, pp. 103-111 and my summary of the evidence: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jews-and-sacred-prostitution-in-ancient
(3) Wallis Budge, Op. Cit., pp. 572; 574-575
(4) Ibid., p. 128
(5) Ibid., p. 133
(6) Ibid., pp. 146-147
(7) Ibid., pp. 187-190; 205-208; 262-274; 431-434
(8) Ibid., p. 243
(9) A. Mingana, 1920, 'New Documents on Philoxenus of Hierapolis and on the Philoxenian Version of the Bible', The Expositor, Vol. 9, No. 19, p. 153
(10) Arthur Vaschalde, 2013, [1902], 'Three Letters of Philoxenus, Bishop of Mabbug (485-519)', Syriac Studies Library Monograph No. 253, Gorgias Press: Piscataway, p. 110
(11) Ibid., p. 113