The Emperor Julian - better known as Julian the Apostate - is certainly the best known of the last pagan Emperors of Rome although he was not the last. (1) Julian was something an intellectual oddity for his time in that he saw in paganism not an outdated faith with a corrupt priesthood which formed the basis for most Christian attacks on it and probably formed the basis for Christianity’s appeal, but rather a beautiful, vibrant set of faiths that could explain the world and offer their believers good principles as well as the raiment of religious ritual.
Julian was a quiet, serious boy and inclined towards his studies so when he became Emperor, nobody really expected him to be Ernst Junger’s ideal of ‘scholar, worker, warrior’. By day Julian worked for the good of the Roman citizenry and led his armies against Rome’s many foes, while at night he dictated to his scribes and wrote his works. (2) Fortunately, many of Julian’s works have survived the ravages of history and indicate that he was much influenced by anti-Christian and anti-jewish thinkers like Porphyry of Tyre (3) who was in turn influenced by Celsus the Epicurean. (4) Many of those who argue for the national revival of the European peoples could learn from and profit by Julian’s example of both persistent hard work and unfaltering dedication to his cause.
Julian’s hostile attitude towards Christianity is well known, but his thoughts on Judaism has generally been misrepresented by popular writers as positive in the extreme: however in reality Julian was no friend of the jews per se.
It is true that Julian did allow the jews once more to circumcise, sacrifice to Yahweh and also exempted them from the Fiscus Judaicus (literally the 'jewish tax'), which had originally been imposed by Vespasian as a punishment for the first jewish revolt against Rome. Successive Emperors confirmed the tax - especially Domitian, Trajan and Hadrian - but the reason that Julian abolished it was because he wished to gain the jews as temporary allies in his fight against the perceived greater danger of Christianity: not because he actually thought Judaism was any better than Christianity or that he even liked jews themselves very much. (5)
Hence in 'Against the Galilaeans' Julian writes as follows:
'Furthermore observe from what follows that God did not take thought for the Hebrews alone, but though he cared for all nations, he bestowed on the Hebrews nothing considerable or of great value, whereas on us he bestowed gifts far higher and surpassing theirs.' (6)
Here it is clear that Julian was hardly a friend of the jews or even someone who saw them as a worthwhile people: rather Julian saw them as being the origin of what he believed to be the subversive insanity of Christianity. After all Julian - following earlier pagan writers and more explicitly Celsus the Epicurean - is simply pointing out that while Christianity was a religion in its own right: it owed its essential back story to Judaism. Thus, why would Julian and those pagan intellectuals before and after him not attack both Christianity and Judaism as they both - to their minds - representations of the same social and intellectual plague?
The cornerstone of the argument that claims Julian was a philo-Semite is found in his letter to jews of Antioch of January 363 A.D where he states that he wishes to rebuild the Temple of Solomon so that the jews can worship in it. Now on the face if it this is easily enough to charge Julian with philo-Semitic sentiment: however, Julian's motivations for this particular statement are not those of love for jews, but rather of practical necessity to address the more pressing issues of his time.
Firstly Julian was at this point in time in deep conflict with the deeply Christian city of Antioch's ruling elite: who rejected his reformist neo-Platonic paganism and cheated him when he brought in grain to ease the famine the city was suffering (i.e., Julian kept the price of grain artificially low and the largely jewish merchants simply bought all the grain [there was no limit how much one person could buy] transported it outside the city limits and sold it at extortionate prices to the starving locals). He was in essence desperate for allies and the only major group he could ally with - without allying with Christians - was jews in order to win Antioch to his program. (7)
Secondly Julian foresaw that if he rebuilt the Temple of Solomon then the Christian gospels and the claims of Jesus would thus be proved absolutely null and void. Thus Julian reasoned, Christians would lose their power to explain the world as the word of God/the Messiah had been obviously disproved and thus could not be the word of God or God's representative. Thus, leading to a resurgence in paganism.
Thirdly Julian's neo-Platonic school of thought emphasized the idea of sacrifice - particularly blood sacrifice - of which Judaism has a long tradition: before, during and even after the Temple era. This is personified in the neo-Platonist Iamblichus who had declared that without sacrifice no prayer was in fact complete. (8) Thus, to Julian in order for the jews to sacrifice and make votive offerings like him - and being a great lover of mysticism in general - he had to rebuild the Temple of Solomon. (9)
Fourthly Julian was preparing a military campaign against the Persian Empire in Mesopotamia in continuation of long-standing Roman Near Eastern policy from the time Augustus till the Battle of Manzikert in the thirteenth century A.D. As such Julian was aware that he would have to march through a land heavily populated with jews (10) that he - as an voracious reader and assiduous student of history - would have known posed a potential threat to his rear. (11) So, Julian decided that to defeat his immediate enemies Christianity and the Persians, he would have to temporarily win the favour of a less powerful enemy: the jews.
Thus, if we take this important context into consideration, it is rather clear that Julian is not taking a pro-jewish standpoint, because he liked jews but rather because he was trying to stop Christianity and saw that the jews were - to his mind - part of the key to doing that in the short term. It is difficult to speculate what relationship Julian may or may not have had with jews had his tenure been longer (he reigned for just over a year), but it is very clear that Julian - in spite of the claims - was no friend of the jews.
References
(1) On this see Alan Cameron, 2010, 'The Last Pagans of Rome', 1st Edition, Oxford University Press: New York.
(2) For a readable introduction to Julian please see Adrian Murdoch, 2011, 'The Last Pagan: Julian the Apostate and the Death of the Ancient World', 1st Edition, Inner Traditions: Vermont
(3) Glen Bowersock, 1978, 'Julian the Apostate', 1st Edition, Harvard University Press: Cambridge, p. 28
(4) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/the-jew-as-untermensch-celsus-the
(5) Murdoch, Op. Cit., p. 142
(6) Jul. Imp. Galileans 176:AB
(7) Murdoch, Op. Cit., pp. 120-121;129-131
(8) Michael Avi-Yonah, 1976, 'The Emperor Julian and the Jews', p. 187 in Michael Avi-Yonah (Ed.), 1976, 'The Jews of Palestine', 1st Edition, Blackwell: Oxford
(9) Bowersock, Op. Cit., p. 89
(10) Murdoch, Op. Cit., p. 143
(11) App. Rom. Hist. 14:90