For sixteen hundred years, the Jewish people have been persecuted and
             murdered by people who worship a Jewish man as their savior: the
             Christians. Why did Christian anti-Semitism, a seemingly illogical belief
             given that Jesus himself was a Jew, develop? How did it evolve, and why has
             it persisted for centuries? In the Biblical gospels, despite three of the four
             being ostensibly written by Jews, enemies of Jesus are referred to as "the
             Jews." Early Christians found themselves in a quandary. The savior they
             worship, himself a Jew, supposedly was killed by Jews. Since at least the
             fourth century, some groups of Christians have actively practiced anti-
             Semitism, taking revenge on Jewish people for "murdering" the God of
             Christianity. Christians have called Jews devils, demons and antichrists.
             Persecution by church officials, both Catholic and Protestant, was consistent
             and deadly for over a thousand years. Hundreds of thousands, possibly
             millions of Jews, were massacred by so-called Christians centuries before the
             Holocaust. Emperor Constantine the Great converted to Christianity in 312
             A.D. Attributing his military successes to God, he issued the Edict of Milan,
             making Christianity the Roman Empire's official religion. It was here in the
             fourth century that open anti-Semitism emerged. A great number of
             superficial converts (wanting to be on the winning side) joined the church,
             which was placing overwhelming emphasis on the sacraments. The
             sacraments were thought by many to have a magical content, supernaturally
             protecting against attacks from the devil. Those outside the sacramental
             community -- primarily unconverted Jews -- became seen as people through
             whom the devil could work his evil purposes. (1) Jews were thought to be
             sorcerers, cannibals, and child-murderers. Attacks by "church fathers"
             became increasingly venomous. Gregory of Nyasa, a Cappadocian bishop,
             wro...