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A Massacre Of Christians By Jews: 614 A.d.–an Untold Chapter Of History
Many gentiles are quite willing to make all manner to apologies for the wrongs done, or allegedly done, to Jews throughout the centuries. Jews, however, never offer any apologies. And the fact of the matter is, gentiles, at least respectable gentiles, never charge Jews with any historical wrongdoing. It would seem that unlike guilty gentiles, the Jews have been totally blameless throughout their history. In fact, it is considered to be "anti-Semitic" to charge them with any wrongs--their role in the African slave trade and Soviet Communism are two taboo subjects. One leading theme in Jewish history has been the terrible persecution of Jews by Catholics and Christianity in general. No mention is ever made of Jewish persecution of Christians--though, of course, Jews sought to exterminate early Christianity.
One never-mentioned Jewish atrocity toward Christians, which took place after Christianity had become the state religion of the Roman (later Byzantine) Empire, was the Jewish massacre of perhaps 90,000 Christians after the Persian conquest of Jerusalem in 614.
A little background
As the 7th century began, Persia and the Byzantine Empire (the remnant of the Roman Empire) had been at war for hundreds of years. While the Byzantine Empire was Christian, the state religion of Persia was Zoroastrianism. The Byzantine Empire was becoming weaker militarily.
In 611, Persia began the greatest of its westward invasions during the Christian era. The Persians swept into Syria and Asia Minor. In 614, they took Jerusalem by storm. They sacked the city and took the True Cross.
Jews, who still were numerous in Palestine at the time, especially in Galilee, had aided the Persian invaders. The Persians turned over Jerusalem to the Jews as a reward for their support.
Now for the taboo part. According to Christian chroniclers, the Jews set about demolishing Jerusalem's many Christian churches of Jerusalem. Moreover, Jews purchased Christian captives from the Persians, who numbered up to 90,000, and slaughtered them. In the words of Henry Hart Milman's "History of the Jews," (published in 1829) "The vengeance of the Jews was stronger than their avarice."
Unlike in the fake Holocaust aka Hollow-Hoax (where all the bodies were cremated and vanished), there is actually physical proof of this mass murder. A mass grave has been discovered by archeologists in the spot where Christian chroniclers claimed the massacre took place (the reservoir of Mamel or Mamilla). And the graves contained Christian artifacts along with bones. Although this Jewish massacre of Christians was readily mentioned in 19th century historical works, it has been played down or omitted altogether in the histories written in the 20th century, especially histories written by Jews, who tend to dominate the subject. And certainly there is no popular knowledge of this event.
The cover-up of this massacre is discussed at length by the Jewish writer Elliott Horowitz in his article ''The Vengeance of the Jews was Stronger Than Their Avarice': Modern Historians and the Persian Conquest of Jerusalem in 614," which came out in the Winter 1998 issue (Volume 4, No. 2) of the journal "Jewish Social Studies."
According to Horowitz, this tendency to ignore Jewish violence against Christians increased in Jewish accounts in the decades after World War II. "After 1967 [when Israel acquired the West Bank and other territory through war] the reluctance of Israeli historians, especially those linked institutionally to universities and research institutes, to acknowledge Jewish violence in the distant past has become even greater than in the decades immediately following the Holocaust.
The attack upon the city of Jerusalem in 614 was initiated by invading Persians, but these were assisted in their efforts by Jews who were living in the region as well. The Jewish settlements appear to have been mainly in the north around the Sea of Galilee, while Christians seem to have inhabited the southern regions and the city of Jerusalem. At any rate, the Jews joined forces with the Persian army of conquest, but their hatred and savagery toward the Christians was so intense it even took the Persians aback.
The Wikipedia article that only exists on this massacre relates to the burial site (Mamilla Cemetery) of those unfortunate Christians who were brutally massacred by the rabid Jewish mob.
The Mamilla article at Wikipedia which I mentioned above glosses over these events, making no mention whatsoever of the Jewish involvement and laying the blame entirely upon the Persians.
Fortunately, a much more detailed account is supplied by Israel Shamir. His article was apparently written some number of years ago, but still is available on his website. For those not familiar with Shamir, he is a former Israeli and a former Jew who is now a Christian and lives outside of Israel. The account he wrote speaks of churches and monasteries being burned and of monks and priests being killed, and he describes 614 as “the most dreadful year in the history of Palestine until the Twentieth Century.”
Below I reproduce his article in full, as well as a supplementary article by Karl Radl, who expands upon some of Shamir’s points and also supplies a much lengthier quote from the main historical source, a monk by the name of Antiochus of Palestine, who was also known as Strategius.
Christians should ponder the manner in which historical narratives are often manipulated, and should ask themselves why this chapter of history is not more widely known. They should ask themselves something else as well: how insulting, offensive, and provocative is it for a Jewish organization like the Simon Weisenthal Center to propose building a “museum of tolerance” on top of a graveyard containing the bodies of thousands of Christians who were slaughtered by Jews?
The dead were laid to their eternal rest in AD 614, the most dreadful year in the history of Palestine until the Twentieth Century. The Scottish scholar Adam Smith, wrote in his Historical Geography of Palestine: “until now, the terrible devastation of 614 is visible in the land, it could not be healed”.
By 614 Palestine was a part of the Roman successor state, the Byzantine Empire. It was a prosperous, predominantly Christian land of well-developed agriculture, of harnessed water systems and carefully laid terraces. Pilgrims came in flocks to the Holy places. The Constantine-built edifices of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives and of the Holy Sepulcher were among the man-made wonders of the world. The Judean wilderness was enlivened by eighty monasteries, where precious manuscripts were collected and prayers offered. The Fathers of the church, St Jerome of Bethlehem and Origen and Eusebius of Caesarea, were still a living memory.
There was also a small, wealthy Jewish community living in their midst, mainly in Tiberias on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Their scholars had just completed their version of the Talmud, the codification of their faith, Rabbinic Judaism; but for instruction they deferred to the prevailing Jewish community in Persian Babylonia.
In 614 local Palestinian Jews allied with their Babylonian co-religionists and assisted the Persians in their conquest of the Holy Land.
26,000 Jews participated in the onslaught. In the aftermath of the Persian victory, the Jews perpetrated a massive holocaust of the Gentiles of Palestine. They burned the churches and the monasteries, killed monks and priests, burned books.
Indeed, very few churches survived the onslaught. The Great Laura of St Sabas, tucked away in the bottomless Ravine of Fire (Wadi an-Nar) was saved by its remote location and steep crags. The Church of the Nativity (the Church dedicated to Christ birth place) miraculously survived: when Jews commanded its destruction, the Persians balked. They perceived the Magi mosaic above the lintel as the portrait of Persian kings.
This devastation was not the worst crime. When Jerusalem surrendered to the Persians, thousands of local Christians became prisoners of war and were herded to the Mamilla Pool area.
The Israeli archaeologist Ronny Reich writes:
''They were probably sold to the highest bidder. According to some sources, the Christian captives at Mamilla Pond were bought by Jews and were then slain on the spot.''[/i]
The Oxford Professor Henry Hart Milman’s History of the Jews describes it in stronger terms:
It had come at length, the long-expected hour of triumph and vengeance; and the Jews did not neglect the opportunity. They washed away the profanation of the holy city in Christian blood. The Persians are said to have sold the miserable captives for money. The vengeance of the Jews was stronger than their avarice; not only did they not scruple to sacrifice their treasures in the purchase of these devoted bondsmen, they put to death all they had purchased at a lavish price. It was a rumour of the time that 90,000 perished.
An eyewitness to the massacre, Strategius of St Sabas, was more vivid:
Thereupon the vile Jews… rejoiced exceedingly, because they detested the Christians, and they conceived an evil plan. As of old they bought the Lord from the Jews with silver, so they purchased Christians out of the reservoir… How many souls were slain in the reservoir of Mamilla! How many perished of hunger and thirst! How many priests and monks were massacred by the sword! How many maidens, refusing their abominable outrages, were given over to death by the enemy! How many parents perished on top of their children! How many of the people were brought up by the Jews and butchered, and became confessors of Christ! Who can count the multitude of the corpses of those who were massacred in Jerusalem!’
Strategius estimated the victims of the holocaust at 66,000.
In plain prose, the Jews ransomed the Christians from the hands of the Persian soldiers for good money to slaughter them at Mamilla Pool, ‘and it ran with blood’. Jews massacred between 60,000 and 90,000 Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem alone, almost 1.5 million in today’s values (the total earth’s population was according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica about 300 million, twenty times smaller than today). A few days later, the Persian military understood the magnitude of the massacre and stopped the Jews.
Many gentiles are quite willing to make all manner to apologies for the wrongs done, or allegedly done, to Jews throughout the centuries. Jews, however, never offer any apologies. And the fact of the matter is, gentiles, at least respectable gentiles, never charge Jews with any historical wrongdoing. It would seem that unlike guilty gentiles, the Jews have been totally blameless throughout their history. In fact, it is considered to be "anti-Semitic" to charge them with any wrongs--their role in the African slave trade and Soviet Communism are two taboo subjects. One leading theme in Jewish history has been the terrible persecution of Jews by Catholics and Christianity in general. No mention is ever made of Jewish persecution of Christians--though, of course, Jews sought to exterminate early Christianity.
One never-mentioned Jewish atrocity toward Christians, which took place after Christianity had become the state religion of the Roman (later Byzantine) Empire, was the Jewish massacre of perhaps 90,000 Christians after the Persian conquest of Jerusalem in 614.
A little background
As the 7th century began, Persia and the Byzantine Empire (the remnant of the Roman Empire) had been at war for hundreds of years. While the Byzantine Empire was Christian, the state religion of Persia was Zoroastrianism. The Byzantine Empire was becoming weaker militarily.
In 611, Persia began the greatest of its westward invasions during the Christian era. The Persians swept into Syria and Asia Minor. In 614, they took Jerusalem by storm. They sacked the city and took the True Cross.
Jews, who still were numerous in Palestine at the time, especially in Galilee, had aided the Persian invaders. The Persians turned over Jerusalem to the Jews as a reward for their support.
Now for the taboo part. According to Christian chroniclers, the Jews set about demolishing Jerusalem's many Christian churches of Jerusalem. Moreover, Jews purchased Christian captives from the Persians, who numbered up to 90,000, and slaughtered them. In the words of Henry Hart Milman's "History of the Jews," (published in 1829) "The vengeance of the Jews was stronger than their avarice."
Unlike in the fake Holocaust aka Hollow-Hoax (where all the bodies were cremated and vanished), there is actually physical proof of this mass murder. A mass grave has been discovered by archeologists in the spot where Christian chroniclers claimed the massacre took place (the reservoir of Mamel or Mamilla). And the graves contained Christian artifacts along with bones. Although this Jewish massacre of Christians was readily mentioned in 19th century historical works, it has been played down or omitted altogether in the histories written in the 20th century, especially histories written by Jews, who tend to dominate the subject. And certainly there is no popular knowledge of this event.
The cover-up of this massacre is discussed at length by the Jewish writer Elliott Horowitz in his article ''The Vengeance of the Jews was Stronger Than Their Avarice': Modern Historians and the Persian Conquest of Jerusalem in 614," which came out in the Winter 1998 issue (Volume 4, No. 2) of the journal "Jewish Social Studies."
According to Horowitz, this tendency to ignore Jewish violence against Christians increased in Jewish accounts in the decades after World War II. "After 1967 [when Israel acquired the West Bank and other territory through war] the reluctance of Israeli historians, especially those linked institutionally to universities and research institutes, to acknowledge Jewish violence in the distant past has become even greater than in the decades immediately following the Holocaust.
The attack upon the city of Jerusalem in 614 was initiated by invading Persians, but these were assisted in their efforts by Jews who were living in the region as well. The Jewish settlements appear to have been mainly in the north around the Sea of Galilee, while Christians seem to have inhabited the southern regions and the city of Jerusalem. At any rate, the Jews joined forces with the Persian army of conquest, but their hatred and savagery toward the Christians was so intense it even took the Persians aback.
The Wikipedia article that only exists on this massacre relates to the burial site (Mamilla Cemetery) of those unfortunate Christians who were brutally massacred by the rabid Jewish mob.
The Mamilla article at Wikipedia which I mentioned above glosses over these events, making no mention whatsoever of the Jewish involvement and laying the blame entirely upon the Persians.
Fortunately, a much more detailed account is supplied by Israel Shamir. His article was apparently written some number of years ago, but still is available on his website. For those not familiar with Shamir, he is a former Israeli and a former Jew who is now a Christian and lives outside of Israel. The account he wrote speaks of churches and monasteries being burned and of monks and priests being killed, and he describes 614 as “the most dreadful year in the history of Palestine until the Twentieth Century.”
Below I reproduce his article in full, as well as a supplementary article by Karl Radl, who expands upon some of Shamir’s points and also supplies a much lengthier quote from the main historical source, a monk by the name of Antiochus of Palestine, who was also known as Strategius.
Christians should ponder the manner in which historical narratives are often manipulated, and should ask themselves why this chapter of history is not more widely known. They should ask themselves something else as well: how insulting, offensive, and provocative is it for a Jewish organization like the Simon Weisenthal Center to propose building a “museum of tolerance” on top of a graveyard containing the bodies of thousands of Christians who were slaughtered by Jews?
The dead were laid to their eternal rest in AD 614, the most dreadful year in the history of Palestine until the Twentieth Century. The Scottish scholar Adam Smith, wrote in his Historical Geography of Palestine: “until now, the terrible devastation of 614 is visible in the land, it could not be healed”.
By 614 Palestine was a part of the Roman successor state, the Byzantine Empire. It was a prosperous, predominantly Christian land of well-developed agriculture, of harnessed water systems and carefully laid terraces. Pilgrims came in flocks to the Holy places. The Constantine-built edifices of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives and of the Holy Sepulcher were among the man-made wonders of the world. The Judean wilderness was enlivened by eighty monasteries, where precious manuscripts were collected and prayers offered. The Fathers of the church, St Jerome of Bethlehem and Origen and Eusebius of Caesarea, were still a living memory.
There was also a small, wealthy Jewish community living in their midst, mainly in Tiberias on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Their scholars had just completed their version of the Talmud, the codification of their faith, Rabbinic Judaism; but for instruction they deferred to the prevailing Jewish community in Persian Babylonia.
In 614 local Palestinian Jews allied with their Babylonian co-religionists and assisted the Persians in their conquest of the Holy Land.
26,000 Jews participated in the onslaught. In the aftermath of the Persian victory, the Jews perpetrated a massive holocaust of the Gentiles of Palestine. They burned the churches and the monasteries, killed monks and priests, burned books.
Indeed, very few churches survived the onslaught. The Great Laura of St Sabas, tucked away in the bottomless Ravine of Fire (Wadi an-Nar) was saved by its remote location and steep crags. The Church of the Nativity (the Church dedicated to Christ birth place) miraculously survived: when Jews commanded its destruction, the Persians balked. They perceived the Magi mosaic above the lintel as the portrait of Persian kings.
This devastation was not the worst crime. When Jerusalem surrendered to the Persians, thousands of local Christians became prisoners of war and were herded to the Mamilla Pool area.
The Israeli archaeologist Ronny Reich writes:
''They were probably sold to the highest bidder. According to some sources, the Christian captives at Mamilla Pond were bought by Jews and were then slain on the spot.''[/i]
The Oxford Professor Henry Hart Milman’s History of the Jews describes it in stronger terms:
It had come at length, the long-expected hour of triumph and vengeance; and the Jews did not neglect the opportunity. They washed away the profanation of the holy city in Christian blood. The Persians are said to have sold the miserable captives for money. The vengeance of the Jews was stronger than their avarice; not only did they not scruple to sacrifice their treasures in the purchase of these devoted bondsmen, they put to death all they had purchased at a lavish price. It was a rumour of the time that 90,000 perished.
An eyewitness to the massacre, Strategius of St Sabas, was more vivid:
Thereupon the vile Jews… rejoiced exceedingly, because they detested the Christians, and they conceived an evil plan. As of old they bought the Lord from the Jews with silver, so they purchased Christians out of the reservoir… How many souls were slain in the reservoir of Mamilla! How many perished of hunger and thirst! How many priests and monks were massacred by the sword! How many maidens, refusing their abominable outrages, were given over to death by the enemy! How many parents perished on top of their children! How many of the people were brought up by the Jews and butchered, and became confessors of Christ! Who can count the multitude of the corpses of those who were massacred in Jerusalem!’
Strategius estimated the victims of the holocaust at 66,000.
In plain prose, the Jews ransomed the Christians from the hands of the Persian soldiers for good money to slaughter them at Mamilla Pool, ‘and it ran with blood’. Jews massacred between 60,000 and 90,000 Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem alone, almost 1.5 million in today’s values (the total earth’s population was according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica about 300 million, twenty times smaller than today). A few days later, the Persian military understood the magnitude of the massacre and stopped the Jews.
