Appendix C — The History of Jewish-Christian Relations: Key Events

The disciple must know this history. It is not incidental background. It is the context that every Jewish person carries into the conversation.

• 70 AD — Destruction of the Second Temple by Rome. Jewish dispersion accelerated.
• 135 AD — Bar Kokhba revolt crushed. Jews expelled from Jerusalem. Jewish-Christian separation deepened.
• 380 AD — Christianity becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire. Jewish legal status changed.
• 1096 AD — First Crusade. Rhineland massacres. Jewish communities in Worms, Mainz, Cologne decimated.
• 1215 AD — Fourth Lateran Council. Jews required to wear distinctive clothing.
• 1290 AD — Expulsion of Jews from England.
• 1306 AD — Expulsion of Jews from France.
• 1478–1834 — Spanish Inquisition. Forced conversions, torture, murder of Jewish people.
• 1492 AD — Expulsion of Jews from Spain. Approximately 200,000 displaced.
• 1543 AD — Martin Luther publishes "On the Jews and Their Lies."
• 1881–1906 — Russian pogroms. Thousands killed, hundreds of thousands displaced.
• 1938 AD — Kristallnacht. Synagogues burned, Jewish businesses destroyed across Germany.
• 1941–1945 — The Holocaust. Six million Jewish men, women, and children murdered.
• 1948 AD — State of Israel established. First Jewish sovereign nation in two thousand years.
• 1965 AD — Nostra Aetate. Second Vatican Council formally repudiated the charge of collective Jewish guilt for the crucifixion.