ABSTRACT
Augustine bequeathed to medieval Christianity a rationale for tolerating Jews who continued to live among Christians after the crucifixion. Christians, he believed, actually needed living Jews – the descendants of the Israelites – to vouch for the antiquity of Judaism and the authenticity of the Hebrew Bible. Without them, Christians might be accused of having invented Scripture to give themselves an ancient pedigree. It was imperative that Christians preserve the Jews – albeit in a degraded condition that reflected their punishment for rejecting Jesus. Jews would ultimately play a key role in human salvation: their conversion would signal the final stage in the preparation of mankind for Christ’s return, albeit at some unknowable point in the future. Until then, their exile and dispersion should be seen as a boon that brought Christian truth to the unconverted nations.1
