Jew

The Protestant chaplain for the Levant Company, William Biddulph, described Jews in the early seventeenth century as a people who ‘to this day have no king nor country proper to themselves, but are dispersed throughout the whole world’. ¹ Despite this dispersal, Jewish communities retained strong and distinct connections rooted in their biblical heritage. ‘They are called by three names’, Biddulph wrote, but of Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews, ‘the most common name whereby they are called at this day is, the name of the Jewes’. ² The shared Abrahamic traditions between Christianity and Judaism compelled Christians to define points of diversion between their faiths. Some Christian theologians saw Christ as fulfilling the prophecies of the Old Testament, rendering Judaic belief a series of empty rituals. ³ Since Jews were still awaiting their promised saviour, these early modern Christians believed Jews to be falsely interpreting biblical teachings in ways that left them outside salvation. ⁴ After the Reformation, Protestants often drew similarities between Jews and Catholics, describing them as living in states of spiritual confusion and superstition. ⁵ At the same time, followers of the Jewish faith were seen as a people particularly scorned by other faiths. As Biddulph noted, Jews ‘are of more vile account in the sight of Turkes th[a]n Christians […] And the poore Christians sojourning and dwelling in [Aleppo] doe hate them very uncharitably’. ⁶