Editing Antisemitism (section)

===Ancient world===
The first clear examples of anti-Jewish sentiment can be traced to the 3rd century BCE to [[Alexandria]],{{sfnp|Flannery|1985|p=11}} the home to the largest Jewish diaspora community in the world at the time and where the [[Septuagint]], a Greek translation of the [[Hebrew Bible]], was produced. [[Manetho]], an Egyptian priest and historian of that era, wrote scathingly of the Jews. His themes are repeated in the works of [[Chaeremon of Alexandria|Chaeremon]], [[Lysimachus]], [[Poseidonius]], [[Apollonius Molon]], and in [[Apion]] and [[Tacitus]].{{sfnp|Flannery|2004|p=12}} [[Agatharchides of Cnidus]] ridiculed the practices of the Jews and the "absurdity of [[Torah|their Law]]", making a mocking reference to how [[Ptolemy Lagus]] was able to invade [[Jerusalem]] in 320 BCE because its inhabitants were observing the ''[[Shabbat]]''.{{sfnp|Flannery|2004|p=12}} One of the earliest anti-Jewish [[edict]]s, promulgated by [[Antiochus IV Epiphanes]] in about 170–167 BCE, sparked a revolt of the [[Maccabees]] in [[Judea]].<ref name="gruen">{{cite encyclopedia |author-link=Erich S. Gruen |first=Erich S. |last=Gruen |year=1993|title=Hellenism and Persecution: Antiochus IV and the Jews |encyclopedia=Hellenistic History and Culture |editor-first=Peter |editor-last=Green |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |pages=250–252 [238]}}</ref>

In view of Manetho's anti-Jewish writings, antisemitism may have originated in Egypt and been spread by "the [[Greeks|Greek]] retelling of [[Ancient Egypt]]ian prejudices".<ref name="Schäfer">Schäfer, Peter. ''Judeophobia'', [[Harvard University Press]], 1997, p. 208.[[Peter Schaefer (author)|Peter Schäfer]]</ref> The ancient Jewish philosopher [[Philo of Alexandria]] describes an attack on Jews in Alexandria in 38 CE in which thousands of Jews died.<ref name="Barclay">{{cite book |last=Barclay |first=John M. G. |date=1999 |title=Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora: From Alexander to Trajan (323 BCE–117 CE) |publisher=[[University of California]] |pages=78–79}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Philo of Alexandria |author-link=Philo of Alexandria |url=http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/yonge/book36.html |title=Flaccus |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070804174650/http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/yonge/book36.html |archive-date=4 August 2007}}</ref> The violence in Alexandria may have been caused by the Jews being portrayed as [[misanthropy|misanthropes]].<ref name="vanderhorst">{{cite book |last=Van Der Horst |first=Pieter Willem |date=2003 |title=Philo's Flaccus: The First Pogrom |series=Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |author-link=Pieter Willem van der Horst}}</ref> Tcherikover argues that the reason for hatred of Jews in the Hellenistic period was their separateness in the Greek cities, the ''[[polis|poleis]]''.<ref name="tcherikover">{{cite book |last=Tcherikover |first=Victor |title=Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews |location=New York |publisher=Atheneum |date=1975}}</ref>{{pn|date=January 2025}} Bohak has argued, however, that early animosity against the Jews cannot be regarded as being anti-Judaic or antisemitic unless it arose from attitudes that were held against the Jews alone, and that many Greeks showed animosity toward any group they regarded as barbarians.<ref name="Bohak">{{cite book |last=Bohak |first=Gideon |chapter=The Ibis and the Jewish Question: Ancient 'Antisemitism' in Historical Context |editor1-first=Menachem |editor1-last=Mor |editor2-first=Jack |editor2-last=Pastor |editor3-first=Aharon |editor3-last=Oppenheimer |editor4-first=Daniel R. |editor4-last=Schwartz |title=Jews and Gentiles in the Holy Land in the Days of the Second Temple, the Mishna and the Talmud |publisher=Yad Ben-Zvi Press |date=2003 |pages=27–43 |isbn=9652172057}}</ref>

Statements exhibiting prejudice against Jews and their religion can be found in the works of many [[pagan]] [[ancient Greece|Greek]] and [[ancient Rome|Roman]] writers.<ref>{{cite journal |jstor=3265911 |last=Daniels |first=J. L. |title=Anti-Semitism in the Hellenistic-Roman Period |journal=[[Journal of Biblical Literature]] |volume=98 |issue=1 |year=1979 |pages=45–65 |doi=10.2307/3265911}}</ref> Edward Flannery writes that it was the Jews' refusal to accept Greek religious and social standards that marked them out. Hecataetus of Abdera, a Greek historian of the early third century BCE, wrote that Moses "in remembrance of the exile of his people, instituted for them a misanthropic and inhospitable way of life." Manetho wrote that the Jews were expelled Egyptian [[Leprosy|lepers]] who had been taught by [[Moses]] "not to adore the gods."{{sfnp|Flannery|1985|pp=11–12}} Edward Flannery describes antisemitism in ancient times as essentially "cultural, taking the shape of a national xenophobia played out in political settings."{{sfnp|Flannery|1985|pp=24–26}}

There are examples of [[Hellenistic]] rulers desecrating the [[Temple in Jerusalem|Temple]] and banning Jewish religious practices, such as [[circumcision]], Shabbat observance, the study of Jewish religious books, etc. Examples may also be found in anti-Jewish riots in Alexandria in the 3rd century BCE.

The Jewish diaspora on the [[Nile River|Nile]] island [[Elephantine]], which was founded by mercenaries, experienced the destruction of its temple in 410 BCE.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Colpe |first=Carsten |title=Anti-Semitism |encyclopedia=Brill's New Pauly Online |editor1-first=Hubert |editor1-last=Cancik |editor2-first=Helmuth |editor2-last=Schneider |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |date=2008}}</ref>

[[History of the Jews in the Roman Empire|Relationships between the Jewish people and the occupying Roman Empire]] were at times antagonistic and resulted in [[Jewish-Roman wars|several rebellions]]. According to [[Suetonius]], the emperor [[Tiberius]] expelled from Rome Jews who had gone to live there. The 18th-century English historian [[Edward Gibbon]] identified a more tolerant period in Roman–Jewish relations beginning in about 160 CE.{{cn|date=February 2025}} However, when Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire, the state's attitude towards the Jews [[History of antisemitism#Late Roman Empire|gradually worsened]].{{cn|date=January 2025}}

[[James Carroll (novelist)|James Carroll]] asserted: "Jews accounted for 10% of the total population of the Roman Empire. By that ratio, if other factors such as [[pogrom]]s and [[forced conversion|conversion]]s had not intervened, there would be 200 million Jews in the world today, instead of something like 13 million."<ref>{{cite book |last=Carroll |first=James |title=[[Constantine's Sword]] |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]] |date=2001 |isbn=0-395-77927-8 |page=26}}</ref>