Blood-Stained Hands: The Christian Origins of the anti-Jewish Murder Ritual Myth

Abstract

The anti-Jewish accusation of ritual murder did enjoy great popularity in Middle Age. It did “spontaneously” rise in medieval Europe (around the middle of twelfth century) and did know countless variants. Its definitive version was the killing (preferably by crucifixion) of a Christian child by the Jews in order to include his/her blood to the unleavened bread. However, its remotest origin must be searched in Antiquity. In fact, its infant development can be found in Socrates, the fifth-century ecclesiastical historian (Hist. Eccl., VII, 16), who reports that, in the Syrian district of Inmestar around the year 415, some drunked Jews tied a Christian child to a cross on the Purim feast and flogged him to death. This awful account must be sited into the context of a Theodosian constitution (C.Th., XVI, 8, 18, year 408) that did forbid to offend the Cross during the Jewish feasts.