THE ORIGINS OF THE RITUAL MURDER ACCUSATION AND BLOOD LIBEL

Author(s): Albert Ehrman

Source: Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought , SPRING 1976, Vol. 15, No. 4
(SPRING 1976), pp. 83-90
Published by: Rabbinical Council of America (RCA)

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23258406

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and
extend access to Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought

This content downloaded from

77.13.55.109 on Fri, 30 Jun 2023 14:33:57 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Albert Ehrman

This essay, adapted from the author s doctoral dis

sertation, examines the historic roots of the blood
libel accusations which have plagued Jews for cen
turies. Dr. Ehrman's book, the Se fer Nitzachon: A
Thirteenth Century Defense of Judaism is scheduled
for publication by E. J. Brill.

THE ORIGINS OF THE RITUAL MURDER

ACCUSATION AND BLOOD LIBEL

The tirst time that we learn of the accusation of Ritual Mur

der being levelled against Jews is in the remarkable episode
recorded in Flavius Josephus' Against Apion. According to Jose
phus (c. 38-100 C.E.), Apion, the Alexandrian anti-Semite, had
charged that the Jews annually kidnap a Greek, fatten him up
Eor a year, and then convey him to a forest where they offer his
body as a sacrifice, eat his internal organs, and while immolating
the Greek, would swear an oath of eternal hatred towards all
Greeks.1 Similar in import is the following statement of a cer
tain Democritus:

bvery seven years the Jews catch a stranger, whom they offer
sacrifice, killing him by tearing his flesh into shreds.2

Nothing further is known of this Democritus. It is quite possible

:hat he was inspired by Apion. Apart from these two writers,
there is no other instance of this charge being levelled against
the Jews by any other Greek or Roman pagan author. With the
Christians, however, the case is quite different. Christians were
mercilessly hounded with this accusation. The Church Father,
rertullian (c. 160-220), bitterly lamented:

We are said to be the most criminal of men, on the score of our sacra
mental baby-killing, and the baby-eating that goes with it . . . Oh! the
glory of that magistrate who had brought to light some Christian who
had eaten up to date a hundred babies!3

83

This content downloaded from

77.13.55.109 on Fri, 30 Jun 2023 14:33:57 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITION: A Journal of Orthodox Thought

Atter Christianity became the official religion of the Roman

Empire (395 C.E.) the accusation of Ritual Murder, levelled
against either Jews or Christians, seemed to pass into oblivion.
But only twenty years later (415 C.E.), the fifth century Church
historian, Socrates, relates that once during the Festival of Pur
im, a group or Jews at Inmestar, Syria, took a Christian child,
bound him to a cross, and hung him up. They mocked and de
rided him for some time; but after a while they lost control of
themselves, and so ill-treated the child that he died.4 "It is al
most universally agreed," observes Professor Cecil Roth, "that
this episode, if founded in fact, was merely an outrage committed
by some drunken ruffians on the occasion of Purim. However,
it is the earliest antecedent for the medieval Ritual Murder ac
cusation on record, other than the grisly, but entirely academic,
allegations made by Apion and Democritus."5 In Professor
Roth's view, then, this episode at Inmestar was the original pro
totype of the medieval Ritual Murder accusation. Suooort for
this theory is to be found in the eleventh century Byzantine legis
lation which included in the oath of abjuration of any Jewish
convert to Christianity a ban on those Jews who celebrate the
Festival of Mordecai, and those who nail Haman to a piece of
wood, join it to a sign of the cross, and burn them together
while hurling curses and anathemas against the Christians.®
Froíessor Salo Wittmayer Baron, despite his own weighty ob
jections to Professor Roth's theory,7 concedes that some such
'fantastic rumors," upon reaching Western Europe, may have
idded credibility to the belief that the Jews crucified living chil
dren during the four-week interval between Purim and Passover;
ind that, ultimately, they also consumed their victims' blood.8
rhese "fantastic rumors" were, however, soon to bear bitter
fruit. In 1144, in Norwich, England, the Jews of that city were
accused of having killed the innocent Christian child, William,
for ritualistic purposes. According to Thomas of Monmouth
(c. 1173), a monk at the Norwich Benedictine monastery, the
iewish convert, Theobald, then a monk at Cambridge, had in
formed him that:

84

This content downloaded from

77.13.55.109 on Fri, 30 Jun 2023 14:33:57 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
The Origins of the Ritual Murder Accusation and Blood Libel

In the ancient writings of his fathers it was written that the Jews, with
out the shedding of human blood, could neither obtain their freedom,
nor could they ever return to their fatherland. Hence it was laid down
by them in ancient times that every year they must sacrifice a Christian
in some part of the world to the Most High God in scorn and contempt
of Christ, that so they might avenge their sufferings on Him; inasmuch
as it was because of Christ's death that they had been shut out from
their own country, and were in exile as slaves in a foreign land.
wherefore the chief men and Rabbis of the Jews who dwell in Spam
assemble together at Narbonne, where the Royal seed [resides], and
where they are held in the highest estimation, and they cast lots for
all the countries which the Jews inhabit."

The particular country in turn designated by lot the locality

where the child was to be crucified. In 1144, the Narbonne
Council had designated Norwich as the place, and William as
the object of that sacrifice.
Atter the incident at Norwich, similar episodes occurred at
Gloucester (1168), at Bury St. Edmonds (1181), at Bristol
(1183), and at Winchester (1192). Fortunately, in none of
these English accusations were there any Jewish victims. Catas
trophic, however, were the results of the first Ritual Murder ac
:usation in France, in May, 1171. There, the small Jewish com
munity of Blois, numbering some 40 souls, was condemned
to death by burning on the charge of Ritual Murder. In this
first French Ritual Murder accusation, 32 martyrs, including
17 women, suffered death after refusing the alternative of con
version to Christianity. This event made a profound impression
upon Western buropean Jewry. Rabbenu Tam (1100-1171),
Rashi's grandson, immediately proclaimed the 20th of Sivan
as a permanent fast day for English, French, and German
lewries.

LI

in none of these accusations, however, was there, as yet, any

charge that the Jews required or drank Christian blood. This last
component of the Ritual Murder accusation, i.e., the Blood
Libel, crystallized in the thirteenth century from two diverse
¡ources.

85

This content downloaded from

77.13.55.109 on Fri, 30 Jun 2023 14:33:57 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITION: A Journal of Orthodox Thought

Some time between 1238-1244, Cardinal Odo of Chateau

roux, at that time Chancellor of the University of Paris, in a
debate with Rabbi Yehiel of Paris, charged that:

You (Jews) eat the blood of the uncircumcised (Gentiles). For thus
did Balaam prophesy: And drinks the blood of the slain (Numbers
¿3:24).1,1

There is nothing in pre-thirteenth century Christian literature

alluding to any Jewish desire to consume Christian blood. Odo,
however, may have been influenced by the pagan historian, Dio
Cassius (c. 155-235). In his Roman History, Dio reports that
under the reign of the Roman Emperor Trajan (98-117), the
jews or Gyrene, t-gypt, ana Cyprus revolted and put some
500,000 Greeks and Romans to death. According to Dio, the
Jews would eat the flesh of their victims and then annoint them
selves with their blood.11 Whether this incident actually occurred,
or is merely a figment of Dio's imagination, does not concern
us here. What does concern us is the possibility that Odo may
have come across a garbled version of Dio's account to the effect
that the Jews drank their enemies' blood.

A totally different motivation, however, was suggested in 1258

?y Thomas de Cantimpré in his popular Bonum universale de
Apibus. According to Thomas, from the time that the Jews
shouted: "His (Jesus') blood be on us and on our children"
(Matthew 27:25), Jewish men have been afflicted with a secret
malady often appearing as a sort of male menstruation!12 The
Jews, however, mistakenly believed that relief from this secret
ailment could only be obtained through Christian blood (solo
sanguine Christiano). Therefore, they instituted the custom of
annually shedding Christian blood in every province in order
that they might recover from their malady.13
That the Ritual Murder accusation and Blood Libel took root
in the Christian psyche during the twelfth and thirteenth cen
turies is eloquently attested to by the anonymous Jewish author
of the thirteenth century anti-Christian polemical work, the Sefer
Nitzahon Yashan NoshanXi (The Old Book of Confutation). He
asserts:

86

This content downloaded from

77.13.55.109 on Fri, 30 Jun 2023 14:33:57 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
The Origins of the Ritual Murder Accusation and Blood Libel

The Christians reproach us and say that we murder their children and
drink their blood. Answer them: No nation has been as strictly ad
monished against committing murder as we have. And this applies
equally to the murder of non-Jews . . . "You shall not murder" (Exo
dus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17)15 means you may not murder any
one — this includes the non-Jew as well. Why is this so? Because "God
made man in his own image" (Genesis 9:6). And it is also written:
"Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed"
(ibid.). This applies to everyone.16

rurthermore:

We are also more scrupulous than any other nation in regard to blood.
For even with meat that has been ritually slaughtered and is fit for
consumption, we, nonetheless, salt it and are very careful to remove
all the blood. But you libel17 us in order to shed our blood as David
prophesied in Psalm 44. For he foresaw that in the future you would
blaspheme us in order to shed our blood, and that you would kill us
for the sake of our religion. Therefore, did he pray for us: "Thou art
my King, O God; Command the salvation of Jacob" (Psalm 44:5).18

In December of 1235, five children of a miller residing in the

vicinity of the city of Fulda, Germany, were murdered, in conse
quence of which, 34 Jews and Jewesses were slaughtered by the
Crusaders. The Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II (1194
1250), thereupon organized a Royal Commission to investigate
the causes of this catastrophic event. He invited distinguished
Christian churchmen and informed Jewish converts from all
parts of Europe, who, in answer to the question whether Jews
required Christian blood (Judei Christianum sanguinem in
Parasceve necessarium haberent), replied:
Neither the Old nor the New Testament states that the Jews lust for
numan blood: on the contrary, it is expressly stated in the Bible, in
;he laws of Moses, and in the Jewish ordinances designated in Hebrew
ss the "Talmud," that they should not defile themselves with blood,
rhose to whom even the tasting of animal blood is prohibited surely
:an not thirst for that of human beings, (1) because of the horror
sf the thing; (2) because it is forbidden by nature; (3) because of
:he human tie that also binds the Jews to Christians; and (4) because
:hey would not wilfully imperil their lives and property.19

Ihe fcmperor thereupon issued an Imperial Edict absolving the

87

This content downloaded from

77.13.55.109 on Fri, 30 Jun 2023 14:33:57 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITION: A Journal of Orthodox Thought

Jews of Germany of any suspicion of Ritual Murder. But as

Professor Baron notes: "The accusation has persisted through
the ages despite sharp denials by popes and monarchs, courts
of justice and royal commissions, even the sworn testimonies of
converted Jews. Born from the ancient conception of Jews as the
odium generis humant, magnified beyond recognition in the cru
cible of the harsh age of Crusades, it found ready acceptance in
a populace which expected from the persecuted Jews some such
reaction to its own undying hatred."20
We see, then, that the accusation of Ritual Murder originated
in the pagan Hellenistic-Roman world, and that the early Chris
tians were its principal victims. When Europe itself became
Christian, the accusation of Ritual Murder was transferred to
the Jews — reaching full literary expression, as well as claiming
its first victims, in the twelfth century. In the thirteenth century,
Odo of Chateauroux and Thomas de Cantimpré were the first
Christian writers to give literary expression to belief in the Blood
Libel. The acceptance by Christian Europe of both the Ritual
Murder accusation and the Blood Libel was due, in large meas
ure, to the activities of two Jewish apostates, Theobald of Cam
bridge and Nicholas Donin.

Postscript

"1 ne case which destroyed any lingering vestige of credibility

n the Ritual Murder accusation in the eyes of Christian Europe
was, of course, the famous Mendel Beilis trial of 1913 in Tsarist
Russia which provoked universal condemnation.21 And as a
consequence of the ecumenical spirit generated by Vatican Coun
cil II (1962-1965), Archbishop Alessandro Gottardi of Trent,
Italy, on October 28, 1965, with the full approval of Pope Paul
VI, stripped the supposed child martyr, Simon of Trent — the
most famous case of alleged Jewish Ritual Murder in Italy —
of his status as a "martyr," and forbade any further veneration
of his relics or saying of Masses in his name. The Church further
concluded that the Ritual Murder trial of the Jews of Trent in
1475 had been a "judicial assassination."22 Most recently, how
îver, as a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Ritual Murder

88

This content downloaded from

77.13.55.109 on Fri, 30 Jun 2023 14:33:57 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
The Origins of the Ritual Murder Accusation and Blood Libel

accusation and Blood Libel, having died in Christian Europe,

have been revived in the Arab world, though apparently with
no success.23

NOTES

1. Josephus, Against Apion, tr. by H. St. J. Thackeray, (London and

York, 1926), pp. 329-333, section 2:89-102.
2. Quoted by H. L. Strack in "Blood Accusation," The Jewish Encyclo
Vol. Ill, (New York and London, 1902), p. 260.
3. Tertullian, Apology, tr. by T. R. Glover, (London and New York, 1
pp. 11, 37. For further examples of Graeco-Roman accusations of Chri
Ritual Murder, see W. Schultze, "Der Vorwurf des Ritualmordes gegen
Christen im Altertum und in der Neuzeit," Zeitschrift für Kirchengesch
Vol. 65, (1953-1954), pp. 304-305.
4. C. Roth, "The Feast of Purim and the Origins of the Blood Accusa
Speculum, Vol. 8, (1933), p. 522.
5. Ibid.

6. J. Starr, The Jews in the Byzantine Empire, (Athens, 1939), p. 174.

7. S. W. Baron, A Social and Religious History of the Jews, 2nd ed., Vol. IV,
(Philadelphia, 1957), p. 308, n. 61.
8. Baron, op. cit., Vol. XI, (New York, London, and Philadelphia, 1967), p.
150.

9. Thomas of Monmouth, The Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich,

in J. R. Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World, (New York, 1965), p. 125.
10. Excerpted by 7.. Kahn from Joseph ben Nathan's Sefer Yosef ha-Mekanne,
in Birchat Avraham (Berliner Festschrift), ed. by A. Freimann and M. Hilde
sheimer, (Berlin, 1903), Hebrew Section, p. 85; and in J. Rosenthal's edition of
Joseph's Sefer Yosef ha-Mekanne, (Jerusalem, 1970), pp. 53-54, section 36. The
Blood Libel was not discussed at the famous debate at Paris between Rabbi
Yehiel and Nicholas Donin (1240). The exchange between Cardinal Odo and
Rabbi Yehiel probably took place at an informal meeting between sessions, or
at another debate. See Rosenthal's observations, op. cit., p. 53, n. 4; and in his
review of H. Merhavyah's Ha-Talrnud bi-Re'i ha-Natzrut, Kiryat-Sefer, Vol. 47,
(1971), p. 30.
11. Dio Cassius, Dio's Roman History, tr. by E. Cary, Vol. VIII, (London and
New York, 1925), pp. 421-422.
12. Baron, op. cit., Vol. XI, p. 153.
13. Thomas de Cantimpré, Bonum universale de Apibus, in Strack, op. cit.,
p. 261. Cf. also Strack's translation in his The Jew and Human Sacrifice, tr. by
H. Blanchamp, (New York, 1909?), p. 175. Strack believes that the source of
Thomas' "information" was none other than the notorious apostate Nicholas
Donin! It is known that Thomas and Nicholas were personally acquainted. See
Strack, "Blood Accusation," p. 261.

89

This content downloaded from

77.13.55.109 on Fri, 30 Jun 2023 14:33:57 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITION: A Journal of Orthodox Thought

14. Sefer Nitzahon Yashan Noshan, in J. C. Wagenseil, Tela ignea Satanae,

(Altdorf, 1681), pp. 1-260. Hereafter referred to as the Sefer Nitzahon.
15. This is the correct translation of the Sixth Commandment — ‫חצרת אל‬.
See The Torah: The Five Books of Moses, 2nd ed., (Philadelphia, 1967); and
The New English Bible, (Oxford and Cambridge, 1970), ad loc. The Jewish
Bible (the Tanach) nowhere prohibits justifiable killing, only premeditated
murder.

16. Sefer Nitzahon, pp. 257-258.

17. The author uses the term ‫ םירבד תובילע‬to refer to the Blood Libel.
This is the first occurrence of the use of the word ‫ הליל׳ע‬to describe the
Blood Libel in the history of Hebrew Literature. Henceforth, the accusation
came to be known as the ‫םךץך ת^יי^ע‬. The original meaning of ‫םירבד תובילע‬
is "baseless charges." See Deuteronomy 22:14, 17; and F. Brown, S. R. Driver,
and C. A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, (Ox
ford, 1966 reprint), p. 760, s.v. ‫י!לע‬5‫ה‬.
18. Sefer Nitzahon, pp. 258-259.
19. Frederick II, Golden Bull of July, 1236, in Strack, "Blood Accusation,"
p. 261. Cf. also Strack's translation in The Jeiv and Human Sacrifice, p. 241.
20. Baron, op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 139.
21. The most recent study of the Beilis trial is M. Samuel's Blood Accusation,
(New York, 1966).
22. R. C. Doty, "Vatican Absolves Jews of Trent in 1475 'Ritual Murder' of
Boy," The New York Times, November I, 1965, p. I.
23. M. Perlmann, " 'Talmudic Human Sacrifices': Egypt 1890," in Studies in
Jewish Bibliography, History, and Literature in Honor of I. Edward Kiev, ed. by
C. Berlin, (New York, 1971), pp. 375-379; and "Zionism is Blamed for All Ills,"
Near East Report, Vol. 18, No. 6, February 6, 1974, p. 59.

90

This content downloaded from

77.13.55.109 on Fri, 30 Jun 2023 14:33:57 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms