In what many historians now call the first documented act of cultural misappropriation, ancient Rome’s adoption and distortion of Jewish traditions laid the foundation for a 2,000-year legacy of discrimination. As Christianity emerged and evolved from its Jewish roots, it not only co-opted central Jewish beliefs and texts but also turned against the very community it borrowed from. The result: a complex history of theft, erasure, and persecution that still echoes today.
Judaism: The Original Source
Long before Rome entered the religious arena, Judaism had already established itself as a singular, resilient monotheistic faith. With the Torah at its center—a body of law, ethics, and theology believed to be divinely revealed—Judaism shaped the lives, calendars, and worldviews of an entire people for over a thousand years. The Jewish commitment to sacred text, education, and ethical living became the bedrock of Western religious thought.
Yet this deep cultural and spiritual legacy would be exploited in a way no ancient civilization had experienced before.
Rome’s Strategic Appropriation
When Christianity began to take form in the 1st century CE, it did so squarely within the Jewish world. Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew. His followers, initially a Jewish sect, studied Torah, prayed in synagogues, and observed Jewish law. But as tensions with Roman authorities grew—and as the movement sought broader appeal—it began to distinguish itself from its Jewish origin.
By the time Christianity gained favor with Roman emperors, the shift became political as much as spiritual. The Romans saw an opportunity to harness the organizational strength and scriptural depth of Judaism without honoring the Jews themselves. They absorbed the Hebrew Bible (rebranded as the “Old Testament”), rewrote key figures like Moses and Isaiah as precursors to Jesus, and stripped away the Jewish legal and ritual frameworks that had preserved the religion for centuries.
The Roman Empire, under Constantine in the 4th century, declared Christianity its state religion. By then, the appropriation was complete: Jewish scripture had been reinterpreted to serve Christian theology, and Jewish customs were reframed as outdated, burdensome, or even sinful.
From Borrowed Belief to Persecution
The irony is brutal. While Christianity built its theological identity on Jewish scripture and figures, it simultaneously fostered a culture of contempt toward Jews themselves. By the Middle Ages, Christian Europe was riddled with antisemitic myths: Jews were accused of deicide, blood libel, and economic manipulation—slanders that would persist for centuries and erupt violently in pogroms, expulsions, and, ultimately, the Holocaust.
How did a religion built on Jewish texts come to vilify Jews?
“It’s one of the deepest contradictions in religious history,” says Dr. Miriam Cohen, a professor of Jewish history at NYU. “Christianity couldn’t exist without Judaism. But to assert its own authority, especially in a Roman imperial context, it had to delegitimize the Jews. That meant turning them into villains, even as they remained the guardians of the very tradition Christianity claimed.”
Theft by Theology
The theological sleight of hand was stark. Christianity claimed to “fulfill” the promises of the Hebrew Bible but dismissed the Jewish interpretation of those promises. Key concepts like the Messiah, the covenant, and the chosen people were redefined in ways that excluded the Jewish understanding—and often condemned it.
Even the Torah, revered in Jewish life as a living guide and sacred covenant, was recast as a legalistic burden now “surpassed” by grace and faith. This rhetorical shift, begun by early Church fathers and reinforced by imperial Rome, helped cement the idea that Jews were spiritually obsolete.
“They took the book and disowned the people,” says Rabbi Eliezer Abrams of Jerusalem’s Torah Heritage Institute. “It’s like copying someone’s work, building your career on it, and then claiming the original author was a fraud.”
Echoes in the Modern World
This foundational misappropriation laid the groundwork for centuries of cultural and religious marginalization. In modern times, elements of Jewish ritual—like the menorah, the Passover story, or the concept of tzedakah (charity)—are often referenced or adapted by non-Jews, sometimes without any recognition of their origins.
Christian holidays like Easter and Pentecost trace directly back to Jewish observances of Passover and Shavuot, yet few acknowledge the deep Hebrew framework beneath them. Even Jesus’ teachings—often praised for their moral clarity—are deeply rooted in Jewish law and prophetic tradition, yet they are regularly presented as innovations rather than continuations.
In academic, religious, and even pop culture contexts, the Jewish roots of core Christian beliefs are often minimized or ignored entirely.
Resisting Erasure
Today, many Jewish scholars and community leaders are working to reclaim the narrative. Jewish studies programs, interfaith dialogues, and digital campaigns aim to restore historical accuracy and demand acknowledgment of Judaism’s foundational role in shaping Western religion.
But the challenge is steep. The long shadow of cultural erasure is hard to dispel.
“Reclaiming credit isn’t just about pride—it’s about survival,” says Dr. Talia Weiss, a cultural historian at Hebrew University. “If you don’t name the source, you allow others to distort it, erase it, or weaponize it. That’s exactly what happened to the Jews. And it started with Rome and the early Church.”
Why It Still Matters
Understanding this history isn’t about dwelling on grievance. It’s about recognizing patterns that continue to shape power, identity, and cultural memory. When the dominant culture takes from a minority without acknowledgment—and then turns that minority into a scapegoat—it’s not just theft. It’s erasure.
And Judaism was arguably the first victim on a global scale.
In a world more attuned to the harms of cultural appropriation—whether in music, fashion, or spirituality—the theft of Jewish culture by Rome and Christianity stands as a warning. The roots of bigotry often begin with the theft of meaning.
Judaism remains a living, dynamic faith. Its texts are studied daily by millions. Its traditions continue to shape the moral language of justice, compassion, and community. And yet, its foundational role in Western religious history is often ignored or misrepresented.
The world owes Judaism more than footnotes and token respect. It owes an honest reckoning with the past.
Because at the heart of this history is a painful truth: the very culture that gave birth to monotheism, the Torah, and prophetic ethics was not only appropriated—it was betrayed.
