Endnote 7 – Responses to Jew-Hatred

On Esau as the father of Edom who is but a prototype of Rome and also identified with Amalek, see Solomon Schechter, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology (New York: Schocken, 1961) pp. 99ff.; also a more detailed comparison is given on p. 108. Montefiore and Loewe, A Rabbinic Anthology (see note 2), give another reason why Esau came to be regarded as the prototype of the wickedness of Rome: Herod was an Idumean, hence Herod-Edom, Esau. An extensive collection of midrashic material connecting Edom to Rome and the church is in Michael Guttman’s Clavis Talmudis, “Maphteach he-Talmud,” vol. 1 (Waitzen 1901), pp. 498–504.