Why does Emperor Julian praise Yahweh?

[Acolyte Of Pan 666]

In his polemic against xians, Emperor Julian praises Yahweh and the jews. Why would he do this?

“And yet, I call the gods to witness, I am one of those who avoid keeping their festivals with the Jews; but nevertheless I revere always the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; who being themselves Chaldaeans, of a sacred race, skilled in theurgy, had learned the practice of circumcision while they sojourned as strangers with the Egyptians. And they(jews) revered a God who was ever gracious to me and to those who worshipped him as Abraham did, for he is a very great and powerful God, but he has nothing to do with you (xians).“

Brackets are my words for greater clarity.

Julian the Apostate, Against the Gallileans: remains of the 3 books, excerpted from Cyril of Alexandria, Contra Julianum (1923) pp.319-433

Did he actually say this? He does criticise the jewish religion and xianity but ultimately holds respect for Yahweh and the practices of the jews, which is odd as even the OT clearly says Yahweh wants to kill and enslave all Gentiles.

Even if Emperor Julian didn’t have access to other jewish works and deeper jewish teachings (unlikely given his political position and spiritual advancement), he should know how bad judaism is as he did study the bible deeply in his younger years. Him praising judaism and its “god” is very bizzare to me.

 

[卐 Null Sechs 卍]

If he wrote it he could have written it for diplomacy or it's a mistake in translation

 

[Acolyte Of Pan 666]

In his personality page it says he referred to the jewish religion as "atheism" but then why would he revere Yahweh?

 

[SrivatsaKouros]

The name of "Yahweh" was stolen and corrupted from the Ancient Greek Vowels of IAOE, A Most Sacred Name of God Zeus. Here, Imperator Julian means he praises the God Zeus, not really "the god of the jews", and he is correct in saying that this Great God has nothing to do with Jews and their Christian creation.

You have to remember that the Jews deceived many people by taking many Divine symbols and terms out of context and perverting the original meanings. Even the word "Jew" comes from "IU," like in "IU-PATER," or "Jupiter." They tried to steal and hijack many divine things, including the Sacred Name of God, among many other things, and distort and corrupt them for their own perverse goals.


I suggest you read this Spectacular Sermon by our High Priest that will enlighten you more on this topic: https://ancient-forums.com/threads/about-jews-israel-jhvh-judaism.296038/

 

[GoldenxChild1]

Additionally to what SK said, at that time, Christianity was well known to be a radical Jewish sect that was dangerous because of its continuing adoption by the plebians, and eventually, aristocratic families.

In my opinion, Emperor Julian took advantage of the fact that orthodox Jews hated the Christian sect, looking for any advantage to slow the spread of this pseudo-solar religion.

Previously, no one would ever convert to the strange Jewish culture. So, Emperor Julian may have seen much less of a threat from overt Judaism to the Empire.

His mission was Imperial Paganism, while combating his main competitor: Christianity.

 

[Acolyte Of Pan 666]

he is correct in saying that this Great God has nothing to do with Jews and their Christian creation.

Emperor Julian doesn’t really use the word Yahweh in this polemic, so it’s not the name itself I’m talking about.

When I say he reveres Yahweh, I mean the god of the jews and the jewish people themselves, who he also praises in this polemic against the christians. That’s quite clear in the polemic. This is despite his criticism of the bible itself and the jewish god.

He calls the jewish patriarchs masters in theurgy.

When he says “you” he meant xians and xians only, as in the quote I cited and in the polemic, he was praising the jews for some reason and said their patriarchs were from a sacred lineage, the chaldeans (sumerians).

This would make more sense when one has read the whole “Against the Gallileans” work.