Two of the fragments that we have of Philip of Side's history mention the jews and it is worth mentioning them for the sake of completeness when dealing with the many different Christian authors who addressed the subject of the jews before the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
To wit Philip of Side narrates thus:
"'For when we came to Jerusalem, the sign, together with our arrival, disturbed everyone. They say, "What is this? Wise men of the Persians are here, and along with them an appearance of a star?" And the foremost of the Jews asked us what was going to happen, and the reason for our coming. And we said: "He whom you call 'Messiah' has been born." And they were confounded, and dared not oppose us. But they, for their part, said to us, "Justice of Heaven! Tell us what you know." And we said to them: "You have the disease of unbelief; and neither without an oath nor with an oath do you believe, but you follow your own ill-advised intentions. For the Christ, the child of the Most High, has been born, putting an end to of your law and synagogues. And it is for this reason that, struck as it were by a most excellent oracle as with a dart, you do not hear with pleasure this name which has come up against you suddenly." And they then, taking counsel together, urged us to accept their gifts, and tell no one such a thing [as the news] from this land [of theirs], lest a revolt rise against us. But we said: "We have brought gifts in his honour, with the view of proclaiming those mighty things which have happened in our country on occasion of his birth-and you bid us take your gifts, and conceal the things which have been made known to us by celestial divinity, and neglect the commandments of our own king? Or do you not know what an experience of the Assyrians you once received?" And they became afraid, and after beseeching us repeatedly, they sent us away."
"When the one who was ruling over Judea sent for us and had some converse with us, and asked us questions, we said to him [things] at which he was thoroughly disturbed. We departed from him, without giving any greater heed to him than to any worthless person.'" (2)
The above; usually called Aphroditianus' Narrative, is obviously an early Church variant of the nativity story to be found in the Gospels. However if we look at it carefully we can see a noteworthy anti-jewish element to this story that is missing from the more accepted narrative whereby the Magi's (Persian Wise Men/Priests) have arrived in Jerusalem having followed a star there to find the saviour of the world, (3) but then the story changes from the better known version.
In this narrative the jews of Jerusalem generally; as opposed to just the Pharisees or Herod's officials, ask what could have drawn the Magi to Jerusalem as it was so unusual as to attract comment and require explanation in the mind's of the jews. This general tumult then causes the" 'foremost of the jews'" (i.e. Pharisees and/or Herod's officials) to ask "'what is going to happen'" (as they clearly take the presence of the Magi as having oracular and/or prophetic value/significance) and to which the Magi proceed to respond that the Messiah that is predicted by Judaism has come (i.e. Jesus).
However; before we move on, we should note that the implication of the wording the Magi use is important in that they say 'he who you call the Messiah has come' meaning that Jesus; in Philip of Side's narrative, is not simply the Messiah of Judaism, but rather that he has come to save the world and that numerous different religions predict his coming. This is obviously quite a revolutionary implication given that the general view of Christians to this day is that Jesus is the Messiah predicted only by Judaism as opposed to the earthly representative of God who is predicted by many religions.
The Magi then proceed to launch into what I can only describe as an anti-jewish diatribe and point out that the advent of the Messiah predicted by Judaism means very simply that the jews will have to close down all their synagogues and end their endless and meaning interpretation and re-interpretation of the Torah as these will have been superseded by Jesus' new writ. The Magi then make it clear; if rather implausibly, that the jews will; writ large, oppose the teachings of Jesus because of this supersession, but further that especial opposition will come from the jewish priests and Herod's officials as Jesus' advent will remove their authority as spokesmen for the heavenly and temporal laws. (4)
Indeed the Magi even go so far as to accuse the Judaism of being like a mental disease, which is the necessary consequence of the Magi's statement about the jews being" 'afflicted with the disease of unbelief'". After this venom has been directed against the jews: they hold an impromptu council about this situation and decide not to tell anyone else about (as well as actively suppress knowledge of the Messiah's advent) because to do so would incite a revolt against both them as a class (i.e. a revolt of their followers given that they no longer have the ability to promote injustice in the name of Yahweh) and against the jews in general (as the Messiah will bring about the end of the jews as the "'Chosen of Yahweh'", which would mean that the jews would have to be held to complete account for their many crimes by both the gentiles and God).
The Magi then proceed; after this impromptu council's decision has been relayed to them, to suggest to the jews that this is their last chance to mend their ways and give up their synagogues and the Torah as if they don't then they shall be conquered, enslaved and used as disposable manual labour like they were once used by the Assyrians.
This causes the jews; never the bravest of peoples, to plead with the Magi to keep the advent of the Messiah to themselves so that the jews could hunt him down and kill him before he had the opportunity to do any serious damage (as implied by the earlier sections of the passage about the jews following their own "'ill-advised intentions'" i.e. murdering the Messiah).
The Magi refuse of course and this predictably leads to much gnashing of teeth and profuse wailing from Yahweh's" 'chosen'". The quoted passage then ends with a summarized visit by the Magi to Herod (presumably following the same course as their meeting with the jews), but ends with Herod being amusingly called a "'worthless individual'" by the Magi.
We can see from this that the nativity story; as told by Philip of Side, is actually quite anti-jewish in character and unlike the narrative that is familiar to us. If we then add to that knowledge the fact that Philip of Side tells us that the jews killed the Gospel writer John and his brother: (5) then it becomes obvious that Christianity as understood by Philip of Side had a very anti-jewish outlook indeed and saw the jews as a kind of 'children of the devil'.
REFERENCES
(1) http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/philip of side fragments.htm(2) Phil. Sid. Fr. 3.2:27(3) As has been pointed out this narrative is closely tied with pagan polytheist oracles, which were believed to have found their fulfillment at the birth of one of Rome's largely forgotten, but most powerful of enemies: Mithradates. See Adrienne Mayor, 2010," 'The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates Rome's Deadliest Enemy'", 1st Edition, Princeton University Press: Princeton, pp. 32-33(4) In the translators note (n. 73) Eastbourne tries to suggest that this opposition is purely centred on those in authority: however to do misreads the intent for the text in suggesting that the officials and priests were representatives of the jewish people and as such represented their will and beliefs as opposed to the Messiah's new revolutionary creed embodied in Christianity.(5) Phil. Sid. Fr. 4.6
