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So, I posted an answer for this question, and it was just deleted:

What were Church Father's views on Jews and Judaism?

In response to a question about what the theologians of the Early Church thought about Rabbinical Judaism, I posted an answer explaining the context of the time, the three main branches of the ancient Hebrew religion at that time period (the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the Christians), how the Sadducees died out following the destruction of the Temple, and how the Pharisees came to become modern-day Jews.

I then quoted one of Jesus's speeches from the Bible, where he condemned the Pharisees as the children of Satan.

Given that Jesus was definitely the most important theologian of the early Christian Church (you know, since his teachings formed the basis of it), I was very surprised to see this answer downvoted and then deleted. This seems bizarre to me; Jesus's skill as a theologian is very clearly shown in the Bible, and it was by his instructions that the early Church was even created to begin with, so an answer quoting him should definitely be a valid answer to the question.

Why was my answer deleted? I could sort of see a reason for it if people claimed that it was anti-Semitic (though I tried to avoid that by simply presenting factual information - I'd even posted a link to the Encyclopedia Britannica minutes before my post was deleted to support the "Pharisees became modern Jews" assertion); however, that doesn't seem to be the reason for it, since nobody mentioned that in the answer's comments, and I don't seem to have gotten the -100 Reputation hit that you get from getting a post deleted for being "hateful or abusive".

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It was deleted because you didn't answer the question.

The question asked about the Early Church Fathers' views on Judaism.

You gave us an overview of Jewish sects and a quote from Jesus.

Jesus was not one of the Church Fathers. If you disagree and can present evidence that there is a substantial group of Christians (ideally including academic historical theologians) who do consider Jesus to be one of the Church Fathers, then we'd have to reconsider the meaning of the tag amongst many other things. However if that were the case your answer would still not be undeleted as the question's author explicitly wanted answers from the people after Jesus's time on earth. So even if you can demonstrate that some Christians do define the Church Fathers to include Jesus, all that would happen would be we'd need to edit the question to be more specific.

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  • How could Jesus not be considered one of the Church Fathers? The idea seems ridiculous to me, and its supported by the page you linked to. "The Church Fathers... were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. There is no definitive list." Are you denying that Jesus was an "ancient and influential Christian theologian" whose teachings "established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity"?
    – nick012000
    Oct 25, 2020 at 7:31
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    Ridiculous or not, the meanings of words and phrases are established by the people who use them, and you are the first person I've seen who wants to use the phrase "Church Fathers" to include Jesus. In contrast, Patristics is a well established field with thousands of scholars, and a different field than that of New Testament Studies. However even if you want to go by the definition Wikipedia provides, Jesus would be excluded, as "Christian" means a follower of Christ, which Jesus is not! He is the leader of the church and does not follow himself.
    – curiousdannii Mod
    Oct 25, 2020 at 7:38
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    Just a brief web search under the words 'Church Fathers' quite clearly indicates that the title applies to persons who were influential after the apostles' influence had ended due to decease. There is a very definite distinction between 'Apostle' and 'Church Father'. It can be argued (and the writer to the Hebrews does so) that Christ, himself, is an 'Apostle'. But there is demonstrably no justification for including Jesus, himself, within the term 'Church Father'.
    – Nigel J
    Oct 25, 2020 at 9:24

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