Lucian of Samosata is the name of a second century Syrian rhetorician and satirist who wrote primarily in Greek and who can reasonably be described as the founding father of novelists. Lucian himself authored dozens of different works: many of them dealing with overt political and religious themes from a skeptical angle often poking fun at philosophic schools; such as the Cynics and the Platonists, as well as the practices of different religions and cults.

It is then of little surprise that Lucian mentions jews in passing being born in Syria himself; whether he was actually of Greek or Syrian origin is a matter of some debate, and thus almost certain to have some encounters with jews.

Lucian's comment on the jews is encountered within his famous passage in his 'The Death of Peregrinus' which deals with the growing Christian sect in Palestine. To wit:

'It was now that he came across the priests and scribes of the Christians, in Palestine, and picked up their queer creed. I can tell you, he pretty soon convinced them of his superiority; prophet, elder, ruler of the Synagogue - he was everything at once; expounded their books, commented on them, wrote books himself. They took him for a God, accepted his laws, and declared him their president.' (1)

In the above Lucian is describing Peregrinus' encounter with Christianity, but notice his precise wording. He is satirizing Jesus by suggesting that Peregrinus had become enamoured with Judaism and thus had began expounding on the books of the jews, because he had become convinced of his own superiority and accordingly began to convince the infinitely credulous (jewish) Christians that he knew best how to interpret Judaism to their advantage.

This is interesting as far as it goes, but we should notice that Lucian describes Peregrinus as being convinced that he was 'the ruler of the synagogue' meaning in effect that when Lucian is criticising Christianity: he is also criticising the jews. You see Peregrinus cannot feel himself 'superior' by being a Christian and therefore the ruler of the jews unless by becoming a jew who believes the Messiah has come (i.e. a Christian) he becomes superior to non-jews and non-Christians.

This means that Lucian is effectively describing what we may reasonably term a form of 'Jewish Supremacism'; or if you want to put it more simply the belief that the jews have been specially chosen as the representatives of omnipotent and omnipresent creator of the universe, rather than simply just satirizing Christianity per se.

This is also represented in Lucian's satirical comment that Jesus had chosen himself to be the Messiah as in much the same way the jews have chosen themselves to be superior to their fellow men as well as being 'everything at once' while attempting to convince others of their self-appointed superiority (much as the Christians are explicitly held to do).

Another part of this attack on the jews is contained in Lucian's comment about how Peregrinus 'expounded their books, commented on them, wrote books himself'. In other words Lucian here is commenting that Christian theology derives from the vapid speculations of mentally-ill self-chosen prophets, but also that this was caused because they had derived the practice from the jews as they were also obsessed with these same books and spent all their time doing precisely the same thing (which; as with the Christians in Lucian's view, only the mentally handicapped take seriously). Hence Lucian's comment about the Christians having 'priests and scribes', which are derived from an understanding of Christianity as a jewish sect (as these are functional posts in a synagogue not a Christian Church per se) not as an independent religious grouping as they were to become later.

We can thus see that Lucian's famous comment on Christianity has a delightfully vicious critique of the jews buried within it: accusing them; as was then common practice, of being religious con-artists, obsessed with the letter not the spirit of religious ideas and believing themselves superior to all and sundry (having self-appointed themselves to this advantageous position).

In essence Lucian is calling the jews religious subversives.

References

(1) Luc. De. Mort Pere. 11

Radl, Karl. “Lucian of Samosata on the Jews”. 9/9/2013. <http://semiticcontroversies.blogspot.com/2013/09/lucian-of-samosata-on-jews.html>.