Jewish deicide
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Jewish deicide is the notion that the Jews as a people are collectively responsible for the killing of Jesus, even through the successive generations following his death.[1][2] A Biblical justification for the charge of Jewish deicide is derived from Matthew 27:24–25.
The notion arose in
In the catechism that was produced by the Council of Trent in the mid-16th century, the Catholic Church taught the belief that the collectivity of sinful humanity was responsible for the death of Jesus, not only the Jews.[5] If one were to claim that only the Jews were responsible for Jesus' death, the logical corollary to this would be that Jesus' redemptive suffering, death and resurrection was for the sins of Jews alone and not all of humanity, as is taught by the Church. In the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), the Catholic Church under Pope Paul VI issued the declaration Nostra aetate that repudiated the idea of a collective, multigenerational Jewish guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus. It declared that the accusation could not be made "against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today".[1]
Most other churches do not have any binding position on the matter, but some
Sources
Matthew 27:24–25
A justification for the charge of Jewish deicide has been sought in Matthew 27:24–25:
So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood; see to it yourselves." And all the people answered, "His blood be on us and on our children!"[9]
The verse which reads: "And all the people answered, 'His blood be on us and on our children!'" is also referred to as the blood curse. In an essay regarding antisemitism, biblical scholar Amy-Jill Levine argues that this passage has caused more suffering throughout Jewish history than any other passage in the New Testament.[10]
John 5:16–18
Many also point to the Gospel of John as evidence of Christian charges of deicide. As Samuel Sandmel writes, "John is widely regarded as either the most anti-Semitic or at least the most overtly anti-Semitic of the gospels."[11] Support for this claim comes in several places throughout John, such as in John 5:16–18:
So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews began to persecute him. In his defense Jesus said to them, "My father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working." For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.[12]
Some scholars describe this passage as irrefutably referencing and implicating the Jews in deicide, although many, such as scholar Robert Kysar, also argue that part of the severity of this charge comes more from those who read and understand the text than the text itself. John uses the term Ἰουδαῖοι, Ioudaioi, meaning "the Jews" or "the Judeans", as the subject of these sentences. However, the notion that the Jew is meant to represent all Jews is often disputed, with many English translations rendering the phrase more specifically as "Jewish leaders".[13] While the New Testament is often more subtle or leveled in accusations of deicide, many scholars hold that these works cannot be held in isolation, and must be considered in the context of their interpretation by later Christian communities.[14]
Historicity of Matthew 27:24–25
According to the gospel accounts, Jewish authorities in
It has also been suggested that the Gospel accounts may have downplayed the role of the Romans in Jesus' death during a time when Christianity was struggling to gain acceptance among the then pagan or polytheist Roman world.
In his 2011 book, Pope Benedict XVI, besides repudiating placing blame on the Jewish people, interprets the passage found in the Gospel of Matthew which has the "crowd" (this being the translation of the specific original Greek word used in the text) saying "Let his blood be upon us and upon our children" as not referring to the whole Jewish people, but only to the group of supporters of the rebel Barabbas present at the trial. The other group identified by the pope as standing behind Jesus' trial is the "Temple aristocracy", another clearly defined category.[21][22]
Historicity of Barabbas
Some biblical scholars, including Benjamin Urrutia and Hyam Maccoby, go a step further by not only doubting the historicity of the blood curse statement in Matthew but also the existence of Barabbas.[23] This theory is based on the fact that Barabbas's full name was given in early writings as Jesus Barabbas,[24] meaning literally Jesus, son of the father. The theory is that this name originally referred to Jesus himself, and that when the crowd asked Pilate to release "Jesus, son of the father" they were referring to Jesus himself, as suggested also by Peter Cresswell.[25][26] The theory suggests that further details around Barabbas are historical fiction based on a misunderstanding. The theory is disputed by other scholars.[27]
Paul's First Letter to the Thessalonians
The First Epistle to the Thessalonians also contains accusations of Jewish deicide:
For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus which are in Judea; for you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all men.[28]
According to Jeremy Cohen:
Even before the Gospels appeared, the apostle Paul (or, more probably, one of his disciples) portrayed the Jews as Christ's killers ... But though the New Testament clearly looks to the Jews as responsible for the death of Jesus, Paul and the evangelists did not yet condemn all Jews, by the very fact of their Jewishness, as murderers of the son of God and his messiah. That condemnation, however, was soon to come.[29]
2nd century
The identification of the death of Jesus as the killing of God is first stated in "God is murdered"[30] as early as AD 167, in a tract bearing the title Peri Pascha that may have been designed to bolster a minor Christian sect's presence in Sardis, where Jews had a thriving community with excellent relations with Greeks, and which is attributed to a Quartodeciman, Melito of Sardis,[31] a statement is made that appears to have transformed the charge that Jews had killed their own Messiah into the charge that the Jews had killed God himself.
He who hung the earth in place is hanged; he who fixed the heavens has been fixed; he who fastened the universe has been fastened to a tree; the Sovereign has been insulted; the God has been murdered; the King of Israel has been put to death by an Israelite right hand. (lines 95–96)
If so, the author would be the first writer in the Lukan-Pauline tradition to raise unambiguously the accusation of deicide against Jews.[32][33] This text blames the Jews for allowing King Herod and Caiaphas to execute Jesus, despite their calling as God's people (i.e., both were Jewish). It says "you did not know, O Israel, that this one was the firstborn of God". The author does not attribute particular blame to Pontius Pilate, but only mentions that Pilate washed his hands of guilt.[34]
4th century
Recent discussions
The accuracy of the
Talmud and Maimonides: Jewish execution plausible
Some scholars hold that the synoptic account is compatible with traditions in the
The writings of
Liturgy
Eastern Christianity
The
Western Christianity
A liturgy with a similar pattern but with no specific mention of the Jews is found in the Improperia of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. A collect for the Jews is also said, traditionally calling for the conversion of the "faithless" and "blind" Jews, although this wording was removed after the Vatican II council.[52] It had sometimes been thought, perhaps incorrectly, that "faithless" (in Latin, perfidis) meant "perfidious", i.e. treacherous.
In the
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Brigham Young, an early LDS prophet, taught the belief that the Jewish people were in a middle-tier of cursed lineages, below Lamanites (Native Americans) but above Cain's descendants (Black people), because they had crucified Jesus and the gathering in Jerusalem would be part of their penance for it.[62]: 205–206 As part of the curse, they would not receive the gospel and if anyone converted to the church it would be proof that they were not actually Jewish.[57]: 144 As more Jews began to assimilate into Northern America and Western Europe, church leaders began to soften their stance, saying instead that the Lord was gradually withdrawing the curse and the Jews were beginning to believe in Christ, but that it would not fully happen until Jesus returned.[57]: 145–146 The Holocaust and the threats of Nazism were seen as fulfillment of prophecy that the Jews would be punished.[57]: 148 [63] Likewise, the establishment of Israel and the influx of Jewish people were seen as fulfillment of prophecy that the Jewish people would be gathered and the curse lifted.[57]: 148
In 1978, the
Some Latter-Day Saints may argue against the idea that their scriptures promote Jewish deicide, citing the Second Article of Faith as evidence against the idea of all Jews being punished for Jesus' crucifixion. The Second Article of Faith (contained in The Pearl of Great Price) states that "We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression".[65]
Repudiation
In the aftermath of World War II and The Holocaust, Jules Isaac, a French-Jewish historian and a Holocaust survivor, played a seminal role in documenting the antisemitic traditions which existed in the Catholic Church's thinking, instruction and liturgy. The move to draw up a formal document of repudiation gained momentum after Isaac obtained a private audience with Pope John XXIII in 1960.[66] In the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), the Catholic Church under Pope Paul VI issued the declaration Nostra aetate ("In Our Time"), which among other things repudiated belief in the collective Jewish guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus.[1] Nostra aetate stated that, even though some Jewish authorities and those who followed them called for Jesus' death, the blame for what happened cannot be laid at the door of all Jews living at that time, nor can the Jews in our time be held guilty. It made no explicit mention of Matthew 27:24–25, but only of John 19:6.
On November 16, 1998, the Church Council of the
Pope
See also
- Anti-Judaism
- Antisemitic trope
- Antisemitism and the New Testament
- Antisemitism in Christianity
- Bargain of Judas
- Catholic Church and Judaism
- Christianity and Judaism
- Christian–Jewish reconciliation
- Christian Zionism
- Criticism of Christianity
- Criticism of Judaism
- Faithful Word Baptist Church
- Jesus in Christianity
- Jewish views on religious pluralism
- Judaism and Mormonism
- Judaism's view of Jesus
- Life of Jesus
- Moses and Monotheism by Sigmund Freud
- Protestantism and Judaism
- Relations between Eastern Orthodoxy and Judaism
- Religious antisemitism
- Religious perspectives on Jesus
- Romany crucifixion legend
- Stereotypes of Jews
- Supersessionism
- Westboro Baptist Church
References
- ^ a b c d Pier Francesco Fumagalli. "Nostra Aetate: a milestone". Holy See. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-56338-322-9.
- ISBN 978-9-004-10418-1pp.309 ff.
- ISBN 978-1-851-09439-4pp. 168–169
- ^ Norman C. Tobias (2017), Jewish Conscience of the Church: Jules Isaac and the Second Vatican Council, Springer, p.115.
- ^ "Deicide and the Jews".
- ^ a b Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (November 16, 1998). "Guidelines for Lutheran–Jewish Relations".
- ^ a b World Council of Churches (July 1999). "Guidelines for Lutheran–Jewish Relations". In Current Dialogue, Issue 33.
- ^ Matthew 27:24–25
- ISBN 978-0-664-22328-1.
- S2CID 171123190.
- ^ John 5:16–18
- OCLC 62324647.
- JSTOR 605317.
- ISBN 1563383225pp. 105–106
- ^ "20.9.1". Earlyjewishwritings.com. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
- ^ Anchor Bible Dictionary vol. 5. (1992) pp. 399–400. Bantam Doubleday Dell.
- ^ Craig Evans, Matthew (Cambridge University Press, 2012) p. 455.
- ^ Ulrich Luz, Studies in Matthew (William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005) p. 58.
- ^ Graham Stanton, A Gospel for a New People (Westminster John Knox Press, 1993), p. 148.
- ^ a b Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI (2011). Jesus of Nazareth. Retrieved 2011-04-18.
- ^ "Pope Benedict XVI Points Fingers on Who Killed Jesus". 2011. Archived from the original on 2012-03-07. Retrieved 2011-04-18.
- ^ Urrutia, Benjamin. "Pilgrimage", The Peaceable Table (October 2008)[page needed][ISBN missing]
- ISBN 978-0521011068.
- ^ Peter Cresswell, Jesus The Terrorist, 2009
- ^ Peter Cresswell, The Invention of Jesus: How the Church Rewrote the New Testament, 2013
- ^ Purcell, J. Q. (1 June 1985). "Case of the Duplicate Pseudo-Barabbas, Cont". Letter to the Editor. The New York Times. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
- ^ 1 Thessalonians 2:14–15
- ^ Jeremy Cohen, Christ Killers: The Jews and the Passion from the Bible to the Big Screen, Oxford University Press 2007. p. 55.
- ^ Stephen G. Wilson Anti-Judaism in Early Christianity: Volume 2: Separation and Polemic 0889205523 2006 "could all have been developed without reference to the Marcionites, but in the context in which Melito worked it seems ... and the assertion that 'God is murdered' (line 715) fully justify Hall's succinct summary: 'Melito does attribute to Christ all...'"
- The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 91, No. 4 (October 1998), pp. 351–372.
- ^ Abel Mordechai Bibliowicz, Jews and Gentiles in the Early Jesus Movement: An Unintended Journey, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013 pp. 180–182.
- ^ Christine Shepardson, Anti-Judaism and Christian Orthodoxy: Ephrem's Hymns in Fourth-century Syria, CUA Press 2008 p. 27.
- Kerux: The Journal of Northwest Theological Seminary
- ISBN 978-0-8147-3056-0.
- ^ Fred Gladstone Bratton, [The Crime of Christendom: The Theological Sources of Christian Anti-Semitism], Beacon Press, 1969 p. 85.
- ISBN 978-1-136-30448-4.
- ^ Malcolm Vivian Hay, Thy brother's blood: the roots of Christian anti-Semitism, Hart Pub. Co., 1975 p. 30.
- ISBN 978-0-8091-4324-5.
- ^ Wolfram Drews, The unknown neighbour: the Jew in the thought of Isidore of Seville, Brill, 2006 p. 187.
- ^ Charleton Lewis and Charles Short, Latin Dictionary
- ^ Sermons of Peter Chrysologus, vol. 6, p. 116, "Sermo CLXXII"
- ISBN 978-3-16-149069-9.
- Sassanid Empire, which hosted major academies of the Jewish diaspora, viewed Christianity inimicably. The different political situation in the latter allowed for freer dissent
- ISBN 978-0-19-534361-8.
- ISBN 978-0-7914-2922-8.
- ISBN 978-0-8276-1197-9.
- ISBN 978-0-674-25826-6.
One should feel a sense of awe before the sanctity of each and every word of Maimonides. If he wrote it was a rabbinical court, then it was a rabbinical court! A Jewish court ... not an instance of the gentiles.
- ^ Ware, Metropolitan Kallistos and Mother Mary. The Lenten Triodion. St. Tikhon's Seminary Press, 2002, p. 612 (second stichos of Lord, I Have Cried at Vespers on Holy Friday)
- ^ Ware, Metropolitan Kallistos and Mother Mary. The Lenten Triodion. St. Tikhon's Seminary Press, 2002, p. 589 (third stichos of the Beatitudes at Matins on Holy Friday)
- ^ Ware, Metropolitan Kallistos and Mother Mary. The Lenten Triodion. St. Tikhon's Seminary Press, 2002, p. 586 (thirteenth antiphon at Matins on Holy Friday). The phrase "plotted in vain" is drawn from Psalm 2:1.
- ^ The Roman Missal. Revised By Decree of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and Published By Authority of Pope Paul VI: The Sacramentary. Volume One Part 1 (PDF). Washington, D.C.: International Commission on English in the Liturgy. 1998.
- ^ An Anglican Prayer Book (1989). Church of the Province of Southern Africa
- ^ 2 Nephi 10:3
- ^ 2 Nephi 25:9
- ^ 2 Nephi 10:6
- ^ a b c d e f g Green, Arnold H. (1994). "Jews in LDS Thought". BYU Studies Quarterly. 34 (4) (9 ed.).
- ^ 3 Nephi 20:27
- ^ 2 Nephi 10:7
- ^ Section 45:53
- ^ Section 98:17
- JSTOR 23287743.
- ^ Benson, Ezra Taft (December 1976), "A Message to Judah from Joseph", Ensign,
I have visited some of the concentration camps, the mass graves, and the crematoriums where, it is estimated, six million of the sons and daughters of Judah lost their lives, reducing their world population from seventeen to eleven million. I have been impressed to tears as I visited some of these wanderers, those persecuted and driven sons of our Heavenly Father, my brethren of Judah. Yes, the prophecies regarding the dispersion and suffering of Judah have been fulfilled.
- ISBN 0-252-02803-1.
Most Mormons hold both kinds of beliefs simultaneously (hostility and affinity beliefs), because both are part of a generally orthodox Mormon outlook... The index of religious hostility toward Jews combines responses to the two questions about perpetual Jewish punishment for the Crucifixion and the requirement for their conversion as a condition of forgiveness.
- ^ "Articles of Faith 1".
- ISBN 978-0-227-90396-4.
- ^ "Pope Benedict XVI Points Fingers on Who Killed Jesus". March 2, 2011. Archived from the original on 2012-03-07. Retrieved 2012-09-28.
While the charge of collective Jewish guilt has been an important catalyst for antisemitic persecution throughout history, the Catholic Church has consistently repudiated this teaching since the Second Vatican Council.
External links
- Greenblatt, Jonathan, ed. (2020). "Deicide: Jews Killed Jesus – Antisemitism Uncovered: A Guide to Old Myths in a New Era". Adl.org. New York: Anti-Defamation League. Archived from the original on 19 April 2020. Retrieved 1 October 2020.