Sorry, America, You’re Wrong, the Jews Did Not Kill Jesus

[ismnotwasm]

I thought this was an interesting read, as this lie has been used for anti-semitism for, well millennia

A poll released last week by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reports that twenty-six percent of the American public continues to believe that “Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus.” Although the number has dropped from 31% in 2011, the ADL described it as “surprisingly large.”

For all of the surprise over the results of the poll, there’s no real mystery about the origins of this idea. The claim that Jews were responsible for Jesus’s death is in the New Testament.

In all four of the canonical gospels a (presumably) Jewish crowd calls for the death of Jesus, and Jewish authorities spearhead efforts to arrest and convict him. The Gospels of Matthew and John, in particular, emphasize the role that “the people” and “the Jews” played in orchestrating Jesus’s death. In Matthew, the Roman governor, Pilate, asks the people whom they want to see released: Jesus or a common criminal. When they call for the criminal, Pilate washes his hands of responsibility for the death of Jesus in a basin of water. The crowd responds in unison, “His blood be on our hands and on the hands of our children” (Matthew 25:27).

This is pretty damning stuff, but when it comes to anti-Jewish sentiment in the Gospels, it gets even worse. In John, “the Jews” are repeatedly identified as the opponents of Jesus. Not some group of Jews, not some fringe group, but “the Jews.” In John 8:44, Jesus even accuses “the Jews” of being “from [their] father the Devil.” In religious terms, there’s no worse form of slander.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/05/sorry-america-you-re-wrong-the-jews-did-not-kill-jesus.html

[Behind the Aegis]

1. Of course, I find a certain irony in the entire thing.

First, Jesus was a Jew, so there's that. Second, were Jesus not put to death, wouldn't that interfere with the entire creation of the Christian religion?

When I was in 5th grade, I had a classmate who threatened to blow my face off with a shotgun because I was a "Christ killer." I had no idea what that even met and it had to be explained to me by my parents. Of course, the year before I wasn't allowed to attend the class Christmas party (I sat in the hallway) because it might hurt my feelings to be at an event celebrating the birth of someone we were responsible for killing. The "official" version given to my parent's is that they (the school) didn't want me to feel ostracized because I wasn't Christian.

It is alarming, IMO, that 26% of the American public still harbor such stupidity. Then again, some of the other shit they believe about Jews is just as bad. See: http://www.democraticunderground.com/101677595

[Mosby]

2. I was a little older when it happened to me.

7th or 8th grade I think a group of kids followed me into the bathroom at school and asked me why I killed Jesus. I had no idea what they were talking about, like you I was unfamiliar with Christian doctrine. I recall that I was able to talk my way out of the situation and later on became friends with one of the kids.

Me and my 2 sisters were about half of the entire Jewish student body at my k-8 public school, we always participated in X-mas stuff, I was on the x-mas choir a couple years and enjoyed it.

[libodem]

4. That is just awful

I hate that that happened to you. I was kind of an atheist at a young age and I was pretty quiet about it to Christian friends. Not the same, for sure.

[ismnotwasm]

5. I'm not Jewish, but it's one of those things you hear all the time

It's in America's sub-conscience as it were, it's in literature, you see it on TV, or you used to.

I wasn't raised religious, so I was kind of a blank slate, and some things are so clearly not true, yet caused and continue to cause so much harm, like this lie.

(My husband has Jewish roots he's never been able to fully find, German Jews, that immigrated to Russia, then to the US. His father fought in WW2 with a German accent. I blame the history of antisemitism and diasporas for his lack of knowledge of his ancestry. I know he wonders, and I know it hurts him)

[Behind the Aegis]

7. So you know, there are some really detailed Jewish geneology sites.

They have gone to great lengths to restore Jewish lineage back to Europe. Some sites even have pretty good translations. If your husband's ancestors are from Russia, they may not really be. We were always told ours were from Russia, turns out they were from Belarus, so when we had been searching Russian sites, we couldn't find anything. A real problem, though, are the name changes many of us underwent when we entered the country. My great-grandparents arrived from Belarus in 1916 (I think), but their Belarusian name was altered, so we had to check several different spellings. The two other places to check are Latvia and Lithuania, those places seemed to have the largest concentrations of Jews. Those three countries are the best place to start.

[ismnotwasm]

9. I think I will

He's genuinely curious, I've looked as far as I can, even browsing old ships manifests, part of the problem is his grandmother married twice, and part of his family completely denied his heritage. He just has bits and pieces.

See me, I'm easy, half Swedish the rest Norwegian and Irish. Some great Aunt did a genealogy a long ways back. I don't even think about it

But my husband, he really wants to know, to find connections. Its important to him, so thank you

[libodem]

3. wow

Sorry about that abusive kid, that was a horrible verbal assault, to face as a little child.

Kids can be so mean, but the parents had to have warpped his little mind. So sad and wrong.

[ismnotwasm]

6. That's horrible

No child-- (or adult) should have to go through that.


I've found many Christians don't understand Christian history.

[Behind the Aegis]

8. What was so strange was I didn't really didn't understand.

Of course, after it happened and my mother raised a new level of Hell, my dad told us about his experiences as a "Christ killer" growing up in the 50's and 60's in the Northeast. I was almost 20 before I was ever called a "kike", but my dad and his sister got it routinely growing up, even from teachers!

(I really hate typing on my laptop! :grr

[ismnotwasm]

10. How an a child understand something like that?

Stephan King, who often surprises me with his insights, in the book "It" (yes the one about the scary clown) has a minor character (the wife of his major "Jewish" character) flashback on the anti-semitism she experienced as a teenaged girl,( in the '50's) dipping into how it affected her reactions in life, and how she felt about herself, with maintaining self-esteem still occasionally an effort.

Although it's a small scene, and one completely overshadowed by subsequent events in the book, it's very poignant, and one I think of more often than some of the scary stuff.

King is a trip when he tosses stuff like that in his books. I think that's why so many of them are a bit overlong

And Oi. You should see the kind of lovely typos I get with my iPad.

[Old Union Guy]

11. It's not "America" that's wrong. It's in the New Testament. n/t