Pope Benedict Exonerates Jews For Jesus' Death In New Book

[L. Coyote]

Source: huffingtonpost.com - NICOLE WINFIELD 03/ 2/11 08:42 AM

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI has made a sweeping exoneration of the Jewish people for the death of Jesus Christ in a new book, tackling one of the most controversial issues in Christianity.

In "Jesus of Nazareth" excerpts released Wednesday, Benedict uses a biblical and theological analysis to explain why it is not true that the Jewish people as a whole were responsible for Jesus' death.

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Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/02/pope-jews-jesus-death_n_830140.html

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Breaking News .... :rofl: where have these people been for the last 2,000 years :rofl:

[Ian David]

1. But he blames the gays, right? n/t

[NV Whino]

2. Oh well, that's okay then

:rofl:

Oy vey.

[Bragi]

3. This is gracious

It is gracious to forgive a people for not committing a murder of an important figure whose historical existence is unproven.

It is indeed even more generous when this forgiveness comes from the head of the organization that lead the persecution of said people for hundreds of years on the grounds they were indeed responsible for the death of the important figure whose historical existence is, alas, unproven.

This certainly clears up the whole matter so we can all look forward.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

10. You mean, like, this?

http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/

You're going to an imaginary hell for that, buster.

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

[madmax]

4. This is why I hate organized religion

On a side note: Tax every single one of them and any and all assets they own except the actual building they use for worship.

Tax THEM!! Or throw them to the lions. I don't care. :mad:

[still_one]

5. That is mighty Christian of him. It wasn't that long ago that they said Galileo was right after all

I guess the wheels of progress turn slowly

Funny, I thought Vatican II already did that?

[no_hypocrisy]

6. "Jewish people as a whole"??????

He's STILL blaming Jews for the death of one of its rabbis.

[WatsonT]

8. One thing about this I never got

Jesus was the savior in large part because he died and was resurrected. Without that the entire religion would be very different and would likely just be a subset of judiasm.

So dying was integral to the entire thing and was apparently planned out long in advance.

Why then blame the people who killed Jesus? If the dude had just lived to a ripe old age and died in his sleep, no christianity.

Seems a major contradiction.

[L. Coyote]

11. The resurection myth is an assumption in the Pope's forgiveness

If the story is in fact true in the sense the dude was on the cross, well he did not die and escaped a death sentence by appearing dead, thanks to the drugs (tetradoxin) in that sponge of bitter vile given him on the cross by the leading physician and friend, Joseph of Armethia. So, nothing to forgive!!

The whole culture hero thing begins because he WAS NOT killed! He was walking around, dodging Romans, a few days later.

[Bragi]

12. He stayed a Rabbi for some 325 years, THEN became a god

We need to get this stuff straight.

This possibly never-extant figure wasn't declared a god until more than 300 years had passed after his (alleged) death.

So before that, if he actually existed, he was still a Rabbi.

At least according to his (alleged) brother James, who was the (alleged) real first pope, and who allegedly) took pride in being head of a Jewish sect.

I know, it gets complicated.

[Iggo]

15. You're right.

And Judas should be a goddam saint.

[trotsky]

17. It's religion.

It's not supposed to make sense. In fact, the less sense it makes, the more true it must be. See Divine Mystery®.

[charlie]

26. Definitely different

If Jews voted Barabbas off the island, Christians would've been left with the sorry spectacle of a suicidal messiah with no one to kill him. He'd have to punch a centurion to get the job done.

Then stigmata would mean the miraculous appearance of broken teeth, and the pious would be yammering about being "washed in the pulp of the Lamb."

[WatsonT]

7. Just in the nick of time too

can you imagine what would have happened if Christians got the notion that the Jews were to blame for their saviors death?

I'm not saying there would have been numerous pogroms, oppressive laws, and outright genocide attempts, nothing that extreme. But things likely would have been tense between the two for some time.

[Goblinmonger]

18. No, those were atheists that did those things.

Didn't you get the memo?

And for those that are ridiculously dense :sarcasm:

[WatsonT]

22. Wait, are you saying Atheists

were actually responsible for all the horrors of the dark ages? Because I'm pretty sure most were christian.



;-)

[madmax]

9. Why does it always have to be about blame.

Didn't JC preach love and forgiveness?

Everything I need to know about Jesus I learned from 'Jesus Christ Superstar'. :)

'What's the buzz, tell me what's happen, what's the buzz...'

[Bragi]

13. Catholicism is founded on blame and guilt

Take away the blame and guilt, and all that's left is, ahh, Buddhism or something.

[skepticscott]

16. Well, you'd still have

those really nice funeral lunches...

[El Supremo]

14. And in another book he says that...

use of condoms is still an offense punishable by stoning.

Who care what this pervert defender says?

[dimbear]

19. It's a question with a historical context. Many religions were

struggling to obtain control of the Empire. In the early first century, Judaism was definitely a player. There are estimates that the Empire's population may have been 20% Jewish at that time. In other words, a formidable opponent for the weak and tiny competitor, Christianity. Just as you don't expect small players like RC Cola to come out singing the praises of Coca Cola, tiny Christianity took major shots at Judaism. The Gospel of Matthew, for instance, lays it all out very plainly.

Nowadays, with most of the competition completely extinct and Judaism reduced to a remnant, there's no problem being kind. The history of those extinctions, BTW, are fascinating yet little studied. Vide "pagan holocaust" and the destruction of Mithraism.

[laconicsax]

20. I don't think you're using "context" appropriately for R/T...

Context is supposed to only prove the Bible as a perfect document full of hidden wisdom, especially when the text is about gang-rape, slavery, and genocide.

[dimbear]

23. The OT was added in to give patina. And oomph.

A book which can be used to prove anything at all whatever is useful in its place, which is promotion. (You have to take a realistic attitude if you want to write a religion that sells.)

The Pope is saying that since Judaism is no threat now, why not forgive?

Admittedly, the multi-utility of the Bible has some things in common with the universal solvent, namely, it is hard to contain. :)

And as I have pointed out occasionally, the OT (which contains the more egregious crimes) was just lying around and tacked on for show. The Christians took their inspiration from the prophets and the intertestamental writings which are now not much known.........but very worth study. The Christians only cared about the prophets to the extent that they supposedly foreshadowed JC, and they weren't above tinkering with the OT verses a little to soup them up.

I wonder how many Christians, by show of hands, recognize that the OT wasn't made canon until long after JC had gone to His reward. Why, my Christian friends, does your church accept as sacred the decision made by another religion which had just expelled you all as heretics? Hmmm?

[TZ]

24. "No problem being kind". Are you so sure?

I've been at church services for friends where it was ACTIVELY PREACHED THAT JEWS KILLED JESUS (Seventh Day Adventist) and being Jewish, obviously I didn't take kindly that that...My friend DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE it, thats how routine this crap is.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

21. I'm glad he cleared up that fairy tale. nt

[Petrushka]

25. Oh, great balls o' fire! Why didn't the Pope ask for Fred Phelp's opinion? [**tsk**]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church#Protests_against_Jewish_institutions

[Angry Dragon]

27. He should be on his knees praising them

If the Jewish leaders had not pushed for their Jesus"s death
they never would have had Christianity........