Did Jews Kill Jesus Christ?

by Lewis. Loflin

Why have Jews been blamed for the death of Jesus? There are several reasons; all having to do with power politics and little to do with facts. Jesus was crucified for sedition, that is rebellion against Rome. Anyone who laid claim to the Jewish throne (there were many) got the same treatment.

Much ignored is the Temple high priest was an appointee of the Romans put there to protect Roman interests. The Sadducees represented the rich and the powerful and were hated by the general population suffering under crushing taxes from both Rome and the Temple. The center of religious life was the synagogue, not the Temple as is still that way today.

The followers of Paul, who converted Jesus to a Gnostic style savior-god, wanted to stay clear of being crucified themselves so they rewrote most of the Gospels and then at Nicaea the church fathers further altered scripture. They blended the Sadducees and Pharisees together: this is a deception because they were enemies.

Nor was Pilate the wimp the gospels make him out to be. He excelled in cruelty and did anything he could to enrage the people he ruled. The real fact is Christianity has nothing new to offer if the true teachings of Jesus are followed. Jesus taught repentance, charity and love, simple enough.

Then who was responsible?

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whomsoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). "God the Father loves us humans so much that He was offering His only Son to be scourged and then to be nailed to a cross. It was His love that prevented our merited extinction. It was His love that brought us unmerited forgiveness and opened the possibility of eternal life for all humans" so says Christianity. God was responsible.

Jesus agreed to do God's plan according to the Gospels, He know knew it was coming, He admits to it in advance. Thus Jesus was responsible too. Did the original Jesus of Matthew, Mark, and Luke really believe He was the Messiah of Judaism (see the figure of Zechariah 9:9 that wasn't supposed to die on a cross and be proceeded by a reborn Elijah (or Elias) of Malachi 4:5 that wasn't supposed to be beheaded like John the Baptist), or the Gnostic Messiah of the world? To quote, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (John 6: 51).

Another note in my reading of the New Testament, it's clear Jesus knew Judas was going to betray Him. He knew it in advance and admitted it openly. There is a good reason for this because Jesus instructed Judas to do it. Jesus headed an anti-Roman movement that by tradition was supposed to defeat the occupiers and restore the nation's freedom. Let's look at the Bible:

Matthew 27:3-5, "Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself." The Jewish Messiah wasn't supposed to die on a cross and in grief Judas committed suicide.

Yet to quote a Christian friend, "Though the messages (Paul versus Jesus) are different, the revelation to Paul is the key to understanding the absence of Christ and actually gives validity to the message of Christ. Without Paul's revelation, Jesus becomes a false prophet..."

The real crime of the Jews is rejecting the Apostle Paul, whose "Christ" was the product of his own revelations and not that of the Old Testament. This is why Paul claimed the Old Testament was voided through himself and His revelation: To quote Romans 16:25, Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began...

Galatians 3:17-20, "And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one..." Paul knew perfectly well the Old Testament says nothing he claims, and if it was true, his new Gospel wasn't true. So what does he do? Claims the Law wasn't given by God to Moses! It's called Gnosticism!

Just as the Law was discredited by Paul, then all of Judaism and the Jews must also be discredited. If the Old Testament is correct as written, then Christianity must be false.

What Does the Bible Say?

The writer of this part is unknown, but their facts are correct. L. Loflin

Was Jesus crucified for breaking the law of the Hebrews, by healing the sick and comforting the poor on the Sabbath. Is this the source of anti-Semitism?

Actually, that's not true at all. It is true that Christians typically make the these claims as reasons why Jesus was crucified, but are not the actual credible claims made `"in scripture."

Assuming that he really was crucified at all, the gospels show that he was crucified (not a Jewish, but a Roman punishment reserved exclusively for those guilty of crimes against the empire), in accordance with Roman (not Jewish) laws, by Romans (not Jews), for breaking a Roman (not Jewish) law forbidding sedition against the Roman Empire.

The actual reason for the execution is clearly stated in John 19:12 as: "every one who makes himself a king sets himself against Caesar."

In other words, sedition. Also in Luke 23:2, "And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a King.";

And Acts 17:7, "Whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus."

According to the original Greek texts, when asked if he really was the king, Jesus' reply to Pilatus was very clearly a yes!

Pontus Pilate even made a sign in three languages [Jn 19:20] and posted it above Jesus' head, so that spectators (assuming there were any) would know the exact reason he was being crucified. It was written in Latin, (the official legal language of Rome); Greek, (the common language spoken by the Roman Army, and also the language of trade throughout the Empire); and in Aramaic, (Jesus' native Hebrew language.)

The sign (according to the Greek text of all gospels) said: "Jesus the Nazarene, king of Ioudaion."

"Nazarene" being a religious sect [Acts 24:5], and "Ioudaion" being the Greek word for the region including both Judea and the Arab lands to the south -which is where the Arabic Herodian family actually comes from. (Contrary to popular belief, the Herodians weren't Jewish, but were Arabic, one of many reasons why the Jews resented them so much.)

Sedition was the sole reason Jesus was crucified by hanging him on a tree [Acts 10:39, 13:29].

As to those other things in the Bible which Christians claim as reasons for the crucifixion, one must remember that the gospels were written during, or soon after the first revolt of Judea, a war in which Jews fought bitterly against the Roman troops, killing many, (which certainly did not endear any Roman toward the Jews.)

For any gospels to be able to survive in the Roman world after this war, they had to be written in a way that would exonerate Rome of all wrongdoing in Jesus' death, placing all blame squarely on the Jews [as it is in John 19:12 and 19:15.] This is the actual Biblical source of anti-Semitism.

Jews Killed Christ? Another View

The gospel accounts vary in the degree to which they blame the Jews, with John being the most virulently anti-Semitic. But they all strive valiantly to blame the Jews instead of the Romans, even though obviously it is the Romans who executed whoever the historical Jesus / Joshua was.

Some New Testament scholars (I am not expert enough to say 'most', but I believe it is most, based upon many hours of discussion with a friend who IS a NT scholar, plus a fair amount of reading of my own) think the following scenario is most probable:

* the Jesus movement was NOT opposed or hostile to Judaism in any way; in fact, it was PART of Judaism (Acts, and some sayings of Jesus, indicate this clearly). Even the Pharisees -- depicted in the NT as being hostile to Jesus -- were certainly not; J's teachings are those of a Pharisee, in fact. At one point, in the imperfectly reedited gospels, Jesus is even saved by the Pharisees.

* the J. movement was expelled from Judaism after the Jewish revolt against Rome, in which it probably took an active part -- 80 - 90 A.D. There is some pretty definite evidence, from Jewish sources, about this event. Thereafter it continues to exist as the 'Ebionite' movement ("Ebionite" = "the poor", probably the original name of the Jesus movement, since Paul calls it that once or twice too). This movement exists til at least the 4th century, probably a good deal longer.

* Christianity stems from Paul's missionary activity, which got him into hot water with the Jesus movement's leaders (mainly James the Just, the brother of Jesus), and led to his arrest (see Acts). His gentile followers composed accounts of Jesus' life based upon Jewish Christian (='Ebionite') sources, but taking great pains to differentiate themselves from Judaism after the Jewish revolt, because the Romans would have taken them for rebels too, since they worshipped a figure executed as a rebel, and since the Jews were rebels generally.

The anti-Semitism in the gospels is part of an attempt to ingratiate the new Christian movement with the Roman authorities, and to rewrite the history of what was originally an anti-Roman movement (Jesus' movement) as one directed towards other-worldly ends alone, with a conservative stance towards political authority. The extensive re-working of the original Jesus traditions that this entailed is what accounts for the fascinating contradictions among the gospel accounts.

Grover Furr, English
Montclair State U.

[Submitted by: GROVER FURR FURR@APOLLO.MONTCLAIR.EDU
Mon, 16 May 1994 08:15:00 EST]

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