Passion Misplay: Yes, Jews probably really did kill Jesus.

You probably won't find many Jews conceding the point that, biblically speaking, Jewish leaders were complicit in the death of Jesus. In fact, given the history of this topic—with the Christ-killer charge having helped provide the justification and fuel for European anti-Semitism—it's no surprise that it is nearly impossible to have a constructive interfaith conversation about the Crucifixion.

This is already evident in the reaction to Mel Gibson's new movie, The Passion. Not due out until next year, it's so far stirred up much emotion but disappointingly little productive discussion. One example: Abraham Foxman, the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, criticized the film because it "unambiguously portrays Jewish authorities and the Jewish mob as the ones responsible for the decision to crucify Jesus."

The problem with the tone of his statement is that, as best we can tell, Jews did kill Jesus. Or, more precisely, according to the four Gospels of the New Testament, Jews prodded the Romans into doing it. Mr. Foxman might as well have said that The Passion "unambiguously portrays Jewish authorities and the Jewish mob just like the Bible does."

In the interest of disrupting the already-off-on-the-wrong-foot public discussion of Gibson's movie—and with curiosity about whether I can alienate both my Christian and Jewish relatives in one article—I propose the following:

1) Jews should admit that some of their forefathers probably helped get Jesus killed. The four Gospels say Jewish priests demanded Jesus' crucifixion. For me, the most interesting account is the Gospel of Mark. Scholars now believe that the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and possibly John, were based in part on Mark or on the same source that Mark used. Mark's Gospel is thought to have been written before the others, circa A.D. 70,* and, perhaps because it was written within a generation after Jesus' death, is widely considered freer of ahistorical embellishments. Yet Mark clearly says:

But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barab'bas instead.

And Pilate again said to them, "Then what shall I do with the man whom you call the King of the Jews?"

And Pilate said to them, "Why, what evil has he done?" But they shouted all the more, "Crucify him." Chapter 15: 11-15

To say that films should not be made depicting an important Jewish role in the death of Jesus is to say that films should not be made based on the Bible. The idea that influential Jews wanted Jesus killed is not a distortion of Christianity; it is, for better or worse, an accurate depiction of the New Testament.

What's more, one of the only non-biblical discussions of Jesus' life, from the Jewish historian Josephus, also indicates that at least some important Jewish authorities wanted Jesus convicted. In Jewish Antiquities, he writes that Pilate condemned Jesus "upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing amongst us."

2) There is a strong possibility that the Bible itself, in effect, distorted the history of the "Jewish" role. In other words, the argument from Mel Gibson and his defenders that his movie can't possibly be insensitive because it is based on the Bible ignores the probability that the New Testament itself may have offered inaccurate history.

This is, of course, a sensitive topic, too. For those who believe the Bible was not only inspired, but also fact-checked by God, the document is simply true. The debates of Bible scholars are just noise to them.

But the evidence is compelling that the New Testament either gave "the Jews" a bum rap or, at minimum, was written in a way that left it highly susceptible to misuse. If, as most scholars believe, Mark is the source for Matthew and Luke, the authors of those later Gospels sure seemed to add a lot of new, incriminating detail mysteriously missing from Mark, fueling the notion of Jews as Christ-killers.

Matthew adds the chilling line from the Jewish mob, "His blood be on us and on our children!" But perhaps the most distressing addition to the Mark account is found in John. It is the single word "the." John shifts from talking about specific Jewish leaders and individual people to using the broad term: "the Jews." He uses this formulation repeatedly and devastatingly. Did he mean to implicate the race of Jews?

Some scholars argue that he was merely using a shorthand for a specific group of priests and didn't intend to implicate Jews as a group. Not likely, argues the late Rev. Raymond Brown, a respected right-of-center scholar who has defended the Passion narratives. He writes that John's vituperative anti-Judaism likely flowed not so much from the events of the Crucifixion—i.e., what actually happened to Jesus—but rather from what happened to Jesus' followers in the subsequent decade. The first Christians were persecuted, harassed, and questioned by the synagogue authorities, leading to bitterness on the part of Gospel writers. John really was "anti-Jewish in a qualified sense," Brown writes in An Introduction to the Gospel of John. "Uncomfortable as that may make modern readers because of the horrible history of anti-Jewish persecution in subsequent centuries, it is what John meant."

In arguing that the biblical accounts shouldn't be taken as history, liberal scholar John Dominic Crossan focuses on details found in Luke, Matthew, and John that are not found in the source document, Mark.

Watch what happens to that Markan source as the story progresses through the later Gospels. Matthew 27:15-26 first copies Mark's 'the crowd' but then enlarges it to 'the crowds' and finally to 'all the people.' Luke 23:13-15 changes Mark to 'the chief priests, the leaders, and the people.' Finally, John 18:37-40 speaks simply of 'the Jews.' Recall, of course, that those expansions do not represent independent knowledge but dependent development. 'The crowd,' in other words, grows exponentially before our eyes.

The Jewish leaders of the time may not have had entirely clean hands, but, at least in terms of historical accuracy, neither did the writers of the Gospels.

It's totally understandable that the Gospels' authors might have spun the narrative in certain ways. They were defending themselves against a two-front attack: Jewish authorities on one side and Roman authorities on the other. It would have been impossible for them to conceive of Christianity one day as the official religion of the Roman Empire—let alone imagining that their indictment of a particular group of Jews would be used to justify persecution of Jews as a race. Perhaps the writer of Matthew, were he alive today, would be appalled that his line about blood being "on us and on our children" could lead to anti-Semitism. But it did.

Frankly, Christians who don't understand Jews' sensitivity to the misuse of Passion narratives are being a bit dense. And while I haven't seen Gibson's movie, some of the comments from his supporters have sure smelled rotten. This is not, after all, ancient history. It wasn't until 1965—not 1465!—that the Catholic Church officially got around to declaring that the entire Jewish race shouldn't be held guilty of deicide. Jews can be forgiven if they have trouble keeping down their popcorn while watching Passion plays.

3) Christians who remain bitter about the Jewish role in Jesus' death are being transparently un-Christian. And I don't mean merely in the sense that Jesus taught forgiveness, or that it's not nice to promote genocide, no matter how angry you might be. Rather, my evangelical friends are always reminding me that non-believers (and liberal Protestants) miss the point of Christianity by focusing on only Jesus' moral teachings, as if he were just a really dynamic ethics professor. The point, or at least one of the main points, of the religion is that Jesus died for humanity's sins. The symbol of the religion is the cross, not a Good Samaritan icon, because the Crucifixion and subsequent resurrection were what proved his divinity and redeemed humankind. Most Christians believe that many of Christianity's blessings flow from the fact that he was crucified.

I recognize that just because the story had a theological happy ending doesn't mean that the Crucifixion was anything other than horrific. (Jews probably should not go around saying, "Yeah we killed Jesus—and you're welcome.") And there is an enormous amount of debate within Christianity about the meaning of Jesus' death—many modern scholars disagree with the emphasis on the Passion and Resurrection. For a lot of Christians, the answer to the question "Who killed Jesus?" is "God did"—or "we all did," the abundance of sinful human behavior having made his sacrifice necessary.

The complexity of that debate notwithstanding, it is clear that the Crucifixion and Resurrection are central to the faith. While the Crucifixion in itself wasn't a good thing, it was, according to much Christian doctrine, an entirely necessary and pre-ordained thing. Without it, Christianity as we know it wouldn't exist.

So, really the answer to the question "Who killed Jesus?" should be: Who cares? Theologically, the answer is irrelevant, which means Christians can stop blaming Jews and Jews can stop being defensive. And people of both faiths can get back to disagreeing about more important things like whether you get more presents at Hanukkah or Christmas.

Psalms 22 gives a vivide depiction of His Crucifixion many years before He came. He came to die. That was His mission. No death means no remission of sins (the sheeding of His Blood) and no Resurrection. No Resurrection means no Salvation. No Salvation means no hope.

Who killed Him? Well, He is not dead. He sits at the right hand of the Father. And thank God that He did die, and rise again.

The significant issue has always revolved around the question of the power and authority of the Sanhedrin. Unfortunately, very few source documents remain from that time period touching on this topic. The power of the Sanhedrin in convicting Jesus as described in the New Testament is at odds with later descriptions of the workings of the Sanhedrin as given in the Mishnah and the Talmud, and thus is one of the big points that has never been settled.

I will simply say that given the timing of the writing of Luke, many people would have still been alive who had witnessed the events. Think of it in these terms: If he wrote it today, it would be like writing about something that happened in the 1970's. He was writing to Theophilus, likely his benefactor. It would seem to make sense that he would be very careful to get his facts straight given the many living persons who could (and would have been happy) to refute him.

I should also admit here that I am sorely lacking in my familiarity with the Mishnah and the Talmud. However, your post has spurred my curiosity to look into the issue you mentioned.

Psalms 22 gives a vivide depiction of His Crucifixion many years before He came. He came to die.

In Mark 15:34, Jesus cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?". Of course, that is the first line of Psalm 22. He was quoting scripture right to the end.

The truth shall set us "FREE" as it is WRITTEN. I am getting really tire of some who think that Christians have no standing, when it is the "FREE" nations that follow Christ that have been blessed.

Now this nation was founded upon the WORD and there is none like it in history and since I am thankful for those blessings I have no problem in standing up for the reason that this nation has been blessed and been a blessing to the rest of the unbelievers.

We are told what the battle is and what is necessary to "FIGHT" the firey darts of the devil.

In Mark 15:34, Jesus cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?". Of course, that is the first line of Psalm 22.

Yep. Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? Even on the Cross He quoted the Scriptures.

As Matthew 5:18 states, "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

Let's not leave out what is Written in Hebrews 2:14

Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same: that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

I basically agree: the attack on the Gibson's film and the Gospels is an example of anti-Christian sentiment.

The likelihood of rampaging crowds running from the cineplex to torch the nearest synagogue after seeing Gibson's film is close to zero. Given that fact, the amount of attention the ADL and its allies have devoted to this issue tells us a lot more about what they dislike (traditional Christianity) than anything else.

I'm distressed with all the Mel-bashing that's going on. For instance, on one of the entertainment Yahoo lists I'm on, a Russell Crowe interview was posted, where Russell was laughing at Mel's idea and wondering what Mel was smoking. That's demeaning, for one entertainer to belittle the dream project of another.

You missed the point.

You said,"These Christians need to get over it and accept the fact that it was a necessary event of ANCIENT history that is the basis of the Christian faith. But I'm sure they won't, as those types of Christians are more consumed with hatred than the love that Jesus himself preached".

Which people are those?

The point I'd make is they were ALL Jews: Jesus, the disciples, the Sanhedrin, the crowds chanting for Barbaras, the crowds who followed Jesus. The preponderence of Gentiles in the Christian church didn't get started until long after the ministries of Paul kicked it off. So, it's like saying the Americans killed Kennedy. Well, yeah, Oswald was an American, but so was Kennedy. Also, Jesus's life as a man was a verification of all of Jewish prophecy. Again, JEWISH prophecy. You can't take the Jew out of Jesus. Jesus still rules as a Jew. And most of the early Christian church itself was Jewish. The Romans saw the early church as just another Jewish sect.

The whole theme of trashing Christians, mocking, like we are told would be has spilled over in to the political, like giving sodomy a civil right and removing of "Ten Commandments" and the Pledge.

The U.S. Senate has now joined in and some refuse to allow Christians to become sitting judges.

Ignorance is bliss for those who are, but when it is because of the foundation that this nation was framed becomes the target then we as "Christians" can no longer sit and stay silent.

It is time to send a message and the best way to do that is to start voting out those who are anti-Christian.

Well said.

so the pope is jewish?

No, the Pope is not Jewish.

But I don't understand your question. Why do you ask?

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