Thursday 22 June 2006

Jews did not kill Jesus says Pope

On 8 March 2011, the article 'Jews did not kill Jesus, says the Pope' was published by the Zambian watchdog web site:

This said:

“In a new book, Pope Benedict personally exonerates Jews of allegations they were responsible for Jesus Christ’s death. Jewish groups applauded the move. The Anti-Defamation League called it 'an important and historic moment' and hoped that it would help complicated theology 'translate down to the pews' to improve grass roots inter-religious dialogue.

The pope makes his complex theological and biblical evaluation in a section of the second volume of his book 'Jesus of Nazareth,' which will be published next week. The Vatican released brief excerpts on Wednesday.

The Roman Catholic Church officially repudiated the idea of collective Jewish guilt for Christ’s death in a major document by the Second Vatican Council in 1965.

It was believed to be the first time a pope had made such a detailed dissection and close comparison of various New Testament accounts of Jesus’s condemnation to death by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. 'Now we must ask: Who exactly were Jesus’ accusers?' the pope asks, adding that the gospel of St John simply says it was 'the Jews'.”
It was the Jews.

John wasn't in much doubt then.

“But John’s use of this expression does not in any way indicate, as the modern reader might suppose, the people of Israel in general, even less is it ‘racist’ in character, he writes.”
Pardon me?
“After all John himself was ethnically a Jew, as were Jesus and all his followers. The entire early Christian community was made up of Jews, he writes.”
So? Good Jews, bad Jews, what else is new?
“Benedict says the reference was to the 'Temple aristocracy,' who wanted Jesus condemned to death because he had declared himself king of the Jews and had violated Jewish religious law. He concludes that the 'real group of accusers' were the Temple authorities and not all Jews of the time.”
Well, yes. The temple aristocrats, who just happened to be Jewish. They were the bad guys. And the Jewish mob that howled for Barrabas' release, they'd be partly responsible in the real world, once supposes.
“Elan Steinberg, vice-president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, welcomed the pope’s words.”
Thought those Holocaust survivors would make an appearance somewhere.

“‘This is a major step forward. This is a personal repudiation of the theological underpinning of centuries of anti-Semitism,' he told Reuters. 'This pope has categorically stated that the canard that Jews were Christ killers is a gross theological lie and this is most welcome in view of the setbacks that we have seen in the past few years.”
I don't see what the problem ever was.

SOME Jews killed Christ. SOME Jews wanted him dead. The religious elite, those who made the decisions, the Jewish Blairs, Browns, Camerons, Archbishop Sentamus and Popes of the time, they'd be the Jews who'd be deserving of condemnation.The non-Jerusalem Jew who, perhaps, wouldn't even have heard of JC, well, he wouldn't be to blame, would he?

Lot of b***ocks over nothing if you ask me.

“The question of Jewish responsibility for Christ’s death has haunted Christian-Jewish relations for nearly 2,000 years. Benedict, elected in 2005, has had his share of problems in Christian-Jewish relations. In 2009, he decided to advance wartime Pope Pius XII on the path toward sainthood by recognizing his 'heroic virtues.' Many Jews accuse Pius, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, of having turned a blind eye to the Holocaust. The Vatican says he worked quietly behind the scenes because speaking out would have led to Nazi reprisals against Catholics and Jews in Europe.

Jews responded angrily last year when the pope said in another book that Pius was 'one of the great righteous men and that he saved more Jews than anyone else.' Jews have asked that the process that could lead to making Pius a saint be frozen until after all the Vatican archives from the period are opened and studied.

Earlier in 2009, many Jews and others were outraged when Benedict lifted the excommunication of traditionalist Bishop Richard, who caused an international uproar by denying the full extent of the Holocaust and claiming that no Jews were killed in gas chambers.”
Looks like Ratzinger's wagging his tail in order to get back in with his critics, doesn't it?

Anyway, back to reality. In The Talmud, (the 'legal, ethical and historical writings of the ancient rabbis... the textbook used in the training of Rabbis') Book 3 of the Zohar says:

"Jesus was buried in that… dirt heap... where they throw the dead bodies of dogs and asses, and where the sons of Esau and of Ismael, uncircumcized and unclean like dead dogs, are buried."
In Shulchan Oruch: Coschen Hamischpat we discover:

“Jesus was lowered into a pit of dung up to his armpits. Then a hard cloth was placed within a soft one, wound round his neck, and the tow ends pulled in opposite directions until he was dead.”
In the Sanhedrin we read:

“Commentators refer to Jeshu-ha-Notzri by mention of the wicked kingdom of Edom, since that was his nation ... he was hanged on a Passover eve... The Talmud Records other sins of Jesus of Nazarene. He and his disciples practiced sorcery and black magic, led Jews astray into idolatry, and were sponsored by foreign, gentile powers for the purpose of subverting Jewish worship.”
In his 1982 book, 'The Friars and the Jews. The Evolution of Medieval Anti-Judaism', Jeremy Cohen says:

“The Jesus of the ‘Talmud’... is mentioned as condemned to wallow eternally in boiling excrement... When forced to admit that one Talmudic passage mentioning the crimes of Jesus and his execution did indeed apply to the Christian Jesus, Yehiel still emphasized that the ‘Talmud’ was not responsible for maintaining this opinion among Jews.”
In his 1994 history, Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years, Israel Shahak tells us this:

“The very name Jesus was for Jews a symbol of all that is abominable, and this popular tradition still exists. The Gospels are equally detested, and they are not allowed to be quoted even in modern Israel schools... For theological reasons, mostly rooted in ignorance, Christianity as a religion is classed by rabbinical teaching as idolatry. All Christian emblems and pictorial representations are regarded as idols.”
The orthodox Rabbi has never never thought much of Jesus, Benedict will know this.

He will also know that the multitudes who were happy to go with the Rabbinical teachings over the centuries, would have despised Jesus every bit as much as their religious leaders. Oh yes, ladies and gents, Benny is getting with the message here. After this supplicant little offering you can be sure our Hebrew chums will lay off him for a while.

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