The scourge of anti-Semitism has not departed from the Church. Though recently there have been encouraging signs, many Christians still harbor prejudice against Jews. The synoptic gospels may have helped spawn this prejudice. They may even play a continuing role in perpetuating it.
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Woodcut from 1492. Jews desecrating the host at Sternberg. |
Was Jesus anti-Semitic? Did he actually reject particular aspects of his own Jewishness? Some verses in the gospels do appear anti-Jewish. However, did these anti-Jewish tendencies begin with Jesus and his followers or did they originate elsewhere? A thorough examination of the gospels reveals that not all of the accounts are identical in their presentation of Jesus and his contemporaries. Each of the writers has left his own individual style on his composition. In this study we will carefully consider the differing accounts in hope of determining whether anti-Jewish or anti-Judaistic sentiments belonged to Jesus and his first followers. For the purposes of the study I have ordered the gospels according to their increasing anti-Jewish sentiment.
Lukan Reflections of a Persecuted Church
Conflict between Jesus and his Jewish contemporaries is rare in Luke. Over half of the instances where Luke portrays Jesus dining, it is as a guest in the home of a Pharisee, an unli
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