Should all Christians repent for antiSemitism If so, how

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Should all Christians repent for anti-Semitism?
If so, how?

• Holy Week is historically a time when there is an
  increase of anti-Semitic attacks and hate crimes.
• How can our study of scripture help us to fight
  anti-Semitism?

Hieronymus Bosch. Christ Carrying the Cross.
1490.
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41st Day Scripture Lesson Plans Repudiating
anti-Semitism

• Opening Question Should all Christians repent
  for anti-Semitism? If so, how?
• Prayer Prelude Holocaust Commemoration
• Prayer of John Paul II
• Context Survey of the history of anti-Semitism
• How should righteous gentiles respond? 3 PM appt.
• Possible Christian Courses of Action
• Examples from the three popes
• How Do We Interpret Difficult Texts?
• Refuting Deicide
• Understanding John in context
• Acknowledging the fallibility of Christian
  Disciples
• The Beauty, Challenge, and Hope of Chagalls
  Work
• Homework
• Finish the chapter pp. 222-228 and prepare for a
  quiz on Wednesday.

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Holocaust CommemorationPrayer Prelude

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vwx5ZMcYBHm0
• Never Again!

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Prayer of John Paul II

• In a visit to Jerusalem and the Wailing Wall,
  Pope John Paul II prayed that
• God of our fathers, you chose Abraham and his
  descendants to bring your name to the nations. We
  are deeply saddened by the behavior of those who
  in the course of history have caused these
  children of yours to suffer. And asking your
  forgiveness, we wish to commit ourselves to
  genuine brotherhood with the people of the
  covenant.

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Taking Responsibility for Anti-Semitism
Although there were many courageous and righteous
Christians that opposed Fascism and the
anti-Semitism in the early half of the 20th
Century, Christianity was used to fuel the
anti-Semitism of the Nazis. Moreover,
anti-Semitism spread due to either the active
participation or apathy of Christians.
Unfortunately, this sprung from centuries of
anti-Semitism. Understanding that history is one
place to take responsibility.
"Priest and Rabbi" by David Olere
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Jewish-Christian Timeline
Adapted from http//www.nd.edu/jlawrenc/Projects/
Spring2003/JXtnRlns.ppt
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Early Christian Leadership (Christians were
still the Minority)

• 1. Do you have to be a Jew to be a Christian?
• - Council of Jerusalem
• - Christians begin to seek gentiles as converts
• - conversion of Jews in large numbers only an
  aspiration, not a reality
• Note By the fourth century, the Catholic
  Church had decreed that it was heresy to practice
  the mosaic law.
• 2. Is the Hebrew Bible part of our sacred text?
• - Catholic Old Testament vs. Hebrew Bible
• 3. Is the land of Israel our Holy Land?
• - Crusades
• 4. Should Jews be permitted to live as Jews
  under Christian rule?

Adapted from http//www.nd.edu/jlawrenc/Projects/
Spring2003/JXtnRlns.ppt
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Augustine

• Jews should be allowed to remain in Christian
  realm
• They serve a positive function to Christian life
• guardians of scripture
• constant reminder of Christs death
• examples of those who defy God and are punished
• Results of Augustine
• 1. Jews must be kept alive and around
  Christians
• 2. Jews must live beneath the status of
  Christians

St. Augustine
Adapted from http//www.nd.edu/jlawrenc/Projects/
Spring2003/JXtnRlns.ppt
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Massacre in the Rhineland, 1096 CE

• Represents a new trend in persecutions of the
  Jews
• Massacre of Jews as the Crusaders of Pope Urban
  II march through Europe toward Holy Land
• Local rulers and the Emperor of Rome declared
  that Jews remain unharmed
• Crusaders rationalize that both Islamic infidels
  and Jewish murderers deserve death

"The Last Way" by Chaim Goldleeng
Note lower levels of Christian society proved
uncontrollable and not always representative of
official church doctrine
Adapted from http//www.nd.edu/jlawrenc/Projects/
Spring2003/JXtnRlns.ppt
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St. William of Norwich, 1144

• A Christian boy named William was supposedly
  killed by Jews who were performing a ritual
  sacrifice of a Christian child (murder of Christ
  by Jews)
• Led to charges of ritual murder and conspiracy
• Rumors of conspiracy spread all over Europe

Note Hysteria created by these charges create
atmosphere where something similar to the Final
Solution of Hitler might have been possible in
Middle Ages
Both the Crusader violence and the ritual murder
libels originated in lower levels of Christian
society and persisted despite condemnation by
leading spokesmen for the church.
Blood Libel
- Saperstein
Adapted from http//www.nd.edu/jlawrenc/Projects/
Spring2003/JXtnRlns.ppt
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A Shift In the Treatment of the Jews in Medieval
Christendom

• 1. Fear of Muslim expansion translates to fear of
  Jews
• 2. Franciscans and Dominicans overturn
  Augustines doctrine of toleration and replace it
  with a doctrine of persecution
• 3. Economic shift from trading and providing
  services to providing financial services such as
  banking
• - Christians shift blame to Jews for
  participating in same economic system not yet
  accepted as moral
• 4. Europe needed and used persecution to advance
  from 12th Century to Modern World

Adapted from http//www.nd.edu/jlawrenc/Projects/
Spring2003/JXtnRlns.ppt
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How should Righteous Gentiles respond?
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Possible Christian Courses of Action Mending the
Divide

• Refute the charge of Deicide
• Repudiate anti-Semitism
• Repent/atone in the wake of the Holocaust
• More accurately teach about Jews and Judaism in
  the practice of Christian education
• Affirm that the historical Jesus and the original
  Apostles were Jewish.
• Interpret difficult biblical passages in context.

Adapted from http//www.nd.edu/jlawrenc/Projects/
Spring2003/JXtnRlns.ppt
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Nostra AetateRepudiating Anti-Semitism

• Pope Paul VI in a 1965 declaration called the
  Nostra Aetate says that the Catholic Church is
  spiritually tied to Abrahams stock. The Nostra
  Aetate also tells that God still holds the Jewish
  people close to him because of their ancestral
  Fathers. Paul VI, in addition states that the
  death of Christ cannot and should not be
  attributed to Jews today. The Nostra Aetate
  also condemns all persecutions, feelings of
  anti-Semitism, and hatred of all Jews past and
  present.

Adapted from http//www.nd.edu/jlawrenc/Projects/
Spring2003/JXtnRlns.ppt271,30,Contemporary
Christian Perspectives Concerning Jewish Relations
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The First Modern Pope to Pray in a Synagogue

• John Paul II is greeted by Rabbi Elio Toaff,
  Chief Rabbi of Rome, during the pope's landmark
  visit to the great Synagogue of Rome, where he
  referred to the Jewish people as the "elder
  brothers" of Christians (1986).
• When John Paul II died on April 2, 2005, at the
  age of 84, he made one final gesture to the Jews
  when he mentioned the rabbi of Rome. Toaff and
  John Pauls longtime secretary were the only
  living people mentioned in the will.
• Toaff called the reference a significant and
  profound gesture for Jews and an indication to
  the Catholic world. John Paul, he said, wanted
  to indicate a road aimed at further destroying
  all the obstacles that have divided Jews and
  Christians through the centuries.

Adapted from http//www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/j
source/anti-semitism/johnpaul.html
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Affirm that Jesus Was Jewish

• Pope John Paul II in
• an address to clergy
• and lay people in America
• in 1999 emphasized a
• need for respect of the
• Jewish faith, reminding
• Catholics in America
• that the history of salvation
• makes clear our special relationship with the
  Jewish people. The Pope also stated that Jesus
  belonged to the Jewish people, and his Church was
  founded with Jewish roots.

Adapted from http//www.nd.edu/jlawrenc/Projects/
Spring2003/JXtnRlns.ppt271,30,Contemporary
Christian Perspectives Concerning Jewish Relations
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Elucidating Difficult TextsHow Do We Interpret
Difficult Texts?

• Matthew 27 15-26
• 15 Now on the occasion of the feast the governor
  was accustomed to release to the crowd one
  prisoner whom they wished. 16 And at that time
  they had a notorious prisoner called (Jesus)
  Barabbas. 17 So when they had assembled, Pilate
  said to them, "Which one do you want me to
  release to you, (Jesus) Barabbas, or Jesus
  called Messiah?" 18 For he knew that it was out
  of envy that they had handed him over. 19 While
  he was still seated on the bench, his wife sent
  him a message, "Have nothing to do with that
  righteous man. I suffered much in a dream today
  because of him."
• 20 The chief priests and the elders persuaded the
  crowds to ask for Barabbas but to destroy Jesus.
  21 The governor said to them in reply, "Which of
  the two do you want me to release to you?" They
  answered, "Barabbas!" 22 Pilate said to them,
  "Then what shall I do with Jesus called Messiah?"
  They all said, "Let him be crucified!" 23 But he
  said, "Why? What evil has he done?" They only
  shouted the louder, "Let him be crucified!"
• 24 When Pilate saw that he was not succeeding at
  all, but that a riot was breaking out instead, he
  took water and washed his hands in the sight of
  the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man's
  blood. Look to it yourselves."
• 25 And the whole people said in reply, "His blood
  be upon us and upon our children."
• 26 Then he released Barabbas to them, but after
  he had Jesus scourged, he handed him over to be
  crucified.
• Jesus Barabbas it is possible that the double
  name is the original reading Jesus was a common
  Jewish name. The Aramaic name Barabbas means "son
  of the father" the irony of the choice offered
  between him and Jesus, the true son of the
  Father, would be evident to those addressees of
  Matthew who knew that.
• The controversy between Matthew's church and
  Pharisaic Judaism about which was the true people
  of God is reflected here. As the Second Vatican
  Council has pointed out, guilt for Jesus' death
  is not attributable to all the Jews of his time
  or to any Jews of later times.

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• Who is Matthews audience?
• Does it make a difference?
• Does that refute claims of deicide?

"The White Crucifixion" (1938) Marc Chagall
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Johns Treatment of the Jews
Johns community has become separated from
mainstream Judaism John lays the blame for
Jesus death on the Jews Exodus by Marc
Chagall
- Adapted from Mr. Evans
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Johns Treatment of the Jews
The Martyrdom of St. Stephen by Bernardo Daddi
in 1324.

• His parents said this because they were afraid of
  the Jews for the Jews had already agreed that
  anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah
  would be put out of the synagogue. - John 922
• They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed,
  an hour is coming when those who kill you will
  think that by doing so they are offering worship
  to God. - John 16 2-3

- Adapted from Mr. Evans
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Johns Treatment of the Jews

• So the band of soldiers and the Jewish guards
  seized Jesus, bound him, and brought him to Annas
  first. He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who
  was the high priest that year. It was Caiaphas
  who has counseled the Jews that it was better
  that one man should die rather than the people.
• -John 1812-14

The Taking of the Christ by Caravaggio
- Adapted from Mr. Evans
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Johns Treatment of the Jews

• The Jews answered him, We have a law, and
  according to that law he ought to die, because he
  made himself the Son of
• G-d. When Pilate heard this statement, he
  became even more afraid.
• - John 197-8

- Adapted from Mr. Evans
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Johns Treatment of the Jews

• My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my
  kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants
  would be fighting to keep me from being handed
  over to the Jews. - John 1836
• Pilate tried to release him but the Jews cried
  out, If you release him, you are not a friend of
  Caesar.
• - John 1912

Enough - John XXIII gave the directive to
remove from the centuries-old Good Friday liturgy
its reference to the "perfidious Jews that the
Catholic Church now prays for "the Jewish people,
first to hear the word of God that they may
continue to grow in the love of his name and in
faithfulness to his covenant."
- Adapted from Mr. Evans
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TenebraeThe Shadows of Christian Discipleship
"The Yellow Crucifixion" (1943) Marc Chagall
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Pray for Greater Unity and Understanding During
Holy Week and Passover
"The White Crucifixion" (1938) Marc Chagall