Pope Exonerates
Jews for Jesus' Death
Nicole Winfield
March 3, 2011, 2:19 am
We have testified repeatedly of our love and respect
for Israel and Jews, and that as a child our father that was the head custodian
for the Larchmont Jewish Temple and that we were for a number of years housed
in a building on their property. We find
the statement above that the Pope, Pope Benedict exonerating the Jews for Jesus
Christ’s death absurd on a number of levels. First it was the Priests and the Sanhedrin composed
of the leaders of the different rabbinical schools and in particular the
Pharisees that sought Christ’s death and pushed it through breaking many laws
of God and even breaking many of their own traditions to do so. So the notion
that the Jews at large were responsible for Christ’s death can not be found in
the Gospels nor in the New Testament. Jesus Christ,
John the Baptist and the Apostles fought and gave their lives in a battle
against what today we would call Talmudic Judaism.
Talmudic Judaism is the doctrines and traditions of
the “great rabbi’s”, “sages” and so called “holy men” that arose during Israel’s
Babylonian captivity through to the time of 70 AD when rabbi Johanan the
betrayer of Jerusalem, the temple, the priesthood, the Sanhedrin, all the other
rabbinical schools including his own, and the whole of biblical Judaism brought
the end and death to them all at once. Achieving
his evil and perverse goal rabbi Johanan then proceeded to rewrite the
doctrines, precepts, and traditions of the Pharisees in the Mishnah and Gemara – which was then further expanded upon in the
Talmud. He then reordered all of Judaism in his own likeness and image by
creating the one and only rabbinical school whereby all rabbis were to be trained
in rabbi Johanan’s own further tainted doctrines and traditions. What remains
of Judaism today resembles in no way what existed prior to 70 AD.
Paul in the New Testament tells us that Christianity
is a branch that has been grafted into the stump or root of Judaism. To condemn Judaism would be to condemn
Christianity as Christians are grafted into the Jews. Paul reveals that in the
end that Jesus Christ shall rescue and save the remnant of Israel, so that any
action by the Pope here are purely political and
meaningless as neither Jesus Christ or
the apostles held any harm against the Jews.
The same can not be said of the rabbinical groups and in particular the
Pharisees and their Talmudic doctrines and Talmudic traditions – Which Christ
and the Apostles utterly condemned.
Pope
Benedict XVI has made a sweeping exoneration of the Jewish people for the death
of Jesus Christ, tackling one of the most controversial issues in Christianity
in a new book.
In Jesus of Nazareth-Part II excerpts released
on Wednesday, Benedict explains biblically and theologically why there is no
basis in Scripture for the argument that the Jewish people as a whole were
responsible for Jesus' death.
Interpretations to the contrary have been
used for centuries to justify the persecution of Jews.
While the Catholic Church has for five
decades taught that Jews weren't collectively responsible, Jewish scholars said
on Wednesday the argument laid out by the German-born pontiff, who has had his
share of mishaps with Jews, was a landmark statement from a pope that would
help fight anti-Semitism today.
"Holocaust survivors know only too
well how the centuries-long charge of 'Christ killer' against the Jews created
a poisonous climate of hate that was the foundation of anti-Semitic persecution
whose ultimate expression was realised in the Holocaust," said Elan Steinberg of the American Gathering of Holocaust
Survivors and their Descendants.
The Pope's book, he said, not only
confirms church teaching refuting the deicide charge "but seals it for a
new generation of Catholics."
The Catholic Church issued its most
authoritative teaching on the issue in its 1965 Second Vatican Council document
Nostra Aetate, which revolutionised the church's
relations with Jews by saying Christ's death could not be attributed to Jews as
a whole at the time or today.
Benedict comes to the same conclusion, but
he explains how with a thorough, Gospel-by-Gospel analysis that leaves little
doubt that he deeply and personally believes it to be the case: That only a few
Temple leaders and a small group of supporters were primarily responsible for
Christ's crucifixion.
The book is the second instalment to
Benedict's 2007 Jesus of Nazareth, his first book as pope, which offered a very
personal meditation on the early years of Christ's life and teachings. This
second book, set to be released March 10, concerns the final part of Christ's
life, his death and resurrection.
In the book, Benedict re-enacts Jesus'
final hours, including his death sentence for blasphemy, then analyses each
Gospel account to explain why Jews as a whole cannot be blamed for it. Rather,
Benedict concludes, it was the "
Benedict said Jesus' death wasn't about
punishment, but rather salvation. Jesus' blood, he said, "does not cry out
for vengeance and punishment, it brings reconciliation. It is not poured out
against anyone, it is poured out for many, for
all."
Benedict, who was forced to join the
Hitler Youth as a child in Nazi Germany, has made improving relations with Jews
a priority of his pontificate. He has visited the Auschwitz Nazi death camp in
But he also has had a few missteps that have drawn the ire of Jewish groups, most notably when in 2009 he lifted the excommunication of a traditionalist Catholic bishop who had denied the extent of the Holocaust by saying no Jews were gassed during World War II.