Which Jews Killed Jesus? AOL News hilited a story about a new book by Pope Benedict XVI ostensibly clarifying the Vatican II teaching that "the Jews" as a group did not kill Jesus. That story elicited a bunch of comments, and I added the 19 below.

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The Jews kept rebelling, which caused Rome a lot of trouble and expense, and dead soldiers. The Gospels are clear that Pontius Pilate LITERALLY washed his hands of the guilt of killing a man in whom he found NO FAULT. He gave in to the mob, a Jewish mob, and consented to execute an innocent man whom the JEWISH religious authorities had arrested, dressed up in fine robes to make it seem he aspired to be King of the Jews, then handed over to the Romans as tho they were good Roman colonials intent on protecting the Empire from that 'dangerous' man, and INSISTED that Rome do their own dirty work and KILL him. Pilate hoped that that would satisfy them, and they wouldn't keep rebelling. It didn't work, because NOTHING satisfies militant Jews, not then, not now. And in 70 A.D., less than 40 years after Pilate gave in to the Sanhedrin and the mob, the Jews were rebelling again. This time the Romans crushed them and deported the bulk of Jews from Palestine (a term we got from Rome) and scattered them across the Empire, creating the Diaspora we know today. So the murder of an innocent man by Romans in hopes of peace with the Jews was to no avail. The Gospels are clear as to the guilt of the Sanhedrin and the mob. Whether that extends to Jews generally -- that is, people who REFUSED to convert to Christianity -- is a serious question. The Pope's Hitler Youth background has made him apologize not for us but for himself. At end, it is for each person to read the Gospels, which are the ONLY source for information about what happened. After all, Benedict XVI wasn't there!
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Pontius Pilate washed his hands of guilt in Jesus's death, but that's not good enuf for the enemies of Rome, even in this, the (much) later Roman Empire that we call "the West". (Look at our Capitol; it is a Roman building.) The U.S. has committed two wars and a long period of murderous sanctions against Iraq between those two wars, for Israel, at Israel's insistence, just as Rome killed Jesus at the Jews' insistence, and we will be condemned for those crimes, just as Rome is condemned for killing Jesus, because we could have said "No" to Israel's demands to destroy Iraq, and Pilate could have said "No" to the Sanhedrin's and mob's demand that he kill Jesus. But we didn't, and he didn't say NO. And the Jews can wash THEIR hands of the death of Jesus and over 1.8 million Iraqis in over 20 years of persecution of Iraq that they demanded, and who wouldn't have been killed WITHOUT their insistence. What a great deal. You get others to do your dirty work, then disclaim all responsibility for 'their' crimes.
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Plainly Judas would have been part of that "plan" -- had there been any such Holy plan. It's all nonsense, and the entire premise that somehow Jesus died for "our" sins, even sins committed thousands of years after Jesus was killed, is madness. That in no way alters the fact that the Jewish religious and civil authorities of the day, the Sanhedrin, and the mob that demanded Rome free Barrabas and kill Jesus, WERE responsible for the death of Jesus. The only issue is whether ALL Jews can be held to be responsible for the death of Jesus, and that was settled in Church doctrine decades ago: no, not ALL Jews bore that guilt. So why is this former Hitler Youth member "clarifying" what was already clear?
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Wikipedia states that Nazareth did indeed exist long before the time of Jesus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazareth#Extrabiblical_references.
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So human sacrifice is an integral part of Christianity, is it? How very interesting.
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Wouldn't that be CREDIT that is to be shared, if your statement of intent is correct?
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Wikipedia says that the writings of Josephus on Jesus may NOT be authentic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_on_Jesus .
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Jesus tried to reform Judaism FAR beyond what the Torah and other Jewish scriptures could possibly permit. What he was actually doing was inventing a new religion, which we call Christianity. The Jews understood that and would not be fooled into accepting a new religion. Jesus understood that if he had told the people he was trying to lead that he was inventing a new religion, he would have faced an uphill fite -- and risked death, because there was no First Amendment freedom of religion in Judea. But he was killed anyway, because the Jewish religious authorities of the time understood that he was creating a new religion, and felt threatened.
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Doing the right thing does not require belief in God. And if God is so wonderful, why do nearly 15 million a year, mostly children, die of starvation in poor countries? I don't accept this God-is-good crap. A good God would not let the horrendous, nitemarish conditions of this planet so much as happen to begin with, much less let them continue without end.
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No, God speaks to no one [not the Pope specially, nor to people generally], because there is no God.
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Cut the Zionist propaganda. Arabs in "Israel" do NOT live well. They are treated as second-class citizens, who are not even allowed to enlist in the military. And they are not "Arabs" only; they are "Palestinians", so share in the hatred, discrimination, and potential deadly attacks that every other Palestinian risks just for the crime of not being Jewish.
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When a person hires a hitman, and the hitman does the actual killing, is the person who hired the hitman innocent? I don't think so.
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Drivel. I have never killed anyone, and nobody died for me. Jesus died almost 2,000 years ago. NOBODY today was around then.
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There is no God, so all of that argumentation is void. But only the OLD Testament says the Jews are God's chosen people, because the OLD Testament is JEWISH, not Christian. The Old Testament and New are completely incompatible, and the Old is ANTI-Christian. It is also FILLED with death, from Cain killing his own brother, to the near-extermination of the Tribe of Benjamin. If that's your idea of moral guidance, then you need to seek out professional help.
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Christianity is NOT rooted in Judaism. The God of the Christians is the God of Love. The God of the Jews is the God of Wrath. If you think they are the same, then you believe that love and wrath are the same, and THAT would be CRAZY.
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There is no Hell. There is no Heaven. You live, and then you die. End of story.
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Ah, anti-Catholic bigotry rears its ugly head. It's wrong to hate Jews and Judaism, but perfectly OK to hate Catholics and the Catholic Church, eh?
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Jesus was born to Jews and raised as a Jew. But Cassius Clay was born into Christianity and raised as a Christian. To say that Jesus was a Jew at his death is akin to saying that Cassius Clay / Muhammad Ali is Christian.
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So God is in control, and God's plan is perfect, eh? So when, each and every year, almost 15 million people, mostly children, die of starvation all around this planet, that is God's will and perfect plan. I don't buy your God, I don't buy the notion that his plan is perfect.
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 4,439 — for Israel.)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 9:45 PM