IT'S TIME TO RETIRE THE 'CHRIST-KILLER' CHARGE

Christ-killers!

That charge has been leveled against Jews for two-
thousand years. It has led to horrible, brutal
persecutions, culminating in the Nazi Holocaust and the
death of Six Million Jews.

The Holocaust brought about deep theological soul-
searching within Christianity. It led to a revised view of
the circumstances involving the Trial and Crucifixion of
Jesus, a more appreciative understanding of the Jewish
faith, and a more respectful approach to Jewish-Christian
relations.

Now comes Mel Gibson's highly controversial film, "The
Passion of the Christ," (premiere date: Ash Wednesday, Feb.
25, 2004). According to concerned Jewish and
Christian leaders, the film resurrects the Christ-killer
charge with a passion.

It is time to retire the Christ-killer charge, once and
for all. The Jews did not kill Jesus. The Romans killed
Jesus.

The most obvious evidence is the form of execution -
crucifixion - ordered by Pontius Pilate, the Roman
procurator of Judea. Crucifixion was not a Jewish form of
capital punishment.

The New Testament suggests that Pontius Pilate was
willing to release Jesus, but that the Jews wanted him
dead. It was the other way around. Pilate saw Jesus as a
dangerous messianic revolutionary, who had to be destroyed.

Pilate was a schemer and manipulator. He had full
control over the Jewish High Priest, who held office at
Pontius Pilate's discretion. He, Pilate, had final control
- since he kept the High Priest's officiating robes under
lock and key in the Tower of Antonia. The High Priest
needed these robes to officiate at major holidays, like
Passover. If he did not do Pilate's bidding, the robes
were not released to him, and he was replaced by a more
malleable High Priest (Source: "Man's Religions," by John
B. Ross [p. 574].)

Pilate was not the confused, conflicted, considerate,
stymied person pictured in the New Testament. He was a
harsh, brutal and cruel ruler. There was great unrest at
the time in the Holy Land. People were being oppressed by
Rome and craved liberation from Roman rule. They yearned
for the promised, triumphant Messiah.

The biblical accounts suggest that Jesus was put on
trial by the Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious court, yet the
religious Sanhedrin did not meet and would not have met at
night.

Caiaphas, the Jewish High Priest, however, could and
apparently did meet that night with an advisory body - a
political sanhedrin, which had no legal or religious
status. (Source: "Studies in the History of the
Sanhedrin," by Hugo Mantel, and "Who Crucified Jesus?" by
Solomon Zeitlin.)

What, then, caused the distortion of these details,
leading to such monumental, tragic consequences?

There was good reason for such caution in the telling and
writing of the story. With the death of Jesus, his
followers had to convince Rome that they had no issues with
Rome, and that they did not hold Rome or Pontius Pilate
responsible for Jesus' death. Above all, they had to
convince Rome that their "kingdom" was not of this world.

Even so, the Jesus followers were persecuted for years.
Christians faced horrible deaths by crucifixion or in Roman
arenas where they were fed to the lions for the
entertainment of emperors and the public.

Some years after Jesus, Jews did revolt, but the uprising
was crushed and the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E.
Another revolt followed in 132 C.E., led by Bar Kokhba, who
was declared the Messiah by Rabbi Akiba, a leading rabbi.
Three years later, Bar Kokhba and 580,000 Jews were killed
in battle, while tens of thousands of Jewish men and women
were sold into slavery.

It was not a good time to be a Jew or a follower of
Jesus, or to say or write anything that would have placed
Pontius Pilate or Rome in a bad light.

Those living around that time understood and knew how to
read between the lines. In time, however, the full story
was forgotten, lost or suppressed for ideological reasons,
leading to the formalization and institutionalization of
the perverse Christ-killer charge leveled against the
Jewish people.

We cannot change the past. But we can avoid the mistakes
of the past, now that we know better. It is time that we
retire the pernicious Christ-killer charge and bury it
forever. It has no legitimate place any more in decent,
knowledgeable, responsible Jewish-Christian relations,
teachings, or story-telling.