JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY: NO HOLDS BARRED – SESSION 1

1. JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY:NO HOLDS BARRED – SESSION 1 “His blood be on us and on our children” Christian Scripture and Anti-Semitism

2. Welcome to Old Friends and New • Introductions • Delighted to be back – our 6th year together 1. Judaism & Christianity – Search for Common Language 2. Eight Issues Facing Christians and Jews 3. “The War of the Gods” – 8 Faiths Considered 4. Transforming Myths and Texts 5. Heroes Who Stumble; Heroes Who Soar • How many of you are new?

3. Russia Trip 2013

4. “Administrative Matters” • Dialogue from 9:00 to 9:50 • Break from 9:50 to 10:00 • Dialogue from 10:00 to 10:30 • Questions and Answers from 10:30 to 10:45

5. Dialogue Requires Trust

6. Theological Modesty

7. Session 1 – Plan • Spiritual Autobiographies • Goals of the Course • Anti-Jewish Statements in Christian Scriptures

8. Walker, there is no road; the road is made by walking.

9. Theology and Religion • Theology – the words we use to explain what we mean by words such as “God” and “the Sacred” and what it means to “believe” in “God” or the “Sacred” • Religion – practices by which we express as Communities of Faith our beliefs and support others in these beliefs; the “bridge” between the “spiritual” and everyday life

10. Goals of the Course – For All of Us • No intent to convert anyone, including those who do not have a “religious tradition” or “active practice” • Increase understanding of Religious Traditions 3. Help us integrate our beliefs into our lives 4. Help us all speak more thoughtfully, respectfully and modestly about matters of Faith and Religion with persons of our own faith and persons of other faiths

11. JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY:NO HOLDS BARRED – SESSION 1 “His blood be on us and on our children” Christian Scripture and Anti-Semitism

12. Sadly, Anti-Semitism is “Alive and Well” • An association of American professors with almost 5,000 members supported a push to isolate Israel over its treatment of Palestinians. • Today, not going to discuss issue of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians; will discuss in Session 5 (“Israel as Homeland Meets Israel as Holy Land”) • Disparate treatment of Israel compared to other nations where minorities are (or claim to be) mistreated • Recent Article by David Brooks NYT 12/19/13 • My Promised Land by Ari Shavit

13. How to Discuss “His Blood be Upon Us”? 1. Historical and Religious Setting when the Four “Canonical” Gospels written (70 to 100 CE) 2. Overview of Christian Scriptures 3. Who were the “Bad Guys” in each of the Gospels? 4. The scene for “His Blood be upon us.” 5. Comparable statements in Mark and Luke • “The Jews” in the Gospel of John • Understanding the words in historical context • Where do we go from here?

14. Historic/Religious Situation 66 to 132 • Major Jewish Revolt against Rome began in 66 CE • At time of Revolt in 66, five sects in Judaism • Sadducees (including the Scribes) • Pharisees • Zealots • Essenes • Jesus Followers • Second (Final) Revolt under Simon Bar Kochba from 132 to 135 CE

15. Destruction of the Temple 70 CE

16. Destruction of the Temple 70 CE • Religious cataclysm of the highest magnitude • Destroyed Center of Judaism; place of animal and other (grain) sacrifices • Only surviving groups in Judaism after 73 (Masada) were the Pharisees and the Jesus Followers

17. Battle for the Control of Judaism between the Pharisees and JF’s (70 to 100 CE) THE ISSUES: • Who could worship in the Synagogues? • What was the proper form of worship? • Who could select the Scriptures that have authority? • Who had authority to interpret the Scriptures?

18. The Christian Scriptures • 27 Books of Various Literary Genres • All written after the death of Jesus in 30 or 33 CE • First writings are 7 Letters of Paul (49 CE to 62 CE) • Four Gospels • “Mark” (70 CE around the Destruction of the Temple) • “Matthew” (85 to 90 CE) • “Luke” (85 to 90 CE) • “John” (95 to 100 CE) • Each of the Gospels has its own “take” on Jesus

19. Christian Scriptures – 2 • Acts of the Apostles • Written by “Luke” (around 85 CE) • Purports to be a “history” of the Jesus Follower Movement after Jesus’ death and a description of the Missions of Paul • 13 other letters “attributed” to Paul or others • Book of Revelation • Apocalyptic

20. Evolution of Gospels’ “Bad Guys” • Mark: High Priests, the Scribes and “the elders” • Luke: High Priests, Pharisees, Temple Authorities • Matthew: Pharisees, High/Chief Priests, Elders • John: “The Jews”

21. “His Blood be upon us and our children” • Has been interpreted as a basis for “guilt” of the Jewish People (and their descendants) for the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth • Not an isolated instance of anti-Jewish sentiment in the Christian Scriptures • Anti-Jewish statements are in other Gospels and in the Acts of the Apostles

22. “His blood be on us” - Matt. 27 • Scene is in front of Pilate after interrogation by the high priest, the scribes and the elders (the Council) • Pilate was Governor of Judea (26 to 37 CE) and was recalled by Rome in 37 for extreme cruelty • “Chief Priests and elders” brought Jesus to Pilate • Asserts a “festival custom” to release a prisoner • Pilate offers “the crowd” a criminal named Jesus* Barabbas or “Jesus who is called the Messiah” • Chief Priests and elders persuade the “crowd” to call for the release of Barabbas

23. Matt. 27 (continued) • Pilate asks “What to do with Jesus called Messiah?” • All of them: “Let him be crucified” • Pilate asks: “What has he done?” • Crowd shouts all the more: “Let him be crucified.” • Pilate washes his hands. “I am innocent of his blood.” • “The people as a whole answered, his blood be upon us and our children.”

24. Other Statements -- Mark and Luke • Mark: the “bad guys” are the Chief Priests, the Scribes and the elders. When Jesus is before Pilate, “the chief priests stir up the crowd” (15.11) and the crowd shouts “Crucify him!” (15.13) • Luke: the “bad guys” are the Pharisees and the Temple Authorities (the chief priests and the scribes). The scene with Pilate includes the chief priests, the leaders and “the people” (Luke 23.13) who all shout “Crucify him.” (23.21)

25. Gospel of John – “The Jews” in the Pilate Scene • “The Jews” brought Jesus to Pilate • Pilate interviewed Jesus privately and told “the Jews” that “I find no case against him.” • The chief priests and the Temple Police shouted “Crucify him.” • “The Jews” said, “He ought to die because he has claimed to be the Son of God.” • Pilate interviewed Jesus again and “tried to release him.”

26. “John” (continued) • But the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are no friend of the emperor.” • Pilate said to the Jews, “Here is your King.” • They cried out, “Away with him. Crucify him.” • Pilate asked, “Shall I crucify your King?” • The chief priests answered, “We have no king but the emperor.”

27. How To Deal With All This?? • Christian Biblical Literalists take statements in the Bible (Hebrew Scripture and Christian Scripture) as “historical fact” • “Modernists” see “historical fact” as the “test” of truth or falsity. (“If it didn’t happen, it isn’t true.”) • For Biblical Literalists, if it’s in the Bible, it’s true. Therefore, if it’s in the Bible, it’s historical fact. • Post-modernists see “truth” as more complex • “Truth” in a writing requires understanding of contexts (internal and external) and the writer’s point-of-view

28. Who Are “the Jews” in John’s Gospel? The words “The Jews” appears many other times in John’s Gospel. An example: John 1:19 – This is the testimony given by John [the Baptizer] when the Jewssent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ John 1:24 – Now they [the priests and Levites] had been sent from the Pharisees.

29. Scholarly Explanation New Oxford Annotated Bible footnote to this passage: The Jews, the Temple religious authorities; also used for those who supported them. The Pharisees, along with the high priest and the chief priests, comprised “the Jews,” the religious authorities.

30. Jesus and His Disciples Were Jews Many statements in John’s Gospel make sense ONLY if “the Jews” means the Pharisees, the Priests and the Temple Authorities and not all Jews generally Example John 11:7-8 – Then after this he [Jesus] said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Rabbi, the Jewswere just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?’

31. Questions • Is the “Pilate Scene” historical? • Why did the Jesus Followers include these harsh statements in the Gospels? • Why didn’t the Jesus Followers blame the Romans? • JF’s wanted to curry Romans’ favor and to distance themselves from the “bad Jews” who revolted in 66 CE (which led to the destruction of the Temple)

32. “Pilate Scene” Unsupported by History • Only Romans had power to kill a prisoner • Pilate was not weak; he was a cruel ruler • “Crowd” – a small group inside Pilate’s palace • There is NO external evidence of any custom of releasing a prisoner at the Passover Festival

33. Pharisees’ Actions After 70 CE • Excluded JF’s from Synagogues • Began to select the “Canon” for the Scriptures at Jamnia/Yavneh (90) • Emphasis on learning and interpreting the Scriptures • Moved the Center of Worship from the Temple to the synagogue and the home

34. Birkat HaMinim[heretics] – Blessing 12 • Instituted at the Council of Yavneh after 70 CE • Aimed at heretics, including the Jesus Followers • “And for slanderers [sectarians or heretics] let there be no hope, and may all the evil in an instant be destroyed and all Thy enemies be cut down swiftly; and the evil ones uproot and break and destroy and humble soon in our days. Blessed art You, LORD, who breaks down enemies and humbles sinners.”

35. JFs Were Expelled from the Synagogues(Gospel sayings attributed to Jesus) Mark 15.9: you will be beaten in synagogues…. Luke 21.12: they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons…. Matt. 10.17-18: [the Temple Authorities and the Pharisees] will hand you over to councils and flog you intheir synagogues …. John 9.22, 12.42 and 16.2: 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.

36. Retaliatory Rhetoric (Matt. 23.27-35) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You snakes, you brood of vipers! How can you escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets, sages, and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town, so that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth….

37. “Badmouthing” One’s Enemies • Happens in nearly all conflicts • World Wars (Germans, Japanese) • Muslims by some Americans (and vice-versa) • Hebrew Bible • Ishmael – “wild ass of a man” • Ammonites & Moabites: Incest of Lot and his daughters • Edomites: ok to bash their children on rocks (Ps. 137.9) • Amalekites: Saul told to kill all and their livestock

38. From the 1st to the 4th Century • Pharisees’ Movement into Rabbinic Judaism • Jesus Follower Movement into Christianity • Judaism and Christianity on fairly even footing • Both define themselves – “We are not them” • Constantine (312 CE) makes Christianity legal • Theodosius (380) – Christianity State Religion

39. Difference with Christian Rhetoric:Power + Religion = Danger • Christians forgot (or ignored) the context of the Anti-Jewish statements in the Gospels • Christians took their Scriptures as literally true • Christianity: State Religion of Roman Empire in 380 • Power + Religion = Persecution of others • Changed from a “Movement” to an Institution • Consequences were disastrous for Christianity and other religions, particularly Judaism

40. 4th to 20th Century • Power as State Religion enabled Christianity to persecute other religions • Judaism “superseded” • Judaism to “survive but not thrive” • Judaism as “negative witness” • Persecutions, pogroms, ghettos, inquisitions, Crusades, marginalization, killings • Culmination of Anti-Semitism in unspeakable horror of Holocaust

41. Late 20th Century • Holocaust was a “wake up call” for Christians • “Christian” nation’s systematic murder of Jews and others • Most Christians failed to stop the carnage • Most Christians failed to speak out • Christian thinks began to realize that Christian theology created a “climate” for the Shoah

42. Shift in Official Positions after WWII • Roman Catholics – Vatican II Nostra Aetate in 1960’s as part of Vatican II • Episcopalians – Resolutions at General Conventions • Affirm continuing covenant b/t God and Jewish People • Lutherans – Repudiated Luther’s Anti-Semitic Writings

43. Official Statements by Christians • Judaism and Christianity share common spiritual ancestry • Death of Jesus of Nazareth cannot be blamed on the Jews of the 1st Century or on all Jews today; primary blame is with the Roman Empire

44. Statements by Christians – 2 • Covenant between God and the Jews is not abrogated in any way and remains in full force and effect as a means of salvation • Anti-Semitic writings of Martin Luther were repudiated • Apologies for the historic sins of Christians against Jews

45. Dabru Emet • Jews and Christians worship the same God • Jews and Christians seek authority from the TaNaK and the Christian Bible • Christians can respect the claim of the Jewish people on the Land of Israel • Jews and Christian accept moral principles of the Torah

46. Dabru Emet – 2 • Nazism was not a Christian phenomenon • Irreconcilable differences will not be settled until God redeems the entire world as promised in Scripture • A new relationship between Jews and Christians will not weaken Jewish practice • Jews and Christians must work together for justice and peace

47. So, What is Needed Here? • Better translations of the Christian Scriptures • More education for Christians about what the Christian Scriptures really mean • More education for Christians about the CONTEXT of the Gospels written from 70 to 95 CE – a period of intense conflict between the Pharisees and the Jesus Followers about: • The future of Judaism (synagogues, scripture etc.) • The right to claim the legacy of the past • Portraying the other as the enemy of Rome

48. Episcopal Church General Convention • 2012 Convention directed the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to continue to work begun in 2006 to collect, review, and disseminate materials to address Christian anti-Judaism expressed in and stirred by portions of Christian scriptures and liturgical texts • Reports have been sent to clergy by the Standing Commission regarding these issues

49. What’s the “Takeaway” ? • Christian Scriptures are NOT history • Christian Scriptures were written long after the supposed “events” took place • Each author has his own “axe to grind” • You can’t read or hear Scripture without context • A TEXT WITHOUT A CONTEXT IS A PRETEXT • All of these statements are also true about the Hebrew Scriptures • From 4th C to mid-20th C, Christianity had power to impose its views on others (or punish them)

50. Where Do We Go From Here?