Who is responsible for the death of Jesus of Nazareth? When people hear this question, usually an initial answer jumps out, and sadly, for much of Christian history, the answer was undisputed: The Jews.
My best friend growing up is Jewish, and I remember being in middle school and going to a Christian meeting, and they said this: …because the Jews killed Jesus. Now, we were friends for years, and that’s something that didn’t bother us, but I remember him turning over to me and saying, “Sorry”, and I was like, “Ah, that’s okay”, but now I’m shocked to look back and realize that that was so commonplace theology, that it was just shouted out like a fact of life. This is what happened.
Now, sadly, this fact has led to Christians murdering Jewish people for centuries as they were blamed for murdering the savior of the world. This view has not only led to antisemitism and Jewish hatred for centuries, but it also falls short biblically.For starters, according to the gospels, the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem called for his death. The Romans carried out his death, and Jesus said, no one takes my life from me. I give it of my own accord. But many still argue the Jews were the ones behind it. So let’s talk about this.
Let’s first address the statement head on. The Jews killed Jesus. That’s interesting. His disciples were Jews. So one could say the Jews follow Jesus. The Jews believed in Jesus. The Jews loved Jesus. But we usually don’t hear that because someone would rightfully say, well, not all Jews follow him. In which I would respond, you’re right, and not all Jews wanted to kill him either. But you can start to see this anti-Jewish lens that has been handed down for centuries. When something is negative, it’s the Jews. When something’s positive, it’s people or disciples. We read about the feeding of the 5,000. It’s funny, we don’t read about the feeding of the 5,000 Jews. In Acts two, we hear about how the Holy Spirit fell, and 3,000 people repented and received the message of Jesus. Interesting, we don’t read about the 3,000 Jews that repented and received the miracles of Jesus. We read about the healing of the 10 lepers, not the healing of the 10 Jewish lepers. Why? Well, you could say, well, the text doesn’t say that. You’re right, because Jesus’ entire ministry was to the people of Israel. Matthew 15:24, Jesus says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” If Jesus did something with people, the text assumes that we all know they’re Jewish. If they’re not Jewish, that’s when the text clearly identifies it like the Canaanite woman or the Phoenician woman whose daughter gets healed in Matthew 15:22, or the Roman Centurion servant in Luke 7, or the Greeks that want to meet Jesus in John 12:20. If it’s not mentioned, the text assumes that we know they’re Jewish. The biblical authors clearly didn’t feel the need to add “Jewish” at the beginning of every other description. Jesus finds his 12 disciples, not his 12 Jewish disciples, because that’s implied.
Now with Second Temple Judaism, there are many different kinds of Jewish people. The Gospel mentions the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the religious leaders, the zealots, the Galileans, the Judeans. They’re all Jewish, but naming their affiliation says something about them. Pharisees and Sadducees, they’re both Jewish, but have different beliefs on the resurrection and other issues. The Galileans and Judeans are titles given based on location. Just like today, we could say there are many different kinds of Americans, but if I said that I overheard a conversation between this guy from East Texas and this guy from LA, Americans can already begin to picture this conversation, even though I said nothing about them. We just know something about them based on where they live, or at least we could assume. Or if I said that a Baptist and a charismatic got into an argument, most Christians could probably guess with some educated guessing involved, what they might be disagreeing about.
Where we get this idea about the Jews being the bad guys or ones in opposition to Jesus, or the ones that killed Jesus is really in the gospel of John. The gospel of John uses the term that’s often translated Jew or the Jews. It is the Greek word Ioudaios. This word could rightfully be translated as Jew or it could be translated as Judean, or the Judeans, or Judean leaders. Obviously, the word Jew comes from the people of Judah or Judea. Nearly every time John uses this word, he is referring to the people from the area of Judah whose capital is Jerusalem. This is, of course, in juxtaposition with Jesus and many of his disciples in the Galilee. The Galilee was known as a more rough and tough, spiritually radical backwoods compared to the sophistication of the religious piety in Jerusalem. Josephus, the Jewish historian, wrote about the Galileans, and he said that they are “…fond of innovation and by nature disposed to changes, and they delighted in seditions…”, which means rebellions. So a bit more radical, a bit more receptive to a miracle man claiming to be the son of God. Yeah, probably more in Galilee. In John 7:1, it says after these events, Yeshua was walking about in Galilee. He did not want to walk in Judea because the Jews wanted to kill him. He’s a Jew. His disciples are Jews. That doesn’t really make sense, but let’s read it this way: John 7:1, after these events, Yeshua was walking about in the Galilee, and he did not want to walk in Judea because the Judeans or the Judean leaders wanted to kill him. Jesus is a Jew. His disciples are Jews. It makes no sense for him to say, I’m not going to Judea because the Jews are going to kill me. John 7:2, then after this, he said to his disciples, let’s go up to Judea again. Rabbi, the disciples said to him, just now that Judean leaders were trying to stone you, and you’re going back up there? Do you see how it’s juxtaposing Judea and Galilee? But Judean is such a better translation.
As we all remember, Jesus’ biggest rivals were not “all Jews”, because his followers were all Jews. His rivals were the Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, and priests. Where were they all located?Judea. It’s the author’s way of linking all the people together rather than saying, well, the scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees and priests, and they all want to kill me. He’s just saying the Judeans, the people in Jerusalem, the Judean leaders. Throughout all four gospels, nearly every time you see this word, Ioudaios, it’s probably better translated as Judean. Yet translating these verses as “the Jews” rather than “the Judeans” or “Judean leaders” has left many to draw unfair conclusions and putting the onus on Jesus and his death on all the people of Israel. Yet forgetting that the people who also followed him, ministered on behalf of him, and ultimately died for him, were also the people of Israel, the Jews.
Yes, many Jewish people didn’t believe in Jesus as Messiah, and many still don’t. But it’s important that we as the church understand His Jewish identity, the disciple’s Jewish identity, and the importance that it plays in understanding Jesus’ mission. Jesus lived as a Jew. He died as a Jew, and guess what? In revelations, He comes back as a Jew, the tribe of Judah, a lion from the tribe of Judah, and we look forward to the day that Israel sees Jesus as the Messiah of Israel, as one of their own.
