Is the Jesus myth antisemitic?

[PowerToThePeople]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by etherealtruth (a host of the General Discussion forum).

With us one week away from December 25th, a thought passed through my head (I know, unbelievable.)

Is the whole Jesus myth, "king of the Jews", "son of God", persecuted and murdered by the Jews antisemitic? I would venture to guess that if this story was started in more recent times, that it would very much be regarded thus.

What says you?

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[NaturalHigh]

1. Pass:

As in, your post is inflammatory, obviously intended to be an insult.

[PowerToThePeople]

2. No, just an honest question about a story that most Americans are aware of.

We have a national holiday around this day, radio stations switch over to Christmas music, telivision stations play Christmas stories on air.

I am trying to state the question as neutrally as possible.

[NutmegYankee]

5. You failed at a neutral state.

Using story instead of myth would have done wonders. It all went downhill from there. Also, technically, it was the Romans who killed him.

[CTyankee]

13. No, this is a historic insult: the Jews killed Christ.

It is root and branch in Christian theologically in the past. Today, thankfully, it is different. But in the past "Christ killing Jew!" was on the lips of every cossack in Russia...

[hifiguy]

17. And every priest, every Inquisitor, every Crusader

and every dime-store anti-Semitic demagogue throughout history.

[gollygee]

3. I'm not a Christian so I'm not an expert on this

But I thought the relevant thing was that it wasn't just the Roman occupiers who were resonsible for his death - that people from within his own community also had some responsbility? That yes they're Jewish but he is also Jewish and they're part of the same occupied population.


At least that's the way I've heard it, but again I'm not Christian and have never been a part of a Christian church.

[Nye Bevan]

9. Yep, a bunch of Jewish people convinced the Roman occupiers to kill a Jewish guy. (nt)

[NutmegYankee]

10. The high religious leadership wanted him gone.

As to the crowd choosing Barabbas over Jesus for release, as an occupied but rebellious people, they wanted someone who would fight the enemy, not preach non-violence. It's understandable.

[0rganism]

4. i'd say no, insofar as the protagonist is genetically Semitic

if anything the core story (as it's popularly known, not, e.g., the Zoroastrian root stories) comes off as anti-Roman.

[Nye Bevan]

6. Wasn't he supposed to have been killed by the Romans? So if anything, it's anti-Roman.

There is near unanimity among scholars that Jesus existed historically,[6][7][nb 1][nb 2][nb 3][nb 4] although biblical scholars differ about the beliefs and teachings of Jesus as well as the accuracy of the details of his life that have been described in the Gospels.[nb 5][12][nb 6][2]:168-173 While scholars have sometimes criticized Jesus scholarship for religious bias and lack of methodological soundness,[nb 7] with very few exceptions, such critics do support the historicity of Jesus, and reject the theory that Jesus never existed, known as the Christ myth theory.[15][nb 8][17][18][19] Certain scholars, particularly in Europe, have recently made the case that while there are a number of plausible "Jesuses" that could have existed, there can be no certainty as to which Jesus was the historical Jesus, and that there should also be more scholarly research and debate on this topic.[20][21]

.....

Almost all scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed,[57][58][59][60] but scholars differ on the historicity of specific episodes described in the Biblical accounts of Jesus,[2]:181 and the only two events subject to "almost universal assent" are that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and was crucified by the order of the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate.[61][12][62] Elements whose historical authenticity is disputed include the two accounts of the Nativity of Jesus, the miraculous events including the resurrection, and certain details about the crucifixion.[63][64][65][66][67][68]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus

[PowerToThePeople]

8. Was it not at the behest of church leaders?

I thought the Romans were going to let him go?

I may be incorrect.

[Nye Bevan]

11. They encouraged the Romans to free Barrabas (who was also Jewish)

and crucify Jesus instead.

[el_bryanto]

7. I am Christian and while some interpretations of the Jesus story are anti-sematic

Others aren't. I would venture to say that the majority aren't.

He was Jewish after all.

It's kind of a stupid question really.

Bryant

[Depaysement]

12. As Charlie Brown would say

"Good grief!"

[liberal_at_heart]

14. I was on a lovely positive religious thread on GD a couple of weeks ago.

It got locked. Funny how positive religious threads get locked and negative ones get to stay.

[SomethingFishy]

15. We consider Jesus a Rabbi and Philosopher..

And we do find it funny that "Christians" seem to think that Jews aren't going to "heaven". Especially since Jesus was a Jew. I guess he'll be in hell with the rest of us..

That said I'm not really practicing any religion, I was born a Jew and we lit the Menorah tonight for the third night of Hanukkah, but we also celebrate The War On Christmas.

[Agnosticsherbet]

16. The Jesus story is based on a very Jewish concept of a Mashiach.

The early, first century church, had Jewish and non-Jewish members as can be determined by Christain burials on the Mount of Olives dating the First Century. (Excavations have found remains of first century Christian burials in Israel. Clearly, they had a thriving community of some size. they bore common Jewish names from the first century Jews.)

Anti-Semitism, the word, comes from the 19th century, coined by Wilhelm Marr, German radical, nationalist and race-agitator who founded "Antisemiten-Liga," an explicitly anti-Jewish German party.
Certainly, Christians were anti-Jewish after most of the remaining Jews were killed or sold into slavery following the Bar Kochba revolt. (Jerusalem was renamed Aelia Capitolina.) From what I read, any remnant of a Jewish Christian Church was destroyed, leaving the Hellenized Christians control of their religion. Jews who did not accept that Jesus was the Messiah (Mashiach) were considered heretics.

Being a sizable minority in a world that rapidly came to be dominated by Christians, they became second class aliens, without the right to be citizens of any country.

The ascension of Christainity as the dominant religion in Europe, North Africa, and the middle east (until Islam exploded on the stage) held the basis of the modern concept of anti-Semitism.

I don't think it was essentially anti-Semitic in its origins. Certainly, after the Jewish segment of the Church was destroyed they adopted many anti-Jewish beliefs and concepts.

[etherealtruth]

18. I am sorry, LOCKING

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[Archae]

19. Thsi verse was added to the narrative, by anti-Semitic church brass.

The mob may have been yelling "Crucify him," but this I really doubt was in the story.

Matthew (27:25) "His blood be on us, and on our children."
This verse blames the Jews for the death of Jesus and has been used to justify their persecution for twenty centuries.