Reply #41: if anyone cares about my semi-educated opinion on this matter

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The facts are that many Jewish people consider the entire religion of Christianity to be anti-semetic, and not without reason. I bet that the main controversy is a scene where the "Jewish mob" chants in union "his blood be on our heads and our children's heads" - the so-called "blood libel".

I don't think that scene is Matthew is the cause of anti-semetism, I think it's a product of it. Two reasons - it was obvious to everyone that the Romans did the actual killing, and the pro-Roman, collaborationist priestly establishment in Jerusalem (the Sadducees) were in agreement with the Romans about getting rid of Jesus, he was as much a threat to them as he was to the Romans.

The other faction that got blamed - the Pharisees - got blamed because they wouldn't join the revolutionary forces to overthrow the Romans and refused to allow non-Jews to enter the temple or help build a compromise religion the rebels could all fight under - there were plenty of ethnic groups in the general area at the time, and plenty of people wanted them gone.

Seriously, read Josephus, a contemporary Jewish historian that was a major player in the revolt against Rome. I can promise you'll never look at Judaism, Christianity, or Islam the same ever again.

Josephus wrote "Jewish War" and "Antiquities of the Jews" - in fact, he even states that he wrote "Jewish War" because the histories being written unfairly blamed the Jews and whitewashed the Roman's role - I bet he was referring to early versions of the Gospels.