Anyone else fed up with the mistaken idea that the Jews?

Question

killed Jesus?

THE ROMANS KILLED JESUS. They were the only ones who practised crucifixion.

And no: they didn't do it because the Jews asked them to - the Romans were incredibly cruel to the Jews and they certainly didn't do anything the Jews asked them to!

Remember - all the Christian accounts of the death of Jesus were written long after the event.

EDIT: how could the Jews 'insist' that the Romans killed Jesus? The Jews weren't in a position to insist anything! The Romans were the ones in total control!

HEY MIMI! - Thanks for a really interesting answer; I didn't know that was the Muslim perspective on the death of Jesus, so I have learned something!

Answer 1

A similar question was just posted.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AmX1qQR_g6gsoQ8hkAkyOmrsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20070907141139AA0uCmT&show=7#profile-info-6a0244ccf5cee02edcc89b37882f0804aa

There my reply was:

Many argue that because the early Christian movement wanted to be accepted by the population of the Roman empire, they did not want to emphasize the fact that it was the Roman officials who put Jesus to death. So there was some inclination to implicate the Jews.

But Judea was a hotbed of insurrection. No area gave the Romans more trouble. And if there was talk of a coming "kingdom" and Jesus was implicated as its leader (and especially if he did commit some act of protest at the Temple during the politically sensitive celebration of Passover week), the Romans would not have hesitated to execute someone like him with dispatch.

Also, for the Christian followers there was a certain need to explain, if Jesus was the messiah as they maintained, why he wasn't more broadly accepted by the Jewish populace. So it was made out that he was "rejected" by the Jews.

What were originally arguments between two different streams within Judaism (the original Jesus movement was of course comprised of Jews), became over the centuries a deadly contribution to anti-Semitism when Christianity became so much more powerful politically.

EDIT: Clearly a lot of the individuals posting here actually presume the Jews were responsible for Jesus' death. Fact is, the Jews had no authority to execute anyone in those days. And if indeed "INRI" was posted at Jesus' execution -- meaning "Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews" -- that's all the more illustration that the Romans executed him as a political liability.

Answer 2

I totally agree. How could the Jews have killed Jesus? They had no power then. Also, let's pretend that they did. He was killed for breaking some sort of law, right? In the Middle Ages, when the death penalty was used, in Europe a Christian criminal would have been sentenced to death by a Christian judge/king and executed by a Christian man. If it was discovered after his death that the man was innocent, did people walk around going, "Damn those murdering Christians!" Nope, who even thought about religion?? So if Jesus, a Jew, WAS killed by the Jews, he was killed by HIS OWN PEOPLE! Isn't that allowed?

By the way, I DO NOT believe that the Jews killed Jesus....

Answer 3

An interesting question as written. It seems to discount portions of the gospel, simply because it is inconvenient.

And it's not necessary to ignore the gospels to come to the conclusion that the Jews did not kill Jesus. A small faction withing the religious leadership conspired to have Jesus killed, and the Romans went along.

The Romans considered order to be the most important, and anything or anyone that disturbed that order was bad. Jesus had some of the most powerful factions of the leadership up in arms, and from the perspective of the Romans it was easier to kill him than to kill all of them.

But to say that the Jews killed Jesus ignores the fact that Jesus was a Jew, and all of Jesus' early disciples were Jews. The people of Jerusalem, presumably Jews, welcomed Jesus. This worried some of the people in power.

People that were more concerned with their own position and power than they were with God, mercy and justice killed Jesus. That is a good lesson for today as well.

Answer 4

I'm a passionate Christian, and have spent much of my life reading the New Testament. It's worth flagging up the key differences between the Crucifixion accounts.
In Matthew's Gospel, responsibility for the crucifixion is placed squarely upon the shoulders of the Jews. They answer Pilate: "His blood be on us, and on our Children", but Matthew's Gospel was written by a Jewish scholar, for the ears of other Jews, specifically designed to help them recognise that Jesus' death was an important event for each and every one of them. In the other synoptic Gospels, Jesus' death has more to do with Roman indifference than Jewish hatred.
There is no doubt that the people who nailed him to his cross were Romans, but all the Gospels agree that all the people present were guilty of silence and inertia.

Fortunately today Christians recognise that the Jews are the faith with which we have most in common. They have a common heritage, and their scripture was authentically given them by God.

That Jesus came to complete, not destroy, the journey of these people of God was clear from his teaching, and I would encourage any Jews reading this to read the Gospels to find out how Jesus wanted to help them, and how the promise of eternal life still awaits all those who accept Jesus as the Son of God, and completely one being with the One God.

Christians across the world are finally suitably ashamed of what has been done in the name of the Gospels to those to whom God's word was first revealed.

Answer 5

On his cross the Romans posted INRI which I believe stood for Jesus of Nazereth, King of the Jews.

The Jews had a chance to save Jesus but chose to save Barabbas (albeit at the instigation of the priests and elders)
(Matthew 27:20), so I suppose by default the Jews could be implicated in his death.

If you cast doubt on the accounts of his death by saying that any writings were written long after his death, surely you must also doubt his crucifixion, his existence and any thing else in the bible/

Answer 6

That's no way to talk CJ

It was the Romans who did the crucifying and certain Jews turned Jesus over to Pilate, as they did not have a law that could put someone to death.

Answer 7

definite, i understand him very much yet this letter began out as i'm seventy six and that i'm drained seven years in the past. some human beings which includes invoice say he did no longer write it yet whoever did substitute into hitting on all their cylinders. I enjoyed it then and that's nevertheless genuine in the present day. Now i visit get a contravention be conscious for agreeing with what's asserted by anybody else, that's whats been occurring ever when you consider that I signed on a pair of week in the past. Whoever have been given it in for me, why do no longer you purely deliver me a digital mail. My field is open. I have been given no longer something to conceal.

Answer 8

Also remember that the 4 gospels in the bible are just a few of the ones that existed and it was the early church leaders that decided these were the ones that most fitted in with their ideas. Now we have found and are gradually reading some of the other gospels it appears that some of them don't even mention the crucifixion so it may not have actually happened

Answer 9

Actually I think you simply misunderstand. Yes, it was the Romans who killed him personally. But it WAS the Jews' "fault", because the jesus was wanted in Rome for some reason or another, and the Jews gave his position away because they wanted him dead too.

Answer 10

It was a political decision to rid Judea of a potential trouble maker. Both the Roman military and the puppet Pilate played their part in a pre-arranged scenario.
The Jewish establishment in the temples were just as fearful as the Romans of the influence 'the Galilean' seemed to exert over the warrior-messiah-hungry populace during a potentially volatile celebration period in Jerusalem. Both parties wanted rid of him.