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Pope: Jews not to blame for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ

A new book by Pope Benedict XVI asserted that Jews were collectively responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Reuters reports quoting the press service of the Vatican. Theological and biblical confirmation of this thesis are contained in the second volume of Pope’s bestseller titled “Jesus of Nazareth”, which will go on sale next week.

The Catholic Church officially rejected the idea of collective responsibility of the Jewish people for Christ’s death.

In his book, Pope refers to a quote from John’s Gospel, which says that Jesus was persecuted by “Jews.” He points out that the use of St John of the word does not indicate the entire Jewish people, and by its very nature is not a racist. John himself was a Jew, just as Jesus himself and all his followers. All the early Christian community was composed of Jews. According to Benedict XVI.

Benedict concludes: “The temple aristocracy.” The Gospel of Mark expands the circle of accusers to “the masses,” which Benedict explains were supporters of Barabbas, the brigand chosen by the crowd to be released instead of Jesus. “In [the Second Vatican Council’s text], this was all said in one sentence, but here it’s spelled out and worked out in great detail,” says Sievers.

The Pope pays special attention to a passage in the Gospel of Matthew which is often used to stir up anti-Semitism. In that passage, Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect overseeing the crucifixion, washes his hands and declares himself to be innocent of the death of Jesus: “Then the people as a whole answered, ‘His blood be on us and on our children!'” Benedict argues that the phrase “the people as a whole” is ahistorical. “How would it have been possible for the entire population to have been present at that moment to ask for the death of Jesus?” he writes. The blood of Jesus, he adds, should not be seen as a call for revenge, but spilled in the name of reconciliation: “Not a curse, but redemption, salvation.”

These words of the Pope received positive feedback from the representatives of Jewish communities. “This is a huge step forward. Refuted the assertion, which served as a theological justification for centuries of anti-Semitism “- said Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Society of Holocaust survivors and their descendants.

Pope Benedict in the book examines Jesus’s passion and death as reported by the different Gospels and the interpretations of other biblical scholars. He draws a modern lesson from Pontius Pilate’s question “What is truth?”

Rejection of truth, the pope says, is a rejection of freedom.

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