Milton

I agree, there should be no anger towards the Jews. Not against anyone who took part in the Crucifixion.

Pity is all that I feel for those who were chosen to take part in such event. Judas, especially.

fatherphil

i actually think a well grounded Christian would not accuse any single group of humanity for Chirst's death.

what is happening around the movie is a hypersensitivity to anything that could be percieved as an attack against the jews. and this response is understandable given the history of past abuses by the churched.

Milton

What do you mean by accuse?

The story tells us that there were accusors and executors--leading to His death. We can't deny that. But expression of hate against the participants is not justified, and should not be the outcome. Of course, we are humans, and hate is part of us all, so there will be some who will express their hate under the disguise of religion--when in reality it has nothing to do with religion, because the religion itself prohibits this type of behavior.

HaysooChreesto!

The richest nugget I've gotten from all the hoopla surrounding this film was this morning. On CNN it was reported that the Catholic church doesn't like the film on the grounds "that it may cause people to question the teachings of the Church". Wouldn't that be a shame!
God can create everything but he's threatened by a movie. Come on God, sticks and stones. Sticks and stones.

fatherphil

i mean reel off a statement like "the jews killed Christ".

Milton

But I can say "Jews caused Jesus' death", while "Roman soldiers nailed Jesus to the cross, unto death."

Right?

fatherphil

no i don't think so unless you want to subvert God's intended message. you could say that "i killed Christ" for it was for you/me that He died.

Milton

You have to choose from which perspective we are to speak. I am speaking from the physical perspective, not from the spiritual. From the spiritual, it can become very difficult, because we could even conclude that Jesus never died (as the spirit does not die). And it could get even worse.

So, again, physically, Jesus died on the cross--thanks to the Jews who hated Him (note that not all hated Him) and the Roman soldiers who crucified Him.

Right?

brighid

Except this is still problematic. If this God is omnipotent and the shedding of the "lambs blood" (to cleanse the sins of mankind) was prophecied then the Jews and the Romans had no ability to go against God's plan for the crucifixion of Jesus. Perhaps, like Pharaoh God hardened the heart of these people to insure the death and subsequent ressurection of Jesus, therefore the only to "blame" for this cruel death is God himself.

However, what we do know about crucifixion, Pilate, the Jews and the Romans doesn't appear to support the Gospels. It should also be noted that the Gospels were written decades after the alleged events and assembled under the brutal edict of one Roman Emperor Constantine. It seems, at least plausible, that the story of what might have taken place was rewritten by the victors.

It seems unlikely to me that the Jews would go against Gods law and kill a blasphemer against the rules in Deutoronmy that tell them to stone and then hang the cursed man from a tree.

Brighid

Jayjay

The difference between Jews and Romans is that the latter do not exist anymore. Well, actually neither do first century jews, but there is at least a common perception that they're the same bunch as the current jewish population. A proper parallel would be if we identified modern day Italians as Romans and there were groups who used the "Italians killed Jesus!" line to further their anti-Italian policies (whatever those might be).

As for the movie, personally I don't think it'll be very anti-jewish, and frankly the Catholic Church or hypersensitive Jews shouldn't whine about it before they've actually seen the darn thing.