The Crucifixion of the Jews: the Failure of Christians to Understand the Jewish Experience

Plot

This book was written to analyze anti-semitism, its sources, its nature, its expression, its danger. There are two appendices in the back of this book, the first contains a document entitled "A Statement to our Fellow Christians" which was drafted by a committee working for the National Council of Churches for which the author served as chairman. Of the 18 theologians who contributed to this letter, one third were Roman Catholic, one Greek Orthodox, the rest all Protestant; 16 of the members were American. They address basically what the attitude of Christians should be to Jews and the nation of Israel and cite scripture and historical events to bolster their arguments. Their last point equates antisemitism to that unforgivable sin, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit Matthew 12:31. They state: "The pain of the past has taught us that antisemitism is a Pandora's box from which spring not only atrocities against Jews but also contempt for Christ. Whatever the antisemite inflicts on the Jews he inflicts on Christ..." Littell warns in this book that "Recent studies show a rise in anti-semitism in the United States", yet he wrote this book nearly 30 years ago. What about today? One evening in Massachusetts, I sat at a table with all Irish Catholics and one replied "those dirty Jews". I'm sure that not everyone felt the same way, but the question remains where did he get that. In a lesson I'm completing from a National Bible study attended by mostly Protestants, one of the questions asks, "What will unbelievers refuse, causing them to be deluded to believe a lie (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12?" Yet can't believers believe lies too? Didn't Christian Germany believe the lies of Hitler? Doesn't Christ himself say that 'Many of the elect will fall away?' Translation: Many will apostize. Hmm. Jesus also said in John 16:2-4: 'the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to G-d...They have not known the Father, nor me. I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you will remember that I told you of them.' It's interesting to remember that Jesus never set foot out of The Holy Land and always spoke to audiences of nearly all jews.

As Littell shows, one source of anti-semitism is Christian teaching itself from its earliest days which is termed displacement theory or supercessionism. This teaching supplants judaism by suggesting that the Church, now in Christ, has nullified everything that went before in the Old Testament. And then there is the deicide charge, that the Jews crucified Christ, which is inaccurate on many counts, and is ignorant of the fact that the Romans crucified many jews before and after Christ. This teaching was not omitted from Vatican II as Littell writes despite much discussion over it. Littell does not trace antisemitic teachings to the Apostle Paul, neither do I. His (Paul's) attitude to his fellow Jews is best expressed in the letter of Romans which is cited by Littell in his second chapter entitled "Christian Antisemitism".

There's much in this little book, much of which I've not relayed to you. I leave you with this statement of Littell's: "A rise of Antisemitism is often the first seismographic reading on a serious shifting and shearing along the fault lines of bedrock Christianity. The fundamental fault line...is a line of false teaching about the Jewish people." Well worth the read, highly recommended for my fellow Christians.