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Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Is the New Testament Anti Semitic?



This video best explains it, but I in particular want to respond to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA; by the way, who I decided that I am not following on Twitter because of their endorsement of this article and Prof. Pieter van der Horst). I am disappointed in the JCPA for allowing Prof. van der Horst to decontextualize the New Testament and revise history.

Addressing Prof. van der Horst's first claim:



"The New Testament has several anti-Semitic elements in its chronologically latest documents. The Gospel of John has Jesus call the Jews “sons of the devil.” There is also a case of an anti-Jewish outburst by the Apostle Paul."

Prof. van der Horst cleary missed the verses about Jews worshipping either G-d or devils. For example:




  1. Leviticus 17:7
    They shall no more offer their sacrifices to demons, after whom they have played the harlot. This shall be a statute forever for them throughout their generations.”’
  2. Deuteronomy 32:17
    They sacrificed to demons, not to God, To gods they did not know, To new gods, new arrivals That your fathers did not fear.
  3. Joshua 24:14-15
    14 “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”


Prof. van der Horst also misses that Paul was not Anti Semitic but frustrated that these particular Jews would not accept that they had the blood of an innocent Man on their hands and that the blood could wash them clean only if they accepted that their Passover was sacrificed (cf. Matthew 27:24-26, Luke 23:33-35, Acts 18:5-8, 1 Corinthians 5:7). By the way--and this is another discussion--, Pilate was a vicious, crowd-riling Anti Semite who knew what he was doing and did not really believe Jesus to be innocent.

Paul indeed even stated:



"I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen[a] according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen."

What is Anti Semitic in that? 

In conclusion, Prof. van der Horst and Manfred Gerstenfeld, Prof. van der Horst's interviewer--as well as the rest of the JPCA--would do well to read the New Testament (Hadashah) and the rest of TaNaKH in content.


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