Pope exonerates Jews for Jesus' death in new book

Religion | 533 hits | Mar 02 3:11 pm | Posted by: xerxes

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI has made a sweeping exoneration of the Jewish people for the death of Jesus Christ, tackling one of the most controversial issues in Christianity in a new book. In "Jesus of Nazareth-Part II" excerpts released Wednesday

Comments

by Guy_Fawkes
Wed Mar 02, 2011 11:24 pm
Oh how nice of him.
by Thanos
Wed Mar 02, 2011 11:46 pm
2000 years too late but hey, who's counting?
by BartSimpson
Wed Mar 02, 2011 11:55 pm
I'm thinking it didn't need to be said at all.

What I mean is that to 'exonerate' someone you first need to accuse them. In my opinion the Jews did not need to be exonerated of a false accusation, the accusation and the accusers needed to be dismissed as unfounded.
by sandorski
Thu Mar 03, 2011 12:32 am
Who will exonerate the Pope? I won't.
by BartSimpson
Thu Mar 03, 2011 12:39 am
"sandorski" said
Who will exonerate the Pope? I won't.

I'm not a catholic, but I had respect for the last Pope - JPII. This guy...not so much.
by Lemmy
Thu Mar 03, 2011 12:50 am
I'm confused. I thought Jesus was un-killed a couple of days later anyway, so what the biggie? No harm, no foul.
by ShepherdsDog
Thu Mar 03, 2011 1:01 am
"BartSimpson" said
I'm thinking it didn't need to be said at all.

What I mean is that to 'exonerate' someone you first need to accuse them. In my opinion the Jews did not need to be exonerated of a false accusation, the accusation and the accusers needed to be dismissed as unfounded.

based on the definition of exonerate it means to clear one of a false allegation. so he is in effect condemning Christian treatment of the Jews, and seeing he was the former head of the Inquisition, which was originally set up to deal with heretical Christians and Jews, it's a condemnation of the Church.
by Freakinoldguy
Thu Mar 03, 2011 1:04 am
It's nice to see someone in authority from the Catholic Church having the spine to finally exhonerate an innocent race for an act they never committed.

But WTF is the Pope doing writing books?

Shouldn't he be rewriting PR&O's so we can get rid of all the pedophile, nun raping priests who're walking around with impunity?
by Unsound
Thu Mar 03, 2011 2:06 am
Personally, I've never understood why anyone would blame the Jews for something that God had ordained. Not their fault if they acted in the way God wanted them to.
by ShepherdsDog
Thu Mar 03, 2011 2:11 am
Some Christian sects see Judas the same way, not as a traitor but doing what he was born to do.
by Unsound
Thu Mar 03, 2011 2:15 am
That's kind of how I see it too. According to the story Jesus to die in order for the rest of us to have a shot at redemption. Judas, Pilate, the Jews, we owe all of them a debt of gratitude for what they did. Atleast, if you believe in redemption thru Jesus you do.
by xerxes
Thu Mar 03, 2011 2:22 am
"Unsound" said
Personally, I've never understood why anyone would blame the Jews for something that God had ordained. Not their fault if they acted in the way God wanted them to.

No one said anti-Semetism requires rationality.
by xerxes
Thu Mar 03, 2011 2:25 am
Still, this is a refreshing change after 1500+ plus years of Church ordained persecution of Jews.

It's not from the article, but this quote from the Pope's book is quite illuminating.

Now we must ask: who exactly were Jesus’ accusers? Who insisted that he be condemned to death? According to John it was simply “the Jews.” But John’s use of this expression does not in any way indicate – as the modern reader might suppose – the people of Israel in general, even less is it “racist” in character. After all, John himself was ethnically a Jew, as were Jesus and all his followers. The entire early Christian community was made up of Jews. In John’s Gospel this word has a precise and clearly defined meaning: he is referring to the Temple aristocracy.
by ShepherdsDog
Thu Mar 03, 2011 2:25 am
it's interesting that while some of the 'villians' in the story were Jewish, all of the heroes and the protagonist himself was a Jew.