Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting

A few days ago, a man named Robert Bowers killed 11 Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue. News reports indicate that the shooter believed Jews are the "children of Satan". 

Most of us will agree that this is a thoroughly despicable point of view. But let's be clear about this: there is language in the New Testament that supports Bowers' vile belief.  In John 8:44, which Bowers cited in one of his social media posts, Jesus says to a group of Jews:

"You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him."  

I have no desire to attack Christian beliefs. But the fact remains that the New Testament contains statements such as the following which openly blame Jews for the death of Jesus. These are the roots of anti-semitism.

• John 7:1: "The Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill him [Jesus]."
• John 8:34: "Jesus answered them [the Jews]...' you look for an opportunity to kill me because there is no place in you for my word.'"
• John 11:53: "So from that day on they [the Jews] planned to put him [Jesus] to death."
• John 19:6: "When the chief priests and the [temple] police saw him [Jesus], they shouted 'Crucify him! Crucify him!' "
• John 19:14: "He [Pilate] said to the Jews: 'Here is your King!' They cried out 'Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!' "
• Matthew 27:20: "Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed."
• Matthew 27:25: "Then the people as a whole answered, 'His blood be upon us and our children.'" This is perhaps the worst of all, extending guilt to all the descendants of the biblical Jews.

Mainstream Christian thinking has evolved on this matter, becoming more Jew-friendly. I know this because I was raised as a Christian, baptized and confirmed in the Episcopal faith. I was never taught that Jews are children of Satan, or killers of Christ, or inferior to Christians. In fact, quotes like the ones listed above were never mentioned at all. Biblical scholars offer various explanations for the anti-Jewish language in the New Testament, implying that it is not quite what it appears to be. James Carroll, in his excellent book Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews explores this in detail.

Yet these harsh words remain in the Bible, which some still believe is the literal word of God and the ultimate moral authority. It is no wonder this hatred is still with us today.

Except where noted above, all biblical quotes are from The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Fully Revised Fourth Edition, New Revised Standard Version. For those who prefer the King James version, John 8:44 reads, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do: he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him."