Last week, in the lead-up to Easter, I came across an article that commented on the danger of antisemitism found in the preaching of the Gospel, especially with regard to the crucifixion of Jesus. The gist of the text argued that by criticizing “the Jews” as the ones who greedily killed Jesus, Christians are propagating a stereotype and fomenting antisemitic rage against an entire group of people.

As a result, some modern translations have tweaked the text of the Bible, taking away times when it blamed “the Jews” for conspiring to kill Jesus and replacing it with “the Judeans.” It’s a subtle change, but it’s made with the intent to get away from a phrase (“the Jews”) that is commonly used as a slur.

I’m relatively indifferent to tweaking the translation from “Jews” to “Judeans,” and I myself have used the latter phrase when describing the people, though not exclusively. They were, after all, from Judea, so calling them “Judeans” is not inaccurate. That being said, you won’t find me changing the details of the events. They are what they are. Nor will I support changing the translation from “Jews” to “people,” which is another suggestion being bandied about. “People” is far too generic a word and not even close to what John wrote in the original text.

It cannot be denied who conspired to kill Jesus. It was not the Roman Gentiles, but the Jewish leadership. It was not a random group of people, but the leadership of the Jewish citizenry (a people to whom Jesus first came as Messiah–Matthew 15:24). To change “Jews” to “people” strips away a key component in the story of Jesus, one which prophets from Moses to Isaiah to Zechariah made a priority when predicting the coming Messiah, and one which John summarized perfectly at the beginning of his Gospel account:

 He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.

(John 1:11)

The article in question offers “suggestions” for ways to discourage an antisemitic tone when preaching about the Lord’s passion, but those suggestions basically boil down to “stop quoting so much from the Book of John” (who uses “the Jews” many times in his text).

I’m just not gonna do that.

I will focus on the fact that it was the leadership of the Jews, namely the Sadducees and the Sanhedrin they controlled, that plotted and conspired with Judas to see Jesus arrested and killed. It was not, by and large, the average Judean citizen. Those were the ones dropping palm branches at the Lord’s feet when He entered the city (John 12:12-13). It was not the average citizen shouting “give us Barabbas, let Jesus be crucified;” it was the leadership of the people.

That being said, articles like the one in question are frustrating to read because they approach the issue in a backward way. They focus on how others might misuse a perfectly acceptable translation of a perfectly inspired Book. I can’t help how someone may twist and abuse my words, and neither can John. With regards to this subject, I would simply say: (1) the leadership was guilty of those particular sins which led to Jesus’ arrest and death, (2) we are ALL guilty of our own particular sins, for which Jesus died, and (3) bigotry and racism are sinful thoughts and deeds that have no place in Christianity.

If I focus on those three things, then there should be no reason to have to change a translation from “Jews” to “people.” There should be no need to hide the fact that it was the Lord’s own people (the leadership, in particular) who conspired to kill Him. I shouldn’t have to hide that fact because my heart isn’t interested in treating the Jewish ethnic group any worse because of it. Their sins might have put Him on the cross, but my sins kept Him there. We are all guilty (Romans 3:23).

The fact is, the Jews’ Bible, the Hebrew inspired books, the Old Testament, whatever you call it, paints a very judgmental and condemning view of the Jewish people. And in my preaching I will regularly talk about how ignorant or stubborn or idolatrous, etc, “the Jews” were. I do that not because I’m anti-semitic, but because I’m anti-sin. When the Bible paints a picture, it’s not my place to change the colors: Many Gentiles are condemned in scripture (Obediah condemns Edom, for example), and I won’t shy away from calling them out for their crimes too, because that’s what the Bible says of them.

Words of condemnation, even to a whole nation, are found throughout the Bible. If some whacko skinhead nazi wants to twist those words into a manifesto, and use them to hate a whole class of people, that’s on them and they will be held accountable for their sins. God condemns a lot of people in the Bible; He doesn’t hate any of them.

Let’s not change scripture in response to racism and bigotry. Lets instead apply it properly and see just how anti-racist and anti-bigoted the word of God actually is.

~ Matthew