by Brown Street » December 14th, 2006, 1:06 am
black wrote:
"explain how jews being blamed for killing jesus is the root of antisemitism, i just don't see how that could be"
Well, it goes somethin kinda like this: The Jews were balmed for killing Christ; in some places, they were known as "Christ Killers." Now, to Christians, Jesus Christ was GOD Incarnate; The Son of God who came to earth as a human to save manknind from their sins, and subsequently, from the eternal fires of hell.
Of course, Christians were taught to love God above all; especially in the Roman Catholic west (Western Europe) there were Church approved devotions to Christ that were almost wholly based on emotional love and sentimentality; these types of devotions, (although others, too, and Church Services from the east [Eastern Europe] mentioned Jews in very unflattering terms as being the killers of Christ among other things . . . ) as well as certain Church services, brought people to a sort of fever pitch, if it can be described as such, in their love for Christ-and, then, here you have the Jews-"those jews-who killed Christ-they killed that which I love and admire most in the world!" AN analogy would be if you could blame a whole entire people for killing your beloved father-I suppose hatreds have started that way in war-"the dirty japs killed my dad," so, therefore, "I hate the bastards!"
But, the Jews had killed CHRIST-GOD, which is even MORE fille dwith emothin and feeling than the death of a father! This "Christ Killer" comples was not confined to simply those Jews who had been present and called for the death of Christ-the "guilt" was extended onm to the whole race of jews, they became an "accursed race" for their murder of Christ; it was decided by those wrong minded Chirstians that, therefore, the Jews should suffer for eternity-beginning here on earth, at the hand of Christians, for their murder of Christ.
Of course, today, simply because of the way things are, because of short memories, because of interest in nothing that is more complicated than a two minute song or a 30 minute television program, it is hard to understand how the thought that the Jews killed Christ became the basis for two thousand years of hatred and persecution of the Jews!
What these wrong minded Christians truly failed to understand was that, in the economy of our salvation, as decreed by the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, One in Essence an Indivisible, Christ indeed HAD to suffer an earhtly death. The Jews who killed Christ (and of course there are those who say,"no, no it was the Romans!") were acting as an agent of God, and did the Will of God-if Christ had not died, things would be so very much different today! So, in essence, those who punish the Jews for "killing Christ" are working against the Will of God, and against the commandments of God, and against the Love of God.
SO, you see, the thought that the Jews were the "Christ Killers" did indeed become the basis for European Anti-Semitism. There were earlier and later varieties that had nothing to do with Christianity, but the main body of beliefs and acts defined today as "anti-semitism" spring from this.
As the Semitic peoples are principally made up of the Jews and the Arabs, it has struck me that Arabs who engage in Anti-Semitism are, in essence, practicing a form of self-hatred! They are Semites, too! Unfortunately, the Arabs have spread thier Anti-Semitism along with Islam, making it seem that hatred of Jews is a sort of a requirement for being a Moslem, when it certainly is not!