Jesus Was a Jew, Not an Anti-Semite

In “A Faithful Catholic Indicts His Own Religion” (Jan. 21), a speech of Jesus’ is referred to by James Carroll as an “anti-Jewish text,” and the author of the article also claims that all four New Testament Gospels separate out “the Jews” as opponents of Jesus. Context being everything, I would like to point out that while Jesus’ opponents are accurately reported to be Jews, Jesus himself was a Jew, as was John, the author of this account. In this passage, Jesus rebukes fellow Jews for their religious hypocrisy. The effect would be similar to an American dressing down his fellow citizens for their lack of patriotism.

While there is no doubt that this passage has been abominably used during the course of history in anti-Semitic ways, it is unfair to place the blame on the original speaker or on the speech, rather than where it rightly belongs: on those guilty of a sorry exegesis of the words of a 1st century Jewish man.

JESSICA J. BARBER

La Mirada