Are the Jewish People Responsible for Killing Jesus?: Part One
A Historical and Theological Look at Christian Antisemitism
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) gives the following definition of antisemitism:
Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.1
It then provides a list of some examples of antisemitism, such as denying the Holocaust, making dehumanizing or stereotypical allegations about Jewish people, applying double standards by requiring of Israel behavior not demanded of any other democratic nation, and using symbols or images associated with classic antisemitism, such as claiming the Jews killed Jesus, to characterize Jewish people or Israelis.2
Sadly, the antisemitic trope referring to Jewish people as “Christ-killers,” accusing the Jewish people of deicide (murdering God), goes back thousands of years. It first surfaced in the early church—after the death of the Jewish apostles, as more and more Gentiles joined the church—and has brought unimaginable suffering and persecution against the Jewish people throughout church history.
The Charge of Deicide
Deicide is the charge that the Jewish people as a whole bear eternal responsibility for the death of Jesus.3 Church writings as early as the second century began to make such claims. The church father Hippolytus (160–235), in his volume Expository Treatise Against the Jews, referred to the Jewish people as a perverse race, guilty of deicide, and deserving of perpetual slavery. In the third century, Cyprian, in his Testimonies Against the Jews, made similar statements.4
The Cappadocian church father, St. Gregory of Nyssa (331–396), described the Jewish people as “slayers of the Lord, murderers of the prophets, enemies and haters of God, adversaries of grace, advocates of the devil, . . . a congregation of demons, sinners, wicked men, haters of goodness!” (emphasis added).
Ambrose, who served as bishop of Milan from 374 to 397, likewise accused the Jewish people of deicide:
“[Jews are] the most worthless of all men. They are lecherous, greedy, rapacious. They are perfidious murderers of Christ. They worship the devil. Their religion is a sickness. The Jews are the odious assassins of Christ and for killing God there is no expiation possible, no indulgence or pardon. Christians may never cease vengeance, and the Jew must live in servitude forever”5 (emphasis added).
The bishop of Constantinople, John Chrysostom (345–405), venerated as one of the greatest church fathers and referred to as the “golden-mouthed” preacher, wrote terrible comments about the Jewish people, including charging them with deicide, in a series of eight sermons entitled, “Against the Jews.”
In the first sermon alone, Chrysostom said the following:
- He referred to the synagogue as a “brothel,” a “den of robbers,” and “a lodging for wild beasts.”
- He implored Christians, “We must hate both them [Jewish people] and their synagogue.”
- He wrote that the Jewish people “committed the crime of crimes, . . . they killed their Master, . . . the slaying of Christ” (emphasis added).
- He called the Jews “an untamed calf” and wrote of them, “Although such beasts are unfit for work, they are fit for killing. And this is what happened to the Jews: while they were making themselves unfit for work, they grew fit for slaughter.”6
Such evil words spoken by church leaders twisted the words of the New Testament, penned by Jewish authors themselves, and led to the widespread, church-sanctioned persecution, torture, and murder of the Jewish people throughout history.
Christian Persecution of the Jewish People
The story of the church and the Jewish people is a long, often tragic one. During the Middle Ages, the church ordered Jewish people to choose between baptism and expulsion, torture, or death. It passed laws forbidding Jewish people to work decent jobs, since “assassins of Christ” should not be allowed to prosper. It forced Jewish people to listen to degrading public sermons in an attempt to convert them. It kidnapped their children so they would be raised as Christians and rounded up and beat Jewish people as a highlight of Easter celebrations. Then, in the murderous fanaticism of the Crusades, the slogan began: “Kill a Jew and save your soul!”7
During the year of the First Crusade, 1096, historians estimate that the church killed 10,000 Jewish people in the first six months alone. Pope Urban II instructed the Crusaders to march to the Holy Land and kill all “enemies of God,” Jewish people and Muslims, offering them the choice of baptism or death. One of the cruelest events occurred in Jerusalem in 1099, when the Crusaders rounded up the Jewish people in the city, locked them in a synagogue, and set it on fire. While the Jewish people burned to death inside, the Crusaders marched around the synagogue while singing the hymn, “Christ, We Adore Thee.”8
During the Spanish Inquisition, the church in Spain forcefully expelled all Jewish people from the country (1492) who refused to convert. Jewish people who did convert—called “Conversos” or the more derogatory “Marranos”—were treated as second-class citizens. And if the church suspected that they still practiced any of their Jewish customs or did not truly convert, they were subject to torture and death. Historians estimate that from the fifteenth century until 1808, the church in Spain burned at the stake more than 30,000 Conversos.9
And lest one think these crimes against the Jewish people were carried out by the Roman Catholic church alone, here are the words of the leader of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther, calling for violence against the Jewish people in his treatise, On the Jews and Their Lies in 1543:
Firstly, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. Secondly, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. For they pursue in them the same aims as in their synagogues. Instead, they might be lodged under a roof or a barn, like the gypsies. . . . Thirdly, they should be deprived of their prayer books and Talmuds in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught. Fourthly, their rabbis must be forbidden under threat of death to teach any more. . . . Fifthly, I advise safe conduct on highways be abolished completely for the Jews. Sixthly, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them and put aside for safekeeping. Seventh, I recommend putting a fail, an axe, a hoe, a spade . . . into the hands of young, strong Jews and let them earn their bread by the sweat of their brow.10
The Nazis later used Luther’s words to defend their atrocities against the Jewish people during the Holocaust. It is no wonder Jewish people struggle with the idea of a Jewish person believing in Jesus as Messiah, since it was in His name that such atrocities have been carried out against their people throughout church history.
Antisemitism Awareness Act
While the charge of deicide in the churches today is not as widespread as it has been in history, its effects still linger. The IHRA definition of antisemitism, most notably the inclusion of the statement “claims of Jews killing Jesus” as an example of antisemitism, caused a firestorm of controversy recently when the United States House of Representatives passed the Antisemitism Awareness Act, a bill that would require universities to consider the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism when determining whether a specific allegation was racially motivated against the Jewish people.11
Some Christians have raised concerns about this clause, thinking it will make quoting parts of the New Testament illegal. However, this is not the case at all. The IHRA definition simply states it would be antisemitic to label Israelis or all Jewish people today as killers of Jesus, “or Christ-killers,” as they have been called throughout history.
What Does the Bible Say about Deicide?
The Bible makes clear that some first-century Jewish people and religious leaders condemned Jesus to death and turned Him over to Rome for crucifixion, but it in no way blames the death of Jesus on all Jewish people throughout all time. Jesus himself claims his responsibility alone to lay his life down: “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative” (John 10:17–18). Additionally, the New Testament affirms God’s continued covenant with, and love for, the Jewish people (Romans 9:4–5; 11:25–26). We will discuss these biblical arguments in part two of this article series.
As believers in the Jewish Messiah, we must show Jewish people what true faith in Jesus produces—a people that share Jesus’ love for his Jewish brethren. While many professing Christians in church history cursed Jewish people, many also loved Jewish people and had the heart of the apostle Paul, who wished that he himself could be a curse if it meant the salvation of his people Israel (Romans 9:1–2). We must show Jewish people that faith in the Jewish Messiah results in a church that stands against antisemitism, affirms Israel’s right to exist, repudiates the church’s shameful antisemitic past, and affirms God’s never-ending love and covenant with His chosen people (Jeremiah 31:35–37; Psalm 105:8–11; Romans 9:4–5, 11:28–29).
In part two, we will make the biblical case for philo-semitism, a love for the Jewish people, and show how some verses have been wrongly interpreted throughout church history to justify antisemitism.
by Jennifer Miles
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1 “Working definition of antisemitism,” IHRA, accessed January 23, 2025, https://holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definition-antisemitism.
2 Ibid.
3 “Deicide,” American Jewish Committee, accessed January 23, 2024, https://www.ajc.org/translatehate/deicide.
4 Thomas Fretwell, Why the Jewish People? Understanding Replacement Theology & Antisemitism (UK: Ezra Foundation Press, 2021) 54–55.
5 David Turner, “The Jewish Problem: Adversus Judeaos (Against the Jews),” The Jerusalem Post, September 26, 2014, https://www.jpost.com/blogs/the-jewish-problem—from-anti-judaism-to-anti-semitism/the-jewish-problem-adversus-judeaos-against-the-jews-376333.
6 John Chrysostom, “Against the Jews: Homily 1,” https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/chrysostom_adversus_judaeos_01_homily1.htm.
7 Michael L. Brown, Our Hands Are Stained With Blood: The Tragic Story of the “Church” and the Jewish People (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 1990), 11–12.
8 Fretwell, 62–63.
9 Brown, Our Hands, 78.
10 Martin Luther, On the Jews and Their Lies, from Luther’s Works, Vol. 47 in: The Christian in Society IV, ed. Franklin Sherman (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971) 268–272.
11 Susan Michael, “Does the House Bill Opposing Antisemitism Outlaw Parts of the New Testament?” ICEJ, September 10, 2024, https://icejusa.org/2024/09/10/house-bill-opposing-antisemitism-outlaw-new-testament/.
