Anti-Judaism in Early Christianity: Paul and the Gospels

9. The Jews and the Death of Jesus in Acts

150 Paul and the Gospels elders and the priests, perceiving what great evil they had done to themselves, began to lament and to say,'Woe on our sins, the judgment and the end of Jerusalem is drawn nigh'" (7:25). If in Luke 23:35 the echo from Ps. 22:7 (LXX21:8) is intended then the watchingand the mocking go together and the contrast between people and rulers in the RSV is incorrect: "The people (laos) who stood by watching mocked him, and also the rulers . .. ." Byputting together the darkness and the rending of the Temple curtain,Luke makes the reference to the sealing of the fate of the Temple even clearer than in Mark.Finally, after Jesus' death (in contrast to the friends and women who also saw),"the mul­ titudes" (ochloi) who had done this work and witnessed Jesus' death went sadlyhome to their punishment,beating their breasts (23:48­49). It is very difficult to reach a decision with respect to the textual variant in 23:34a. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." On MS evidence alone it was not part of Luke's text, and many textual criticsand interpreters have come to thisconclusion. I believe it is authenticfor the following reasons: (1)There isa recognized motive for its omission in the anti­Judaism of the later scribes;64 (2) it is deliberately echoed in Acts 7:60; and, most important, (3)it is the lectio difficilior.^ It completely contradicts the tenor of the Lukan passion narrative, where responsibility for Jesus' death is put on the people of Israel as a whole. It contradicts all of the predictions throughout the gospel of the fall of Jerusalem which Luke knows to have occurred. It contradicts the end of Acts, where the Jewish people have finally been rejected. It isone of the many problematic contradictions and tensions in the Lukanpassion narrativesand Luke­Actsas a wholewhich cry out for explanation. Conclusion Is the Lukan passion narrative anti­Judaic? In its present form of course it is. We saw how in Acts the Jewish people shifted from the status of being friends of the Jerusalem church to being enemies of Paul. The same pattern can be seen in the gospel, presumably for the same reason, although the shift does not come until the passion narra­ tive itself. Here theJews assuch, withoutqualification, are held respon­ sible for Jesus' death, and as a result are punished by the fall of Jerusalem. What earlier in the gospel wasa warningcoupled with a call to repentance has in the passion narrative become a prediction, and no repentance is possible.66 Although it is expressed very subtly in the 64 Cf. E.J. Epp, The Theological Tendency of Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis in Acts (Cam­ bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966), 45. 65 On its genuineness cf. G. Schneider, Verleugnung, 186. 66 By using material originallyformulated as the message of the early church to Israel in the present context of a Genile Christian work ending (Acts 28) in the final Anti­Judaism and the Passion Narrative in Luke and Acts 151 gospel, the Jews as such have been irrevocably rejected. There are three charges made against Paul in Acts 21:28, of teaching against the people and the law and the Temple; Luke is guilty of all three, and particularly of "teaching men everywhere against the people." And yet how much of this anti­Judaism is simply a matter of perspective! The question of the readers/hearers addressed is impor­ tant in any discussion of the hermeneutic of anti­Judaism. Thus Gala­ dans is anti­Judaic, attacking the very foundation of Israel in covenant and Torah, whenever it isread byJews or isunderstood to be addressed to Jews; but if it is read exclusively in a Gentile Christian context, both exegetically and hermeneutically, it is not. The synoptic tradition, insofar as it was once addressed to Jews and Jewish Christians is not anti­Judaic; when it isread in a Gentile Christian context, speaking not to but about Jews, it tends to become so. There is also the perspective of time, which is particularly important in the case of Luke. The special Lukan material contains many warnings of a possible national disaster for Israel which call the people to repentance. When this material is read, whether by Luke or by later readers, in the light of what occurred in 66­73 C.E., this threat and warning have turned into mere predic­ tion and become anti...