Really easy? Not that easy, because you have not answered my question. It means the contradiction remains. Jesus was no threat to the Temple system. Who said so, the Hellenistic Gentiles who wrote the gospels? Why should I believe in Jewish haters who had a mind only to establish the church of Paul? If the guys who wrote the NT, were Jewish, I myself would quit being Jewish.
Well Ben, I won’t hold you to it. Matthew Mark and John were Jewish. Luke was probably from Antioch and thought to be Greek (
Hellenistic Gentile). You got 1 out of four.
Some Christian quarters down the centuries have interpreted the New Testament as a justification for anti-semetism, and even the behaviour of SOME crazy Catholics against Jews is rather embarrassing, but I don’t think there are any formal Church teachings that encourage this grave sin, and if I am wrong, tell me what encyclical or papal bull in which it occurs. Built in scriptural anti-semitism is a complicated issue and should be examined with honesty.
The Gospel of John has been described both as the most Jewish and the most anti- Jewish of the Gospels. This duality is reflected in the present work where, starting by looking at the Jewish liturgical year, the author seeks to suggest causes for the conflict as well as offering ways of overcoming any resulting sense of anti-semitism.
http://www.loyolapress.com/judaism-and-the-jews-in-the-gospel-of-john.htm
*4. As the sacred synod searches into the mystery of the Church, it remembers the bond that spiritually ties the people of the New Covenant to Abraham’s stock. *
*Thus the Church of Christ acknowledges that, according to God’s saving design, the beginnings of her faith and her election are found already among the Patriarchs, Moses and the prophets. She professes that all who believe in Christ-Abraham’s sons according to faith (6)-are included in the same Patriarch’s call, and likewise that the salvation of the Church is mysteriously foreshadowed by the chosen people’s exodus from the land of bondage. The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament through the people with whom God in His inexpressible mercy concluded the Ancient Covenant. Nor can she forget that she draws sustenance from the root of that well-cultivated olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild shoots, the Gentiles.(7) *
*Indeed, the Church believes that by His cross Christ, Our Peace, reconciled Jews and Gentiles. making both one in Himself.(8) *
*The Church keeps ever in mind the words of the Apostle about his kinsmen: “theirs is the sonship and the glory and the covenants and the law and the worship and the promises; theirs are the fathers and from them is the Christ according to the flesh” (Rom. 9:4-5), the Son of the Virgin Mary. She also recalls that the Apostles, the Church’s main-stay and pillars, as well as most of the early disciples who proclaimed Christ’s Gospel to the world, sprang from the Jewish people. *
*As Holy Scripture testifies, Jerusalem did not recognize the time of her visitation,(9) nor did the Jews in large number, accept the Gospel; indeed not a few opposed its spreading.(10) Nevertheless, God holds the Jews most dear for the sake of their Fathers; He does not repent of the gifts He makes or of the calls He issues-such is the witness of the Apostle.(11) In company with the Prophets and the same Apostle, the Church awaits that day, known to God alone, on which all peoples will address the Lord in a single voice and “serve him shoulder to shoulder” (Soph. 3:9).(12) *
*Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so great, this sacred synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies as well as of fraternal dialogues. *
*True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ;(13) still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures. All should see to it, then, that in catechetical work or in the preaching of the word of God they do not teach anything that does not conform to the truth of the Gospel and the spirit of Christ. *
Furthermore, in her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel’s spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.
Besides, as the Church has always held and holds now, Christ underwent His passion and death freely, because of the sins of men and out of infinite love, in order that all may reach salvation. It is, therefore, the burden of the Church’s preaching to proclaim the cross of Christ as the sign of God’s all-embracing love and as the fountain from which every grace flows.
NOSTRA AETATE
Shalom
That might not sound like the end of the world to you, but you will be missing out on the Eucharist, our gift of heaven on earth. I now understand you are not an atheist. Thanks for clearing that up.
