Certainly all Jews were not guilty of the crimes of the passion in a personal way, and certainly none today. But I’ll discuss that later.
As for “deicide,” Aquinas
discusses it thusly:
"Among the Jews some were elders, and others of lesser degree. Now according to the author of De Qq. Nov. et Vet. Test., qu. lxvi, the elders, who were called “rulers, knew,” as did also the devils, “that He was the Christ promised in the Law: for they saw all the signs in Him which the prophets said would come to pass: but they did not know the mystery of His Godhead.” Consequently the Apostle says: “If they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.” It must, however, be understood that their ignorance did not excuse them from crime, because it was, as it were, affected ignorance. For they saw manifest signs of His Godhead; yet they perverted them out of hatred and envy of Christ; neither would they believe His words, whereby He avowed that He was the Son of God. Hence He Himself says of them (John 15:22): “If I had not come, and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.” And afterwards He adds (John 15:24): “If I had not done among them the works that no other man hath done, they would not have sin.” And so the expression employed by Job (21:14) can be accepted on their behalf: “(Who) said to God: depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.”
But those of lesser degree–namely, the common folk–who had not grasped the mysteries of the Scriptures, did not fully comprehend that He was the Christ or the Son of God. For although some of them believed in Him, yet the multitude did not; and if they doubted sometimes whether He was the Christ, on account of the manifold signs and force of His teaching, as is stated John 7:31,41, nevertheless they were deceived afterwards by their rulers, so that they did not believe Him to be the Son of God or the Christ. Hence Peter said to them: “I know that you did it through ignorance, as did also your rulers”–namely, because they were seduced by the rulers."
So…the common folk of “the crowd” definitely aren’t guilty of “deicide,” because they didn’t know He was the Christ so they were ignorant (though they still committed a grave injustice at the urging of the chief priests).
Pilate is generally thought of being guilty mainly of complacency, but was certainly even more ignorant of the mystery of God Incarnate and can’t be held accountable for any “deicide”…and the ignorant soldiers simply believing that they were executing another criminal they had never heard of were even less guilty (though some were undoubtedly very cruel and torturous as a seperate sin)
This leaves Judas and the Jewish Leaders.
The Jewish Leaders, learned in the Law and Prophets almost certainly knew Jesus to be the Christ. Any ignorance was culpable. The chief priests were at least guilty of “messiah-cide”…but they probably didnt know that the messiah was God Himself incarnate…though they saw the signs and so that ignorance is culpable too. They can be somewhat said to have committed a “deicide” if such a thing can truly be said of anyone.
Judas is in my mind the most guilty (but Aquinas may disagree and argue it was the elders; see
here). Judas could not plead any sort of ignorance about Jesus being Christ or God. Judas turned him over for money, not necessarily directly causing or intending death. He also had a part of “deicide”.
I would say due to the act of killing Christ being a very diffuse one with many players…“deicide” cannot be pinned on any one person or group…but the jewish elders and judas, I believe, can each be blamed with a sort of “half-deicide” each, which adds up to the full. The act of judas colluding with the elders was deicide…though because several were involved, no one can bear the full title individual to that crime.
