Benedict's 'Jesus' and the Jews 
OPINION, March 10, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- The second volume of Pope Benedict XVI's "Jesus of Nazareth" has already created a splash. Even before the book's release, numerous Jewish leaders lavished effusive praise on Benedict for the volume's exculpation of the Jews in Jesus' crucifixion.
But is anything new here? Has Benedict broken any ground regarding how Catholics need to understand their faith and relations with their Jewish elder brothers and sisters? After all, the 1965 Vatican II document Nostra Aetate insisted that "what happened in [Christ's] passion cannot be blamed upon all the Jews then living without distinction nor upon the Jews of today." And in 1985, another Catholic document, "Notes on the Correct Way to Present the Jews and Judaism in Preaching and Catechesis in the Roman Catholic Church," went further, stating that "Christian sinners are more to blame for the death of Christ than those few Jews who brought it about -- they indeed 'knew not what they did.'"
In our age, however, media and context are everything. The sad truth is that few Catholics read Catholic theological pronouncements, and fewer still could tell you what Nostra Aetate says. But because of both the media hoopla and its deliberate analysis, Benedict's book gives these Catholic teachings significantly greater prominence.
Not only is the reach greater, but Benedict provides an extensive rationale and a close biblical analysis of why Jews bear no blame for Jesus' death.
In his reading of the Gospels and Catholic theology, it is clear that no one should be blamed for Jesus' death, since, as he argues, the crucifixion was necessary for God's plan of universal redemption. In Benedict's keen hermeneutic, even the hitherto toxic cry of the Jewish mob, "His blood be upon us and our children" (Matthew 27:25), is a plea for purification and salvation because that is what Jesus' blood signifies in Christian teachings. It is a cry for reconciliation, not of vengeance or admission of guilt.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin Meets Pope Benedict XVI
To read more, please visit: www.cjcuc.com or www.forward.com/articles/135991/#ixzz1GCjnEQWi
Rabbi Dr. Eugene Korn is American director of Ohr Torah Stone's Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation in Efrat and Jerusalem.
OPINION, March 10, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- The second volume of Pope Benedict XVI's "Jesus of Nazareth" has already created a splash. Even before the book's release, numerous Jewish leaders lavished effusive praise on Benedict for the volume's exculpation of the Jews in Jesus' crucifixion. But is anything new here? Has Benedict broken any ground regarding how Catholics need to understand their faith and relations with their Jewish elder brothers and sisters? After all, the 1965 Vatican II document Nostra Aetate insisted that "what happened in [Christ's] passion cannot be blamed upon all the Jews then living without distinction nor upon the Jews of today." And in 1985, another Catholic document, "Notes on the Correct Way to Present the Jews and Judaism in Preaching and Catechesis in the Roman Catholic Church," went further, stating that "Christian sinners are more to blame for the death of Christ than those few Jews who brought it about -- they indeed 'knew not what they did.'"
In our age, however, media and context are everything. The sad truth is that few Catholics read Catholic theological pronouncements, and fewer still could tell you what Nostra Aetate says. But because of both the media hoopla and its deliberate analysis, Benedict's book gives these Catholic teachings significantly greater prominence.
Not only is the reach greater, but Benedict provides an extensive rationale and a close biblical analysis of why Jews bear no blame for Jesus' death.
In his reading of the Gospels and Catholic theology, it is clear that no one should be blamed for Jesus' death, since, as he argues, the crucifixion was necessary for God's plan of universal redemption. In Benedict's keen hermeneutic, even the hitherto toxic cry of the Jewish mob, "His blood be upon us and our children" (Matthew 27:25), is a plea for purification and salvation because that is what Jesus' blood signifies in Christian teachings. It is a cry for reconciliation, not of vengeance or admission of guilt.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin Meets Pope Benedict XVI
To read more, please visit: www.cjcuc.com or www.forward.com/articles/135991/#ixzz1GCjnEQWi
Rabbi Dr. Eugene Korn is American director of Ohr Torah Stone's Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation in Efrat and Jerusalem.
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