Can anti-semitism be traced to Jesus?
THE research by Jason Mast (Sunday Tribune, April 16) headed “Breaking bread, building bridges” on anti-semitism in the West is most impressive.
However, anti-semitism rears its ugly head in the Bible even before the crucifixion. Some of this bigotry can be traced to Jesus himself. This can be seen in John 8:44 when Jesus denounces the Jews: “Ye are of your father the devil”. In Matthew 23:31-5, Jesus again says: “Ye are the children of them which killed the prophets… Ye serpents, ye generations of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell.”
However, I do not think that Mast’s article is going to upset Christians as much as another academic upset Muslims in India. A few weeks ago, there was such outrage over Pakistani-born Canadian Muslim intellectual Tarek Fatah for writing “the Jew is not my enemy” that they assaulted him at an Urdu festival and there have been calls to behead him. SUGEN PILLAY Verulam