(Author unknown / anonymous, autotranslated to English)
Jewish Guilt and the Label of a Deicidal People
The killing of Jesus is related to his humanity, not to his divinity.
To label the Jews as deicides is the same mistake Catholics (and Orthodox) make when they call the Virgin Mary "Mother of God" (since a council held in Ephesus in 431); she is the mother of Jesus in relation to his humanity, not his divinity. Similarly, the killing of the Lord is related to his humanity, not his divinity. God cannot be put to death.
Modern Christianity has wrongly decided to no longer consider the Jews responsible for the death of Christ.
It confuses responsibility with the consequences of responsibility, it confuses judgment on the part of men with judgment on the part of God. The responsibility of the Jews is recognized by Scripture, Matthew 27:25, Zechariah 26:15. 12:10, and the Lord on the cross prayed to the Father, saying, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” He asked for forgiveness, which is the opposite of denying responsibility and the existence of guilt. — The guilt of the Jews, or at least that of their religious leaders, in connection with the killing of Jesus is expressly affirmed by the apostle Peter (Acts 5:30) and by the martyr Stephen (Acts 7:52). It is noteworthy that Zechariah 12:10 attributes to the Jews the act of “piercing” the Lord; while the Romans did so physically, the moral responsibility for the act lies with the Jews (Matthew 27).
Recognizing the guilt of the Jews is not a source of antisemitism for the true Christian.
It is commonly claimed that acknowledging the guilt of the Jews is a source of antisemitism, but this completely ignores the true Christian spirit according to Holy Scripture.
1. The apostle Paul states that the Jews displease God and that God's wrath has come upon them (1 Thessalonians 2:15-16), but elsewhere he repeatedly affirms his great love for his people (Romans 9:1-5; 10:1; 11:28b).
2. The apostle Peter, who affirms the guilt of the Jews in Acts 5:30, immediately afterward (5:31) says that Jesus, thus put to death, was exalted by God to be 'prince and savior,' in order to bring repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins. Far from stirring up animosity, Peter presents Jesus as the Savior who takes away sins.
3. Affirming the guilt of the Jews does not allow one to consider oneself superior or better than them. On the contrary, Scripture often emphasizes the common guilt of all humankind. The inscription "King of the Jews," affixed to the cross and written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin—the three major languages of the time—testified to this shared guilt. Even though the Roman Pilate washed his hands to affirm his own innocence and shift the blame onto the Jews (Matt. 27:24), this did not absolve him of his own responsibility because of his office and title as governor (Matt. 27:2 and Luke 3:1; Acts 4:27). The nations clearly bear some responsibility for the Lord's death.
4. God considers both Jews and Gentiles guilty before Him (Rom. 1:18-32 for the Gentiles; Rom. 3:17-29 for the Jews), and then He shows mercy to both (Rom. 11:32).
5. The parable of the two indebted slaves in Matt. 18:23-35 shows that when one is guilty, one should not accuse others who are equally guilty, but to a different degree.
6. To despise the Jews for their role in the Lord's death is also to ignore that God will grant them full forgiveness and complete restoration when they repent (which will certainly happen; many prophecies speak of it), while at that time the Gentiles will fall under God's judgment.
