Pain and Polemic: Anti-Judaism in the Gospels »

Anti-Judaism in the Gospels, George M. Smiga. An examination and evaluation of the anti-Jewish polemic in the Gospels as reflected in the scholarly debate over the last 15 years.

Library Journal

Responding to a consciousness-raising look at Christian scripture from the viewpoint of a Jewish scholar at a Jewish-Catholic colloquium, Smiga courageously investigates the evaluations of Jews and Judaism in the gospels. He finds Mark combining subordinating polemic and silence, Matthew combining abrogating polemic and violence, Luke-Acts also containing abrogating polemic but with sophistication, and John having an abrogating anti-Judaism that universalizes ``the Jews'' to any persons who deny Christ. Smiga suggests that Christians need to repudiate all such polemic and to discern ``what in the scriptures is gospel and what is to be understood as conditioned by the circumstances and prejudices of the original authors.'' This is an important book for religion collections.