Peter Gomes has spent six chapters of his book entitled The Good Book trying to convince the reader that some people have used God’s book to do evil in this world.  As a country, we banned alcohol consumption on Scripture that did not exist.  As a country [especially southern slaveholders] we tried to justify the practice of chattel slavery.  As a faith, he states that Christians use scripture to justify Anti-Semitism.*

Gomes says Christians have done that very thing.

In the previous post “Say it Ain’t So” [November 27] Gomes provides evidence that Anti-Semitism is alive and well in the Christian community. 

In this post, we will ask how can that be?

Recently, I have hungered to return to Bible reading on a regular basis, but I have not felt comfortable with how I have been reading the Bible.  Bible reading plans are ok; they push you through The Text at a pace that is comfortable.  The Bible can be broken down into small parts and one can easily read through all of the Scriptures in one year.  But what is lacking is a deeper understanding.  Over the years, I have been more motivated to meet my daily goal than always understanding the The Text.  Some Scripture bears closer reading, serious interpretation, even meditation.  A Bible plan reader can read the words but can forget to ask what do the words mean.  Helps are available but often they are quite simple, written to express a little extra meaning but not too much.  After all, most of us are not trained theologians, people who have been to seminary to learn the art of hermeneutics** or the skills of exegesis.***

How does this all relate to Anti-Semitism?  Gomes says that Christians who dislike Jews should not turn to the Bible for support.

Since the Second World War and the massive extermination of six million Jews by the Third Reich, much has been done to dispel the idea that any human being could justify this mass murder.  No one in the Christian community would state that Hitler helped rid the world of people who were responsible for the death of Jesus Christ.  That statement is just too horrible.  But the confusing facts are there.  Some Christians point to the idea that the Jews who demanded Christ be crucified did do just that.  Some Christians [like Bailey Smith from the previous post] think that God does not answer the prayer of the Jew because they don’t recognize Jesus as Messiah.  Some Christians know of the violent acts perpetrated by Christians on Jews [even though some refuse to own that history].  Gomes points to the German soldiers who were Christians at Auschwitz, conducting the work of extermination and taking weekly communion in the Catholic parish church.

Confusing, very, very confusing…

Gomes writes that Christians need to have a serious, close study of the Bible.  Anti-Judaism was evident in the New Testament but one has to ask why.  Taking Scripture out of context allows all kinds of meanings to emerge, but trying to read Scripture in context helps one to understand the source of Anti-Semitism.  Jesus was a Jew and He did not come to earth to provide an impetus for the destruction of His own people.  He came to earth to show that the Jewish status quo was wrong.  The Jewish religious leadership sought to maintain their status and power over their people rather than inspire their people to lead devout, God-fearing lives.   They put their own power-hungry need above God and Jesus knew that.  Was He critical of their role in Jewish society?  Yes He was, but a careful, thoughtful interpretation of Scripture can find nothing that would say that Jesus wanted Jewish leaders exterminated.  He just wanted them to do their jobs correctly.  He wanted them to lead their followers to God.

One turns to Paul and his comments regarding Jewish regulations and the needs of Christian converts.  Did he disagree that some Jewish laws [e.g. circumcision] should not apply to the Christian?  Yes he did, but does that mean he advocates that Jews were wrong in their thinking?  Gomes writes “the Torah of the Jews was, and remains, the way of salvation for them.  Paul’s argument is that the cross of Jesus is to Gentiles what the Torah is to the Jews and that both are means to salvation and righteousness…. Paul’s good news was never intended to be bad news for Jewish people” [Gomes 116-117].   Paul never argued that Jews had to embrace Christ but he did argue that God spoke to the Jews through the Torah.  God also speaks to Christians through the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  

Of course, my discussion of these matters is just cursory.  Biblical scholars have been applying their learned approaches to Scripture for some time now, especially since the Second World War.  Gomes says that they have worked very hard to get back to the root of Anti-Semitism in the Christian faith.  My discussion does not do their work justice. 

Within Chapter Six of Gomes’ book he has a subtitle.  His title for Chapter Six is “The Bible and Anti-Semitism” but one of his subtitles is “Could We Have Got It Wrong?”  That’s exactly what he is saying in his discussion.  When it comes to the idea that Christians should have Anti-Semitic feelings, yes we have got it wrong.  “Paul would be appalled at Bailey Smith or with anyone else who said that the prayers of the Jew did not reach the ears of God.  What utterly silly and profoundly unbiblical nonsense” [119].

People have always and will always be prone to act on such nonsense as we see in our world today.  Some opinionated “talking head” on television expresses his idea as if it is news and people change their minds.  A politician spews hatred and leads people to commit violent acts.  Websites promulgate falsehoods that support certain viewpoints and those viewpoints provide mental foundation for human behavior.

Too often, people do not take the time to examine the information that flows their way.  They read and they react.  Would all Christians be better served by reading God’s word in a more careful manner?  It matters what the New Testament writers meant, what they meant in the timeframe when they said it.  We cannot take writings from so long ago and just forget the context. 

There are those that posit that God’s word is timeless and I agree with that to a degree.  But I also know that God’s word can be misused by individuals who have an agenda.  We have seen that too much in human history.  It is hard to own up to this fact, but to ignore it is to turn our backs on how human beings can do gruesome things to other human beings. 

Yes, in my opinion, one of the most deadly uses of God’s word is when it is combined with people who are powerful and people who are ignorant.

*Let us not lose sight that Gomes was a homosexual and he will continue his theme of the misuse of “The Good Book” in future discussions of women in the church and homosexuals in the church.

**hermeneutics is the methodology of interpreting biblical texts, a discipline that deals with the art of understanding the word of the Bible.

***exegesis is the detailed analysis of the biblical text, focusing on its context and its historical background.