![\"Gospel](\"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/kastilometes4.jpg\")
<\/a>Scholars correctly point out that the term \u201cthe Jews\u201d in John should be translated \u201cthe Jewish authorities\u201d or simply \u201cthe authorities.\u201d Despite his language, John is not indicting all Jews, but those responsible for Jesus\u2019 rejection and for his own community\u2019s rejection. To fail to clearly recognize the historical circumstances and the limited intention of these passages is to perpetuate the long history of Christian anti-Semitism. What do Christians, who take the Bible literally and absolutely, do with passages that say that Jews are children of the devil? But recognizing John\u2019s late first-century historical context enables us to understand why he said what he said even as it delegitimates continuing to say what he said.<\/p>\nThus John, like Matthew, comes from a time when conflict between non-Christian Jews and Christian Jews was intensifying. What historians often call the parting of the ways\u201d between Judaism and what was becoming early Christianity was well under way.<\/p>\n
John does not preserve as much of the memory of the pre-Easter Jesus as the synoptics do. But its use of archetypal imagery to testify to the significance of Jesus is magnificent and powerful. For millions of Christians ever since, Jesus has been \u201cthe Word\u201d become flesh, the Light of the World, the Bread of Life, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Much of John\u2019s language speaks to the deepest of human yearnings. In the gospel\u2019s final scene, the post-Easter Jesus speaks words that are also central to the synoptics: \u201cFOLLOW ME\u201d. Are you ready to follow Jesus?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John\u2019s language about \u201cthe Jews\u201d is even more condemnatory that Matthew\u2019s. Consistently, Jesus\u2019 opponents are called \u201cthe Jews.\u201d They are \u201cfrom below,\u201d from \u201cthis world\u201d. They are children of the devil: You are from your father the devil, and you … Continue reading