‘How could the entire Jewish people have been present at this moment to call for the death of Jesus?’
Pope Benedict XVI has personally exonerated Jews in the death of Christ in a new book. Though the Vatican has for decades taught Jews were not responsible for killing Jesus, certain Bible passages have long been thought to lay the blame on Jewish people as a whole. “St Matthew attributes the request for the crucifixion of Jesus to ‘all the people’. But he cannot be stating a historical fact: how could the entire Jewish people have been present at this moment to call for the death of Jesus?” Benedict writes in Jesus of Nazareth. “The historical reality appears in St John and St Mark. The true accusers were those circulating in the temple at the time (the priestly hierarchy).”