Monday, March 5, 2018

"The Jews"


This wall is all that is left of the Temple in Jerusalem (the golden dome is a mosque) 
In John's Gospel when Jesus drives the merchants out of the Temple area (2:13-25) the author says, "The Jews said to him 'What sign can you show us for doing this?'"  John does not mean  that all the Jews present challenged Jesus.  He uses "the Jews" to designate the Jewish leaders who oppose Jesus, and whose opposition will grow and grow as the story continues.  If we don't know that John's use of "the Jews" almost always refers to the Jewish leadership, we will blame a lot of bad things that happen on the whole Jewish people, not just on their leaders.

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