Harvard Ichthus Apologizes For Essay Claiming Jews Deserve Punishment For Killing Jesus

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Harvard Ichthus Apologizes For Essay Claiming Jews Deserve Punishment For Killing Jesus

11/24/13 01:32 PM ET EST

BOSTON (AP) — A Christian journal run by Harvard University students has apologized for publishing and republishing an essay by an anonymous writer who wrote that Jews deserve to be punished by God for killing Jesus.

The Boston Globe reports (http://b.globe.com/19RWKYY ) that the essay was posted on the Harvard Ichthus (IHK'-thoos) website on Wednesday, removed, edited, reposted Friday morning and removed again.

Ichthus editor-in-chief Aaron Gyde posted an apology on the journal's website Saturday on behalf of the journal's editorial board.

Gyde wrote that it wasn't the intent of the writer or the Ichthus to present an essay that could be interpreted as anti-Semitic. Gyde says the blog was intended to communicate the necessity of salvation through Jesus Christ.

The essay was written by an anonymous Jewish convert to Christianity.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/24/harvard-ichthus-jews-jesus_n_4333862.html

[cbayer]

1. I can't find a link to the original article, but did find this brief excerpt:

“We, the Jews, collectively rejected God and hung Him up on a cross to die, and thus we deserved the punishments that were heaped on our heads over the last 2000 years.”

It's hard to understand how they didn't see this as anti-semitic, particularly as it was written by someone who converted from Judaism to Christianity.

[Deep13]

3. What religion was Jesus? I can't seem to remember. nt

[okasha]

5. Besides which,

he was killed by the Romans, for sedition.

[Deep13]

7. If he existed at all. nt

[okasha]

10. Very dead horse.

nt

[Deep13]

14. So, you've solved it? nt

[okasha]

19. Solved what?

nt

[Deep13]

20. The degree to which JC was real vs. and after-the-fact construct. nt

[okasha]

21. If you mean by that

how much of the New Testament account is history and how much is theology, the scholarship has pretty much sorted that out.

If you're referring to the wishful thinking that such an historical person never existed, the scholarship has consigned that to lala land along with creationism and the fantasy that humans have never set foot on the moon.

[Deep13]

26. It's not wishful thinking to want to know the truth.

What is the evidence for his factual existence? So if we don't believe the magic tricks and we don't believe the supernatural parts, in what sense can there be a historic Jesus? Was there even a shred of truth to any of it.

If the answer is as one sided as your condescending response, then you ought to be able to tell me what it is,or at least tell me where I can find it.

[Act_of_Reparation]

28. Pay the snark no mind, here's the gist of it...

Josephus, the only contemporaneous source, makes three exceedingly brief mentions of Jesus in The Antiquities, one of them indirectly, and one of them mostly lies:

1- The stoning death of James, whom Josephus calls "brother of Jesus, who was called Christ".

2- John the Baptist is mentioned...

3- A passage called the Testimonium Flavianum describes the crucifixion of Jesus under Pilatus, but the scholarly consensus is Eusebius--bishop of Caesarea, and pathological liar--redacted much of it.

Tacitus' Annals (116 CE) also makes brief mention of the crucifixion under Pilatus, but his seems to have escaped Eusebius' eager quill.

From these passages, most scholars agree: A guy named Yeshua bar Yosef, living in Judea in the first century, was baptized by John the Baptist, and crucified by procurator Pontius Pilatus.

That's it. Baptism and crucifixion. Everything else is up in the air.

So, the next time somebody says something like, "the Romans crucified Christ for sedition", you'll know they are making shit up.

[Deep13]

29. He's not really contemporary...

...having been born a few years after JC was killed.

[Act_of_Reparation]

32. By contemporary, I mean to say...

...he at least lived in the same century. Certainly a stretch of the word, I realize, but as far as historical testaments to the life and times of Christ goes, his is the closest, both temporally and geographically.

[trotsky]

30. But she sounds so confident when she says it!

Doesn't that count for something??

[Act_of_Reparation]

33. Yes, but only for certain people.

Some groundless beliefs are more equal than others, after all.

[hrmjustin]

17. He did!

[madrchsod]

8. when did jesus become a god?

[cbayer]

9. I think that the "Him" means Jesus.

[madrchsod]

11. oops ...did`t catch that.

[hrmjustin]

18. Pentecost.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. This seems to be where it was posted; nothing else there is anonymous

http://www.harvardichthus.org/category/fishtank/ (their apology appears at that blog, calling it a 'blog post', so I'm pretty sure that's where it was)

I also notice that, after April, the blog posts have largely dried up. I wonder if they knew it would be controversial, and so knew it would have to be anonymous, but hoped it might stir up some extra traffic.

[struggle4progress]

24. They pulled it from the blog fairly quickly

[cbayer]

25. And then put it back up, then pulled it again.

I'm surprised that it didn't getting copied by someone and posted elsewhere.

[Deep13]

2. Wait, didn't that happen like 2000 years ago?

Even if it were true that "the Jews" (as opposed to some Jews, a few Jews, most of the Jews etc.) killed Jesus, what would that have to do with anyone alive today? Anyway, didn't Jesus come back to life after? So no harm, no foul.

[xfundy]

4. Not since that apple incident.

It's your fault. Mine too. Don't you dare question it, it's Religion™ and above question or reproach.

[Deep13]

6. I have faith that original sin is bullshit. nt

[madrchsod]

12. 5.8 at IMDb

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218922/

seems like they agree....

[Deep13]

15. *chuckle* nt

[madrchsod]

13. according to the koran he did`t die

[Deep13]

16. Where in the Koran? nt

[dimbear]

22. The essay was written by an anonymous Jewish convert to Christianity.......

or else by an anonymous Christian posing as one. That's one thing about anonymous authors, it's not so clear what they are.

[LeftishBrit]

27. Just UGH!

[trotsky]

31. Here's what I've never understood the entire "Jews killed Jesus" rage...

if Jesus hadn't (allegedly) been executed, there wouldn't be Christianity in the first place! Blood sacrifice necessary for redemption and all that, ya know, the central theme?

[Act_of_Reparation]

34. Wait a second... Do you mean to tell me traditional Christian dogma is inherently contradictory???

Surely, you jest!

[trotsky]

35. Just slap a capital M on mystery,

proclaim it a virtue to believe anyway, and call it done!

[Act_of_Reparation]

36. Whew... this apologetics business sure is hard work! (n/t)

[jeepnstein]

38. Exactly.

If you're a Christian you have to believe that is exactly why He came in the first place. I never understood the haters. Jesus forgave everyone while he was hanging there.

[Iggo]

37. Fuck his apology.

He said it. He meant it. That's it.