Matthew and Anti-Judaism‪.‬

Discussion of whether or not Matthew's Gospel is anti-Jewish flounders on such intractable questions as how to define "anti-Jewish," who gets to make the determination, and on what criteria the judgment can be made. (1) Yet regardless of whether the Gospel was initially anti-Jewish, however defined, it has certainly been interpreted in ways that convey anti-Jewish messages. Our task is to prevent this abuse of the text. Most homilists realize the dangers of passages such as John 8:44, "You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father's desires," and 1 Thess 2:15, "[the Jews], who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets...." Most recognize that congregations may associate the Pharisees with "the Jews," and so appropriately defuse this impression by reading Matthew 23, for example, as instructing the church: those who exalt themselves (23:12), neglect justice and mercy (23:23), and ignore the prophets (23:34) are the people in the pulpit and the pews. Yet even ministers who consciously avoid anti-Jewish sermons may convey anti-Jewish messages nonetheless. While completely preventing such slippage between what we intend and what others hear is impossible, being forewarned of potential problems helps eliminate numerous problems.