From: tom@portland.mdc.unisys.com (Tom Albrecht)
Newsgroups: alt.messianic
Subject: Re: guilt, paying
Date: 14 Apr 92 16:11:59 GMT
Organization: Unisys - Applied Technology

In article <82043@rphroy.ph.gmr.com> hamilton@gmr.com writes:
>I (like Bruce :-)) neglected to comment on. Here is my response to Tom 
>(Tom: you will note I've made some changes)
>
>Sure. I confess I didn't look at it til after I posted.... Matt 27:25 reads
>"And all the people answered and said, 'His blood be on us and on our
>children'". 

Bill,

Thanks for your comments.  I also await Bruce's comments on the subject. 
No doubt he is carefully formulating a response, comparing scripture with
scripture.  I'll hopefully give him some additional food for thought by
bringing some other biblical texts into the discussion of blood-guilt as
they relate to the crucifixion of Jesus.

I'd like to focus a bit on Matthew 27:25 because I think there has been
much poor interpretation and speculation on what the verse means, both in
terms of the nation of Israel as a whole, and upon individual Jews.  There
is no doubt that all sorts of atrocities have been perpetrated against
Jewish people based on a bad understanding of this verse.  Let me state
categorically that there is no way this verse can be used to justify
persecution of Jewish people, or the modern Jewish nation.  Period.  The
effect of this verse, whatever it may have been, has expired long ago in
the plan of God.  Modern-day Jews are no more responsible for the blood of
Messiah than are modern-day Swedes.

Edersheim has suggested that Pilate's words in verse 24, "I am innocent of
this man's blood" reflected Pilate's familiarity with Jewish customs. 
Edersheim says that there is little historic evidence to suggest that such
a ceremonial washing was customary in pagan circles.  On the other hand, he
believed that Pilate would have been familiar with Jewish customs, and that
the words of Matthew 27:24 sound a lot like similar sayings in both the Old
Testament and the Talmud.  For instance, in Deuteronomy 21:6ff we read:

  And all the elders of that city, that are next unto the slain man, shall
  WASH THEIR HANDS over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley:
  And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood,
  neither have our eyes seen it.
  Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and
  lay not INNOCENT BLOOD unto thy people of Israel's charge. And the blood
  shall be forgiven them.
  So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when
  thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD.

The ceremonial washing of hands to proclaim innocence was well-known within
Jewish circles.  Pilate probably understood this fact, and possibly used it
in an attempt to calm the near-riotous crowd of Jews.

If this is true, and I believe it may be, then the words of the Jews in the
next verse is all the more horrible.  They were accepting upon themselves
and all their children "to the third and fourth generation" the guilt of
the blood on an innocent man.  This was a very serious matter.  God
promised unspeakable judgment upon those who shed innocent blood.  That
blood-guilt was to be avenged swiftly and finally.  They had invoked the
wrath of God Almighty with their words, because ultimately God is the
avenger of blood (Deut. 32:43).  God hates those who shed innocent blood
(Prov. 6:17), and judgment would come upon the land if innocent blood went
unpunished (Deut. 19:13).  

The seriousness of these events with regard to the Jewish nation is also
seen in the response of the Jews to Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost.
Peter was very forthright with he charge of blood-guilt leveled against
his fellow Jews.  We read:

  You men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of
  God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the
  midst of you, as you yourselves also know:
  Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,
  YOU HAVE TAKEN, AND BY WICKED HANDS HAVE CRUCIFIED AND SLAIN:
  Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was
  not possible that he should be holden of it.  (Acts 2:22-24)

Later the Jews respond to the charge with sorrow and repentance:

  Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made
  this same JESUS, WHOM YOU HAVE CRUCIFIED, both Lord and Christ.
  Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto
  Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in
  the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive
  the gift of the Holy Ghost.  (Acts 2:36-38)

Are we to believe that all of these people were in the crowd who shouted in
Matthew 27:25?  Not necessarily.  I think they understood, from the theme
of Peter's message, that collective guilt was shared by all those in the
nation of Israel for the shedding of the innocent blood of Messiah.  This
sharing of innocence and blood-guilt is an important theme throughout the
Old Testament.  I think when we combine Matthew 27:25 with the charge of
Jesus against the Jews in Matthew 23 and 24, we begin to get a better
appreciation for the horribleness of the judgment that fell upon the nation
in AD70.  Certainly those who have read Josephus' account in _The War of
the Jews_ will know of the unspeakable events of those days.  But God had
warned them generations before:

  The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the
  earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not
  understand;
  A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the
  old, nor shew favour to the young:
  And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land,
  until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn,
  wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until
  he have destroyed thee.
  And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced
  walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he
  shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the
  LORD thy God hath given thee.
  And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and
  of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege,
  and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:
  So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye
  shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and
  toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave:
  So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom
  he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the
  straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.
  The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set
  the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her
  eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son,
  and toward her daughter,
  And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and
  toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want
  of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy
  shall distress thee in thy gates.  (Deut. 28:49-57)

God warned Israel that if they broke His law, including the law of
blood-guilt, he would bring a nation against them who would eat their
cattle and produce, while they would be reduced to eating their own
children.  Such is the lot of those who violate the law of God.

Do Jews today share in that collective national guilt?  Absolutely not. 
The punishment upon the nation was fulfilled in the events of AD70.  And
the punishment would only extend "to the third or fourth generation,"
according to the law (Exodus 20:5).  Jews still need to hear the good news
of salvation in Messiah Jesus, but not from a sense of shared blood-guilt
with their ancestors of generations ago.

-- 
Tom Albrecht