Deicide – It Is The Jews Who Killed Jesus Christ

Neo-Judaizers Do Not Believe In Jewish Deicide

Neo-Judaizers do not believe that it was the Jews that committed Deicide against Jesus Christ.

Instead, they say that it is the Romans that killed Christ.

Or they say that it was all sinners that killed Christ.

And if they are really pushed into the corner, they may admit that the Jewish leaders of the Sanhedrin pushed for Christ’s Deicide.

We will go over these objections in the article first.

Then we will go into how the Church has always taught that it’s the unbelieving Jews that killed Christ.

In doing so, we will cite Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium to prove that it is the unbelieving Jews who collectively killed Jesus Christ.

Common Objections Neo-Judaizers Make Against Jewish Deicide

Before I prove that it’s the unbelieving Jews that killed Jesus Christ I will attempt to steelman my opponents’ arguments.

Objection 1: The Romans Killed Christ

Firstly, the Neo-Judaizers often say that it’s the Romans that killed Christ.

In a technical sense this is correct in that it was the Roman soldiers that carried out the crucifixion, which was a Roman form of execution (see Matthew 27:26-35, Mark 15:15-25, Luke 23:24-33, John 19:16-23).

However, Pontius Pilate made it clear to the crowd of Jews that he saw no just cause for Christ’s execution (see Luke 23:4,14,22, John 18:38, John 19:4-6).

Pilate also tried to bargain with the Jews by having them acquit Christ instead of the violent revolutionary Barabbas. The Jews chose to acquit Barabbas and crucify Christ (see Matthew 27:16-21, Mark 15:6-11, Luke 23:16-20, John 18:39-40).

Pilate pleaded with the Jews and finally washed his hands when the Jews refused to let Pilate acquit Christ (see Matthew 27:24).

Thus, even though Pilate allowed his Roman soldiers to carry out the crucifixion of Christ, it was only very reluctantly because he was afraid of a Jewish uprising if he didn’t give the Jews what they wanted (see John 19:7-15).

Objection 2: All Sinners Killed Christ

Secondly, Neo-Judaizers often say that it is actually all sinners that killed Christ because He died for our sins.

They will reference the Catechism of Trent that says that Christ died for our sins as evidence. The Trent Catechism does say that Christ died for our sins:

In this guilt are involved all those who fall frequently into sin; for, as our sins consigned Christ the Lord to the death of the cross, most certainly those who wallow in sin and iniquity crucify to themselves again the Son of God, as far as in them lies, and make a mockery of Him. This guilt seems more enormous in us than in the Jews, since according to the testimony of the same Apostle: If they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory; while we, on the contrary, professing to know Him, yet denying Him by our actions, seem in some sort to lay violent hands on him.

The Catechism of The Council of Trent, The Creed, Article 4, Reasons Why Christ Suffered

Do note that this does admit that the Jews crucified Christ. And yes, it does say that Christ died for our sins. You know what else it says in the next paragraph? It says that God willed that Christ would be incarnated to be crucified:

But that Christ the Lord was also delivered over to death by the Father and by Himself, the Scriptures bear witness.

The Catechism of The Council of Trent, The Creed, Article 4, Christ Was Delivered Over To Death By The Father And By Himself

So which is it? Did Christ die for our sins or did Christ die because it was God’s will? Both! It was God’s will that Christ died for our sins. Thus, acting like it’s one or the other is just a false dilemma. Similarly, acting like these are mutually exclusive with Jews calling for Christ’s death would be a false trilemma. The fact of the matter is that God willed that Christ die for our sins and it happened temporally as a result of the overwhelming demand of the unbelieving Jews bullying Pilate to carry out their desire.

The Neo-Judaizers will also reference the Novus Ordo Good Friday Mass, where the faithful are told to say the words: “Crucify Him!” as if they were in the crowd calling for Christ’s crucifixion. But who makes up that crowd Biblically? Well, during the Passion of Christ that crowd was made up entirely of Jews! So the Catholic faithful reading the “Crucify Him!” part are merely just reading what the crowd of Jews shouted in Jerusalem in 33 AD (see Matthew 27:1,12,20,22-23, Mark 15:1,3,10-14, Luke 23:4,10,13,21,23, John 19:6-7,12,14-15).

These passages bring us to the third objection.

Objection 3: Only A Small Group Of Jewish Leaders Killed Christ

Thirdly, Neo-Judaizers may admit that the ones that called for Christ’s death were Jews, but they will say that it was only a rather small group of Jews — the Jewish leaders — that called for His crucifixion. However, this is also problematic, which I will show you throughout the rest of this article.

The Neo-Judaizers also promulgate a strawman argument that claims that us Christians who take the traditional position on the Jews are saying that all Jews killed Christ. This is absurd! Of course, Jews like Christ Himself, Our Blessed Mother, the Apostles (minus Judas Iscariot), and His disciples didn’t kill Christ! It’s only the unbelieving Jews that reject Christ that are culpable in His Deicide.

In this article, I will prove that virtually all the Church Fathers, Doctors, other Saints, and even the Magisterium held the position that the unbelieving Jews that reject Jesus Christ (which are the majority of Jews) are held collectively responsible for His deicide. This is the correct position, as I will prove.

Deicide In The Bible

The Bible has several passages that prove that it is the unbelieving Jews that killed Jesus Christ.

Jews Plotted The Deicide

The unbelieving Jews actually plotted the Deicide of Christ during His ministry. St. John says:

Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, because he did these things on the sabbath. But Jesus answered them: My Father worketh until now; and I work. Hereupon therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he did not only break the sabbath, but also said God was his Father, making himself equal to God.

John 5:16-18

This plotting of the unbelieving Jews against Christ is in several other verses as well (see Matthew 12:14, Matthew 26:4, Matthew 26:59-66, Mark 3:6, Mark 11:18, Mark 14:1, Luke 13:31, John 7:1, John 7:20, John 8:37-40, John 11:8, John 11:47-53).

And there were also, of course, failed attempts at Deicide by the Jews before they were eventually successful (see Luke 4:28-30, John 8:59, John 10:39).

St. Matthew’s Position On Jewish Deicide

The Apostle St. Matthew makes it clear that the unbelieving Jews killed Christ:

But the chief priests and ancients persuaded the people, that they should ask for Barabbas, and take Jesus away. And the governor answering, said to them: Whether will you of the two to be released unto you? But they said, Barabbas. Pilate saith to them: What shall I do then with Jesus that is called Christ? They say all: Let him be crucified. The governor said to them: Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying: Let him be crucified. And Pilate seeing that he prevailed nothing, but that rather a tumult was made; taking water washed his hands before the people, saying: I am innocent of the blood of this just man; look you to it. And the whole people answering, said: His blood be upon us and our children.

Matthew 27:20-25

St. Mark’s Position On Jewish Deicide

Also, St. Mark the Evangelist also makes it clear that the unbelieving Jews killed Christ:

But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas to them. And Pilate again answering, saith to them: What will you then that I do to the king of the Jews? But they again cried out: Crucify him. And Pilate saith to them: Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more: Crucify him. And so Pilate being willing to satisfy the people, released to them Barabbas, and delivered up Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.

Mark 15:11-15

St. Luke’s Position On Jewish Deicide

Moreover, St Luke the Evangelist makes it clear that the unbelieving Jews killed Christ:

And Pilate, calling together the chief priests, and the magistrates, and the people, Said to them: You have presented unto me this man, as one that perverteth the people; and behold I, having examined him before you, find no cause in this man, in those things wherein you accuse him. No, nor Herod neither. For I sent you to him, and behold, nothing worthy of death is done to him. I will chastise him therefore, and release him. Now of necessity he was to release unto them one upon the feast day. But the whole multitude together cried out, saying: Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas: Who, for a certain sedition made in the city, and for a murder, was cast into prison. And Pilate again spoke to them, desiring to release Jesus. But they cried again, saying: Crucify him, crucify him. And he said to them the third time: Why, what evil hath this man done? I find no cause of death in him. I will chastise him therefore, and let him go. But they were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified; and their voices prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required. And he released unto them him who for murder and sedition, had been cast into prison, whom they had desired; but Jesus he delivered up to their will.

Luke 23:13-25

St. John’s Position On Jewish Deicide

And the beloved St. John the Apostle also makes it clear that the unbelieving Jews killed Christ:

When the chief priests, therefore, and the servants, had seen him, they cried out, saying: Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith to them: Take him you, and crucify him: for I find no cause in him. The Jews answered him: We have a law; and according to the law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. When Pilate therefore had heard this saying, he feared the more. And he entered into the hall again, and he said to Jesus: Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. Pilate therefore saith to him: Speakest thou not to me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and I have power to release thee? Jesus answered: Thou shouldst not have any power against me, unless it were given thee from above. Therefore, he that hath delivered me to thee, hath the greater sin. And from henceforth Pilate sought to release him. But the Jews cried out, saying: If thou release this man, thou art not Caesar’s friend. For whosoever maketh himself a king, speaketh against Caesar. Now when Pilate had heard these words, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat, in the place that is called Lithostrotos, and in Hebrew Gabbatha. And it was the parasceve of the pasch, about the sixth hour, and he saith to the Jews: Behold your king. But they cried out: Away with him; away with him; crucify him. Pilate saith to them: Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered: We have no king but Caesar. Then therefore he delivered him to them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him forth.

John 19:6-16

St. Peter’s Position On Jewish Deicide

Additionally, the Prince of the Apostles St. Peter makes it clear that the unbelieving Jews killed Christ during his speech to the Jews after receiving the Holy Ghost:

But Peter standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and spoke to them: Ye men of Judea, and all you that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known to you, and with your ears receive my words… Ye 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 also know: This same being delivered up, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you by the hands of wicked men have crucified and slain… Therefore let all the house of Israel know most certainly, that God hath made both Lord and Christ, this same Jesus, whom you have crucified.

Acts 2:14,22-23,36

In this speech to the Jews, St. Peter affirms that it was God’s will for Christ to die for our sins, but it was the unbelieving Jews that carried out the Deicide.

St. Peter repeats this charge of Jewish Deicide in several places (see Acts 3:15, Acts 4:10, Acts 5:30, Acts 10:39).

St. Stephen’s Position On Jewish Deicide

Moreover, protomartyr St. Stephen charges the unbelieving Jews who were murdering him with killing Christ:

You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do you also. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them who foretold of the coming of the Just One; of whom you have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.

Acts of Apostles 7:51-53

St. Paul’s Position On Jewish Deicide

And finally Apostle to the Gentiles St. Paul charged the unbelieving Jews with killing Christ:

For you, brethren, are become followers of the churches of God which are in Judea, in Christ Jesus: for you also have suffered the same things from your own countrymen, even as they have from the Jews, Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and the prophets, and have persecuted us, and please not God, and are adversaries to all men; Prohibiting us to speak to the Gentiles, that they may be saved, to fill up their sins always: for the wrath of God is come upon them to the end.

1 Thessalonians 2:14-16

St. Paul repeats this charge of Jewish Deicide in a Jewish Synagogue in Antioch (see Acts 13:27-28).

But Doesn’t The Bible Say Only The Jewish Leaders And Their Followers Killed Christ?

So even with all of this Biblical proof that the unbelieving Jews conspired to kill Christ, coerced Pilate to carry it out, and then were blamed by the Apostles and Evangelists, the Neo-Judaizers will still respond that it was only a small group of Jews and that Deicide “cannot be charged against all the Jews” (see Nostra Aetate, 4). Well, the truth is that the charge of Deicide isn’t just limited to the small group of Jews in First Century Jerusalem, nor does it apply to all Jews. No. It applies to all unbelieving Jews who don’t accept Jesus Christ as their Messiah, Lord and Savior, which is what all the Church Fathers, Doctors, and Magisterium have always taught, as I will shortly prove.

The Church Fathers And Doctors On Jewish Deicide

So now I am going to prove that the Church Fathers and Doctors did not limit the guilt of Deicide to only the Jews in Jerusalem at the time of Christ’s Passion. I will demonstrate that it is the Tradition of the Church that any unbelieving Jew who rejects Christ is considered to be complicit in Christ’s Deicide.

St. Ignatius of Antioch On Jewish Deicide

Disciple of St. John the beloved Apostle, St. Ignatius of Antioch, criticizing the Judaizers, wrote that Christ:

underwent the passion, and endured the cross at the hands of the Christ- killing Jews

THE EPISTLE OF IGNATIUS TO THE MAGNESIANS, CHAP. XI.–I WRITE THESE THINGS TO WARN YOU

Referring to the heretical Docetae, St. Ignatius says:

being ashamed of the passion, they cover the transgression of the Jews, those fighters against God, those murderers of the Lord; for it were too little to style them merely murderers of the prophets

THE EPISTLE OF IGNATIUS TO THE TRALLIANS, CHAP. XI.–AVOID THE DEADLY ERRORS OF THE DOCETAE

In condemning Judaism as a whole, St. Ignatius says:

If any one confesses the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and praises the creation, but calls the incarnation merely an appearance, and is ashamed of the passion, such an one has denied the faith, not less than the Jews who killed Christ.

THE EPISTLE OF IGNATIUS TO THE PHILADELPHIANS, CHAP. VI.–DO NOT ACCEPT JUDAISM

Finally, writing to the Smyrnaeans, St. Ignatius says:

The Word raised up again His own temple on the third day, when it had been destroyed by the Jews fighting against Christ.

THE EPISTLE OF IGNATIUS TO THE SMYRNAEANS, CHAP. II.–CHRIST’S TRUE PASSION

Keep in mind these epistles were written in the late First or early Second Centuries.

Moreover, St. Ignatius was a protege of the beloved St. John the Apostle, so his exegesis of the unbelieving Jews as being the general murderers of Christ is an authoritative exegesis of how the early Christians saw the Jews in relations to Christ.

Let’s move on to the next Church Fathers.

St. Justin Martyr On Jewish Deicide

In the Second Century, St. Justin Martyr says:

Accordingly, these [bad] things have happened to you [Jews] in fairness and justice, for you have slain the Just One, and His prophets before Him; and now you reject those who hope in Him, and in Him who sent Him— God the Almighty and Maker of all things— cursing in your synagogues those that believe in Christ.

Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter 16. Circumcision given as a sign, that the Jews might be driven away for their evil deeds done to Christ and the Christians

St. Melito of Sardis On Jewish Deicide

Another Christian writer of the Second Century, St. Melito of Sardis, says:

God has been murdered, the king of Israel has been put to death by an Israelite right hand [meaning Jews].

On the Pascha, 96

St. Hippolytus On Jewish Deicide

In the Third Century, St. Hippolytus says:

But why, O prophet, tell us, and for what reason, was the temple made desolate? …it was because they [the Jews] killed the Son of their Benefactor, for He is coeternal with the Father. Whence He says, Father, let their temple be made desolate; for they have persecuted Him whom You of Your own will smote for the salvation of the world; that is, they have persecuted me with a violent and unjust death

Expository Treatise Against the Jews, Section 7

St. Basil the Great On Jewish Deicide

In the Fourth Century, Church Father and Doctor, St. Basil the Great says:

This was the cause of God’s turning away His eyes: when they [the Jews] stretch forth their hands in prayer.  For the very symbols of their supplication are the occasion of His resentment.  It is as if someone should kill the beloved son of another, and then stretch forth to the afflicted father their hands still stained with blood; asking for the right hand of fellowship.  Would not the blood of his son, visible on the hand of his slayer, provoke him rather to just anger?  And such are the prayers of the Jews.  For when they stretch forth their hands in prayer, they but remind God the Father of their sin against His Son.  And at every stretching forth of their hands they but make manifest that they are stained with the blood of Christ.  For they who persevere in their blindness inherit the blood guilt of their fathers.  For they cried out: His blood be upon us, and upon our children

On Prayer, Section 1, Paragraph 2

St. Gregory of Nyssa On Jewish Deicide

Moreover, Cappadocian Father, St. Gregory of Nyssa says:

[Jews are] slayers of the Lord, murderers of the prophets, enemies of God, haters of God, adversaries of grace, enemies of their fathers’ faith, advocates of the devil, brood of vipers, slanderers, scoffers, men of darkened minds, leaven of the Pharisees, congregation of demons, sinners, wicked men, stoners, and haters of goodness.

Homilies on the Resurrection, 5 (PG, 46:685), Taken from The Anguish of the Jews, Fr. Edward H. Flannery, pg. 50

St. John Chrysostom On Jewish Deicide

Also in the Fourth Century, Church Father and Doctor, St. John Chrysostom says:

How dare Christians have the slightest doings with Jews, those most miserable of all men! They are lustful, rapacious, greedy, perfidious bandits, pests of the universe. Indeed, an entire day would not suffice to tell of all their rapine, their avarice, their deception of the poor, their thievery, and their huckstering. Are they not inveterate murderers, destroyers, men possessed by the devil? Jews are impure and impious, and their synagogue is a house of prostitution, a lair of beasts, a place of shame and ridicule, the domicile of the devil, as is also the soul of the Jew. As a matter of fact, Jews worship the devil: their rites are criminal and unchaste; their religion a disease; their synagogue an assembly of crooks, a den of thieves, a cavern of devils, an abyss of perdition! Why are the Jews degenerate? Because of their hateful assassination of Christ. This supreme crime lies at the root of their degradation and woes. The rejection and the dispersion of the Jews was the work of God and because of His absolute abandonment of the Jews. Thus, the Jew will live under the yoke of slavery without end. God hates the Jews, and on Judgement Day He will say to those who sympathize with them: “Depart from me, for you have had doings with My murderers!” Flee, then, from their assemblies, fly from their houses, and, far from venerating the synagogue, hold it in hatred and aversion

Sixth Homily Against the Jews

St. Augustine On Jewish Deicide

In the Fifth Century, Church Father and Doctor, St. Augustine says

The Jews who slew Him, and would not believe in Him, because it behooved Him to die and rise again, were yet more miserably wasted by the Romans, and utterly rooted out from their kingdom, where aliens had already ruled over them, and were dispersed through the lands (so that indeed there is no place where they are not), and are thus by their own Scriptures a testimony to us that we have not forged the prophecies about Christ…God has shown the Church in her enemies the Jews the grace of His compassion, since, as says the apostle, their offense is the salvation of the Gentiles… And therefore He has not slain them, that is, He has not let the knowledge that they are Jews be lost in them, although they have been conquered by the Romans, lest they should forget the law of God, and their testimony should be of no avail in this matter of which we treat. But it was not enough that he should say, ‘Slay them not, lest they should at last forget Your law’, unless he had also added, ‘Disperse them’; because if they had only been in their own land with that testimony of the Scriptures, and not every where, certainly the Church which is everywhere could not have had them as witnesses among all nations to the prophecies which were sent before concerning Christ.

The City of God, Book 18, Chapter 46

The Church later referred to this as the “Doctrine of the Witness People” because the Church adopted this belief that the unbelieving Jews were to be dispersed amongst the nations because of Deicide, but they are to continue to exist as enemy witnesses to authenticate the Old Testament to those who don’t believe.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux On Jewish Deicide

In the Twelfth Century, Doctor of the Church, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, echoing St. Augustine, says:

[The Jews] are living signs to use, representing the Lord’s passion. For this reason they are dispersed into all regions, that now they may pay the just penalty of so great a crime, and that they may be witnesses of our redemption.

Letter to Eastern France and Bavaria Promoting the Second Crusade, 1146

Just for the record, when St. Bernard says “the Lord’s passion” he is referring to the Jewish act of Deicide.

St. Thomas Aquinas On Jewish Deicide

In the Thirteenth Century, Angelic Doctor of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas, says:

the Jews by reason of their fault are sentenced to perpetual servitude

THOMAS AQUINAS, “Letter on the Treatment of Jews” (1271)

The question one could ask here is “what is this fault St. Thomas is referring to?”. This fault, by the Thirteenth Century, is implicit, as it was already common knowledge (based on all of the teachings above) that Christians believed that the unbelieving Jews were collectively guilty for killing Christ.

St. Alphonsus Liguori On Jewish Deicide

In the Eighteenth Century, Doctor of the Church, St. Alphonsus Liguori, says:

Poor Jews! You invoked a dreadful curse upon your own heads in saying: ‘His blood be upon us and our children’; and that curse, miserable race, you carry upon you to this day, and to the End of Time you shall endure the chastisement of that innocent blood.

The Passion and Death of Jesus Christ, page 444

There are many other Saints that hold that the unbelieving Jews killed Christ, but this should suffice for now. The consensus of the Church Fathers is that the unbelieving Jews are the enemies of God and the human race for killing Christ, so you are unlikely to find a Church Father or Doctor that dissents to this seemingly universally held opinion.

The Magisterium On Jewish Deicide

It isn’t just Scripture and the Church Fathers and Doctors that authoritatively hold that the unbelieving Jews killed Christ. This teaching is also promulgated by the Magisterium, as I will prove.

Council XVII of Toledo, Spain On Jewish Deicide

Archbishop of Toledo, St. Felix of Seville, in the late Seventh Century, begins by saying this, in Canon 8, when condemning the falsely “converted” Jews for practicing Judaism in secret, as well as betraying Catholic Spain to Muslim Moors:

And since it is known that the Jewish people with wickedness, blasphemy, and the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ…

Council XVII of Toledo, Spain, Canon No. 8, On the Condemnation of the Jews

Pope Innocent III On Jewish Deicide

In the Thirteenth Century, Pope Innocent III wrote three Papal Bulls, including in them how the unbelieving Jews are guilty for killing Christ, which means the teaching of Jewish Deicide exists in the universal Magisterium of the Catholic Church.

Pope Innocent III decreed in the papal bull, Ut Esset Cain:

As Cain was a wanderer and an outcast, not to be killed by anyone but marked with the sign of fear on his forehead, so the Jews . . . against whom the voice of the blood of Christ cries out . . . although they are not to be killed they must always be dispersed as wanderers upon the face of the earth.

Ut Esset Cain, from The Talmud Unmasked (with Imprimatur), Appendix

The same Pope also decreed in the papal bull, Etsi Judaeos:

Although Christian piety tolerates the Jews . . . whose own fault commits them to perpetual slavery . . . and allows them to continue with us (even though the Moors will not tolerate them), they must not be allowed to remain ungrateful to us in such a way as to repay us with contumely for favors and contempt for our familiarity. They are admitted to our familiarity only through our mercy; but they are to us dangerous as the insect in the apple, as the serpent in the breast * * * Since, therefore, they have already begun to gnaw like the rat, and to stink like the serpent, it is to our shame that the fire in our breast which is being eaten into by them, does not consume them * * * As they are reprobate slaves of the Lord, in whose death they evilly conspired (at least by the effect of the deed), let them acknowledge themselves as slaves of those whom the death of Christ has made free.

Etsi Judaeos, from The Talmud Unmasked (with Imprimatur), Appendix

Finally, Pope Innocent III decreed in the papal bull, Etsi Non Displiceat Domino:

Although it be not displeasing to the Lord, but rather acceptable to Him, that the Jewish Dispersion should live and serve under Christian princes * * * they greatly offend in the sight of God’s Divine Majesty who prefer the offspring of the Crucifiers [referring to Judaizers preferring Jews] before those who are the heirs of Christ.

Etsi Non Displiceat Domino, from The Talmud Unmasked (with Imprimatur), Appendix

(Note: These papal bull quotes were reprinted in English in The Talmud Unmasked, a book which was given an Imprimatur. However, the Latin originals exist in the Patrologia Latina, Volume 215. See page 1291 for Ut Esset Cain, page 694 for Etsi Judaeos, and page 501 for Etsi Non Displiceat Domino).

Note that in these bulls, Pope Innocent III not only affirms Jewish Deicide, but he also affirms the doctrine of the Witness People, or that they should be dispersed because of their crime.

Pope Gregory IX On Jewish Deicide

Also in the Thirteenth Century, Pope Gregory IX wrote this in papal bull to archbishops in Germany:

The Jews, who are admitted to our acquaintance only through our mercy, should never forget their yoke of perpetual slavery, which they bear through their own fault.

Gregory IX – “Epistle to the Hierarchy of Germany,” in 1233 A.D., Annales  Ecclesiastici, Cardinal Caesar Baronius, ed. August Theiner, 1864, vol.I

Again, like I said about St. Thomas, by the Thirteenth Century the “fault” or “crime” of the unbelieving Jews was already understood to be Deicide.

Pope Gregory IX later wrote Decretals, where he declared perpetual servitude of the Jews under canon law.

Pope Paul IV On Jewish Deicide

In the Sixteenth Century, Pope Paul IV severely restricted the rights of the Jews in the papal bull, Cum Nimis Absurdum. In the introduction of the bull he references Jewish Deicide, saying:

Since it is completely senseless and inappropriate to be in a situation where Christian piety allows the Jews (whose guilt—all of their own doing—has condemned them to eternal slavery) access to our society and even to live among us; indeed, they are without gratitude to Christians, as, instead of thanks for gracious treatment, they return invective, and among themselves, instead of the slavery, which they deserve, they manage to claim superiority…

Cum Nimis Absurdum

Just like St. Thomas and Pope Gregory IX he isn’t explicit about the Jewish “guilt”, but it is by this time understood by all Christians to refer to Deicide.

Pope St. Pius V On Jewish Deicide

Later in the Sixteenth Century, Pope St. Pius V in the act of expelling the Jews from several Papal domains, says:

The Jewish people fell from the heights because of their faithlessness and condemned their Redeemer to a shameful death. Their godlessness has assumed such forms that, for the salvation of our own people, it becomes necessary to prevent their disease.

Hebraeorum Gens

As you can you can see, the Magisterium has authoritatively, repeatedly and universally taught that the unbelieving Jews killed Christ. There’s nothing ever said about it just being a small group of Jews in the First Century doing it. No. It’s clear that the charge of Deicide applies to all unbelieving Jews in all times.

Objection: But Vatican II Changed That!

I want to handle this objection because it is a common one. Vatican II’s document, Nostra Aetate says:

True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ; still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today.

Nostra Aetate

This passage doesn’t actually contradict anything I have proven above. Why? Because, again, the Church hasn’t ever charged all Jews with Deicide. The Church has only always charged the unbelieving Jews who reject Jesus Christ as being charged with Deicide. The Church has never taught believing Jews, like Christ Himself, Our Blessed Mother, the Apostles (minus Judas Iscariot), and His disciples as being culpable in Deicide. That would be absurd! The “distinction” Nostra Aetate is talking about has to be the distinction of whether or not someone who is a Jew by birth accepts Jesus Christ before they die. If a birth-Jew does accept Jesus Christ before death (thus, becoming Christian), then the Church has never taught that the charge of Deicide applies to them. Thus, Vatican II changed nothing regarding the charge of Jewish Deicide.

Handling The Traditionalist Objection To My Vatican II Exegesis

I recognize it’s off-putting to Traditionalists in just showing how Vatican II’s Nostra Aetate can be interpreted in light of Tradition. Many who follow me and are reading this article reject Vatican II outright. I get your concerns. I do. We all know how Modernists often invoke Vatican II in their promulgation of their heresies. But my goal here is to refute the errors of the Neo-Judaizers, and they do accept Vatican II. I do as well, for that matter, but I intentionally interpret it in light of Tradition and don’t accept any novel interpretations that any Neo-Judaizers or Modernists promulgate. You may disagree, and it is what it is, but again, this article exists to refute the error of Neo-Judaizers denying Jewish Deicide, and I strongly believe my traditionalist exegesis of Nostra Aetate is crucial to drive home this important argument.

Conclusion – The Unbelieving Jews Are Culpable Killing Christ

In conclusion, the charge of Deicide still stands for all the unbelieving Jews who continually reject Jesus Christ, which is unfortunately, the majority. Let’s pray that many of them convert, so they aren’t damned for such a horrible act! Please share this if you found value in it, since I am essentially banned or shadow-banned everywhere. Take care, and God bless!

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