When the Roman Empire, after more than a century of murdering Christians, decided to make Christianity the state religion, a gradual manipulation of memory and history took place. Events in the Roman-occupied Jewish kingdom, set against a backdrop of collaboration, armed resistance, the search for the true faith, and power intrigue, were eventually transformed into a story in which the Jews killed the Christian Jesus.
Jewish guilt was subsequently defined as hereditary; every Jew was guilty of that death from birth. Not accepting and rejecting the new, Christian faith was then another Jewish guilt. The fact that Jesus was a Jew, as were most of his disciples and followers rebelling against power-obsessed church structures and bad laws, has faded from the story of "us" and "them" over the ages.
The Judaism of Mary and Joseph was also suppressed, the major Christian holidays celebrated according to the Jewish calendar were shifted, and the Sabbath/Saturday as a day of rest dedicated to conversations with God became Sunday. The fact that the famous Last Supper was nothing more than a celebration of the Jewish festival of Passover was also to be forgotten.
Today's Catholic Church believes that all the sinners of the world are the cause of Jesus' crucifixion, and admonishes Christians that their own guilt is greater when they sin with the knowledge of Jesus than when others sin without it. Despite humanistic corrections, the story of how "the Jews killed Jesus" directly and indirectly influences ideas about Jews and Jewish people to this day.
Christ before Pontius Pilate, the first interrogation. Painting number 13 of the Passion series, 26 paintings in total. Duccio di Buoninsegna, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena.
Have you ever heard the term ghetto? In what context? What does this term mean to you?