John’s Anti-Jewish Polemic Robert Kysar

Christian Alexander

I am looking to find an article called John’s Anti-Jewish Polemic By Robert Kysar. I know it may be too much to ask for the full article. I would like to ask for a few paragraphs of the article if it is possible. Can someone help me?

Don Awalt

It's in Bible Review, 2004. Maybe your seminary library has it? It's not very long, this is probably 1/4th of it from the beginning:

In the previous article, Professor Charlesworth calls the Gospel of John the most Jewish of the Gospels. This means, not that it is pro-Jewish or sympathetic to Jewish interests, but that it is by and about Jews acting in a Jewish environment. In fact, the Gospel of John is also probably the most anti-Jewish of the Gospels. How we are to understand this aspect of the Gospel is obviously an important concern. The following article discusses this aspect of John’s Gospel. The author is Professor of New Testament and Homiletics at the Lutheran Theological Seminary, in Philadelphia. What follows is an excerpt from the author’s chapter in Faith, and Polemic: Studies in Anti-Semitism and Early Christianity, edited by Craig A. Evans and Donald A. Hager (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992) that also was published in Explorations, a publication of the American Interfaith Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, edited by Professor Charlesworth.—Ed.

Over 12 years ago Samuel Sandmel correctly observed, “John is widely regarded as either the most anti-Semitic or at least the most overtly anti-Semitic of the gospels.” Little has been done to ameliorate that harsh judgment since it was first written. While efforts have been made to soften the tone of the Gospel of John when it comes to Jews and Judaism, a reading of the Gospel tends to confirm Sandmel’s judgment.
My major thesis is that although the Gospel itself is not anti-Semitic, the text nurtures anti-Semitism in the church today. A surface reading of the text encourages the reader to cast Jews and Judaism in an unfavorable light. The narrator is detached from and consequently distances the reader from, Judaism. As characters in the narrative, the “Jews” (Ioudaioi) are antagonists of the hero of the story. They misunderstand Jesus, they oppose him, they persecute him, and they seek to kill him.
Furthermore, they are unfaithful to their own faith and tradition. One cannot carefully read the Passion story of the Gospel and escape the impression that the Jewish leaders alone are responsible for the arrest, conviction, and death of Jesus (18:3, 12, 19).
The impression gained by the reader is that Judaism in general is degenerate and untrue. In contrast to the falsity of Judaism, the message of Jesus is everywhere presented as superior to the religion of the Jews (2:1–10; 4:21; 5:39, 45; 6:58; 8:31, 58). The “grace and truth” revealed in Christ is superior to the Law of Moses (1:17). The conclusion is inescapable that the text of the narrative nurtures a negative mentality toward Jews and Judaism.

Bible Review (Biblical Archaeology Society, 2004).