Professor James H. Charlesworth, of Princeton Seminary, is also the editor of EXPLORATIONS, a magazine devoted to "Rethinking Relationships Among Jews and Christians." He asks, "Is the New Testament anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish?" His question shows then, in the editor’s estimation, that the New Testament cannot be the climactic expression of God’s love for all mankind, but that it must be branded as belonging to one or the other of two hate-groups.

The professor shows that the word "anti-Semitic" as usually defined, "discriminating against or persecuting Jews," is inaccurate, for there are "other religious or ethnic groups which are, like Arabs, Semites." He could co a step further and say that many Jews are anti-Semitic, for many of them hate the Arabs with a passion.

However, the professor had more in mind than to give word definitions. Those were simply his introduction to get to his thesis that the New Testament is anti-Jewish, saying, "There are some harsh passages in the New Testament," and that John’s Gospel is "full of potentially hateful statements directed against the ‘Jews.’"

In addition to the professor’s own "hateful statements directed against" the New Testament, he has published an article in his magazine by Dr. Irvin J. Borowsky, Founder and Chairman of the American Interfaith Institute, who postulates that "new converts to Christianity" in eastern Europe "are reading the New Testament as an anti-Jewish book."

Charlesworth and Borowsky would not be human if they did not have an utter revulsion against the hate that killed 6 million Jews in the Holocaust at Auschwitz. Hitler and his fellow murderers were disciples of Karl Marx (1818-1880), who led millions into a selfish, atheistic communism. They corrupted the term "Aryan" to mean a superior race, meaning Caucasians "of non-Jewish descent."

The egotistical hate displayed by the Nazis is just the opposite of New Testament teaching: "Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought … Do not be proud .. Do not be conceited" (Romans 12:3, 16, NIV); "in humility consider others better than yourselves" (Philippians 2:3, NIV)

Applied to any human being, hate is an ugly and diabolical emotion. The New Testament forbids hate and commands love even for one’s enemies (Matthew 5:43-48). Jesus "hated wickedness" but loved every wicked person (Hebrews 1:9; Romans 5:6). He did not hate the Nicolaitans, but their works "I also hate" (Revelation 2:6).

Instead of the New Testament being anti-Jewish, one could more easily argue (though erroneously) that it is anti-Gentile. The New Testament exhibits love and sympathy for the Jews. Jesus’ personal ministry was directed almost entirely toward the Jews. He sent his apostles only to "the lost sheep of Israel," forbidding them to go among Gentiles (Matthew 10:5-6).

For ten years after the church was started, only Jews were invited to become members (Acts 2:10). God had to convince Peter by a miracle that he must take the gospel to Gentiles (Acts 10:9-35).

Paul, instead of being anti-Jewish, made it a point always in every city to go first to the synagogue (Acts 13:5, 14; 14:1; 16:13; 17:1-2; 18:4-5). His approach at Antioch in Pisidia was not appreciated, and he was forced to say to the Jews there,

His love for his people was deep:

If Paul had not shown himself pro-Jewish he would not have been stoned, dragged out of Lystra, and left for dead (Acts 14:19; cf. 17:5, 13). The New Testament displays God’s and Christ’s love for all mankind, "first for the Jews, then for the Gentile" (John 3:16; Romans 1:16).

Jesus loved and prayed even for the Jews who had him killed (Luke 23:34). Charlesworth and Borowsky do well to love the Jews, but not to exonerate them from deicide. That charge, they say, "has been repudiated at the highest levels of most churches and has been eliminated from many classrooms and textbooks." But factually those textbooks and most churches and Charlesworth and Borowsky are simply trying to rewrite history, just as Japanese teachers rewrite what the Japanese did at Pearl Harbor.

Yes, the Jews killed Jesus, that is, they forced the Romans to do so. Governor Pilate told Jesus, "Your nation and the chief priests delivered you to me" (John 18:35). Four times Pilate tried to release Jesus (John 18:38; Luke 23:14; John 19:4, 6) even publicly washing his hands of the responsibility (Matthew 27:24). But the Jews exclaimed, "His blood be on us, and on our children" (Matthew 27:25).

Charlesworth and Borowsky should continue to love the Jews, but their white-washing the Jews’ killing Jesus will never cause the Jews to "repent and be baptized" (Acts 2:38). Instead they are aligning themselves with the guilty ones, and so are "crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace" (Hebrews 6:7, NIV).

In Charlesworth’s thesis to prove that the New Testament is anti-Jewish, he quotes John 11:54:

"The interpretation," says Charlesworth, "seems obvious:"

However, Charlesworth recognizes that such an interpretation cannot be right, as he writes "that Jesus was a Jew, a devout Jew, and that Ephraim, though yet unlocated, "was Jewish … deep in Jewish territory."

He concludes then that John’s use of the word "Jews" is "the problem." But there is no problem unless one says that the word has to include all Jews. However, neither John nor any other New Testament writer blamed all the Jews for crucifying Jesus, only most of them (John 18:35). Many Jews were faithful disciples of Jesus (Matthew 27:64; Acts 1:15; 1 Corinthians 15:6).

The New Testament looks back on the Jews with indebtedness:

If there is "a remnant chosen by grace" applauded in the New Testament, how can anyone say that the New Testament is anti-Jewish? Furthermore, the New Testament not only looks backward, even to the patriarchs, in exalting the Jews, but then looks to the future beyond the days of the New Testament when, in addition to a remnant, "all Israel will be saved" (Romans 11:26) "if they do not persist in unbelief" (Romans 11:23).

Charlesworth and Borwsky are not anti-Semitic nor anti-Jewish but they are anti-New Testament. On the other hand, the New Testament is not anti-anybody, but is pro-Jewish, pro-Semitic, and pro-Gentile. Jesus’ last earthly words were his charge for his apostles to carry his gospel to "all nations" in "all the world" to "every creature" (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:15).