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Life Arts    H3'ed 3/27/23

Invention of Christian Jesus by Renaissance Art, Hollywood Films, and Art Historians and Critics Proved Lethal for Jews

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Christ in a Landscape by Jan Swart van Groningen
Christ in a Landscape by Jan Swart van Groningen
(Image by Montreal Museum of Fine Arts)
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Is it possible that revered Renaissance artworks and celebrated blockbuster Hollywood films played a major part in promoting antisemitism? And, if so, why did art professionals--historians, critics, and curators--support that prejudice which was responsible for violence against Jews?

You will be shocked to learn how a powerful foundation of historical antisemitism embedded in Renaissance artworks has escaped exposure for centuries.

When Dara Horn, author of People Love Dead Jews: Reports From a Haunted Present, told her children about the murder of Jews at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburg they explained it with five words: "Because some people hate Jews." This answer begs the question: Why? In the film Resistance, the character who plays the French Jewish resistance fighter Marcel Marceau provides his answer: "Because for centuries they were told we killed Jesus."

No doubt that's a major factor. But to make the Christ killers charge justify violence and genocide another falsification of biblical history had to be added: Jesus had to be Christian. But Christianity did not exist in Jesus' lifetime. Why was the conversion of Jesus to a Christian critical for "justifying" hatred of Jews?

Consider that the Sanhedrin, the ruling body over Jewish affairs, charged and condemned Jesus for committing blasphemies against Judaism: violating Jewish dietary laws by eating unclean food (not kosher--Mark 7:1-23), violating the Sabbath work prohibition by healing and his disciples picking and eating grain on that sacred day (Mark 2:27-28), and the most serious charge that he declared himself the Jewish Messiah.

These charges were not likely to later incite Christians when Christianity was established and sought to separate from Judaism. By altering the fabricated charge to the Jews killed the Christian Jesus--Christian Messiah and savior king--the "crime" became the launching pad for rage, hatred, and unrestrained violence against Jews.

The invention of the Christian Jesus thus emerged as one of the most deadly lies in history. Make no mistake about it. Converting Jesus into a Christian was not a trivial matter. It weaponized the Christ killers charge. The accusation that Jews collectively killed the Christian Jesus has had lethal consequences for Jews through the centuries and into the present day, as detailed by Jeremy Cohen in his scholarly book Christ Killers.

Renaissance artworks contributed in a major way to the creation and perpetuation of the Christian Jesus. Hundreds of years later Hollywood films reinforced the deception. Surprisingly, art historians, curators, and critics sustained the fraud--and continue to do so--by failing to acknowledge the identity theft of taking the Jew out of Jesus and thus falsifying biblical history. A falsification that fostered antisemitism.

In reviewing Christ in a Landscape by 16th-century Dutch artist Jan Swart van Groningen artplushistory.com notes

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Bernard Starr, PhD, is author of The Crucifixion of Truth, a drama set in 16th century Italy and Spain. Starr is a psychologist, journalist, and professor emeritus at CUNY, Brooklyn College. At Brooklyn College Starr taught developmental (more...)
 

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