By DAVID BARON.
NO person in the history of the Jews has provoked such deep-seated abhorrence as He who came only to bless them, and who even on the cross prayed, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” When on earth, at the end of His three-and-a-half years of blessed ministry among them, they finally rejected Him. Their hatred was intense and mysterious. “Away with this man; release unto us Barabbas . . . Crucify Him, crucify Him!” was their cry. And all through the centuries no name has provoked such intense abhorrence among the Jews as the name of Jesus.
*What this gracious converted Jew says is literally true about his kinsmen according to the flesh but in certain quarters among the Jews in recent times there has been a marked change and in those quarters the venomous hatred has given place to a friendlier spirit but alas! alas! it still can be said about the Jews as a people “They hated me without a cause.”—Editor.
I have known personally most amiable and as men, lovable characters among the Jews; but immediately the name “Jesus” was mentioned, a change came over their countenances, and they would fall into a passion of anger. In the course of my missionary experiences these past thirty-five or forty years, how often has it been my lot to witness some of my people almost mad with rage—clenching their fists, gnashing their teeth, and spitting on the ground at the very mention of the Name which to the believer “is as ointment poured forth!” Israel’s attitude to our Lord Jesus may be gathered also from their literature. In the filthy legends about Him in the Talmu and more modern productions, the very names by which He is called are blasphemous. The precious name Yeshua (“Jesus,” Saviour) has been changed into “Yeshu,” made up of initial letters which mean “Let His name and His memory be blotted out.”
The Holy One who knew no sin nor was guile found in His mouth, is often styled “the Transgressor,” and another term frequently in the mouth of the Jews is “Tolui” (the hanged one), which is equivalent to “the accursed one.” There are also other hateful designations, such as “Ben Stada,” or “Ben Pandera,” which imply blasphemies not only against Him, but against her who is “blessed among women.”
And Israel’s blind hatred to the Messiah does not stop short at His person, or His Virgin Mother, but extends to His words and works, and particularly to those of their nation who are ready to take upon them His reproach and to follow Him. Thus His works are still ascribed to witchcraft and Beelzebub; His gospel (the Evangelium) is called Aven or Avon-gillajon, “the sinful or mischievous writing,” while Rabbinic hatred to His followers (especially from among the Jews) was not satisfied with classing them as “apostates” and “worse than heathens,” but rose to the height of instituting a daily public prayer in the most solemn part of their liturgy, that “the Nazarenes” may, together with all apostates, “be suddenly destroyed,” without hope, and “be blotted out of the book of life !”
This may be painful reading to some Christians, and the Lord knows it is far from my thoughts to write anything that might tend to foster unchristian prejudice against my people, but it is necessary to show how literally the prophetic forecast has been verified, and how deep-seated and mysterious Jewish hatred has been to Him who, according to His human nature, is flesh of their flesh, and bone of their bone, and in whom is bound up all their hope and salvation.—The Servant of Jehovah.