Those Jews…Again...and Again

Abstract

Two of the most misunderstood words in the New Testament are “the Jews”! Unfortunately, this misperception of historical reality has resulted in merciless persecution and ethnic cleansing of millions of innocent people. Judaism—both during and after the lifetime of Jesus—was a diverse movement, represented in part by those various and varied groups of Jews who were the earliest followers of a Jew named Jesus. Careful attention to both the historical and contextual setting of each occurrence of this phrase in the New Testament will enable the translator to generate both a more accurate and a more sensitive text than the fallacious—and often fatal—perpetuation of a “literal” rendering.