Article: Christ Killers: The Jews and the Passion from the Bible to the Big Screen

JEREMY COHEN, Christ Killers: The Jews and the Passion from the Bible to the Big Screen (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2007). Pp. x + 313. $29.95.

Cohen argues that "Christianity needed the Jews to serve as the killers of Christ and repeatedly cast them in that role, regardless of what may or may not have happened" historically (p. 3). Understanding "myth" as an expression of "the ultimate truths and values of a community" (p. 16), he further holds that historical reconstructions of the events leading to Jesus' crucifixion are virtually irrelevant to the impact of the myth of Jews as Christ killers.

In part 1, "The Myth and Its Origins," C. introduces a recurrent theme: "Stories ...

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