CrossTalk - Anti-Semitism in the Last Supper

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Anti-Semitism in Medieval Church Artwork Like "The Last Supper"

Today, I'd like to get a big pair of scissors and cut away some excess baggage from Modern Western Christianity. Do you know who invented the first scissors? They were made by Leonardo Da Vinci in the 15th century. The great artist was also a great inventor.

Actually, Da Vinci was the epitome of the Renaissance man. He was a mathematician, scientist, engineer, a story-teller, as well as an artist. He may be the only Renaissance man that also drained swamps and designed canal systems. The great Leonardo Da Vinci was actually employed in the court of Duke Lodovico where he handled many diverse responsibilities. In fact, when he was commissioned to paint one of his most famous pieces, the Last Supper, he was also responsible for installing the "central heating" system for the Duke.

Quite literally, Da Vinci was a jack of all trades. We don't typically think of him as a tradesman, but he was. He was apparently well qualified in a vast array of enterprises. But I wouldn't have hired him as a theologian, and I don't think he was much of a Church historian based upon his Last Supper? Have you ever studied it? Well, its a mess. He obviously had no knowledge of the Jewish origins of the Church.

I just have one thing to say to Leo, "Shame on your face." From my perspective, the painting of the Last Supper is a disaster. I'm not referring to his unquestionable artistic excellence. I know that he was one of the great masters of the art world. My observations relate to Da Vinci's apparent lack of knowledge about Jews, Judaism, or the Jewish origins of the Church. This is not surprising, since one of his later bosses was an Italian guy named Giovanni de' Medici. Students of Church History may better recognize Medici by his more famous title--Pope Leo X. Now it will be helpful for you to understand that Da Vinci didn't just wave when the popemobile drove by. No sir, he knew the Pope and Da Vinci actually lived at the Vatican where the Jewishness of Jesus was NOT a source of pride for the Church of Rome. As such, his famous painting serves as an expose` of gross theological negligence. Either the artist and his Catholic sponsors were drowning in a famous river in Egypt, or they were seriously ignorant about the Bible and Church history. I'll give you the simple facts, and then you can decide. I see no other alternatives. Were they drowning in "da-Nile," or were they ignorant of the historical fact that Jesus, the disciples, and even the first 15 popes were Jewish. Why did they ignore the biblical account upon which the painting was based?

According to the New Testament, Jesus was well trained in the Jewish customs surrounding pesach—Passover as you might say. Remember, Jesus was a good Jewish boy and according to Luke, "His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of Passover" (Luke 2:41). Its clear that Jesus accompanied his parents because the next verse informs us that "When he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast" (Luke 2:42). The rest is history because it is from the adjacent verses that we learn about Jesus staying in Jerusalem to teach the amazed rabbis to the chagrin of the worried parents of a lost child. Scripture proves conclusively that the gathering made famous in the painting by Da Vinci was a traditional Jewish Passover Seder. Matthew's Gospel account should remove any lingering doubts from those of you who remain unconvinced. "Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover?" (Matt. 26:17). The operative word here is "unleavened" bread. The festival of Passover carries many names, including the "Feast of Unleavened Bread."

Unleavened bread was the festival requirement according to the familiar text of Exodus. "And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel " (Ex. 12:14-15). No doubt exists as to the type of bread that would have been found on the Passover menu for Jesus and His disciples. As such, the bread in Da Vinci's picture would have gotten stale long before any Jewish man would have eaten it for Passover. It is impossible that Jesus would have allowed fresh baked rolls, or loaves of leavened bread on that famous table. Since one would think that the Pope would have been familiar with the Bible, I vote for that river in Egypt. Some of these boys were in denial. How about you? Are you in denial that Christ's Last Supper was a Jewish ceremony? Do you realize that Jewish people celebrated that same festival for many centuries before Jesus was ever born? Have you considered that most modern Jews and many Jewish-hearted Christians still celebrate that same Passover festival of unleavened bread? Do you understand the relationship between our sacraments and the Passover service? You must! The practice was not an innovation by Jesus. It was part of the Passover liturgy.

Every Jew eats the broken matzah and drinks the cup of wine. The innovation of the communion service is not the ceremony, it is the comparison to, and the interpretation of, the more ancient Jewish ritual. The Passover reminds us of our deliverance from slavery in Egypt. The lamb in the ceremony symbolized Jewish redemption from the death sentence decreed over the firstborn Egyptian sons. Likewise, as Christians, we remember our deliverance from slavery to sin and the redemption from the accompanying death sentence purchased by the blood of Christ, as our Passover lamb. Jesus and the Disciples had no misunderstanding about this obvious relationship. Sadly, it is completely lost to Da Vinci and those believers who have been alienated from their Jewish roots.

Horribly, and with malice, the medieval Church wanted everyone to forget that fact and thereby, the Church was stripped of a rich and colorful Jewish heritage. They had a detestable disdain for my people and all things Jewish. They diligently rewrote history to disassociate themselves from the Jewish origins of the Church. But even the most perverted forms of revisionist history cannot change the facts that Jesus was a Jew.

Yet many Gentile followers hated the race chosen by God to birth the Messiah, produce the Holy Scriptures, and spread the Gospel throughout the Gentile world. I want you to be aware that during the same decade that Leonardo Da Vinci painted His gentilized Last Supper, the Catholic Church was expelling Jews in other European nations, forcing Jewish conversions under the threat of death, and sponsoring the infamous Spanish Inquisition.

Have you ever wondered which famous Jew has always been remembered and put on display by the Church? If you study ancient art from earlier centuries, you'll soon see who was stereotyped as the Jew in the religious scenery. It was generally not Jesus! How would it have looked to paint Jesus as a Jew? The medieval Church had the same problems that some moderns ponder. It creates too many inconsistencies and unanswerable problems for anti-Semites.

One famous Arkansas radio preacher held millions of followers in the palm of his hand. He was known to pass out pictures of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jesus as proof that our savior was not Jewish. It was just too hard for a Jew-hating preacher, like Gerald L.K. Smith to accept a Jewish Jesus. Believe it or not, the same racist preacher founded the Great Passion Play in Eureka Springs Arkansas. His presentation has been enjoyed by millions of Christians who probably have no idea that Rev. Smith, the founder of the Great Passion Play, hated Jews with a violent intensity. He proclaimed this publicly during his 1948 presidential campaign. His intentions were spelled out at a national convention. Smith was convinced that his Christian Nationalist Party was going to take over America. His platform not only advocated the deportation of blacks and Zionist Jews. He also intended to route the Jews into ghettoes, take their homes, and thereby solve the housing shortage created after WWII by giving the homes of deported Jews to veterans. Forgive me for presenting these distasteful facts, but facts they are. I have researched the life of this man and others like him.

I have carefully studied the history of Christian art and dramatic presentations where the image of the Jew has been depreciated. I have authored books about this subject to help lovers of Israel understand the problem. Now I must answer the question I asked earlier. Which famous Jew has always been remembered and put on display by the Church? Well, take a good look at Da Vinci's work. The Jew is always cast as Judas. Its OK to present Judas as the caricature of the Jewish stereotype, but Jesus and His "good Christian" buddies need to maintain their distance from their Jewish identities. Long before Da Vinci & Pope Leo, in fact, at least since the 11th century, Judas has been portrayed in dramatic Easter presentations as an exaggerated, greedy, monster – but always a Jewish monster! This error goes far beyond poetic or artistic license.

Did you know that Michaelangelo also worked for Pope Leo, and he bunked in the Vatican near Da Vinci. I guess Michaelangelo was under the same tragic misconceptions. Either he was ignorant of the Jewish origins of the Church, or he shared the Pope's racist convictions. For reasons that will soon become obvious, permit me to briefly, and I do mean briefly, revisit an earlier edition of CrossTalk to consider one of Michaelangelo's masterpieces.

Consider the great sculptor/artist Michaelangelo. In 1501 he began creating his famous marble statue of King David. After 3 years of cutting and chipping, all that remained of a monolithic block of stone was an enduring and beautiful work of art. I'll guarantee you that he left some marble chips on the floor in the process of sculpting. Mrs. Angelo probably had to sweep up some dust before it was done too.

If you ever get a chance to visit Italy, be sure and visit the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. If you can't go there, get an artbook from your library. In either case, don't miss Michaelangelo's 13 foot tall statue of King David. I warned you that I was going to talk about King David's privates so send the kids out of the room. In the meantime, I want you to contemplate change, so prepare to be embarassed and to learn something unnerving. If the kids are gone, don't close your eyes when you look at David. I particularly want you to notice, what you would notice, even if I hadn't told you to notice. Now I don't mean to be offensive, but, somebody, should mention that David was a Jewish child of the covenant, circumcised the 8th day just like every other Jewish son. Sadly, the Gentile Christian Church of the Middle Ages showed their incredible levels of horrible anti-Semitism by forcing Michaelangelo to de-Judaize David by refusing to permit the sculptor to portray David as a circumcised Jew.

The Church leaders literally hated my people so much that they even insisted the Church's own Jewish heroes be depicted as uncircumcised Gentiles. I thank God that His covenant stands, even when the standards of the Church fall!

Anyway, like that little bit of information, learning often leaves a mess in its wake. You might not have known that anti-Semitism is a long-standing Christian tradition, yet, history is very clear. The statue of David is only a minor residue of the problem that existed for centuries.

If you're interested in that subject, I have researched and written a book on that specific topic. Now I need to remind you that I have never approached you with hand full of gimme & a mouthful of much obliged and I guess, I hope that you appreciate that fact. Even more so, I hope that you have learned to trust the ministry of CrossTalk. Please note, I'm not begging you for donations and I've never imposed on you to send money to keep CrossTalk on the air. I do have an honest request. I want you to make an informed purchase of an item of value. I spent nearly 2 years researching and writing a book on the Jewish roots of the early Christian Church. I want you to be informed about the Jewish origins of Christianity, and I also want you to understand some of the historical errors that have crept into the Church that have been so damaging and offensive to my people. I am a Jew. I believe Jesus is the promised Messiah. This book demonstrates how the Church cut off its Jewish roots and then cut off my people. I have written this book entitled, DOES JACOB'S TROUBLE WEAR A CROSS? from a purely Christian perspective, however, I assure you that it is sensitive to the Jewish worldview because I am a product of a traditionally Jewish lifestyle and Jewish belief system. I hope that you can receive my book in the spirit in which it is intended. I want to help educate a predominantly Gentile Church about your own Jewish heritage in the hopes that it will draw you closer to my people. DOES JACOB'S TROUBLE WEAR A CROSS?, subtitled "The Ancient Legacy of Christian Anti-Semitism," is a carefully researched text that is certain to inform and touch you. I am selling this book for $15.00 including delivery and it is very easy to purchase. Have your credit card ready and just call our tollfree number and you can request it today. Just call 1-800 -688-3422. This 159 page book is ready for immediate shipment. It is already being used by a fine Christian seminary for helping to train Christian leaders about the Jewish heritage of the Church and I believe with all my heart it will help you focus on the Jewish history of Christianity. If you share my love for the Jewish people and my pain from our suffering, please call 1-800-688-3422. You will help me to continue the work of CrossTalk, and I promise you it will educate and inform. To order by mail send check or money order payable to EICB for $15.00 to P.O. Box 2528, Cedar Hilll, Texas, 75106. Thank you for visiting and supporting this effort. Jesus is Lord, and He was such a nice Jewish boy!

Well, I guess you have a few things to think about. Perhaps it would be helpful to remember that the Dark Ages led the Gentile world into a general condition of illiteracy. It is a result of that situation that the art world owes much gratitude. Think about the great religious paintings, sculptures, the frescoes and mosaics that were produced during the height of Christian Rome's greatness. The leaders of the Church understood that the preponderance of poor Christian peasants could not read the Bible. They could not read at all. Therefore, various forms of art and drama were used to present the Gospel. The rich heritage of religious art that was produced during Europe's middle ages, were intended to teach the masses about the great stories of the Bible. Their inherent lack of love and respect for the Jewish origins of the Church helped to foster the conditions which led to Church sponsored destruction of the Jewish people.

I don't want to bum you out with this information. I want to educate you so that you will be a bright source of light in a darkened world. A loud voice for truth in a sea of distortions. A friend to my people in an atmosphere of distrust. Yesterday, if you had looked at the world's most famous religious art, you may have seen brilliant artistry. Today, I hope that you still see it's beauty, but I also hope you will be able to identify the scars left upon the Jewish people. These still serve to create an atmosphere of pain and distrust. If you want to share your faith with my people, it would be wise to become familiar with the obstacles that prohibit your effectiveness. Thanks for taking the time to consider this information. Remember, it just one guy's opinions.

Love in Messiah,
Randy Weiss