At the risk of lobbing in a smoke bomb, may I point out that the fourth Gospel consistently refers to Jesus' persecutors as "The Jews". Now a moment's thought should disabuse anyone of the idea that this means Jews in general, let alone all Jews: Jesus himself was Jewish, and so were his (original) followers including the Gospel's own author. Nevertheless, it has been grievously misinterpreted in the past as an excuse for antisemitism.

The point being that a phrase like "holy people" is just as open to being misunderstood, given a conspicuous absence of common sense.