Bloody hell, Dave, have you read anything I've written in this thread in the last few days?

09 Jul 08 - 03:10 AM

The song (the one stanza, anyway) says (on my reading) that the people who objected to the (perceived) desecration of the sabbath (and those people would have to be some or all of the Jews of the time) killed Jesus.

08 Jul 08 - 09:45 AM

I agree that Carter & the gospels were both referring to Jewish contemporaries of Jesus, and not to Jews of today or of the intervening years.

07 Jul 08 - 08:58 PM

I did take the position that "the holy people" meant "the Jewish people," but I have elsewhere in this thread noted that there is still a problem if "the holy people" is interpreted as the priests, or as the Pharisees, or as the Jewish religious or political or legal authorities of the day.

06 Jul 08 - 10:23 AM

I understand that most of the contributors to this thread disagree with my contention that the holy people refers to some or all of the Jews of Jesus' time (although why anyone among Jesus' contemporaries other than some of Jesus' fellow Jews would object to Jesus dancing on the sabbath is beyond me).

04 Jul 08 - 09:52 PM

2. "holy people" is a reference to, if not the entire Jewish people of the time, then to a segment thereof - maybe the Pharisees, maybe the Sanhedrin, maybe the priests, maybe some other Jewish authorities, but, in any event, definitely not to the Romans,

Evidently I have to say it once more: I believe that stanza of LotD presents an anti-Jewish belief if it says that ANY of the Jews OF THE DAY brought about the crucifixion of Jesus.

And if you can show me where I said that I want you to blame the descendants of the Romans, I will personally come, at my own expense, to sing Lord of the Dance at your next family celebration (provided only that it isn't a Bar Mitzvah).

CarolC, that part of the Christian Bible is central to the question about LotD. If I believed that some or all of the Jews of the time worked to bring about the death of Jesus, I would not be here objecting to LotD - the song would only be guilty of some exercise of poetic license in putting all the blame on those Jews, rather than some on them and some on Pilate.

It was in Roman interests that people fear them. It was not in Roman interests that people hate them. A story that Pilate only executed Jesus because he was manipulated by the Jewish elite and bullied by the Jewish mob would stir up less hatred of Rome than a story that Pilate planned it and brought it about entirely on his own. It would also put more distance, in Roman eyes, between the Christians and those troublesome Jews. It had to be the politically more savvy way to go.