Paul, I assure you, I am listening (well, reading). Hypocrites of all nations, of all ethnicities, of all sexes, of all ages, of all epochs, would have had no reason to object to Jesus profaning the sabbath - only his fellow Jews, and perhaps only the hypocritical among them, would have given a stuff what Jesus did on the sabbath. Carter may have been aiming at the hypocrites, but with that part of the stanza, he hit (some of) the Jews (of the day).

Dave, I believe it is a Christian teaching that God sent His only son to redeem us through his suffering. I have explicitly said elsewhere in this thread that that Christian teaching is not anti-Jewish. I probably don't know as many Christian teachings as you do, but the ones I do know of, they aren't anti-Jewish - except the one that says that (some of) the Jews (of the day) brought about the death of Jesus.

The Coventry Carol is a new one on me. I'll look into it. Thanks for the heads-up.

Volgadon, we agree that in those first years of Christianity the Romans saw the Christians as nothing more than another Jewish sect. I've been suggesting that the gospels were, in part, an attempt to move the Romans away from that view.

McGrath, the account given in the gospels is, to the best of my knowledge, supported by no historical records whatsoever. There are many improbable things about the gospel accounts. I mentioned one, way back upthread somewhere, and I will detail others, when I have all my ducks lined up in a row.

Pip, in the first place, the gospels (and, by my reading, LotD) don't just say that the Jewish holy people of Jesus' time objected to his teaching and activities; they say that those people brought about Jesus' death, a rather more serious accusation. And as I have written elsewhere in this thread, while the members and guests of Mudcat are far too sensible to hold the Jewish people of today guilty for what they believe some Jewish people in the past have done, the world out there is full of people who are not nearly so sensible, as any reading of history will make clear.

CarolC, the key phrase in your post above is, "according to the gospels." What if the gospels are not 100% historically accurate? Where does that leave St Stephen?

Dave, with regard to the quotation from Rabbi Sol - I grant that Rabbi Sol is not offended by LotD. I never said that "the Jews" are offended by LotD. I said that I am offended by LotD, and I've tried to explain why I'm offended by LotD.