According to Dr. E. Michael Jones,
“the Jews, by rejecting Christ, rejected Logos and became agents of moral subversion or, in the words of St. Paul ‘enemies of the whole human race’ (1 Thess 2:16).” (Cited from his book The Jews and Moral Subversion.)
Is Dr. Jones rightly and fairly quoting Paul? Did Paul claim that “the Jews” are “enemies of the whole human race”?
When I challenged Dr. Jones’ interpretation of Paul’s words, along with his understanding of the usage of the term “the Jews” in John’s Gospel, he responded by calling my viewpoint “cockamamie.”
In short, Dr. Jones has mocked the idea that Paul was not making a blanket statement about “the Jews” in 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16. And he has ridiculed the idea that in John’s Gospel, the Greek term hoi Ioudaioi often means “the Jewish religious leaders.”
Let’s look first at the relevant verses in 1 Thessalonians as rendered in the ESV, a respected evangelical translation:
For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved — so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!
But the ESV also has a note to the word “Jews,” explaining that “the Greek word Ioudaioi can refer to Jewish religious leaders, and others under their influence, who opposed the Christian faith in that time.”...
