New editions of the New Testament and the Koran should have trigger warnings added in the margins to highlight “antisemitic passages” in the holy texts, a group of Jewish leaders has said.
The European Jewish Congress (EJC), an umbrella body for Jewish groups, has produced a “catalogue of policies to combat antisemitism”.
A number of its recommendations focus on passages in the Bible and Koran that have been used to promote hatred against Jews, calling for these holy books to have warnings added into their introductions and margins.
Some Bible passages, particularly within the Gospel of John, speak about Jews in pejorative terms. Parts of the New Testament and the Koran appear to blame Jews for Jesus’s death, while there are negative remarks in the Koran about some Jews.
Most scholars agree that these passages should be seen as evidence of tensions between different groups that lived at the time, rather than as blanket statements about all Jewish people, but say they have been exploited or misinterpreted to justify the persecution of Jews over centuries. The Archbishop of Canterbury said in 2016: “It is a shameful truth that, through its theological teachings, the church compounded the spread of this [antisemitism] virus.”
The EJC document states: “Translations of the New Testament, the Koran and other Christian or Muslim literatures need marginal glosses and introductions that emphasise continuity with Jewish heritage [and] warn readers about antisemitic passages in them.”
Alongside such passages in Islamic texts “cross-references should be added to parts of these scriptures that describe Jews positively”, it adds.
Read the article in The Australian.