There are so-called “Christians” today that are still trumpeting this libel that dates back to the 4th century. It is an anti-semitic smear that is rooted in the unbiblical false doctrine of Replacement Theology (e.g. that the Church has replaced Israel in the covenants of God).
While this is not an exhaustive response to that question and many of the implications influencing it, here are some things to consider.
First, by reading the biblical gospels & Acts, we learn that it was many but NOT all of the Jewish religious leaders (scribes, Pharisees & Sadducees) in Jerusalem that were responsible for the false accusations, arrest, and religious trial of Jesus.
They were not ALL the Jews in Jerusalem, or Judea, or Perea, or Galilee, or Samaria, or even throughout the Roman empire.
In contrast, remember that ALL of Jesus’ first disciples (the twelve, 70, 120, 500, then 3000+ after Pentecost) were Jews. The entire early Church were Jews! And God has preserved a remnant of Jewish believers in the Church ever since.
Based on those facts alone, the answer is clearly NO. All Jews (of Jesus’ day) were NOT to blame for His crucifixion.
Next, the Jewish leaders at that time had no authority or power to crucify Jesus (see John 18:28-31). Judea had become a Roman province around A.D. 6 and capital punishment (death penalty) was the Roman Governor’s prerogative. That is why the Jewish leaders had to take Jesus to the Roman Pontius Pilate to request the death penalty. So, it was the Gentile Romans that actually crucified Jesus, the Jewish Messiah.
Third, the idea that all of the descendants of “those Jews” are all personally guilty of crucifying Jesus is absurd.
So, as the Apostle Paul so comprehensively explains in Romans chapters 1-3, everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. Not a single one of us is righteous, whether Jew or Gentile.
The penalty for sin is death. Since we have all sinned, we ALL die, but not just physical death. According to God’s Word, there is a second death that is eternal torment in the lake of fire that no one can save themselves from by our own merit, no matter what. None of us can bribe a Holy and just God with our “good” actions, money, prayers, or anything else we have to get out of that death penalty.
But God, so loved EVERY human being that He has created, not wanting ANYONE to perish from the second death in the eternal lake of fire, sent His only begotten Son (who preexisted with Him as God) to become a sinless human being in order to take the punishment EVERY ONE of us deserved when He was crucified on that cross.
It is written that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. The only acceptable blood atonement God would accept had to be from a SINLESS human being. So God became that SINLESS human being, a JEW from the JEWISH tribe of Judah & descendent of the JEWISH King David, kist as He prophesied by His JEWISH prophets beforehand… to die and rise from the dead first for the JEWS, and also for the non-JEWs.
Finally, anyone (JEW or GENTILE) who accepts the God of Israel’s gift exchanging our sin nature with Christ’s righteous nature through faith in Jesus’ atoning death & resurrection, receives entrance into the Kingdom of God under Christ Jesus’ authority, the indwelling & empowering Holy Spirit, resulting in eternal life instead of eternal torment in the lake of fire.
Anyone (JEW or GENTILE) who rejects Jesus’ atoning death & resurrection, remains condemned to that second death of eternal torment in the lake of fire.
So the next time anyone wants to point their finger at the Jews, or the modern nation of Israel, and try to condemn them for “crucifying Jesus” … remind them of this: “Let the one who is without sin, cast the first stone.”
