Free The Jewish Annotated New Testament by Amy-Jill Levine Page A

Christianity as engaging in cannibalism and other immoral practices. John 4 also has strong allusions to Samaritan messianic beliefs.
    John and anti-Judaism
    Although the Gospel draws extensively on Jewish tradition, its explicit references to Jews and Judaism are often hostile. The Greek term hoi Ioudaioi or variations appears more than seventy times. The literal translation is “the Judeans,” that is, the inhabitants of Judea, or, as became commonplace, “the Jews.” (See “Ioudaios,” p. 524 .) The appropriate translation of this term is one of the most contentious issues in Johannine studies. Some suggest that the term should be translated as “the Jews” when used neutrally or positively, as in references to the festivals of the Jews (e.g., 2.13; 5.1; 6.4), but not when it is used negatively to refer to Jesus’ enemies. In these latter cases, hoi Ioudaioi does not designate the Jews or even the Judeans as a whole. The crowds who eat the “bread of life” (Jn 6), or who hear Jesus teach in the Temple during the Feast of Tabernacles (Jn 7) are Jews, yet they are not arrayed against Jesus. In addition, Jesus says in his conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well that “salvation is from the Jews” (4.22). These examples show that the specific referent of hoi Ioudaioi within the narrative varies according to its literary context.
    Yet this does not quite resolve the issue. More important than the referent of each usage is the overall rhetorical effect of the relentless repetition of the words hoi Ioudaioi . The Gospel’s use of the term serves two important functions: it blurs the boundaries among various Jewish groups, and it employs the term to designate the forces that are hostile to Jesus. Notably, hoi Ioudaioi is never used to describe the disciples and other followers, who are certainly Jewish with regard to their religious and ethnic origins, though not residents of Judea for the most part. Similarly, Jesus is not referred to as a “Jew” except once, by the Samaritan woman, who wonders that Jesus, a Jew, asks a drink of a Samaritan woman (4.9). Instead, the Gospel uses “Israelite” and “Israel” as positive terms. Jesus refers to Nathan-ael approvingly, as an “Israelite in whom there is no deceit” (1.47). Nathanael in turn declares Jesus to be the King of Israel (1.49) and the enthusiastic crowds who greet Jesus as he enters Jerusalem before his final Passover do the same (12.13). The effect is to distance the reader from any group designated as hoi Ioudaioi , regardless of the specific referent. On the basis of these arguments, the generic translation of hoi Ioudaioi as “the Jews” is the most suitable.
    The Jews are from the outset portrayed as the people who reject Jesus (1.11), persecute him (5.16), seek his death (8.40), expel believers from the synagogue (9.22), plot Jesus’ death (9.49–52), and persecute his followers (16.2). Furthermore, both the Gospel narrator and the Johannine Jesus employ dualistic language that contrasts spirit and flesh, light and darkness, life and death, salvation and eternal damnation, God and Satan, belief and nonbelief. Those who believe Jesus to be the Messiah and Son of God are firmly associated with the positive element in each pair, whereas those who reject him—epitomized by “the Jews”—are associated with the negative elements. The most extreme example appears in Jn 8, in which Jesus declares to his Jewish audience: “You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires” (8.44). This accusation has contributed to anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism from ancient times to the present day.
    In using the term “the Jews” to indicate, and to condemn, those who do not believe in Jesus, the Gospel of John encourages its readers to dissociate themselves from any who would identify with that designation. For that reason it may also be considered “anti-Jewish,” insofar as it declares that Jews who do not