Difficult Texts: Matthew 27.25.

Any Christian who speaks about Matthew 27.25 needs to be aware of how it has been used to promote Christian anti-Judaism. Various approaches have emerged to reading it in such a way that this connection is broken. One is to argue that it does not reflect the true circumstances of Jesus’ trial and death but rather the conflicts of the communities in which it was written. Another depends less on such historical scepticism and instead puts clear limits around the responsibility of ‘the whole people’ conveyed by the text. Finally, it is possible to seek a meaning in the words that transcends the immediate intentions of the speakers and draws us as it did them into the saving mystery of the Passion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]