Pope pens book about Jews and Jesus' accusers

In Pope Benedict XVI's new book, he doesn't just absolve Jews for the death of Jesus.

He tells who did it.

As the book, "Jesus of Nazareth, Part Two: Holy Week—From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection," goes on sale today, many are seeing it as not only a scholarly exposition of the last days of Jesus Christ, but also savvy move by a modern religious leader who knows that his words affect not only Catholics, but people of many faiths.

"Now we must ask: Who exactly were Jesus' accusers?" Pope Benedict writes. "Who insisted that he be condemned to death? We must take note of the different answers that the Gospels give to this question. According to John it was simply 'the Jews.' But John's use of this expression does not in any way indicate — as the modern reader might suppose — the people of Israel in general, even less is it 'racist' in character. After all, John himself was ethnically a Jew, as were Jesus and all his followers. The entire early Christian community was made up of Jews."

Pope Benedict, writing the book under his name Joseph Ratzinger, then identified the "Temple aristocracy" as those who instigated Jesus' death. He said it was "precisely indicated" and "clearly limited."

Jeffrey R. Chadwick found the pope's explanations impressive — in part because the Pope's conclusions aligned with Chadwick's research. Chadwick is an associate professor of church history and doctrine at BYU and professor of archaeology and Near Eastern Studies at the BYU Jerusalem Center — and in 2005 wrote a chapter in the book "The Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ" about who killed Jesus.

"What caught my eye was who the Pope identified as the guilty party: The Temple aristocracy," Chadwick said. "'The Jews' of the Gospel of John are in fact the Judean political establishment which was run by and controlled by the Sadducees."

Chadwick said many commentaries on the life of Jesus pair the Sadducees together with Pharisees, another party of Jewish leaders. But the New Testament tells a different story. "For the trial and crucifixion of Jesus, the Pharisees drop off the radar screen. They don't even appear to have been involved after the arrest of Jesus," Chadwick said. "The Pharisees and Sadducees were much further apart than, say, the liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans are today. They just didn't work together on anything. To pair them up as a bi-partisan opposition to Jesus is just simply not supportable."