The past four decades – a time exceeding the living memory of most people today – have seen dramatic changes in the world of Jewish-Christian relations. As a result, more and more people – including more than a few Jews – come to this subject without a very clear sense of what the “legacy” of the past millennium-and-a-half is. I cannot in this space remedy that problem and can do no more than introduce the chapter with a few selected examples of our heritage, in the hope that they may aid the reader to note and understand the oblique references to that extended tragic time that underlie passages and themes in the readings that follow them.

1. (a) The Gospel According to St. Matthew 27:24–26

2. “So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, ‘I am innocent of this man's blood; see to it yourselves.’ Then the people as a whole answered, ‘His blood be on us and on our children!’ So he released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.”

3. (b) Pope Innocent III, Licet Perfidia Judeorum (1199)

4. “Although the Jewish perfidy is in every way worthy of condemnation, nevertheless, because through them truth of our Faith is proved, … thou shalt not destroy the Jews completely, so that the Christians should never by any chance be able to forget Thy Law.”

5. (c) Pope Alexander IV, Letter to the Duke of Burgundy (1257)

6. […]