Good Friday prayer for the Jews

The Good Friday prayer for the Jews has been a yearly prayer in some Christian churches on Easter Friday since ancient times.[1] In the Roman Catholic Church, it is known as the Solemn Intercessions.[1] In the Episcopal Church of the United States (US), it is known as the Solemn Collects.

Overview

The Good Friday prayer for the Jews is done for both Christians and non-Christians, including Jews, pagans and heretics.[1] The prayer is dated to the 8th-century liturgy book Gelasian Sacramentary.[2]

Background

Further information: Jewish deicide and Christianity in the 4th century

Classical antiquity

Christianity originated as a persecuted sect of Judaism in Roman Judea.[3][4] Early Christians were mostly Jewish before non-Jewish converts became the majority and split with Judaism over theological differences.[4] Christianity became the Roman state religion in 380 AD.[3]

Early Christianity

Since the 1st century, Jews have been blamed for the death of Jesus.[5][6] Several conflicts happened between Jews and Christians.[5][6]

Particularly, they disagreed on whether the Torah[7] was still valid[8] and whether circumcision was needed for non-Jewish converts.[9] Paul used "Judaizers" to refer to Jews who demanded non-Jewish converts to have circumcision,[9][10] as Paul believed that faith in Christ alone was enough for someone to be saved by God.[4][10] Paul asked Christians not to follow the Old Covenant,[4] while accusing Jews of "turning from the [Holy] Spirit to the flesh" to look good to God.[4]

Several Church Fathers condemned Jews for rejecting Jesus as the Messiah,[11] including John Chrysostom who wrote the homily series Adversus Judaeos to condemn the Jews,[12][13] which is seen by many historians as having inspired antisemites to justify pogroms, expulsions and discrimination against Jews in the following 1,600 years,[14][15] which peaked in the Holocaust (1933‒45),[16] killing at least 6,000,000 Jews across Europe.[17][18]

Middle Ages

A prayer for Jews was known in the daily Mass.[1] 6th-century Roman, Milan and Gallican Liturgies, prayed for Jews, heretics and pagans only on Good Friday.[1] It was reportedly formalized in the Carolingian church mass books in 800 AD, with the Frankish bishop justifying the prayer as follows:[19]

In all prayers we bend the knee [...] except when we pray pro perfidis Judaeis. For they have bent their knees before Christ, but have turned a good custom into its opposite, since they did this as a mockery.

The fact that the Roman soldiers playfully bent their knees (genuflection) to mock Jesus when crucifying Him was left out of the prayer.[1][20] Antisemitism is said to be the motive for the distortion to make Jews look like the ones who did it.[1][20] Throughout the Middle Ages, Good Friday and the Holy Week were a dangerous time for Jews in some European kingdoms due to occasional Christian violence,[21] which often happened during Passion plays,[21] with rocks thrown through synagogue windows and Jews assaulted.[21]

Roman Catholic Church

Tridentine version

Further information: Tridentine Mass

The form of the Good Friday prayer for the Jews used between 1570 and 1955 read as follows:[22]

Let us pray also for the faithless Jews: that Almighty God may remove the veil from their hearts;[23] so that they too may acknowledge Jesus Christ our Lord.[24] Almighty and eternal God, who dost not exclude from thy mercy even Jewish faithlessness: hear our prayers, which we offer for the blindness of that people; that acknowledging the light of thy Truth, which is Christ, they may be delivered from their darkness. Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Modern reforms

Interwar period

In January 1928, the chairman of Benedikt Gariador wrote to Pope Pius XI to request that the words perfidis/perfidia be changed:[25]

  • Christians have prayed very early for the conversion of the Jews to Christ, not for their conversion to Christianity
  • The word perfidis was originally only related to concrete violations of the law of certain Jews, only later understood as "complete corruption" and was thus reinterpreted as the unchangeable character of all Jews
  • The alleged mocking Jewish kneeling before Jesus is unrecovened in the New Testament and a fiction added later
  • The Prayer is now being abused as an argument for antisemitism, which the Catholic Church itself even propagates in its services
  • As such perfidiam Judaicam should be replaced by plebem Judaicam ("Jewish people"), as stated in a manuscript of the Manuale Ambrosianum from the 11th century

Pope Pius XI reportedly asked the Sacred Congregation of Rites to review it.[25] The matter was later referred to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (Holy Office).[25] Marco Sales, a Dominican friar close to Pope Pius XI, who rejected the changes on the grounds of Catholic traditions:[1][25]

  • All the criticized parts of the Jewish prayer, including the omission of the kneeling and the Amen, had already appeared in the ancient Church. As "venerable holy liturgy, dating back to antiquity", they escape any reformability
  • If such interference in this tradition were allowed to be allowed to a private association, one would not come to an end and could just as well allow the removal of offensive passages in the apostolic credo, the improvers and the curse psalms from the liturgy. These contained much harsher formulations for Jews
  • Perfidis always means a breach of words and contracts: This is exactly what God himself accuses the Jews in the Bible
  • Just as God, had only made a covenant with the Jewish people, only those who had broken this covenant and continued it constantly: therefore the word perfidis is appropriate for them, and not for the pagans

Post-war period

After the Holocaust,[17][18] Eugenio Zolli, the former Chief Rabbi of Rome who became a Catholic, asked Pope Pius XII to remove perfidis from the prayer.[26] French historian Jules Isaac also did so in 1949 when he met the Pope,[27] who argued that perfidis meaned "unbelieving" rather than "perfidious",[27] and made slight changes to the prayer:[27]

Let us pray also for the faithless Jews: that almighty God may remove the veil from their hearts; so that they too may acknowledge Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us pray. Let us kneel. Arise. Almighty and eternal God, who dost not exclude from thy mercy even Jewish faithlessness: hear our prayers, which we offer for the blindness of that people; that acknowledging the light of thy Truth, which is Christ, they may be delivered from their darkness. Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

When Pope John XXIII took over, he removed faithless from the prayer with effect from July 5, 1959.[28] Meanwhile, defenders of the word appealed to its origin, claiming that the word's meaning had changed when classical Latin became medieval Latin.[29] The 1959 version of the prayer became:[28][30]

Let us pray also for the Jews: that almighty God may remove the veil from their hearts; so that they too may acknowledge Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us pray. Let us kneel. Arise. Almighty and eternal God, who dost also not exclude from thy mercy the Jews: hear our prayers, which we offer for the blindness of that people; that acknowledging the light of thy Truth, which is Christ, they may be delivered from their darkness. Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

On the Good Friday in 1963, the canon recited the prayer that included perfidis, John XXIII signaled for it to be stopped and repeated without the word.[31][32]

The Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) was followed by changes to the prayer.[33] The changes were strongly opposed by Arab states,[33] which feared that Quran's teachings about the Jews would also be invalidated,[33] and radical traditionalist Catholics.[34] The 1965 version of the prayer became:

Let us pray also for the Jews: that our God and Lord may be pleased to shine the light of his face over them; that they too may acknowledge Jesus Christ our Lord as the Redeemer of all. Let us pray. Let us kneel. Arise. Almighty ever-living God who conferred your promises on Abraham and his seed, mercifully hear the prayers of your Church, that the people whom you anciently acquired may merit to come to the fullness of Redemption. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

In this prayer, the Old Covenant between God and the Jews was recognized for the blessing of all peoples (Genesis 12:3). As per the Nostra aetate,[35] further changes happened in 1970:[36]

Let us pray for the Jewish people, the first to hear the word of God, that they may continue to grow in the love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant. [Prayer in silence. Then the priest says:] Almighty and eternal God, long ago you gave your promise to Abraham and his posterity. Listen to your Church as we pray that the people you first made your own may arrive at the fullness of redemption. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

On July 7, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI made policy changes regarding the prayer, allowing Catholic priests to use pre-1962 versions of the prayer privately.[37] This sparked a controversy over the Catholic Church's commitment to the Vatican II.[37] Due to the controversy, Pope Benedict XVI changed the 1970 version of the prayer:[38]

Let us also pray for the Jews: That our God and Lord may illuminate their hearts, that they acknowledge Jesus Christ is the Savior of all men. (Let us pray. Kneel. Rise.) Almighty and eternal God, who want that all men be saved and come to the recognition of the truth, propitiously grant that even as the fullness of the peoples enters Thy Church, all Israel be saved. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Despite this, the private use of the prayer's older versions continued among some Catholic communities, which caused Abraham Foxman, the national director of the American civil rights group Anti-Defamation League (ADL), to say:[39]

We are extremely disappointed and deeply offended that nearly 40 years after the Vatican rightly removed insulting anti-Jewish language from the Good Friday mass, it would now permit Catholics to utter such hurtful and insulting words by praying for Jews to be converted. It is the wrong decision at the wrong time. It appears the Vatican has chosen to satisfy a right-wing faction in the church that rejects change and reconciliation.

Monsignor Dennis Mikulanis, vicar for inter-religious and ecumenical affairs for the Roman Catholic diocese of San Diego, instead of acknowledging the concerns, accused the ADL of "jumping the gun":[40] Mikulanis also accused media outlets of "erroneously contend[ing] that the letter could in effect reinstate a prayer offensive to Jews from the Good Friday liturgy of the Tridentine Mass, which dates back to 1570".[41] In response, Abraham Foxman repeated his position:[42]

The wider use of the Latin Mass will make it more difficult to implement the doctrines of Vatican II and Pope John Paul II, and could even set in motion retrograde forces within the church on the subject of the Jews, none of which are in the interest of either the church or the Jewish people [. ...] The church [...] must understand that reintroducing this prayer – it was removed by Paul VI in 1970 and replaced with a positive one recognizing the Jews' eternal covenant with God – will play into the hands of those who are against better relations between Jews and Catholics.

Mikulanis' view aligned with some traditionalist Catholic groups, including the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter (FSSP), which argued for the necessity of converting Jews to Christianity, and the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), which accused the Catholic Church of making "superfluous and regrettable concession to representatives of Judaism". Notably, the SSPX has a track record of promoting Holocaust denial and conspiracy theories about Jews.[34]

Meanwhile, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) commented:[43]

[... We appreciate] Pope Benedict XVI for his confirmation that the positive changes of Vatican II will apply to his recent decision regarding the Latin Mass, which has been reinstated by the Church [. ...] We acknowledge that the Church's liturgy is an internal Catholic matter [...] However we are naturally concerned about how wider use of this Tridentine liturgy may impact upon how Jews are perceived and treated. Pope Benedict XVI, in a decree issued on Saturday, authorized wider use of the traditional Latin Mass, which in some liturgy contains language offensive to Jews.

Anglican Communion

The third of the Solemn Collects in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England states:[44]

O merciful God, who hast made all men, and hatest nothing that thou hast made, nor wouldest the death of any sinner, but rather that he be converted and live; Have mercy upon all Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics, and take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of thy Word; and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites, and be made one fold under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

As early as in 1928, the American Episcopal Church changed "all Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics" in the prayer to "all who know thee not as thou art revealed in the Gospel of thy Son".[45] In the 1979 version of the Book of Common Prayer, confirmed the changes to the prayer as such:[46]

Merciful God, creator of all the peoples of the earth and lover of souls: Have compassion on all who do not know you as you are revealed in your Son Jesus Christ; let your Gospel be preached with grace and power to those who have not heard it; turn the hearts of those who resist it; and bring home to your fold those who have gone astray; that there may be one flock under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Eastern Orthodoxy

In 2007, twelve Eastern Orthodox priests representing five different national churches, some resisting their leadership, called for removing all liturgical passages they considered antisemitic.[47]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Hubert Wolf: Perfide Juden? In: Papst und Teufel. Die Archive des Vatikan und das Dritte Reich. 2. Auflage. München 2009, S. 108.
  2. ↑ Wilson, Henry Austin (1894). "Liber sacramentorum Romanae Ecclesiae".
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Spencer, Sidney; Crow, Paul A. (February 28, 2025). "The alliance between church and empire". Britannica. Retrieved March 2, 2025.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1
  7. ↑ The first five books of the Old Testament, also known as the Five Books of Moses.
  8. ↑ Taylor, Miriam S. (1995). Anti-Judaism and Early Christian Identity: A Critique of the Scholarly Consensus. Leiden, New York, Köln: Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 9004021353.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Elshtain, Jean Bethke (2004-05-18). "Anti-Semitism or anti-Judaism?". Christian Century. Retrieved 2007-02-01.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Kirsch, Adam (February 13, 2013). "How Anti-Judaism Is at the Heart of Western Culture". Tablet. Retrieved March 26, 2025.
  11. ↑ Dr. David R. Reagan. "The Evil of Replacement Theology: The Historical Abuse of the Jews by the Church". Lamb & Lion Ministries. Retrieved March 1, 2025.
  12. ↑ Ancient Greek: Κατὰ Ἰουδαίων Kata Ioudaiōn, "against the Jews"
  13. ↑ * "John Chrysostom, Against the Jews. Homily 6". The Tertullian Project. Retrieved March 2, 2025.
  14. ↑ Walter Laqueur, The Changing Face of Antisemitism: From Ancient Times To The Present Day (Oxford University Press: 2006) ISBN 0-19-530429-2, pp. 47–48
  15. ↑ Katz, Steven (1999), "Ideology, State Power, and Mass Murder/Genocide", Lessons and Legacies: The Meaning of the Holocaust in a Changing World, Northwestern University Press, ISBN 9780810109568
  16. ↑
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1
  19. ↑ Amalarius von Metz: De ecclesiasticis officiis 1, 13. In: Jean Michel Hanssens: Amalarii episcopi liturgica omnia. drei Bände, Rom 1948–1950. Zitat und Übersetzung nach Jules Isaac: Genesis des Antisemitismus, Wien 1969, S. 222f.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 * See p.7 in Solomon Lurie, Antisemitism v Drevnem Mire, in Russian, published by "Byloe", Petrograd, 1922.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 McDermott, Jim (April 14, 2022). "The Gospel of John has been used to justify anti-Semitism—so we should stop reading it on Good Friday". America Magazine. Retrieved March 28, 2025.
  22. ↑ Liber Usualis Missæ et Officii pro Dominicis et Festis Duplicibus (in Latin), Rome and Tournai: Desclée, Lefebvre & Co., 1903, p. 356; Missale Romanum (PDF) (in Latin), Bonnæ ad Rhenum, 2005, pp. 221–222, archived from the original (PDF) on July 24, 2011
  23. ↑ 2 Corinthians 3:13–16
  24. ↑ 'Amen' is not responded, nor is said 'Let us pray', or 'Let us kneel', or 'Arise', but immediately is said:
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 Ralf Tooten: Augen der Weisheit. Das spirituelle Gesicht der Religionen. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2002, ISBN 3-451-27011-0, S. 74.
  26. ↑ "Pope: Jews not to blame for Jesus's death". The Times. 2 March 2011. Archived from the original on 14 January 2018. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 Mudge, Lewis S. (2012). "Chapter 18: Christian Ecumenism and the Abrahamic Faith". In Kireopoulos, Antonios; Mecera, Juliana (eds.). Ecumenical Directions in the United States Today: Churches on a Theological Journey. Paulist Press. ISBN 9780809147557. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Vorgrimler, H., Commentary on the Documents of Vatican II: Volume III, New York, 1968, 5.
  29. ↑ K.P. Harrington, Mediaeval Latin (1925), page 181, footnote 5
  30. ↑ Roman Missal, 1962 typical edition, pages 173–174 Archived 2008-08-28 at the Wayback Machine)
  31. ↑ "Pope Halts Prayer, Bars Slur to Jews" (PDF). New York Times. Associated Press. 13 April 1963. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
  32. ↑ "The Catholic Church and the Holocaust: 1930–1965", Michael Phayer, p. 209, Indiana University Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0-253-21471-3
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 Greenberg, David (October 31, 2001). "The roots of Arab Anti-Semitism". Slate. Retrieved March 28, 2025.
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1
  35. ↑
  36. ↑ The Roman Missal. Revised By Decree of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and Published By Authority of Pope Paul Vi: The Sacramentary. Volume One Part 1 (PDF). Washington, D.C.: International Commission on English in the Liturgy. April 1998. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-11-09. Retrieved 2017-02-06.
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 Burke, Jason (July 8, 2007). "Pope's move on Latin mass 'a blow to Jews'". The Guardian. Retrieved March 28, 2025.
  38. ↑ "Trouble ahead? The future of Jewish-Catholic relations", Commonweal, March 13, 2009 by John R. Donahue, fetched 13 September 2009
  39. ↑ "Israelinsider.com". web.israelinsider.com. Archived from the original on April 15, 2009.
  40. ↑ "Mikulanis says ADL jumped gun, got its facts wrong" Archived 2007-08-18 at the Wayback Machine San Diego Jewish World. Vol. 1, Number 67. July 6, 2007.
  41. ↑ "Pope Eases Restrictions on Latin Mass" Archived 2017-06-28 at the Wayback Machine, New York Times, July 8, 2007.
  42. ↑ Foxman, Abraham "Latin Mass Cause for Concern" Archived 2007-07-15 at the Wayback Machine Jewish Telegraphic Agency July 11, 2007. Accessed July 12, 2007.
  43. ↑ "AJC press release". Archived from the original on 2007-08-07. Retrieved 2007-07-16.
  44. ↑ Hatchett, Marion J. (1995-08-01). Commentary on the American Prayer Book. HarperCollins. p. 236. ISBN 978-0-06-063554-1.
  45. ↑ "The Book of Common Prayer: Collects, Epistles, & Gospels". justus.anglican.org. Archived from the original on 2020-08-10. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  46. ↑ "Good Friday". Archived from the original on 2009-12-24. Retrieved 2009-06-15.
  47. ↑ "Priests: Remove anti-Semitic liturgy". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. 20 April 2007. Archived from the original on 2020-06-30. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
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