GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 27, 16 February 1937, Page 3

GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN

Nazi Versiop FuII of AntiJewish Bias MANY 0MISSI0NS (By Air Mail — Own Correspondent) LONDON, Jan. 21. A new version of the Gospel according to St. John, adjusted to snit tho requirements of a totalitarian and anti-Semitic Germany, has just been issued by the Bremen gronp • of the Nazi minority in the Evangelical chnrch who call themselves "German Christians." Dr. Heinz Weidemann, the Evangelical Bishop of Bremen, who belongs to this sect, sponsors the published text, in which he collaborated. The new version, 86 pages long, is somewhat rcmjniscent of the German ' ' Sermon on the Monnt," issued last* April by the Reich Bishop, Dr. Ludwig Mueilei, of whom nothing i's now heard. It avoids, however, certain of the cruder fanlts of taste — described by many churchmen as blasphemies — which mar that work. The purposes of the Weidemann adaptation seems to be to support antiJewish religions prejudice in a more subtle way. The Fourth Gospel has apparently been chosen becanse in it rather than in the other Gospels the Jews can be made to appear more clearly as the opponents of Christ. There is also a tendency to gloss over the more mystical portions of the Gospel. The final chapter, 21, in whieh Christ appears to His disciples for the third time, is omitted entirely, and other omissions seem to. follow the same line of propaganda. Bishop Weidemann says in his preface: "Whether the purists are annoyed with us or not, we desire to help those who search for the truth. Tho German of the Third -Reich mnst know the meaning of Christ whom the Jews nailed to the Cross." * In Chapter 6, verses 3l*and 32 have been altered to read as follows

"The Bible also reports that bread fell from Heaven for our ancestors in the desert. "Jesus replied, ' Verily I say nnto you, these old stories to which vou continually refer do not help you. But my faith alone giveth you the true bread from Heaven,' " This curious attempt to make the doctrines of Clirist palatable by fostering anti-Jewish sentiments at tho expense of honest translation is seen in several place. For example, in Chapter 2, verse 20, tbe introductory words, "Then said the Jews," are rendered, "The Jews jeered and said." Similarly the name Judea has been rendered "Judenland" or "the land of the Jews," though this is distinguished from the province of Galilee, where Christ was born. It is a favourite Nazi theory that Christ belonged to, Teuton stock which fmd settlod in cer-' tain parts of the Holy Land. This prejudice has been extended in the present work by subtle changes tending to suggest, that the* disciples, like Christ himself, were also non-Jews. In Chapter 1, verse 17, the reference to Moses as a law-giver — "For the law was given by Moses" — is suppressed. In other plaees such Jewish names as Elijah and Isaiah are replaced by the words "the prophets. " The name of Moses has again been removed ahd the purpose appeara to be

to* imply that Christ felt -for the OM Testament the contempt for it now in- I cnlcated into modern Germans. In j Chapter 1, verse 47, the words, "Be- i hold an Israelite indeed, in whom is j no guile, ' ' become "You ; are ® true) | man of God among your people." I The word "rabbi" when applied to j Christ is changed . to • " Master, " and I "glory" becomes "victory," also in eonformity with present-day Nazi par« lance. Another highly significant alteration ' is that in Chapter 18, verse 36, the words "My kingdom is. not of this world" are changed to "in origin-'and essence my kingdom i# no visible earthly kingdom." The door seems to have beeft opened if not for an apotheosis of Hitler, at ( least for a close approximation between | his character and * that of ■■Christ, the j notion of individual iinmortality being, | however, replaced by that. of. the ;worldly triumph of Nazi ideas. | ■ ■ • !