Disgusting Illustrations Distract from Worthy Content!

Readers’ Perspective Leave a Comment

Dr. Notley had no part in selecting the illustrations that accompanied his article.

Comment from Dot Olsen (Auburn, California, U.S.A.) that was published in the “Readers’ Perspective” column of Jerusalem Perspective 52 (Jul.-Sept. 1997): 11.

I must say that I was greatly offended by your last issue [the reader refers primarily to the issue’s major article, “Anti-Jewish Tendencies in the Synoptic Gospels,” Jerusalem Perspective 51 (Apr.-Jun. 1996): 20-35, 38]. The biblical content was worth studying and reading carefully, yet on so many pages there were offensive and horrific pictures which were distracting from the data presented. I would suggest that in the future such material be perhaps grouped together on one or two pages, so as not to make study so difficult. These matters certainly need to be exposed and explored, but the pictures create such an atmosphere of disgust, they certainly detracted from the presentation of your written material.

David Bivin responds:

Thank you for your compliment regarding the contents of the last issue. I agree that the illustrations accompanying Dr. Notley’s article, “Anti-Jewish Tendencies in the Synoptic Gospels,” are disgusting and horrifying. I do not agree that they are out of place. Since these anti-Semitic caricatures and church art were produced by Christians who, we can assume, had read the New Testament, Christians of this generation must seek an explanation for the artists’ hatred of Jews. We also must resolve to do everything in our power to eliminate Christian antisemitism.

Please note that Dr. Notley had no part in selecting the illustrations that accompanied his article. I am responsible for the anti-Semitic illustrations’ inclusion. I also am responsible for the article’s “kicker” (p. 21), and for the inclusion of the anti-Semitic statements by Martin Luther, Bailey Smith and several church fathers, which were embedded in the article as “call-out quotes.”

This article originally appeared in issue 52 of the Jerusalem Perspective magazine. Click on the image above to view a PDF of the original magazine article.

Leave a Reply

  • David N. Bivin

    David N. Bivin
    Facebook

    David N. Bivin is founder and editor of Jerusalem Perspective. A native of Cleveland, Oklahoma, U.S.A., Bivin has lived in Israel since 1963, when he came to Jerusalem on a Rotary Foundation Fellowship to do postgraduate work at the Hebrew University. He studied at the Hebrew…
    [Read more about author]

  • JP Content

  • Suggested Reading

  • Hospitality Heritage of the ChurchPetros Petra WordplayHistorical Jesus a Tanna FIDeliver Us From Evil6 Stone Water JarsEnemies of the HarvestWere Women Segregated?Luke 9-51-56—A Hebrew FragmentUnlocking the Synoptic ProblemNew Portrait of SalomeInsulting God's High PriestLoving BothMedieval JargonBeating the (Thorny) Bushes title 2Gergesa, Gerasa, or GadaraPG‘Everything Written…in the Psalms About Me’ (Luke 24-44)And OR In Order To RemarryAnti-Jewish TendenciesScribal ErrorsAllegro to ZeitlinTwena With All Due RespectTorah in the Sermon on the MountBethsaida 002Flusser Times of the GentilesIf Your Eye Be Single cover imageIntro to SynopticStewards of God's KeysBy the Finger of GodPower of ParablesTrees of LifeBest Long-TermFlusser Parables of Ill ReputeNew International JesusReich Design and MaintenanceSafrai Synagogue CenturionNun GergesaSabbath BreakersNeot KedumimWealth of Herod the GreatGood Morning, ElijahMiraculous CatchSalted With FireJewish Laws of Purity in Jesus' DayMidrash in the New TestamentAesop's Fables and the Parables of the SagesJesus’ Temptation and Its Jewish BackgroundOstracon From Qumran FlusserOrigins of Jesus' Dominical TitleDid Jesus Make Food Clean?Evidence of Pro-Roman Leanings in the Gospel of MatthewA Body, Vultures & SoMBinding and Loosingספר פתרון תורהPilgrimage in the Time of Jesus cover