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As far as I can gather it is not Jews that have a problem with Gibson's movie, it is leftists. Jewish or not, leftists typically don't believe in God, so their view of Christian theology is not very relevant.

And their purpose, which is to mock Christians, and drive a wedge between Christians and Jews, is transparent.

As to the facts of the case, Jesus ran afoul of the religious and civil authorities of his day. He was born and raised and lived and died in Roman-occupied Israel, so obviously those authorities were Israeli and Roman. Obviously, his death was going to be at the hands of Israeli and Roman authorities.

Pilate fully knew he was innocent of the charges, and had him tortured and executed anyway, and his torturers and executioners were Roman. So there is no way to hide the fact that his murder, and torture, was a gentile-jewish conspiracy.

Coincidentally, his early followers were also Jewish, with a few gentiles thrown in. Why? In Roman-occupied Israel, what else would they be?

A few years later, the temporary peace between the Israelis and the Roman overlords would break down and the Israelis, Jewish and Christians alike, would be slaughtered out of hand and driven to the four corners of the earth.

I have never heard anyone sit and obsess over gentile guilt toward the Christ, as somehow uniquely awful. I have never heard a Christian obsess over supposed Jewish guilt in the death of Christ. At least in the modern era, this is a strawman that gets trotted out whenever someonw wants to slam Christians but don't know enough for an honest discussion.

I have never been in a church where "jews" were blamed for the death of Jesus, except in the historical sense... Jews and Romans killed him, and I'm sure that same weekend Jews and Romans were committing burglaries, getting drunk, playing cards, and otherwise filling up the local police blotter.

I don't think anyone sees any unique generational guilt on the part of Jews or Romans either one for any other crimes committed that weekend. The perpetrators all went to their maker a long time ago, and God will judge them as he will judge us all.

If you believe that modern Jews and Gentiles are guilty of Christ's death, then you will find the calls for slave reparations to be persuasive. But most Christians do not believe such things. Bigots believe them, but such bigots are normally not believers.

After posting my long, long post, I found yours. I agree completely. I know of no Christian that holds todays Jews responsible for Christ's death, and yes, the Romans were guilty too. Pilate was too weak to stand up to the Jews. He didn't want to kill Jesus, but he too, was afraid that if he didn't keep the jews happy, he might loose his power and wealth. So he caved. Herod was a coward also, and passed the buck back to Pilate, because he too was scared to cause problems with the Jews. But for the Jews today and the Vatican II to say that the Jews of that day had no involvement in bringing about the death of Jesus, is just wrong. They demanded it.

But then again, let us not forget...that it was God's plan from the beginning, that Jesus would come...and that he would die, as the one, last, perfect sacrifice for my sins and yours.