Deliverance from the Cross — Page 71
around the sentence: Jesus did not die on the cross. From this followed the realisation: This means that we Jews did not murder him, could not have murdered him. Perhaps you cannot understand how I feel; within a few hours I was forced to make a personal decision. It is true that in the first instance I had taken it all in as a journalist; but who can divide himself in a matter like this? It affects Christians like you in your own way, and Jews like us in our way- but just as strongly. To us it becomes evident that, if we Jews could not have murdered Jesus, it follows that he was what he told us he was our Messiah. This was the only reason why for almost two thousand years Jews could not believe in Jesus Christ! But this changes everything. In our blindness, we Jews tried to murder him and believed that we had done so. Because of this blindness He cast us out from the land of our Fathers. For nearly two thousand years He has let us be punished and chastised directly and indirectly. But because our guilt as it appears now, was not complete, He has opened the doors of the land of our Fathers to us again. But this was not the end of the matter for Mr. Solomon. Sometime later he went back to Cologne and had a long discussion with Professor Hirt. In the course of this discussion Professor Hirt drew M. Solomon's attention to the fact that all four Evangelists had described the end of Jesus on the cross in the words: 'He gave up 71