Jesus (Jim Caviezel) carrying the Cross in a scene from The Passion of The Christ, a film by Mel Gibson. Photo: Philippe Antonello
'These fears are not so unrealistic when you realise that over the centuries the death of Christ has been used to attack and persecute Jews who are too young to have been responsible for it by a four-figure sum.'

Steve Tomkins explains how the death of Jesus has been used as an excuse to persecute Jews for nearly 2000 years

Jesus was a Jew. His entire first generation of followers were Jewish. He taught Jews about the Jewish God, and was executed by the Roman occupation as a would-be King of the Jews.

Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ tells this story, and was faced with fears of anti-Semitism, accusations that it will stoke hatred of Jews, before anyone had even seen it.

And these fears are not so unrealistic when you realise that over the centuries the death of Christ has been used to attack and persecute Jews who are too young to have been responsible for it by a four-figure sum.

Given those two pieces of information, 2000 years apart, the natural response is, You can't get here from there. How can a religion founded entirely by Jews ever have become anti-Semitic? Some mistake, surely?

Well, here in one sorry nutshell is the most depressing story ever told.

CE, Common Era, has been used instead of AD.

30 CE The crucifixion: who did it? Despite disputes, the basic answer is clear: the Roman authorities with the collaboration of Jewish priestly aristocrats. This means:

(a) If they told you the Jews forced the Romans to kill Jesus, forget it. No one forced Rome to kill anyone - neither did they have to.

(b) The claim that no Jews had anything to do with it is equally wrong - an anti-anti-Semitic overcompensation.

(c) However, the idea that "The Jews" killed Jesus is a ludicrous generalisation, like saying "The Arabs" as a whole were responsible for 9/11, or "The British" lied about weapons of mass destruction. Jews killed Jesus (though not single-handedly), "The Jews" killed no one.

48 CE All Christians are Jews, worship in synagogues and the temple, and follow the Law of Moses. But in Antioch in Syria Gentiles queue up to join this New Judaism. Should they be circumcised, as the Law of Moses teaches?

"Of course," say some. "Jesus followed the Law. If you want to follow Jesus you have to do the same, obviously."

"No way," said Paul. "The Law separates Jews from Gentiles. Jesus is for everyone, so the Law must come down, so Jews and Gentiles can be united in Jesus."

Paul wins. Gentiles flood into the church, foreskins intact. Some Jewish Christians (like Paul) abandon the law too; others like Jesus' brother James keep every jot and tittle of it. Many fellow Jews are shocked and offended by Christians throwing Moses out of the window.

70 CE After a four-year revolt against Rome, the Jewish nation is crushed and massacred, Jerusalem and its temple are demolished. Over a million die. Christians the world over are traumatised.

But hang on. The siege of Jerusalem started on Passover - 40 years to the day after the crucifixion. As the years go by, Gentile Christians subtract 40 from 70 and conclude that God was beating up The Jews for killing Jesus and never saying sorry. Despite the fact that no-one responsible was still alive.

100 CE Conflict between Christians and mainstream Jews worsens. Synagogues ban Christians. A church manual tells Christians to fast on Wednesday and Friday, for the brilliant reason that Jews fast on Thursday and Monday.

Trying to woo the Roman Empire (where they are currently illegal), Christians increasingly blame The Jews for killing Jesus, exonerating Rome.

135 CE Another Jewish revolt, another defeat. The Emperor bans Jews from Jerusalem, the Jewish church there is replaced by foreigners, and Jews go into exile.

Very few church leaders now are Jewish. Christians who still follow the Law are denounced as a heretic sect.

300 CE Spanish churches, in a breathtaking reversal of the Peter and Cornelius story, kick out anyone who eats with practising Jews. You have to go a very long way to find a Jewish Christian.

388 CE Christians burn a synagogue on the Euphrates. Emperor Theodosius decrees they should pay the Jews compensation, but St Ambrose talks him out of it.

St John Chrysostom's sermons harangue Jews as laughable, disgusting, demonic, profiteering, gluttonous, sex-crazed pigs. "The Jews are the odious assassins of Christ and for killing God there is no expiation, no indulgence, no pardon. Christians may never cease vengeance. The Jews must live in servitude forever."

530s Emperor Justinian bans Jews from public office and many professions, and introduces the death penalty for Jews who convert Christians or build synagogues. All African synagogues are turned into churches.

Some time later European trade guilds ban Jews from most trades, but Christians are forbidden to lend money. So, many Jews become moneylenders, and are hated for it.

Good Friday liturgy condemns Jews for killing Christ.

1096 CE Crusaders take time out on their mission to deliver Jerusalem from the Turks to kill 5000 of the 20,000 Jews in Germany. Reasons:

(a) They're closer than the Turks.
(b) The dead charge no interest.
(c) They killed Christ, of course.

1099 CE Crusaders kill the entire population of Jerusalem, Jews and Muslims. They pack the synagogue and then burn it on the Sabbath, marching around singing, "Christ we love you". 20,000 Jews are killed or enslaved.

1130s St Bernard of Clairvaux uses the fact that Pope Anacletus II had a Jewish great-grandfather to get him unpoped, with the immortal line "It would be an insult to Christ if the son of a Jew were to occupy the throne of St Peter."

1144 CE A child's mutilated body is found in Norwich. Five years later, Christians decide Jews must have bought little "St WIlliam" and tortured him, draining his blood for their depraved Passover feast. Such myths become a popular excuse for killing Jews throughout Europe.

1215 CE The Fourth Lateran Council decrees that European Jews and Muslims must wear a badge so we know whom to persecute.

1243 CE The entire Jewish population of Berlitz is burned on suspicion of kidnapping and torturing a communion wafer.

1290 CE All Jews are expelled from England.

1355 CE The troops of Henry de Trastamasa kill 12,000 Jews in Toledo.

1492 CE Ferdinand and Isabella expel all Jews from Spain (about 150,000), after the Inquisition has burned hundreds of them.

1516 CE Venice creates the first ghetto, moving all Jews on to an iron foundry island.

1543 CE After his efforts to convert Jews to Protestantism fail, Martin Luther recommends that their synagogues and Bibles be burnt, their prayers banned and they be forced into farm labour.

1648 CE Polish pogroms: estimates of Jewish deaths vary from 10,000 to 100,000.

1881 CE Tsar Alexander II is assassinated. It is obvious, even to those who know nothing at all about anything, that Jews are to blame. Hundreds of pogroms of murder and rape break out throughout Russia.

1945 CD The Holocaust comes to light. For all that some individual Christians did, the church as a whole did disgracefully little to stop it.

Christians start to realise that it is the culmination of a trail of Jewish blood stretching back for the better and worse part of 2000 years, and Christian hands are in it up to the shoulders. The church, for the most part, finally realises it is time for anti-Semitism to be buried in the landfill of history, and strictly no resurrections.

• Read Catherine von Ruhland's review of The Passion of the Christ

• Read Steve Tomkins' review of The Passion of the Christ

• Join in with the discussion about the film