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Dear catholic.com visitors: This Catholic Answers website, with all its free resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. We receive no funding from the institutional Church and rely entirely on your generosity to sustain this website with trustworthy, accessible content. If every visitor this month donated $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.
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Q&A

Why Would Jesus Call Jews “Hypocrites?”

Catholic Answers Staff

Question:

During the Ash Wednesday liturgy, my Jewish wife was offended to hear Jews referred to as "hypocrites." How can I explain to her why Jesus would say such a thing about her people?

Answer:

Jesus was a Jew himself and was certainly not calling all Jews hypocrites. There are hypocrites in every group (Catholics included). In the Gospels, when Jesus uses terms such as “hypocrites” to describe the people with whom he was dealing, he was not addressing that word to all Jews of his time or all Jews of all time, but rather to those he was interacting with at the time.

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