Walter Meyer wrote:

>Actually, in another post I mentioned that "Ruhet wohl" was one of my
>favorite Bach passages.  To the extent, however, that the Passions purport
>to retell the judicial lynching of a charismatic carpenter from Nazareth
>and the use to which that tale has been put to justify hideous atrocities
>over the following centuries, I find the texts offensive, in a way that
>I don't find the Latin texts of the Mass and other Bach works.  How much
>less inflammatory is "Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato,
>passus et sepultus est"!

Well, the Passions don't defend the "judicial lynching" of Jesus,
they are desperate about this, so that's not a reason to find them
offensive.  And the text is innocent of the atrocities of the following
centuries - with one famous exception: "May his blood come over us and
our children!" This is the only passage I find offensive.  But I think
it is splitting hairs to find the Latin text "less inflammatory" - the
priests who tortured and burnt witches spoke (and probably sang) Christian
Latin texts, didn't they?

Robert