Ben Shapiro calls parts of the Bible 'problematic' in resurfaced clip
A resurfaced clip of conservative commentator Ben Shapiro in which he calls parts of the Bible "problematic" has recently drawn criticism from Christians online.
The roughly three-minute clip, posted by several social users this week, appears to be from the Daily Wire founder's October 2023 speech to University of Florida students as part of a Young America's Foundation (YAF) lecture series.
During the exchange, a student who identified himself as a "devout Christian" asked Shapiro, an Orthodox Jew, about his frequent usage of the phrase "Judeo-Christian."
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"You've consistently promoted the idea that America was built on Judeo-Christian values," the unidentified student tells Shapiro. "However, as a devout Christian, I have a difficulty accepting that term given Judaism's rejection of Jesus."
After stating that "Christians believe Jesus Christ is God," the student said the Talmud — a book considered to be central to the Jewish faith — teaches that "Jesus is burning in hellfire and excrement," a claim which is disputed among various Jewish scholars.
The student cited another portion of the Talmud attributed to a second-century rabbi, which states that "even the best of all Gentiles should be killed."
"Given these irreconcilable differences," the student asked Shapiro, "why do you insist on using this oxymoronic term?"
In response, Shapiro called the student's statement a "really bad reading of the Talmud" and said the suggestion that any text, which is "somehow disdainful or hateful of Christians or of people who are not Jewish is in fact a tremendous misread of Judaism over the centuries and particularly today."
Shapiro said he views parts of the Bible — both New and Old Testaments — as "personally problematic."
"I can cite sections in the New Testament that I find personally problematic. I can certainly cite segments in the Quran that I find personally problematic," he said. "The truth is I could probably find places in the Old Testament that I find personally problematic. That does not speak to what Judaism is and its historic impact on the world."
After asserting that Judaism is the "foundation of Christianity," Shapiro said the idea that "Judaism and Christianity are somehow completely de-linked and teach two completely separate lessons ignores the fact that the Old Testament is part and parcel of the New Testament."
He then conceded that "Christians and Jews think different things."
"Of course," he added. "Otherwise, I'd be a Christian or you'd be a Jew. If we thought completely the same thing, then presumably we would have the exact same religion."
Shapiro then turned his focus back to the original question of the Talmud and referred to other citations of texts using the secular Common Era dating written during what he said was a time of Jewish persecution under Christians.
"As far as mis-citations from the Talmud, or even citations of texts that are written in the year 500 CE, at a time Jews were being persecuted by Christians in the Roman Empire, that seems to me a, uh, a real stretch to get to the idea that Jews today are overall hateful of Christians," he said.
After claiming that he has long encouraged Christians to engage with their faith, Shapiro said he doesn't try to convert anyone to his own faith because "that's actually forbidden in Jewish law."
"I'm not supposed to convert people to Judaism," said Shapiro, who went on to criticize those "who spend all day online cherry-picking bad lines from the Talmud, a text that they have no familiarity with, and then trying to spin that to a giant myth about how Jews are seeking the extermination of Christians or some other bizarre conspiracy theory.
"It's a lie, it's stupid, and the Judeo-Christian values of the nation are quite real because, once again, Judaism and Christianity have an awful lot in common."
Among Christian voices criticizing Shapiro for his resurfaced comments is Calvin Robinson, a conservative commentator and former Anglican priest. Robinson responded to the clip on X, writing, "I find nothing in the New Testament problematic."
"He is implying the Talmud is problematic but that is okay because the NT is, too," Robinson added.
Others focused on Shapiro's apparent disdain for AD — Latin for anno domani, or "the year of our Lord" — in favor of the more secular CE, or Common Era, designation.
In the clip, Shapiro, who rose to national prominence with his articulate defense of traditional views on human sexuality against the rise of gender ideology, did not expand on his own views on the Talmud and Jewish law, which includes the notion that there are multiple genders.
According to some Jewish scholars, the Talmud teaches eight gender designations for human sexuality, including a nonbinary, or androgynous, designation.
Shapiro has long argued that men and women cannot alter the gender they were assigned at birth and that gender is a binary.
While many Jewish scholars make a distinction between Torah (or Old Testament) Judaism and Talmudic Judaism, Shapiro, in the past, has defended the Talmud as "pro-life." In March 2023, he argued in favor of the distinction between the Talmud's teaching on what he calls "intersex" people and modern-day gender ideology.
"The Talmud recognizes the presence of intersex people, and goes through various arguments about how to categorize them in terms of laws to which they are subject. NOWHERE does halacha humor the notion that a biological man can be a woman or that he should be treated as one," he wrote in response to a New York Times op-ed headlined "Ancient Judaism Recognized a Range of Genders. It's Time We Did, Too."
