You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This paper was originally published in German in 1923.
The suffering of the Hellenized Jewish people at the time of the oldest Christian reforms was conceived as heavenly decreed punishment and piety was raised to the extreme. Religious practices steadily increased in severity, depriving the people of all pleasure. There arose the reactive wish for the Messiah, the rebel son, who would overthrow Yahweh. This revolutionary tendency
found expression in Jesus, the militant son-god, who dethroned and replaced the old father-god. This patricide could not go unpunished and Jesus atoned by being crucified. Judas is understood as a projection of Jesus's unconscious enmity toward Yahweh. Thus he betrays Jesus (the instinct turned on the self) and is blamed for Jesus's crime (murder of god).