In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, some European scholars and propagandists actively stripped Jesus of his Jewish identity to promote anti-Semitic ideologies.

This process reached an extreme in Nazi Germany, where the regime popularized a racially 'Aryan' Jesus. Propagandists depicted him as a blond, blue-eyed warrior who opposed Judaism. Organizations like the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Church Life even published a de-Judaized New Testament. This deliberate rewriting of history shows how easily religious figures are co-opted to justify racial supremacy and violence.