"Hercules" star Kevin Sorbo created quite a stir Monday when his comments reiterated the long-discredited claim that the Jews killed Jesus. Three days on, he claims his remarks were misconstrued and could have been worded more carefully, he told TheBlaze.
In an interview on Christian radio host Jerry Newcombe's "Vocal Point" Monday, Sorbo criticized concerns of Jewish groups that Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ" was anti-Semitic.
"[Gibson] got attacked when he was shooting 'The Passion' from the Jewish community, saying 'look at the way you're portraying us,'" Sorbo said. "News bulletin: You did kill Jesus."
Newcombe quickly corrected Sorbo, saying the Jews had just "delivered him over to the Romans."
Sorbo then replied: "They had a hand in it," adding that despite the concerns, the film went on to earn hundreds of millions of dollars, "so Mel sort of had the last laugh there." (listen to the audio here).
Promoting the DVD release of his Christian movie "God's Not Dead," in which he stars as an atheist college professor who threatens to fail students who continue to believe in God, Sorbo pointed out that Gibson's 2004 movie proved the commercial potential of faith-based films.
Although "The Passion of the Christ" earned over $600 million worldwide on a relatively modest budget of $30 million, it was largely protested by Jewish groups for wrongly depicting Jews as responsible for the death of Jesus, News Max reported.
After Monday's remarks caused intense controversy, Sorbo told TheBlaze on Thursday that he made a "flippant comment" that should have been crafted better.
"Here's the deal. Here's reality. The Jewish leaders offered Jesus up to Pilate, preferring to free a hardened criminal," Sorbo said. "Did all Jews at that time hate Jesus? Of course they did not. The people screamed to let the hardened criminal go. That's in the book. That's in the facts."
Sorbo, who is a non-denominational Christian, said that there were many Jews who defended Jesus at the time and who mourned Christ's death.
"After all, [Jesus] was Jewish and ... the Jewish leaders and a handful of Jews [gave him up]," Sorbo said. "It was more like they were accomplices to his murder. They knew he was going to be murdered. There was no question."
The "Let the Lion Roar" star assumed that his comments would be considered over-simplistic since people were more "enlightened" on the issue.
The myth that Jews killed Jesus dates to New Testament books, the Anti-Defamation League has said.
In 1965, the Vatican issued an official statement absolving Jews of collective responsibility for Jesus' death, writing, "The Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ; still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today."
Additionally, Sorbo credited Jews for creating Christianity and affirmed his support for Israel, strongly dismissing notions that he might be anti-Semitic.
"I should have worded it better. We live in such an age where everything is scrutinized," he said. "Liberals love to project a false image on the wall and get very upset with the image they've created themselves."
"If people want to take the time ... they'd be hard-pressed to find anyone I've worked with to say, 'He's a bigot or a big racist, he hates Jews,'" Sorbo said.
Sorbo stars in the new faith-based film "Let the Lion Roar," in which he plays spiritual reformer John Calvin, TheBlaze reported.
