Actor Jamie Foxx has issued an apology to “the Jewish community and everyone who was offended” by a social media post that appeared to suggest Jews were responsible for killing Jesus and are therefore inherently untrustworthy.

In a now-deleted Instagram post published on Saturday, the Django Unchained actor, 55, wrote: "They killed this dude name Jesus…What do you think they’ll do to you? [sic]” The message was accompanied by the cryptic hashtags #fakefriends and #fakelove.

While the post did not specifically mention Jews, the “they” alluded to was widely interpreted by social media users to be referring to the Jewish people, and to be endorsing the false, antisemitic claim that Jews are collectively responsible for the death of Jesus – a Jew killed by the ruling Roman authorities of the time.

The false accusation of Jewish deicide has been levelled against the Jewish people for millennia and has persisted despite declarations from Christian leaders there is no evidence to support this claim.

In his 2011 book Jesus of Nazareth, Part II, Pope Benedict XVI said: “There is no basis in the scripture for the argument that the Jewish people were responsible for the death of Jesus Christ.”

Foxx’s post continued to garner attention on Saturday after actress Jennifer Aniston, who rose to prominence playing a Jewish character, Rachel Green, in the US sitcom Friends, appeared to “like” the message.

Aniston later published a statement on her own account claiming she had liked Foxx’s post neither “on purpose [nor] by accident”.

The statement, which did not specify what she had intended, read: "This really makes me sick. I did not 'like' this post on purpose or by accident. And more importantly, I want to be clear to my friends and anyone hurt by this showing up in their feed - I do not support any type of antisemitism. And I truly don't tolerate hate of any kind. Period."

After deleting his original post, Foxx published an apology for his “choice of words” in which he insisted it was “never [his] intent” to cause “offence”.

Foxx, whose real name is Eric Marlon Bishop, said: “I want to apologize to the Jewish community and everyone who was offended by my post. I now know my choice of words have caused offense and I’m sorry. That was never my intent.”

He continued: “To clarify, I was betrayed by a fake friend and that’s what I meant with ‘they’ not anything more.

“I only have love in my heart for everyone. I love and support the Jewish community.”

Foxx signed off by offering his “deepest apologies to anyone who was offended”, and a series of heart emoji, adding “nothing but love always”.