for Symposium presentation reference    

The  Crucifixion          

by      

David  Birnbaum        

Dedicated    

to  the    

Righteous  Gentiles*            

*                  

Valorous  European  and  Asian  non–Jews  who,  during  the  Holocaust,  risked  their   lives   to   save   Jews   from   Nazi   persecution.   The   known   names   and  memories   are   individually   recognized   at   an   official   state   tribute   at   Yad  Vashem   Holocaust   Memorial   on   the   outskirts   of   Jerusalem,   Israel.  Individual  tributes  are  located  along  a  memorial  path  of  trees  and  gardens  planted   in   their   honor   commemorating   their   extraordinary   courage   and  compassion  (www.YadVashem.org).  

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JUDAS ISCARIOT THE DEMONIC AMALGAM

/\ representation of Judas

John 8:44 “You [the Jews] are of your father the devil [i.e. you, the Jews are children of the devil], and the lusts of your [devil] father ye will do. He [your father, God? the devil] was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because then there is no truth in him [your Jewish heritage, your father, the devil] When he [your father the devil] speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own [your innate Jewish lying state]; for he [your father and heritage] is a liar, and the father of it [your lying heritage]' (John 8: 44) – King James Version” Canon Gospels / New Testament 3  

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Did the Judas saga occur at all?

“Our conclusion must be therefore that no tradition of the betrayal and the defection of Jesus existed before 60 CE” …The whole story of betrayal was invented not less than 30 years after Jesus’ death (Maccoby, Judas Iscariot and the Myth of Jewish Evil, p. 25) There is general scholarly consensus that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, with this attributable authorship to a major Christian figure juxtaposed against the four Canon Gospels, whose true authorship is unknown. Paul, founder of Christianity, writes in 1 Corinthians 15:5 that Jesus, immediately after his crucifixion was seen by “the Twelve." Meaning, all twelve Disciples were present and accounted for. Judas Iscariot included. So, Paul, the very founder of Christendom, in a key document written (in the 50s CE) prior to the writing of the first Cannon Gospel by writers unknown (in the 70s CE), does not seem to include any Judas betrayal vignette. Why might that be?

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Doctors of the Church

St. Jerome: (b. c. 347; d. 420 CE) “....serpents, haters of all men, their image is Judas ... their psalms and prayers are the braying of donkeys….”

St. John Chrysostom: (b. c. 349; d. 407) “I know that many people hold a high regard for the Jews and consider their way of life worthy of respect at the present time... This is why I am hurrying to pull up this fatal notion by the roots ... A place where a whore stands on display is a whorehouse. What is more, the synagogue is not only a whorehouse and a theater; it is also a den of thieves and a haunt of wild animals ... not the cave of a wild animal merely, but of an unclean wild animal ... When animals are unfit for work, they are marked for slaughter, and this is the very thing which the Jews have experienced. By making themselves unfit for work, they have become ready for slaughter. This is why Christ said: “ask for my enemies, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them and slay them before me’ (Luke 19.27).” St. Augustine: (b. 354; d. 430) “Judaism is a corruption. Indeed Judas is the image of the Jewish people. Their understanding of the Scriptures is carnal. They bear the guilt for the death of the savior, for through their fathers they have killed the Christ.” St. Gregory: (b. c. 540 CE; d. 604) “Jews are slayers of the Lord, murderers of the prophets, enemies of God, haters of God, adversaries of grace, enemies of their fathers’ faith, advocates of the devil, brood of vipers, slanderers, scoffers, men of darkened minds, leaven of the Pharisees, congregation of demons, sinners, wicked men, stoners and haters of goodness.” St. Thomas Aquinas: (b. 1225; d. 1274) “It would be licit [legal] to hold Jews, because of the crimes, in perpetual servitude, and therefore the princes may regard the possessions of Jews as belonging to the State.” 5

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Rosemary Ruether* on Theological Critique

of The Christian Anti-Judaic Myth

“We have seen that the anti-Judaic myth is neither a superficial nor a secondary element in Christian thought. The foundations of anti-Judaic thought were laid in the New Testament. They were developed in the classical age of Christian theology in a way that laid the basis for attitudes and practices that continually produced terrible results. Most Christians today may seem more than willing to prune back the cruder expressions of these attitudes and practices. But to get at the roots from which these grew is a much more profound problem. The wheat and the tares have grown together from the beginning, and so it may seem impossible to pull up the weed without uprooting the seed of Christian faith as well. Yet as long as Christology and anti-Judaism intertwine, one cannot be safe from a repetition of this history in new form. The end of Christendom may seem to have brought an end to the possibility of legislating theological anti-Judaism as social policy. But we witnessed in Nazism the ability of this virus to appear in even worse form in secular dress. Yet I believe that this is actually a critical moment when a deep encounter with the structures of anti-Judaism is not only necessary to atone for this history, but may be essential to revitalizing the original Christian vision itself. “ source: Rosemary Ruether, Faith and Fratricide, Oregon: WS Publishers, © 1995, Chapter 5, p. 226.

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Inversions: White is Black

There are ten 180 degree inversions in the Canon Gospels. The result of each and every one of the inversions is to cast significant negativity onto the Jews.

Inversion #1 Gospel inversion – presentation: Jesus was juxtaposed against the Pharisees (the mainstream Jewish community) Historical reality: Jesus was a Pharisee and was aligned with the Pharisees.

Inversion #2 Gospel inversion – presentation: The High Priest Caiaphas represented the Jews. Historical reality: The High Priest Caiaphas represented Rome.

Inversion #3

Gospel inversion – presentation: Jesus was not Orthodox Jewish. Historical reality: Jesus was Orthodox Jewish. 7

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Inversion #4 Gospel inversion – presentation: Pontius Pilate was politically weak. Historical reality: Pontius Pilate was politically strong, indeed locally omnipotent. Pilate was (sole) judge, (sole) jury and executioner of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Inversion #5 Gospel inversion – presentation: It is contrary to Jewish law to heal the sick on the (Jewish) Sabbath. Historical reality: It is mandatory Jewish law to heal the sick on Sabbath.

Inversion #6 Gospel inversion – presentation: Jesus challenged the Rabbis. Historical reality: Jesus challenged Rome.

Inversion #7 Gospel inversion – presentation: The Jews wanted Jesus crucified. Historical reality: The Jews were opposed to the crucifixion of Jesus – or to the crucifixion of any fellow Pharisee opponent of Rome.

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Inversion #8 Gospel inversion – presentation: Rome is mentioned only once in the entire Canon Gospels. Historical reality: Rome was the reigning power in Judea.

Inversion #9

Gospel inversion – presentation: The Pharisees were aligned with the High Priest. Historical reality: The Pharisees were bitter enemies of the High Priest.

Inversion #10 Gospel inversion – presentation: Pontius Pilate was a benign individual. Historical reality: Pontius Pilate was a notoriously cruel and vicious individual.

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The Alleged c. 3:00–4:00 A.M. Sanhedrin Trial of Jesus

Modern scholarship dismisses the libel of a Sanhedrin Trial – as a fabrication. Any alleged Sanhedrin trial could only have taken place in “limbo time”. Meaning, respectfully, it never happened. The ‘construct’ breaks down on multiple levels. There are multiple internal contradictions and mutually exclusive scenarios.

From a Jewish perspective it was forbidden. From a Roman perspective, a Sanhedrin Trial was illegal. Historically, it is not plausible. (The third and fourth Gospels, Luke and John, omit completely any alleged formal trial of Jesus by the Sanhedrin. Interesting, is that not, for such a potentially key event?)

The timing of an alleged Sanhedrin Trial does not jive; the sequences do not jive; the historical record does not jive; the Romans controlled all the levers of power. The Romans executed Jesus. But ‘the crowd’ will be manipulated by the resonance of the Gospels to call for Jewish blood. Aside from the impossible internal contradictions and discrepancies of the Gospels-construct regarding an asserted Sanhedrin Trial, one should note that no corroborative evidence has ever been produced in 20 centuries – that, indeed, any trial ever even took place.

As a ‘backdrop’ and for additional context, note – ♦ The Sanhedrin no longer held significant powers in 33 CE. ♦ The Sanhedrin did not meet at night, (and certainly not at 3 A.M. – 4 A.M. in the

morning)

[The wives of the 70 year-old Sanhedrin judges might not have encouraged it.]

[After a 4-hour multi–hour Seder in the 8 P.M. – 12 P.M. zone, replete with four obligatory goblets of wine, the 60, 70, 80, 90 year-old Sanhedrin judges, may not have been in the mood to saunter for a 3 A.M. illegal tribunal.]

♦ The Sanhedrin never sentenced anyone to death over its entire multi-century span; ♦ The Sanhedrin did not meet on Jewish Holidays. ♦ The Sanhedrin no longer even tried ‘capital cases’ (death-penalty cases)

(as noted explicitly in the Gospel of John, by the-way). ♦ The Sanhedrin did not hold surreptitious trials. ♦ The Sanhedrin required bona fide witnesses. ♦ The Sanhedrin required careful due process. ♦ The Sanhedrin met only in the Temple court; not in private dwellings.

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11 ♦ The Sanhedrin – 71 judges – could not possibly fit into a room in an

Old City dwelling.

♦ The Sanhedrin did not hold ‘snap trials’ ever, nor would it be legally (halachically) allowed to.

♦ The Sanhedrin was led by its NASSI (president), not by the High Priest, as

incorrectly asserted in the Gospel rendering. ♦ By definition, if a rump, run-away entity – large or small – was led by the High

Priest, then whatever it was, if it ever existed at all, it was not the Sanhedrin. ♦ It would be illegal by Jewish Law to turn anyone over to Occupation Authorities. ♦ It would be halachically taboo to put any individual at-risk for crucifixion. ♦ (Notwithstanding John 19:6…"When the chief priests saw him, [at 5 A.M. in the

morning????] they cried out, saying. Crucify him. Crucify him…)." ♦ If the Sanhedrin had ever sentenced anyone to death, it would have been

precluded by its own internal regulations from carrying-out the execution on the same day as the sentencing; a separate session on a separate later day would have been required to formalize and proceed. Since there never was any Sanhedrin death sentence over the entire span of its history in any event, the issue is hypothetical and moot. However, it bears relevance to the fabrication in Christian lore.

Every individual Sanhedrin historically was under self-imposed restraint not to be labeled a Bet Din Katlanit – “a Killer Court.” No Sanhedrin wanted to go anywhere near that appellation. Over multiple centuries, in different manifestations.

As noted in the text –

“Any alleged capital trial by the Sanhedrin of Jesus is thus a convenient historical fabrication.”

– Lawrence Schiffman, Professor of Jewish History, NYU, “Double Injustice,” (Journal of) Reform Judaism, April 2004

“The wholly suppositious trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin is, points out Pierre van Passen in Why Jesus Died, pure fabrication, causing its utter rejection as unhistorical and untrue by a long and impressive line of savants [and scholars] from Reimarus and Strauss to Loisy, Guignebert and Eysinga.”

– Betty McCollister, The Humanist, July-August 1993

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HANKA LAMET  

born: November, 1937 Warsaw Poland

murdered: age 6 December, 1944 Gas Chamber Majdanek Death Camp Majdanek Poland

         

   

                       

         Warsaw Ghetto (actual Nazi photo)  

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Hanka Lamet

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Population Comparison

1 CE

2011 CE

(a) Jewish population

7 MM

14 MM

(b) Total world population

750 MM

7 B

(c) Jewish % of global

~1/100

~1/500

(d) change / Jewish share of global

decrease by

80%

(e) total global growth

9.5 x

(f) total jewish growh

2 x

(g) hypothetical jewish population if it followed global growth

67 MM

(h) Jewish shortfall / (g) – (a) >

53 MM

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Some key contemporary Vatican dates

Venue exact date

Subject

Pope

1965

Rome 10/28

Nostre Aetate

Pope Paul

VI

1979

Auschwitz 06/07…

26’ tall Cross erected

John Paul

II

1979

Auschwitz

06/07

“Six Million Poles lost

their lives during WWII –

a fifth of the Polish nation”

John Paul

II

2006

Auschwitz

05/29

“Six Million Poles lost

their lives during WWII –

a fifth of the Polish nation”

Benedict

2011

Amazon

DVD today 03/13

“Six Million Poles lost

their lives during WWII –

a fifth of the Polish nation”

Benedict

               

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