"The Earth Belongs to HaShem and the Fullness Thereof."
Did the Jews Kill Prophet Y'shua?
By John of AllFaith © 1.14.08For the past 2000 some odd years this allegation, among others, has kept the followers of Master Y'shua and the Jews divided because after all, how could those who seek to follow the Master, whether they be traditional Christians or Noahide Nazarenes, have fellowship with the killers of our master?
In this study I will examine this important question while replying to a message I recently received:
"The Jews could NOT have been persecuted for 1600 years if there was not complete biblical justification in the Gospels and Paul. The Christians blame the Jews for the death of their Messiah. (Matt 27:25, Paul at 1 Thessalonians 2:15 ff, Mark 15:10, John 8:44, Mark 2:6, 16; 3:6. Luke 23:4, 14, 20, 22, 25). But research ('The trial and Death of Jesus' by Jewish judge Haim Cohn.) indicates that it was a Roman political trial and crucifixion, but when Paul went to Rome to convert the Romans to Christianity he shifted the blame for murdering the Messiah from the Romans to the Jews for obvious reasons."
This allegation is fairly standard and yet this quote begins with an inaccurate assumption.
For about the first 300 years after Prophet Y'shua was impaled (he was not "crucified" according to the New Testament but impaled (Acts 5:30, Acts 10:39, Galatians 3:13), crucifixion was added by the emerging Roman Church to include the popular Pagan religion symbol "Tau" in worship (compare: this Wikipedia article on Tau for more on this) the followers of the Jewish Master were persecuted the same as their Jewish brethren.
Once Constantine's "Universal priests" invented the Universal Christian Church (ie Roman Catholicism) the Jews, Noahides, and remaining Arian Nazarenes were seen as a threat to Rome and the Universal Church. The persecutions that followed were purely political, although wrapped in religious terminology because the early Christian Church, like Islam, had a political as well as religious mission/agenda. The original teachings of our Master repudiated many of the Pagan teachings being espoused by Rome and provided no avenue for the sort of Church hierarchy envisioned by the developing Papacy.
As best as I have determined thus far from what remains of the original New Testament and other writings, at least as late as the time of Paul's ministry many of Master Y'shua's earliest Nazarene followers still hoped he might be the long awaited Moshiach (Messiah), even though he did not fulfill the essential prophecy of the Moshiach (ie rebuilding the Temple - destroyed in 70 CE by Rome as predicted by Prophet Y'shua at Mathew 24 -- and establishing the eternal reign of Israel). In order for this hope to be realized it would be required that he appear very soon (and still alive) and accomplish this great work. Without establishing the Kingdom his bid for Messiahship was doomed.
Not only does Paul and other New Testament writers not encourage this misunderstanding, they seek to establish Master Y'shua as a great Jewish Prophet who, like others before him, was rejected by his people. It would be necessary for the Nazarenes to maintain their faith in the Master while letting go of their central hope, that he was Moshiach. Like Maimonides centuries later, Master Y'shua would come to be viewed as a great Torah scholar, as an innovator and reformer of the Jewish faith. But first they had to death the fact of his death and non-fulfillment of the central Messianic prophecies:
Acts 7:52: Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers...
Master Y'shua therefore would be presented as the purest prophet and master since the days of Moses himself. Woe was upon those who failed to recognize the importance of calling!
Establishing this doctrine, Paul was very clear that his readers should not expect to see Master Y'shua appear in their midst as some still hoped. In other words, our Master was not going to fulfill the requisite Messianic prophecies. We read Paul's words:
2 Thessalonians 2:1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;In other words, the Christ or Moshiach will not come, Paul explained, until after the Church becomes largely apostate (as foretold in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, Romans 11 and elsewhere) and the Antichrist, or Man of Perdition, comes to power.
When will the Moshiach come? Even Master Y'shua didn't know!
Mark 13:32: But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father (emphasis mine).
Were the Trinitarians correct this clearly would not be the case.
In Mathew 24 however the Master, under the inspiration of HaShem's spirit, gives clear signs so that those living at the time can know when the generation arrives.
Among these signs of the Last Days the Master points to the return of the Jews to Zion (which happened in either 1948 or 1967 depending on one's interpretation), the rise of the Antichrist (Dijal) and his persecution of the Jews. We read:
Mathew 24:33: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.Parenthetically he adds:
24:22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
According to Master Y'shua, the JEWS are the Elect and it will be to defend THEM from the coming Rex Mundi (or Antichrist/Dijal) that Moshiach will come.
Paul adds:
Romans 11:1: I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel saying,
3 Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life....HaShem has never abandoned His people! Since the days of Abraham and Isaac the JEWS have been and remain the Chosen People of HaShem. NOWHERE does the New Testament support Antisemitism or persecution of Jews. The opposite is the clear fact.
There are passages that say the Jews were wrong to reject Prophet Y'shua and it can be argued that HAD THE JEWS as a group accepted him prior to his execution Master Y'shua MAY have fulfilled the prophecies... BUT according to the wisdom of the Master himself:
Mathew 24:5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many....
23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25 Behold, I have told you before.
26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.In other words, when Moshiach arrives it will be as lightning coming out of the east and shining even unto the west. It will be obvious to everyone. One need not both the asking the question, "Is this the Messiah?" If you have to ask, it isn't!
HAD the majority of Jews accepted Master Y'shua as Moshiach BEFORE he fulfilled the requirements of that position they would not have been acting wisely!
The one who fulfills the prophecies will be the Moshiach according to the Jews. Of course, according to Master Y'shua and the New Testament another will come first and fulfill the prophecies, but that is a topic for another study!
All of this is to say, there is ABSOLUTELY NO New Testament justification for what Christendom has done to the Jewish people over the past 2000 years!
Now let's look at a few of the verses referenced above as supporting the belief that "the Jews" were responsible for the Master's death.
Matthew 27:25: Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.
This was merely a statement of their certainty that since Y'shua did not fulfill the Messianic requirements they were certain he was not the one they were so anxiously awaiting and praying for. It was a culturally normal way of saying, "We're certain. Do what you must!"
II Thessalonians 2:13: For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
14 For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:
15 Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:
16 Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.
17 But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoured the more abundantly to see your face with great desire.Verse 16 gives us a key to what is really being discussed here. According to Master Y'shua, one of the two key problems of first century Judaism was their embrace of the Oral Torah (the Mishna, the Talmud, etc) as being equal to (or even superior to) the Written Torah (i.e. the Tanach or "Old Testament"). The Oral Torah adds countless meticulous rules and regulations that people like Master Y'shua, the Karaite Jews and others felt were not only not required but that actually separate the Jews from God and their fellow humans for no reasons.
As another aside, we often hear people claim that Master Y'shua was an Essene. The previous point is evidence that he was not. The Essenes, even more than the Sadducees and Pharisees, stressed the importance of perfectly observing even the most minute laws and traditions. Master Y'shua differed with such views, proclaiming, "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath," Mark 2:27.
The Oral Torah of course is the heart of modern day Rabbinic Judaism (including Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, etc). According to the Oral Torah, Jews could not even sit or discuss religious topics with non-Jews. We find this attitude continuing even after the Master's death in the case Peter who refused to have fellowship the Gentiles sent to him until directly commanded to admit them by HaShem at Acts 10. Sharing the God of Israel was a new thing and it took time to accept.
Paul and the disciples on other hand accepted Master Y'shua's teaching at Matthew 15:
25 Then came she [a non-Jewish woman] and worshipped him [Master Y'shua], saying, Lord, help me.
26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs [ie non-Jews].
27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.
28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.In other words, the Jewish Nazarenes brought the Master's Good News to everyone else despite the prohibitions of the Oral Torah. It is therefore ironic that modern Christianity bears precious little similarity to the Judaism of Master Y'shua and his Jewish followers.
We must carefully consider the context and cultural settings when seeking to understand the Scriptures. Certainly most Jews, especially the Rabis, then known as Pharisees, rejected the Master's teachings and forbade others to do the same, but such biblical acknowledgments in no way provide justification for persecuting them. The Master's teaching was always to turn the other cheek -- Luke 6:29 -- and that those who live by the sword die by it.
But/And Haim Cohn and others, including MANY Christian authors are completely correct. The Jews did NOT kill Master Y'shua. They did not have the legal authority to even of they wanted to:
John 18:31: Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death.
There is no question that many of the Jewish leaders wanted the Master executed. But why? There were several matters, he challenged the authority of the Oral Torah, he challenged their authority and religious practice, however in the end there one main consideration in their minds:
John 11:49 ... one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them [the members of the Sanhedrin], Ye know nothing at all,
50 Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.
51 And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nationThe Romans were quickly becoming fed up with the Jewish Zealots (like Disciple Judas) and other rabble-rousers. They had little patience for the current commotions being caused by Master Y'shua and his followers, mobs of Jews whom were defiantly proclaiming that the Moshiach had finally arrived {remember what the Moshiach is to do! He will establish Israel's rule and defeat all who oppose him}. "Hosanna! Hosanna! to the king!" Things were quickly getting out of hand for everyone! The Romans were going to react harshly! The Jewish leaders knew that a brutal crack down on the Jewish people was imminent and that many Jews would be killed the ensuing revolt that they could not possibly win, and they decided (in violation of both the Written and the Oral Torah) that since Y'shua had not fulfilled the Messianic requirements, hence he was not the Moshiach, it would be better to offer him as a scape-goat to the Romans than for the whole of Israel to face genocide (such as happened a few years later in 70 CE)! he should have known better! they doubtless thought; he's brought it on himself! They were simply trying to protect the Jewish people from annihilation. These leaders were not the bad guy in this scenario, even if their decisions were not the best one from our modern perspectives as followers of the Master.
Therefore according to the New Testament the Jews did NOT "betray" Master Y'shua, their leaders made a difficult, and in my opinion one that violated the Torah, decision to appease Rome to save the Jews, EVEN AS Ehud Olmert is NOW willing to sacrifice East Jerusalem and portions of the Jewish territories to appease New World Order junta George Bush. History may be repeated itself my friends!
Shalom. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
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