Gibson's Gospel, Historical or Traditional?

Pâ•qidꞋ  Yi•rᵊmᵊyâhꞋ u

2004.02.19 Controversy over Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of the Christ, overlooks the movie's failure to achieve its main goal: perpetuating inaccurate, faith-biased tradition alien to the first-century Judaic perspective of the movie's main character while failing to incorporate recent discoveries (e.g., the Dead Sea Scrolls) that demand updating our historical perspective.

The Jews who shouted for the Romans to execute RibꞋi Yᵊho•shuꞋa were the Temple-based Sadducees (The Netzarim Reconstruction of Hebrew Ma•ti•tᵊyâhꞋu (NHM) 26.57ff). Generalizing from the Temple-based Sadducees to "the Jews" is either a logical fallacy or outright miso-Judaism. The pivotal questions, the answers to which may salve the controversy, are:

• ‘Which Jews were, and weren't, standing with the Temple-based Sadducees shouting for the Romans to execute him?'

• "Does the movie distinguish between them accurately?' and

• "Does the movie portray the historical Jew accurately as a Pharisaic RibꞋi?'

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports today that "there are also Jews depicted who defend [Christ] in front of Caiaphas, who walk about their daily routines apparently unaware of the mounting crisis and who line the streets crying and begging for mercy for Christ."

Update 2004.02.20 (Jerusalem Post, 2004.02.19, p. 5) "According to people who have seen the movie, Gibson… has chosen to focus on the role of the high priest at the Temple in Jerusalem in indicting [Christ] and calling for his execution." This squares with the historical record. "The Jewish leader Caiaphas is insistent that [Christ] die, while the Roman governor Pontius Pilate is portrayed as a sympathetic character who only reluctantly gives in to the mob's bloodlust." The movie is remiss if it fails to make clear that this "mob" was, rather, a "Hellenist Sadducean mob" (as explained below).

Understanding the dynamics of the Jewish community within which this Pharisaic RibꞋi taught requires familiarity with the state of the High Priesthood and Temple priests from the time of KhonꞋyo (Yᵊkhon•yâhꞋ) Bën-Shim•onꞋ (2) Bën-Tzâ•doqꞋ (Onias) that properly begins the story of KhaꞋnukh•âh. Subsequent to that watershed Hellenization of the priesthood, the High Priesthood and Temple priests, though in control of the Temple, were sycophants of the Roman occupiers and not even genealogically qualified to be priests. Aristocrats simply bought their priestly positions from the Romans. These Sadducean pseudo-priests were loathed by the genealogically legitimate Sadducee priests (most of whom had apparently retired to Qum•rânꞋ) and by the Pharisees alike – including RibꞋi Yᵊho•shuꞋa. It is they who shouted for the execution of RibꞋi Yᵊho•shuꞋa.

The late Oxford historian, James Parkes, demonstrated (The Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue, A Study in the Origins of Anti-Semitism) that the antinomian Christ of Christianity, defined by the fourth century Church, was the antithesis of the first-century Pharisee of the Jewish community, RibꞋi Yᵊho•shuꞋa. The Christian version of a Hellenized-Judaic Christ traces back no earlier than the Roman crushing of the Bar Kokhva Rebellion in 135 C.E. (Prior to that, gentile Roman Hellenist Christian tradition was purely gentile Roman Hellenism and based in Zeus.) It was in 135 C.E., according to Eusebius, that the Romans deposed the 15^th and last Jewish Pâ•qidꞋ of RibꞋi Yᵊho•shuꞋa's original followers (Pâ•qidꞋ Yᵊhud•âhꞋ ha-Tza•diqꞋ), displacing him with the first gentile "bishop" (Marcus). Correspondingly, the Christianity of Christ is the antithesis of the first century Judaism taught by RibꞋi Yᵊho•shuꞋa. Confusing RibꞋi Yᵊho•shuꞋa with his antithesis, Christ, is self-contradicting.

Beyond Parkes' findings, Dead Sea Scroll (4Q) MMT (Mi•qᵊtz•atꞋ Ma•as•ëh′ ha-Tor•âh′) is recently discovered, hard evidence confirming, in the words of Prof. Ya'aqov Sussman, that, for all three sects of first century Jews, the Jewish Tor•âhꞋ (Pentateuch, as interpreted by Jewish religious courts as Oral Law) was "the central factor in Jewish life," which "stood in the center of their spiritual world." (4Q) MMT clarifies the distinctions between the three main sects of Judaism: the Pharisees and two branches of Tzᵊdoq•imꞋ (Sadducees): Temple-based Hellenists and Qum•rânꞋ עוֹשִׂין. The עוֹשִׂין Tzᵊdoq•imꞋ were legitimate genealogical Jewish Ko•han•imꞋ who had been deposed and exiled from the Temple by their Hellenist cohorts. The author of (4Q) MMT was an עוֹשִׂין Tzᵊdoq•imꞋ — the MorꞋi TzëdꞋëq.

To be historically accurate, Mr. Gibson's movie must move the audience to sympathize with "the Jews," who loathed the illegitimate Hellenist Sadducee false-priest apostates who collaborated with the Roman occupiers — Italians & Rome, not Jews — who crucified RibꞋi Yᵊho•shuꞋa.

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