re: Was Passion of the Christ a controversial film?

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christians have spouted "the jews did it" since christianity's inception

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Actually, I'm pretty sure that Christianity started out as a sect of Judaism and remained that way at least for awhile. So, in a way that would be saying "we did it to ourselves." There were several different sects - the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, etc.

I think there was quite a bit of controversy about allowing gentiles (non Jews) into early Christianity at all and I know there was about what Jewish laws these non Jewish Christians would have to follow - dietary, circumcision, etc.

For this reason, I think it is a gross generalization to say "the Jews did it." If anything it may have been a part of one sect that happened to be in a shaky partnership with the Romans trying to prevent someone who was not a member of their sect from gaining power and/or disrupting the fragile status quo.

I read his article, and I still don’t see how we can exclude Jewish leaders from culpability with any certainty. We certainly can’t absolve Rome. The question is whether any Jews had a role in it, and I think there’s a good argument they did.

I understand the argument that a blasphemer would be stoned, not crucified for sedition. But perhaps Jesus had too many followers to be stoned like a commoner. Or perhaps he was not a blasphemer at all, but still threatened the Temple structure.

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It's very likely that the Jewish elders, threatened by Jesus's message, handed him over to the Romans using the charge of sedition as the main reason he should be executed. The Romans really put a lot of emphasis on him being the "King of the Jews" in the Gospel narrative. But we know from the Gospel narrative that Christ never claimed to be a king, at least not publicly. Which means this information came to the Romans by someone in his inner circle (Judas, anyone?).

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Luke 23:1-5 “Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, ‘We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king.’ So Pilate asked Jesus, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ ‘Yes, it is as you say,’ Jesus replied. Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, ‘I find no basis for a charge against this man.’ But they insisted, ‘He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here.’”

Rome just wanted order. If this was stirring up the Jewish leaders who worked in concert with Rome and were paid to keep peace...then Rome was going to do what they wanted to sustain peaceful rule. As a Prefect, Pilate's role was to maintain peace and squash local issues or rebellion.

Rome probably didn't give a crap about Jesus except that he was an agitator to the established Jewish heirarchy.

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famed border line atheist Bart Ehrman

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Is it even border line? I like him, but he always seemed clearly atheist or at least non Christian to me.

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So Pilate asked Jesus, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ ‘Yes, it is as you say,’ Jesus replied.

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And it wasn’t until the Passion narrative that the phrase “King of the Jews” is brought up in reference to Jesus. And even here Jesus doesn’t speak on it until he is asked.

Besides Q...isn't Mark considered to be the first and closest to Jesus' time and the source for the two others besides John?

Mark portrays Jesus as secretive about his messianic identity because the historical Jesus had never claimed to be the Messiah.

Mark:

Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

Jesus replied, “You have said it.”

Then the leading priests kept accusing him of many crimes, and Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer them? What about all these charges they are bringing against you?”

But Jesus said nothing, much to Pilate’s surprise.

“Would you like me to release to you this ‘King of the Jews’?” Pilate asked. But at this point the leading priests stirred up the crowd to demand the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus. Pilate asked them, “Then what should I do with this man you call the king of the Jews?”

They shouted back, “Crucify him!”

“Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?”

But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!”

I come to speak not of the controversy of the movie Passion of the Christ.

I come to speak on those first five books of the Bible, as Christians we call them the Pentateuch of the five books of Moses; in Hebrew they are called the Torah.

We know them as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, but in Hebrew they are known as Bereishit, Shemot, Vayikra, Bamidbar, Devarim.

How did the name Torah come about for those books, and what does it mean? Torah means "teaching, instruction", it also due to a root word to deal with archery could mean aimed instruction.

But do you know that Torah also has a symbolic meaning, in reading Hebrew left to right you have the following:

Tav = cross
Vav = nail
Rash = ruler, leader, head, highness
Heh = behold, breath, reveal, spirit

So with one word God told you everything in the Bible:

Behold God, the nail and the cross

It can be read in many forms, all on these line:

Covenant joins spirit that reveals
Covenant joins man to revelation
Cross nail man look

The best translation of the meaning maybe:

Behold the God nail to a cross

Torah is found in the first two books of the Bible written out left to right every 50th letter will read TORH in those two books.

Horat is found in the forth and fifth book of the Bible written left to right every 50th letter will read HORT in those to books.

Noticed aim is part of the root of Torah, because Torah is pointing the way to the middle book in the first two books, as is Harot is pointing to the middle book in the forth and fifth book.

So what does the Torah point to in the middle book? Leviticus has encode every seven letter the following:

Yod, Heh, Vav, Heh

That spells out God's name in Hebrew, YAHWEH.

What does the name of God mean symbolic:

Yod = Hand
Heh = behold
Vav = nail
Heh = behold

That gives you the message:

THE HANDS BEHOLD, THE NAIL BEHOLD


To show you how far ahead of us God is, let us look at the very first word of the Bible:

Berasheet (most Hebrews use Bereshit)

What is it's meaning in English:

In the beginning

It is written: Bet, resh, alef, shin, yod, tav.

What is it's symbolic meaning:

The Son of God will be killed by his own hand on a cross.


Just a though, there is much more to the Bible than we know.

Do not forget Hebrew is read three ways, by letter as written, by number and by symbolic meaning.

The WORD is written about in the first word of the Bible and his name is the most encode throughout the old testament.


So who really put Christ on the cross? It was all of us, and only by his will.

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Well, it WAS the Jews' fault. This is a fact.

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Really? So what was the purpose of god even sending Jesus here (according to the mythology)?


He was predestined to die that way and anyone involved was predestined to their actions. That was gods will. For them to have acted differently would have gone against gods will. That's a fact (according to the myth).

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The fact that you are so willing to dismiss the New Testament as a legitimate historical document tells me everything I need to know about your intellectual prowess, or lack thereof.

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There is nothing other than the Bible that backs up any of the accounts of Jesus. The Romans (who kept great records of people they executed and why they executed them) mention nothing of him.