Chapter Thirteen HOLY THURSDAY (EREV PESACH) Mark and Matthew both report that two days before the Passover, the Sadducean leaders ("chief priests"), collaborators with the Roman occupiers, made a decision to seek Jesus out and to have him arrested. Matthew relates that they met in the home of Caiphas, the High Priest, to discuss ways and means of locating and capturing him. There seems to have been some sort of agreement among them that the arrest should not take place on the holiday itself because that would risk provoking a riot by the people. One insurrection had just been put down the day before, and the popular mood was no doubt still seething. This is one reason that some New Testament scholars are of the opinion that the Last Supper was NOT a seder meal, but was rather a dinner which took place on the eve of the day preceeding Passover, yet most believe that Passover fell on a Friday that year, if for no other reason than that the tradition definitely states that the Resurrection occurred on a Sunday, "after three days", that is to say, a STRONG tradition insisted upon by the Church that Jesus was killed on the Passover holiday itself which was a Friday, and this DESPITE the recorded datum that the Sadducees wished to avoid an arrest on the holiday. That Talmudic Judaism insists that neither a trial nor an execution may occur on a holiday is beside the point. This is a PHARISAIC assertion which may not have affected the thinking of the Sadducees. Additionally, although no historical record yet exists regarding the EXACT year in which Jesus was executed, C.E. 30 seems to be the year ascribed by Christian tradition. During that year, Thursday evening, April 7, fell on the night of the full moon. This date would correspond to the evening of the 15th day of Nisan which is the date for Passover according to the Jewish calendar. Since we are not sure of the true historical chronology of the events of Passion Week, we tentatively accept the traditional Christian chronology which says that Jesus and his disciples celebrated the Passover Seder as the Last Supper on Thursday night, that Jesus was arrested that same night, that he was tried in the early hours of the following Friday morning, and that he was executed by Pontius Pilate on that very Friday which was Passover. "After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people." Mark 14:1-2 "And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples, Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover ... ". Matthew 26:1-2 The "Cleansing of the Temple" began on Monday and ended on the evening of that day or on the evening of the following day. Jesus and his disciples were once again in hiding as they had been previously in Galilee. This time, at the home of one Simon, nick-named, "the Leper", in the suburb of Bethany. "Leper" does not indicate that he currently suffered from the disease since then no Jew would have been able to approach him (Leviticus 13:45-46), but rather that he had once had the sickness and had been cured, possibly by Jesus himself. If the feast of Passover were two days away, then the day that the Sadducees convened to plan Jesus' arrest would have been Tuesday. This would have given Jesus sufficient time to leave Judea and return to Galilee, lost in the throng of incoming pilgrims. On the other hand, a small band of Jews travelling AWAY from Jerusalem, as the holiday ap- proached, might be MORE suspicious, and arouse the attention of the authorities. Therefore, it would have behooved Jesus to remain hidden somewhere in the vicinity of Jerusalem until AFTER the holiday when he could leave camaflaged amid the departing throng of pilgrims. That would however give the Sadducees a full week to locate him, try him, and hand him over to the Romans for punishment. It is not that they sought Jesus alone, but probably were seeking out ALL whom they considered ring-leaders of the insurrection. The gospel authors are concerned solely with Jesus as they make the cabal appear to be interested solely in Jesus since his arrest, trial, and death are germane to the Christian scheme of salvation. However it is apparent that other revolutionaries were also rounded up from the incident of Barrabas. However, fear of detection brought about by flight from the Holy City during the holiday may NOT have been the factor motivating Jesus to remain in Judea. Jesus had reached the conclusion that he was the long-awaited messiah, - king of the Jews. The failure of the insurrection was insufficient ground to shake him of that conviction. There is every reason to believe that Jesus' ego was very strong and that one setback could not undermine him in his convictions, no matter what the setback might be. He may very well have thought that, since the Kingdom of G-d was at hand, the Temple ought be purified or rebuilt BEFORE the coming holiday. The resulting failure to achieve this may merely have made him feel that the action had been slightly premature, an attempt to force G-d's hand before the proper time. Passover was still at hand and somehow soon G-d would act and he, Jesus, would be revealed in his royal aspect. During the time that Jesus lived, Jews referred to the initial days of the holiday differently than they do today. The day that is today referred to as PESACH, Passover Holiday, was at that time called CHAG HAMATSOT, Holiday of Unleavened Bread, and it was upon the eve of CHAG HAMATSOT that the Seder, the Passover ritual meal, was held. The day that is nowadays called EREV PESACH, Eve of Passover, was formerly known as CHAG HAPESACH, Holiday of the Pascal Sacrifice. This may appear confusing to those not familiar with the festal decription given in the Pentateuch, so a brief explanation may be in order. On the 14th day of the month of Nisan, the family or co-op group of Jews was to take the Pascal lamb that had been purchased earlier, and bring it to the Temple to be sacrificed, and eaten by the group on the afternoon of the 14th into the evening begining the 15th of Nisan. The eve of the 15th began the holiday of MATSOT on which the Seder took place, - that is, the eating of unleavened bread and bitter herbs, and the telling of the story of the Exodus, at the end of which, the eating of the Pascal sacrifice was completed; all of this was to be done before sunrise of the 15th. The holiday of MATSOT lasted for 7 days during which time no unleavened product was to be eaten or benefitted from. Therefore the gospel writer correctly states: "Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, where wilt thou that that we pre- pare for thee to eat the passover? And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house with my diciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them ; and they made ready the passover." Matthew 26:17-19 (Luke 22 adds that the disciples sent were specifically Peter and John who later became leaders of the Nazarene movement.) That is, on Wednesday, the FIRST day of the feast which was CHAG HAPESACH, Jesus and the disciples were prepared to return to Jerusalem to sacrifice the Pascal lamb and to eat it there, in spite of the fact that they were wanted men! This can only mean that they STILL believed that G-d would establish His Kingdom at the time of the holiday, and that they would be safe in Jerusalem. The next element of the gospel story is rather difficult to piece together accurately. It concerns the betrayal of Jesus by his disciple Judas Iscariot. As has been stated in chapter 8, no clear picture of his personna emerges from the narrative. The gospels merely emphasize the fact that he revealed Jesus' whereabouts on the night of the Last Supper, and because of that, paint him as entirely evil, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. John (12:6) informs us that Judas was the one who was entrusted with the communal purse, and that he was a thief, KLEPTIS, although how he thieved is not related. The story of the offer to betray Jesus is brief in each of the gospels. Mark (14:10-11) tells us, suddenly without any prior indication, that he went to the Sadducees and asked them how much they would pay him for disclosing Jesus' whereabouts. Matthew (26:14-16) repeats this story and adds the detail that they agreed to pay him 30 pieces of silver. Luke (22:3-6) attributes his act of betrayal as a result of Satanic possession but gives no reason as to why HE in particular was chosen as Satan's agent. Luke also adds the detail that Judas looked for an opportunity when there would be no crowds around who would pro- tect Jesus and prevent his arrest. John (13:2) also attributes the instigatin of the deed to Satan but says that the impulse to betray his master came upon Judas at the end of the Last Supper whereas the synoptics all say that the decision to betray Jesus happened before the holiday had begun. There has been a tendency in recent years to theorize that Judas acted out of positive motives, that is, because of his alleged Zealot leanings, he wanted to bring about a confrontation between Jesus and the ruling powers. This, supposedly, would FORCE Jesus to reveal himself as the messiah and immediately overthrow the existing order of Roman occupation, and Sadducean and Herodian collaboration. In effect, Judas was tired of waiting for the Kingdom to appear, according to this theory, and tried to bring it about by placing his master in a situation whereby he would have no other choice but to act immediately and decisively. This story is designed to exonerate Judas by showing that he has more faith in Jesus' messianic abilities than the other disciples. Some have even gone so far as to add to this theory that the betrayal itself was in reality a scheme worked out secretly between Jesus and Judas. Those who advance this theory are inclined to identify Judas as a Zealot, equating his surname Iscariot with the Latin word SICARIUS, "dagger man", which we have already seen, in chapter 8, the Romans sometimes applied to certain groups of Zealots who committed political assassinations. But it is no where ascertained that Judas WAS a Zealot,and the identification of Iscariot with SICARIUS is at best a doubtfull etomology. If the gospel writers had at all thought of him as having sympathies with the Zealot party, it would have been more to the point for John, in referring to Judas as a thief (12:6), to have used, not the ordinary word for thief, KLEPTIS, but rather the word LESTAS, "mugger", which is the word that the Romans used to derrogate the Zealots. Again, those who hold to the exoneration theory fail to understand that the incident in the Temple a few days prior had been been an attempt on Jesus' part to hurry the arrival of the Kingdom of heaven and to prompt G-d to allow him to reveal himself as the messiah. An attempt which had proven embarrassingly unsuccessful. Therefore why would Judas, who himself had taken part in the abortive siezure of the Temple wish to hurry Jesus into another possible failure so soon? The truth is that we can never know for sure just why Judas acted as a traitor. We know so little about him. He remains as much of an enigma as the other disciples about whom virtually nothing is known, with the exception of Simon Peter and of the sons of Zebedee. One disturbing thing about Judas is that his name, in both Hebrew and Greek, is synonymous with the Jewish people, and the pecunary motive ascribed to him by the evangelists, make him more of a SYMBOL of supposed Jewish enmity to Jesus than a real flesh and blood person, leading some to conjecture that there never existed a real disciple named Judas Iscariot, but that he was a fabrication in the minds of the gospel authors. This however is not historically likely. Jesus and his disciples arrived in Jerusalem to celebrate the passover. Gathered together at a "safe house", they sat down to begin the Seder. One can picture them all, beginning the joyous meal, in a state of high expectation of the immanent arrival of the Kingdom of Heaven. One can see Jesus lifting the first of the four cups of wine and reciting the sanctification blessing: "Blessed are You, Oh L--d G-d, King of the universe, Who has chosen us out of all peoples, and has exalted us above all nationalities, and made us holy by Your commandments, and in love has given us ... this festival of matsot, a time for our freedom ... in memory of the Exodus from Egypt ... Blessed are You, Oh L--d, Who sanctifies Israel and the festivals." One can see Jesus then drink from the cup and then pass it to each of his disciples, asking them each to drink of it, and to remember him sharing the cup with them, and telling them that just as now they were commemorating the Egyptian redemption, soon they would be celebrating the final complete redemption, as he encouraged them, saying, "Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of G-d." Mark 14:25 One can see Jesus lifting the matsah, reciting: "This is the bread of affliction which our fathers ate in Egypt. Let anyone who is hungry come and and eat with us. Let anyone who is in need come and celebrate the passover with us." Poignantly, with a special knowing feeling, he must have said the words: "Now we are slaves, next year at this time may we be free people." And again encouraging them: "With desire I have desired to eat this passover (meal) with you ... For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of G-d." Luke 22:15-16 Then after they had all recounted, among themselves, the story of the Exodus from Egypt, Jesus added: "And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Luke 22:29-30 Clearly the original tradition shines through, that of an expected EARTHLY kingdom; one of THIS world, where people EAT and DRINK at the messianic feast (Isaiah 25:6). And the apostles shall have their reward for devoting their lives to Jesus, and to the Kingdom of G-d, in that they shall constitute the MESSIANIC SANHEDRIN (Psalms 122:4-5); THEY shall be the new Men of the Great Assembly just as Jesus is to be the new Ezra, ensuring the propagation of the Torah, its teaching and its practice. Then after having recited the Grace After the Meal, and having concluded the eating of the Pascal sacrifice, they recited the Hallel (Mark 14:26;Matthew 26:30) which are Psalms (Ps 113-118) that are recited on those occasions when Jews remember G-d's salvations. The Seder then having been concluded, Jesus now asked the dis- ciples to accompany him to the Mount of Olives on the east end of the City, there to await the the final revelation of G-d and the onset of the Kingdom of Heaven which, he was sure, must surely occur before the rising of the sun on this day of Redemption. It was at this point that Judas Iscariot slipped out, unnoticed by the other disciples who were now beginning to be overcome by fatigue, the hour being late and they having consumed the four cups of Seder wine. Before leaving the house however, Jesus asked the disciples to arm themselves with swords (Luke 22:36), a most unusual request since generally the use of weapons is forbidden on a holiday unless there is an absolute emergency need to do so although a sword may be worn as an ornament on such a day. The disciples replied to him that they possessed at least two swords (Luke 22:38) to which Jesus replied that they would be sufficient, probably as a symbolic display of readiness to fight G-d's fight against the enemy. This incident of the swords reinforces the idea that there was nothing essentially incompatible between the philosophy of the Zealots and that of the Nazarenes, namely, that one must be prepared to do battle for the Kingdom of G-d. We have alluded to the fact that several of Jesus' disciples were indeed Zealots, if not by actual party affiliation then at least by sympathy, and that their being Galileans predisposed them to Zealotism. Although Christianity has turned Jesus into the Pacific Christ, he himself had said that his mission in life was to kindle a fire on the earth and he wished the conflagration had already begun (Luke 12:49). And was this not the reason that he had come to Jer usalem? Had not the Temple takeover been the intended spark of a messianic flame to burn the world in a messainic purification, a baptism of fire to prepare in for the coming of the L--d? Jesus and the disciples headed east and when they had passed over a brook called Kidron, they arrived at the foot of the Mount of Olives. There they entered a public park called Gethsemane (Heb. Gat-shemanim, "garden of olive oil"), a place which they had frequented in times past (John 18:2), and consequently the place to which Judas would suspect them to have gone. The Mount of Olives, on the eastern end of Jerusalem, has long messianic associations. It is the place which David frequented as a place of prayer (2nd Samuel 15:30-32), and there, the prophets said, would be the place of the messianic revelation. "And the glory of the L--d went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city." Ezekiel 11:23 "Then shall the L--d go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east ... " Zechariah 14:3-4 On this mountain the Red Heifer was burnt whose ashes remove the defilement of Israel. It was called the Place of the Footstool of G-d. It was also known as HAR HAMESHICHAH, the Mountain of Annointing. It could also easily have been called HAR HAMESHIACH, the Mountain of the Annointed One. Here other would-be-messiahs had gathered their followers to await G-d's miraculous redemtion, such as the false Egyptian prophet. (Acts 21:38, also Josephus, Antiquities 20:169; Wars 2:262;). A midrash states that the messiah will ascend the Mount of Olives, and there the great SHOFAR shall be blown for the resurrection of the dead. Jesus bade the disciples to wait while he took Peter and the sons of Zebedee with him a little distance, and asked them to pray with him and to watch for G-d's deliverance with him. The gospels relate that three times Peter, James, and John fell asleep and were awakened by Jesus who expressed his disappointment that they could not muster up the stamina to remain awake to pray and watch with him on this Passover night which is also known as "The Night of Watching" for G-d's salvation. If this vignette has no basis in historical fact, then it may have been influenced by the midrash of the first SHAVUOT, holiday of Pentecost. It is related that on the night that Moses ascended Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, he had asked the Children of Israel to re- main awake and watch the divine revelation. The story continues that the weary Israelites were unable to keep their eyes open and fell asleep. In the morning Moses expressed his disappointment that they had not managed to stay awake. In response, the Jewish people promised that for all future time they would not sleep on the night of SHAVUOT but would remain awake all night to read and study the Torah. There in the Garden of Olive Oil, at the base of the Mountain of Annointing, Jesus prayed for G-d to reveal him as the messiah of his people, to deliver his people from the Kingdom of Arrogance. Then the transquility of the night was broken. Judas Iscariot appeared, leading the Sadducean police. Jesus alerted the disciples, told them to awaken. Judas approached and revealed Jesus' identity to the Temple police by kissing Jesus, a pre-arranged signal. As the police began to apprehend Jesus, those disciples who were carrying swords now drew them and began to engage the police. Peter cut off the ear ofone of the arresting of- ficers. Mark, the earliest of the evangelists, has no tradition of Jesus attempting to stop his disciples from defending him with arms. Ultimately by force of numbers, the police overcame the disciples' re- sistence and subdued them. Jesus now saw that further resistence to his arrest would be of no avail. It was up to G-d now to act (Matthew 26:52 -53), and he still believed that his G-d WOULD intervene to save him. It was at this point however that his disciples abandoned him. We are told that the very men who had followed him for so long, who had so strongly believed in him and the messianic promise he had held out, who had devoted their whole lives to him, now fled, leaving him alone, to be taken away as a common criminal. The arresting officers apparently were only interested in Jesus and made no attempt to prevent the escape of the disciples. As they led him away, Jesus turned to them and asked: "Are ye come out, as against a thief (LESTAS), with swords and with staves to take me?" Mark 14:48 Surely the double entendre could not have been missed by the police. Jesus had employed the word LESTES, "briggand", the very word used by the ruling authorities to denote Zealots and freedom-fighters, which isexactly how they perceived him, - another Galilean trouble-maker who was dangerous to the status quo of the ruling order of Romans and native collaborators. The Sadducees had wanted to avoid arresting Jesus on the holiday because of his popularity with the masses, they feared another riot would erupt. But Judas had forced their hand and disrupted their time-table. He had found the opportunity when Jesus and the disciples would be alone, without the protection of the crowds. All the common people in Jerusalem were in their homes, conducting the Seder. Some were already asleep. Jesus was unprotected and now he was ni their custody. The police led him away to the palace of Caiaphas, the High Priest. John says it was to the home of Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas (John 18:13). The disciples had fled but Peter had stopped himself and turned back. Jesus had designated him as the foundation stone of the group, and he felt ashamed of his initial panic. From a distance, he followed Jesus and the arresting police to the palace of Caiaphas.
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