Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus:Flavian Signature Edition (20 page)

And as He said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to assail [Him] vehemently, and to cross-examine Him about many things,

lying in wait for Him, and seeking to catch Him in something He might say, that they might accuse Him.

Luke 11:53-54

… Caesar himself, [who spake to them thus]: These Jews, who are only conducted by their madness, do every thing with care and circumspection; they contrive stratagems, and lay ambushes …

Wars of the Jews
, 5, 3, 121

21) The “woe-saying” Jesus

The next parallels form a set that is obvious and has been much discussed by scholars. The first parallel is that of the “woe-saying Jesus” recorded in the Gospels and Josephus. Though many scholars have wondered as to the cause of the obvious connections between the two characters, they have not understood the typological connection between the “woe-saying Jesuses” because they have not noticed the simple puzzle that places each at the same place in the dual storyline. Josephus recorded that his character began his woe-saying four years before the start of the war, and kept repeating his mantra for seven years and five months. He also recorded that the “abomination of desolation” – which will be discussed at greater length in Chapter 13 – occurred at the point foreseen by Daniel, in other words three years and six months after the war’s beginning. Thus the “woe-saying Jesus” in Josephus died one month before the abomination of desolation, at the same point as in the Gospels’ storyline.

"Woe to you Pharisees!  For you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.  

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over [them] are not aware [of them."]  

Then one of the lawyers answered and said to Him, "Teacher, by saying these things You reproach us also."  

And He said, "Woe to you also, lawyers! For you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. 

"Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. 

"In fact, you bear witness that you approve the deeds of your fathers; for they indeed killed them, and you build their tombs. 

"Therefore the wisdom of God also said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, and [some] of them they will kill and persecute,

‘that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, 

‘from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah who perished between the altar and the temple.’ Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation.

"Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered."  

Luke 11:43-52

Josephus’ recording of a “woe-saying Jesus” will also be discussed at greater length in Chapter 9. This character was obviously deliberately linked to the character in the Gospels. The parallels of the “woe-saying Jesuses” are as follows:

•  They enter Jerusalem during one of the “pilgrimage”
     festivals (Sukkot and Passover )
•  They deliver an oracle against Jerusalem, the Temple,
     and the people
•  They are seized by leading citizens
•  They are beaten, and later scourged
•  They offer no answer to interrogators
•  They are taken by them to the Roman procurator
•  They are called a madman “
exestokos”
(compare Mark
     3:21
exeste
, and also John 7:20)
•  They prophesy their own death
•  They die

… there was one Jesus … came to that feast whereon it is our custom for every one to make tabernacles to God in the temple, 

began on a sudden to cry aloud, "A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the holy house, a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice against this whole people!" This was his cry, as he went about by day and by night, in all the lanes of the city.

However, certain of the most eminent among the populace had great indignation at this dire cry of his, and took up the man, and gave him a great number of severe stripes; yet did not he either say any thing for himself, or any thing peculiar to those that chastised him, but still went on with the same words which he cried before.

Hereupon our rulers, supposing, as the case proved to be, that this was a sort of divine fury in the man, brought him to the Roman procurator,

where he was whipped till his bones were laid bare; yet he did not make any supplication for himself, nor shed any tears, but turning his voice to the most lamentable tone possible, at every stroke of the whip his answer was, "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!"

… every day uttered these lamentable words, as if it were his premeditated vow, "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!"

… "Woe, woe to the city again, and to the people, and to the holy house!" And just as he added at the last, "Woe, woe to myself also!" there came a stone out of one of the engines, and smote him, and killed him immediately; and as he was uttering the very same presages he gave up the ghost.

Wars of the Jews,
6, 5, 300-309

Finally – each of the “woe-saying Jesuses” described a Zachariah’s fate at the hands of wicked Jews, and foresees “woe” for lawyers. 

“ ‘from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah who perished between the altar and the temple.’ Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation.  

"Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered."  

Luke 11:51-52

Jesus’ statement “envisions” the following story in Josephus. Notice that not only is the fate of the two Zechariahs parallel, but each story depicts “wicked lawyers”.

Now when Zacharias clearly saw that there was no way remaining for his escape from them, as having been treacherously called before them, and then put in prison, but not with any intention of a legal trial, he took great liberty of speech in that despair of his life he was under. Accordingly he stood up, and laughed at their pretended accusation, and in a few words confuted the crimes laid to his charge;

after which he turned his speech to his accusers, and went over distinctly all their transgressions of the law, and made heavy lamentation upon the confusion they had brought public affairs to:

in the mean time, the zealots grew tumultuous, and had much ado to abstain from drawing their swords, although they designed to preserve the appearance and show of judicature to the end. They were also desirous, on other accounts, to try the judges, whether they would be mindful of what was just at their own peril.

Now the seventy judges brought in their verdict that the person accused was not guilty, as choosing rather to die themselves with him, than to have his death laid at their doors;

hereupon there arose a great clamor of the zealots upon his acquittal, and they all had indignation at the judges for not understanding that the authority that was given them was but in jest.

So two of the boldest of them fell upon Zacharias in the middle of the temple, and slew him; and as he fell down dead, they bantered him, and said, "Thou hast also our verdict, and this will prove a more sure acquittal to thee than the other." They also threw him down from the temple immediately into the valley beneath it.

Moreover, they struck the judges with the backs of their swords, by way of abuse, and thrust them out of the court of the temple, and spared their lives with no other design than that, when they were dispersed among the people in the city, they might become their messengers, to let them know they were no better than slaves. 

Wars of the Jews,
4, 5, 338-344

22) Innocent beaten worse than the guilty

The parallel storylines then go on to a description of the innocent beaten worse than the guilty
.

“And that servant who knew his master's will, and did not prepare [himself] or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many [stripes].

“But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.”  

Luke 12:47-48

Upon which there was a very great disorder and disturbance about the holy house; while the people, who had no concern in the sedition, supposed that this assault was made against all without distinction, as the zealots thought it was made against themselves only.

So these left off guarding the gates any longer, and leaped down from their battlements before they came to an engagement, and fled away into the subterranean caverns of the temple; while the people that stood trembling at the altar, and about the holy house, were rolled on heaps together, and trampled upon, and were beaten both with wooden and with iron weapons without mercy. 

Such also as had differences with others slew many persons that were quiet, out of their own private enmity and hatred, as if they were opposite to the seditious; and all those that had formerly offended any of these plotters were now known, and were now led away to the slaughter;

and when they had done abundance of horrid mischief to the guiltless, they granted a truce to the guilty …

Wars of the Jews
, 5, 3, 101-104

23) Divide the group 3 for 2

The next parallel is so transparent as to not require an explanation.  Notice that Luke underscores the linked concept, the “division by reducing from 3 to 2,” by repeating it.

These followers of John also did now seize upon this inner temple, and upon all the warlike engines therein, and then ventured to oppose Simon.

And thus that sedition, which had been divided into three factions, was now reduced to two.

Wars of the Jews
, 5, 3, 104-105

"Do [you] suppose that I came to give peace on earth?

“I tell you, not at all, but rather division.  

“For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three.”

Luke 12:51-53

To digress, though it is not a part of the typological sequence – the linked events do not occur at the same point within the sequence – Luke describes a “tower of Siloam” that had previously fallen (pipto) on top of eighteen Galilean “sinners”:

“Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all [other] men who dwelt in Jerusalem? 

"I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish." 

Luke 13:4-5

Luke’s description of a tower that fell and killed eighteen has puzzled scholars, as there is no historical record of such an event. In fact, the passage is merely witty wordplay glorifying Titus. In his description of the battle in the valley next to the pool of Siloam, Josephus recorded that Titus “fell” (pipto) on “great numbers”:

… opposed those that ran upon him, and smote them on the face; and, when he had forced them to go back, he slew them; he also fell upon great numbers as they marched down the hill, and thrust them forward …

Wars of the Jews
, 5, 2, 89

Logically, Jesus referred to the event not as a prophecy but as occurring in the past, because the Tower of Siloam “pipto” episode had already occurred when he discussed it.

24) Cut down the fruit tree

Again, the next parallel is also obvious. Jesus “envisions” a fruit tree outside of Jerusalem that would be cut down, which it was.

He also spoke this parable: "A certain [man] had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.