A form of madness (of both the “anger” and “insanity” varieties) is overtaking many modern-day Jewish leaders as the release of Mel Gibson’s The Passion draws nearer to its Easter 2004 release date. Likewise, these same figures are exhibiting such hypocrisy and selective historical amnesia that I truly believe they are beginning to unravel to such an extent that their true colors are beginning to show. For instance, the ADL and Simon Wiesenthal Center don’t allow anybody to even remotely question the Holocaust. Nor do they let them forget how they suffered during it, or which people were responsible for it. Yet these individuals are the first to deflect attention away from their own actions in regard to Jesus’ crucifixion and how the Jewish religious hierarchy of that time initiated this barbarous, unforgivable act of savagery. The hatred of Annas, Caiphas, and the other Sadducean high-priest cabal was so overt that they are comparable to the Nazi madmen who sat around at Wannsee (January 20, 1942) on the outskirts of Berlin and planned the Final Solution (so finely documented in Colin Firth’s film Conspiracy starring Kenneth Branagh).

To show the depths of their vengeance, consider for a moment the charges that THEY, the Chosen People, leveled against Jesus, God’s only son (from Hector Carreon’s article, Mel Gibson, Anne Emmerich, Jesus and the Jews): “That he called himself king; that he said God was his Father; that the Pharisees were an adulterous generation; that he caused insurrection among the people; that he cured the sick by the help of the devil on the Sabbath day; that the inhabitants of Ophel addressed him by the titles of Savior and Prophet; that he allowed himself to be called the Son of God; that he said he was sent by God; that he predicted the destruction of Jerusalem; that he did not fast; that he ate with sinners, with pagans, and with publicans, and associated with women of evil repute.”

But Steven Bayme, National Director of the American Jewish Committee, said that instead of denying their culpability in this gruesome matter, “Jews must face up to the fact that the Talmudic narrative does clearly demonstrate rabbinic willingness to take responsibility for the execution of Jesus.” (as recounted in Eric Greenburg’s article Jesus’ Death Now Debated by Jews in Jewish Week – October 3, 2003).

But instead of accepting what their own sacred texts convey, contemporary Jewish leaders demand that we need to properly ‘interpret’ the Four Gospels. This request comes from a people that erupt in fits of rage whenever even the slightest mention of alternative research emerges about the Holocaust. In this light, shouldn’t the same criteria be used in both instances, or are they the only ones capable of properly ‘interpreting’ history?

How, then, are we to interpret Sanhedrin 43a in the Talmud that says Jesus was executed on a Passover’s eve for engaging in SORCERY and inciting insurrection among his fellow Jews? This Talmudic passage is highly relevant because, as Steven Bayme writes, “No effort is made to pin his [Jesus] death upon the Romans.” But instead of requiring responsibility of themselves as they do of the Germans for the Holocaust, some Jewish theologians have gone so far as to call certain passages in the Gospels “anti-Semitic!” What does this mean: that God is prejudiced against his own Chosen People? How absurd.

This manipulative historical revisionism has been occurring for some time, as can be seen from Vatican II (1962) which denied, on whole, Jewish guilt for the crucifixion, while yet confirming that some Jewish leaders were guilty of participating in this crime. What this conspiracy involved (and please don’t assume that it wasn’t a conspiracy) was DEICIDE – the killing of a people’s own Messiah. Or, as Yisrael Shaw of Daf Yomi Discussions writes, “If you do an Internet search of Sanhedrin 43a, you will find that it is one of the favorite sources of Christians as proof of the Jewish murder and hatred of their god.”

If you don’t believe that the religious leaders of Jesus’ time held an outright hatred for him, consider the circumstances leading up to his crucifixion. After Jesus was arrested by Jewish guards masquerading as Roman soldiers, he was assaulted unmercifully and persecuted by these very same men (among others) before ever being brought before Pontius Pilate. But these weren’t the actions of people who simply wanted to “rough up” Jesus a little bit. No, they went full-bore to the extreme, attacking him viciously until blood gushed from his body – all the while slaying him with vulgar names, whipping him, crowning his head with thorns, and spitting upon him. Folks, please don’t allow others to candy-coat or minimize what happened nearly 2,000 years ago. These men were fueled with an unbridled hatred for Jesus and were possessed by a bloodthirsty mob mentality (not unlike those in the death camps at Treblinka, Dachau, or Sobibor).

But that was only the beginning of the indignities Jesus suffered. After being brought before the Sanhedrin judges, Caiphas accused Jesus of being an “enemy of God” and a “blasphemer.” The following morning, the attacks upon Jesus continued, as described by Hector Carreon: “The Jewish mob mercilessly tortured their prisoner Jesus, the Son of God. They heaped every imaginable insult upon him; they pulled out handfuls of his hair and beard, spat upon him, struck him with their fists, wounded him with sharp-pointed sticks, and even ran needles into his body.”

With their PRISONER now beaten, humiliated, and fully aware of their hatred for him, Caiphas and his co-conspirators found Jesus guilty of sorcery, being an enemy of the people, and apostasy (abandonment of what one has voluntarily professed; total desertion of principles or faith), which they considered an executable offense.

Babel Magazine