Exodus 21:24: “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,”
Matthew 5:38: “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”
Yesterday I saw the movie, Son of God. I have to admit I enjoyed it and would not discourage anyone from seeing it. However, as it is with so many movies portraying the life of Jesus, the Jews somehow end up getting a bad rap. In many of these movies the Jews are seen as the ones who want to put Jesus to death and poor Pilate is forced to go along. This movie, to be fair, not so much.
Here is a reality check. During the time of Christ the Jews did not believe in capital punishment. You would think that with 36 different capital crimes in Jewish law they would be a blood thirsty group and ready to put Jesus on a cross for blasphemy. The truth is, throughout His ministry Jesus was only reinforcing Talmudic laws. Although the Talmud did not exist at the time of Jesus it did exist in Oral Tradition. By the time of Jesus the Jews and their sages could not stomach killing another person, even for a capital crime such that they created a forest of barriers to the actual use the death penalty that the law of burden of proof and the requirements to sentence someone to death were so strict that they made it virtually impossible to execute anyone. Based upon Talmudic law Capital punishment in Israel was virtually outlawed in 1954, even with the rise of terrorist. They will put a terrorist who killed a busload of people in prison for life, rather than execute him.
Sure there were vigilantes, in Jesus day they were mostly Pharisees who wanted a strict interpretation of the Law, just as there are vigilantes today in Israel. In Jesus day they brought a woman who committed adultery to him to be executed. Since Jewish law teaches that the law of the land prevails, they could have executed the woman by appealing to Roman law which allowed execution. However, all Jesus had to do was bend down and write a simple Yod in the sand. In that he would have been appealing to the mercy of God and even the Pharisaical Jews could not argue against that, especially when Jesus reminded them that they themselves were also sinners who needed the mercy of God.
You did not have cheering crowds and Roman soldiers brutally whipping Jesus as he carried the cross to Calvary. If there was any cheering it would not have been the Jews for they had over 25,000 of their own crucified under Pilate. Pilate was even called back to Rome for his brutality and was either put to death or committed suicide. Jesus was whipped in private, not public with only a few witnesses. The Calvary road would have been lined with mourners and if there was any outrage it was not against Jesus but against the Roman soldiers and you can bet, for their own safety, they would not have been whipping and beating Jesus on the way to Mount Calvary. They did not have to beat Jesus on the way to the cross to prove their brutality, there were 25,000 crucified Jews to prove that.
The high priest being pictured as a cruel and conniving person, might have been right. But you see, like Herod, the high priest was also given his job by the Roman government, most likely he paid the Roman government for that position and the high priest and Pilate as well as Herod worked closely together to protect not only their jobs, but their lives. If Jesus did prove to be a revolutionary who would cause an uprising, the high priest’s head would be on the block along with Herod’s and Pilates. Something the movie Sons of God did bring out.
What is clear from an historical context is that Jesus was crucified for one reason and by only one group of people, the Gentile Roman government to keep an alleged revolutionary leader from creating an uprising.
The preaching of Jesus was not contrary to the general teachings of Judaism of that day. He only reinforced many of the Talmudic interpretations of the Torah while condemning many of the strict interpretations which was not unusual for a teacher of that day. Jesus interpreted the law in the context of the Love of God which resonated with most of the Jews of that day. Jesus demonstrated how Scriptural interpretation was to be done only when held to the corner stone of the Love of God. Jesus did not contradict Scripture when He seemingly provided an alternative for Exodus 21:24 (eye for an eye) in Matthew 5:38, He only interpreted Exodus 21:24 in light of the Love of God. He provided a key to the interpretation of Exodus 21:24 (eye for an eye) by saying resist not evil. In the Aramaic Bible, which represents the language Jesus spoke, the word evil is bisha. The Aleph at the end of this word suggests an article. This word is not your standard word for evil which is found in a number of ra words. This word means to be ashamed, confused, perplexed. It is the evil or the one who makes you ashamed, upset, and angry. The word for resist in Aramaic is qaum which means to rage against. Jesus is teaching that we are not to rage against, seek revenge for anyone who has shamed us or did any wrong against us. In the true spirit of Oral Tradition Jesus was simply saying, “Don’t interpret an eye for an eye as a license for revenge.” This is in line with all the teachings of the sages in Oral Tradition. The death of a loved one is a primary source of anger and the prompting of one to seek revenge. It is a clear motive for murder. Our society rightly forbids us to not take the law into our own hands and seek our own revenge. You kill a person for killing a loved one and you are also guilty of murder. We say let the courts execute the person, let the courts do your revenge for you. This is truly a better and much more civilized way, we even soften the revenge motive by using the diplomatic term closure. It is still revenge and the sages put up so many blocks and barriers to capital punishment to avoid anyone being put to death out of revenge that it is virtually impossible to execute anyone without a revenge motive.
In the sixty years since Israel outlawed capital punishment they found only one person that fits all the Talmudic burden of proof and requirements for execution and that was Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi who conducted the Final Solution killing six million Jews. Just one exception and still you cannot run away from the revenge motive. Yes, there were Jews who even questioned carrying out this execution.
Why a nation that so reverences life, so embraces the teachings of our Jesus more than we Christians do should be hated by the world and so misunderstood that even today movies are made which make it appear like they wanted Jesus to be crucified, I don’t know, go figure.
I do not believe that the Jews initially rejected Jesus as the Messiah, they just never had the chance to reject Him. They were the first Christians, they were our founding fathers but by 300 AD the church kicked all the Jews out, can you blame them for now rejecting Him? We Gentile Christians have a lot to answer for.
I don’t see much reality in your “reality check”. You stated “During the time of Christ the Jews did not believe in capital punishment” and “By the time of Jesus the Jews and their sages could not stomach killing another person”. Yet the scripture teaches that the Pharisees plotted to kill Jesus and in John 8 they intended to have a woman caught in adultery stoned to death. In Acts 7-8, Stephen is stoned to death. You also stated “You did not have cheering crowds…If there was any cheering it would not have been the Jews”. Yet again, the scripture teaches otherwise. In Matthew 27:21-23 it says “The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” And he said, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!” Again, in Luke 23:20 “Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, but they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!” In Matthew 27:39-40 it says “And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” You wrote “What is clear from an historical context is that Jesus was crucified for one reason and by only one group of people, the Gentile Roman government to keep an alleged revolutionary leader from creating an uprising” yet it clearly was the Pharisees who plotted to kill Jesus, pushed for his crucifixion, and the people who chose Barabbas. As the scripture above shows, Pilate even questioned “what evil has He done?” You also state that capital punishment is still revenge and contrary to the teaching of Jesus, but the scripture says in Romans 13:3-4 “For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer”. Lastly, you wrote “I do not believe that the Jews initially rejected Jesus as the Messiah, they just never had the chance to reject Him. They were the first Christians, they were our founding fathers but by 300 AD the church kicked all the Jews out, can you blame them for now rejecting Him? We Gentile Christians have a lot to answer for”. John 1:11 states “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him”. Your article has many errors and contradicts the Bible quite a bit. Let God be true and every man a liar.
Your point is well taken and I should have addressed the Scriptures you mentioned. As you said the Pharisees wanted to put Jesus to death and the Pharisees stoned Stephen. The Pharisees wanted to take a strict interpretation of the law and thus they rejected any teachers which sought to bar capital punishment. But the Pharisees were a minority and did not speak for all the Jews, which is why they saw Jesus as a threat because his teachings resonated better with the masses more than the strict interpretations of the Pharisees. Capital punishment was not outlawed during the time of Jesus, the sages just made the burden of proof and the requirements to sentence someone to death so difficult it was virtually impossible to impose the death sentence.
What prompted my study was the movie the Son of God which did depict the Jews in a much better light than most passion movies. The movie showed how the followers of the high priest selected those who were to enter the court, the ones who cried for crucifixion. The movie also gave a more historical picture of the brutality of Pilate and the fear of the high priest which is often not portrayed.
I don’t mean to say that the Jews did not have their hand in the crucifixion but it was a joint effort between Gentiles and the Jews and the majority of the Jews did not want to see Jesus put to death. If for any reason because they witnessed 25,000 of their own crucified by Pilate and hated this form of punishment. The church has traditionally called the Jews Christ killers without accepting any of the blame themselves. This has softened in modern times, but this view does still exist.
I will admit that my passion to wipe out this “Christ Killer” label against the Jewish people did make me a little careless in my study and I do apologize for not addressing the passages of Scripture that you pointed out.
I will admit that my statement that the Jews did not reject Jesus was pretty bold, what I was hoping to express was that history shows that the treatment of the Jews at the hand of the Gentile church are much to blame for the Jews rejecting Jesus. Like Gandhi said, “It is not Christ I do not like, it is Christians.” I will not move away from my belief that we Gentile Christians do have a lot to answer for.