Project J (28 page)

Chapter 48:
 
The Gospel Truth

During the trip back, Tamara took some time to talk with Myers about things that were bothering her.

“When we talked with Jesus about the period from the arrest to his death, there were some things that just didn’t seem right to me,” she told him.

“Like?”

“Well, the Bible states that Jesus was taken before the Sanhedrin and tried by them.
 
But Jesus told of no trial, only Caiaphas yelling at him and then ordering him taken to Pilate.
 
Was it really a trial in the night?”

Myers smiled before saying, “That’s one point I have always wondered about.
 
There are too many inaccuracies in that story for it to be real.
 
The Gospels say that he was taken before the high priest and the Sanhedrin.
 
Then witnesses were produced to testify that he had made threats against the Temple.
 
Jesus says nothing to those claims.
 
Pretty hard to deny when you had already gone in and made a big commotion with the moneychangers and such.
 
Then Caiaphas demands, ‘Are you the messiah?’
 
His answer varies, depending on which Gospel you are reading, but all agree he does say that he is the ‘Son of Man,’ which is the same thing.
 
And that was exactly what Jesus believed.
 
Of course, Jesus wanted them to believe his claim so that they would do as he desired – namely, fulfill the prophecies.

“He is immediately charged with Blasphemy and ordered to be turned over to the Romans to be put to death.

“Now here is where a lot of problems occur.
 
First off, Jewish law regarding a legal proceeding is adamant about certain points.
 
The Sanhedrin is not allowed to meet at night.
 
Nor during Passover.
 
And a formal trail before them must begin with a list of why the accused is innocent.
 
Only then can witnesses be called.

“To me, this means that whoever wrote the Gospels did not know Jewish law very well.

“Then we have the fact of his crime.
 
If Jesus was guilty of blasphemy, then the penalty under Jewish law can only be one thing: stoning.
 
Leviticus 24:16:
‘And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him...’

“This is shown by the incident with Stephen a few years later.
 
This Christian convert makes the mistake of calling Jesus ‘the Son of Man’.
 
Let me find it.
 
May I have that Bible you carry in your purse, Juliette?”

Since she had been following the conversation, it was not an unusual request.
 
She handed a small, leather-bound Bible over.
 
“Research material,” she told Tamara as she did.

Myers turned to Acts 7:55 and read, “
But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.
 
And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.

“Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and they stoned Stephen, he calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

He closed the Bible and handed it back.

“So you see, Jesus should have been stoned, if his crime was really Blasphemy.”

Tamara thought about that for a bit, then asked, “And what about the trial before Pilate?
 
Jesus’ account of it is certainly different from the Gospels.”

Myers sighed.
 
“What you first have to realize is that the Gospels are not historical reporting.
 
They were not written by people who lived in those times, but later.
 
When Jesus was alive, the only thing he cared about was the coming Kingdom of God.
 
At the end, he came to believe that he was the Messiah, the Chosen One, who would fulfill the prophecies and make the kingdom happen.
 
And that he thought of it as an overthrowing of the Roman rule, as well as straightening out the priests and the Temple.
 
You’ve heard Jesus tell us that it was likely that, with God’s help, the Jews would defeat the Romans and cast them out of their land.
 
In that respect, Jesus was very much like many of the Jewish leaders of his time, a revolutionary at heart, a zealot even.
 
That part of Jewish history is filled with armed rebellions against Rome, both before and after Jesus’ time.

“Okay, got that picture?
 
Good.
 
Now comes his death.
 
Then what?
 
No Kingdom of God in sight.
 
Just continued Roman rule and hard times.
 
The only difference is that there is this little core of Jews who believe in Jesus’ teachings and in him as the Messiah.
 
They were his disciples originally, plus converts among the Jews, both the homegrown ones and those who visited Jerusalem for the holy days but lived in other parts of the world.
 
Those people believed that he had risen from the dead and was therefore the long-awaited Messiah.
 
Originally they were waiting for the Kingdom to follow any day.
 
But as time passed, and no Kingdom showed up, their beliefs changed.
 
Saul, aka Paul, had a lot to do with that.
 
He turned Jesus’ sacrifice from a fulfillment of the prophecies that God’s Kingdom might come, to a sacrifice for the sins of all people that they might be forgiven.
 
Paul changed Jesus’ early believers immensely.

“I’m getting to my point.
 
Now we have the revolt against Rome and the crushing defeat of the Jewish people.
 
That was in 66-73 CE.
 
There were anti-taxation protests and attacks upon Roman citizens.
 
The Romans responded by plundering the Temple and executing about 6,000 Jews.
 
A full scale revolt followed.
 
Shortly thereafter, Cestius Gallus, the Legate of Syria, brought down an army to restore order.
 
The Jewish rebels defeated them at the Battle of Beth Horon and slew 6,000 Romans.
 
That really shocked the Roman leadership and they came down hard.
 
Well, the short of it is that the Jews were crushed, Jerusalem burned to the ground, and many killed.
 
Tacitus, a historian of the time, said that no fewer than six hundred thousand men and women of every age were killed.
 
Josephus puts the number at one million.
 
But he often exaggerates.

“This left a nasty taste in the Roman’s minds concerning the Jews.
 
It was not good to be a Jew at that time.
 
Those who had formed a church believing in Jesus were stuck in a hard position.
 
They did not want to be included along with the Jews who had made war with Rome, so what to do?
 
At this point, and again thanks in a great part to Paul, the early Christ was transformed from a rebel to a peaceful preacher concerned only with man’s sins and redemption.

“At this point the Gospels were written.
 
Mark was the first, written about the time of the Great Revolt, probably in Syria.
 
The target audience was the early Christian community.
 
Most scholars believe that the original text of the gospel ends at Mark 16:8 with the discovery of Jesus’ empty tomb and that the account of his resurrection appearances is a later addition.

“Now here’s the important part.
 
The writer of Mark did not want to antagonize the Romans.
 
So hints of Jesus’ revolutionary zeal had to go, and the Romans absolved of responsibility for his death.
 
If not the Romans, then it had to be the hated Jews who killed him.
 
Caiaphas dupes Pilate into carrying out a tragic miscarriage of justice.
 
Pilate tries to save Jesus.
 
Or so says Mark.

“Now we go to Matthew, written around 90 CE.
 
In that, Pilate is warned by his wife to have nothing to do with ‘this innocent man.’
 
Pilate washes his hands of blame.
 
The Jews respond, according to the writer of this Gospel, with
‘may his blood be on our heads, and on our children.’
 
Matthew 17:1.

“Next we come to Luke, written about the same time, probably in Antioch.
 
In this one, Luke extends amnesty not only to the Romans, but to Herod Aptipas as well.
 
Luke
23:14 ‘
...Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that perverteth the people: and, behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him:
23:15
No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him.’

“Now we come to John, the last to be written, probably around 100 CE.
 
In this one, Pilate does all he can to save Jesus, not because he is guiltless but because he seems to believe that Jesus maybe, in fact, the ‘Son of God.’
 
Nevertheless, Pilate is forced to condemn Jesus by an unruly mob.
 
As if Pilate would really care what the Jewish people think.
 
His disdain for Jews was well known.
 
John puts words in Jesus’ mouth:
‘the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.’
 
Then he insults the whole Jewish nation when he has the crowd chanting,
‘We have no king but Caesar!’

“See a pattern here?
 
Those who wrote the Gospels had only one purpose: to prove Jesus was put to death by the Jews, not the Romans.
 
The farther away from the actual events you get, the stronger that purpose is stated.
 
Factual accuracy was of little importance.

“Now we get back to your original question.
 
You asked why our Jesus’ story is not the same.
 
He says that Caiaphas and a few others condemned him in the middle of the night.
 
Then Pilate makes him wait until morning.
 
When he does see him, all he cares about is the claim that Jesus has kingly pretensions and therefore guilty of sedition against Rome.

“It is the Gospel authors, and those who later added theological enhancements and outright fabrications, who draw a picture of an innocent Pilate and nasty old Jewish priests.

“I believe Jesus,” he concluded.

Tamara did not know what to say.
 
She had studied the Bible and history, but never had the Gospels explained to her that way.
 
Yet it made sense.

“And that’s the long-winded explanation you get when you ask an old college professor a simple question.”

Chapter 49:
 
Spooky!

“There’s something else I want to show you,” Stryker told Stockman as they walked out of the building.
 
Behind them the T-Rex was roaring for his lunch.
 
“Come on to my office.
 
There’s someone I want you to meet.”

Going into his office, he told the sexy blonde secretary, “Have Adrian come on in, please.”

Stockman was recovering from the shock of coming face to face with a drooling T-Rex.
 
Just as he was about to resume his normal blustering facade, Stryker told him to sit down and wait, in a voice that said he was no longer afraid of the Congressman.

A minute later another man came in, a non-descript man of medium height, mid-fifties, business suited, and looking like a successful lawyer.
 
Stockman gave him a harsh look.

“Allow me to introduce Mr. Adrian Connors, the Deputy Director of the CIA.
 
Adrian, I believe you have something to say to Congressman Stockman?”

There followed a very brief, very one-sided conversation.
 
Condensed version: “It is in the best interests of our national security that Project Dry Wells remain classified.
 
If this is not done, we at the CIA will be very unhappy.
 
Likewise will the FBI, NSA, Naval Intelligence, and a few others who utilize the facility here for purposes of our own.”

“I...” Stockman began but was cut off.

“And when we are unhappy, others tend to be more unhappy.
 
For example, were you to say one word about this project to anyone – repeat anyone – it may be necessary for us to release to the press certain documents concerning insider trading of Stanee Oil stocks.
 
And some very interesting photos we have of you with a certain under-aged summer intern.”

Stockman turned as pale as a ghost.

“Understand me?”

“I understand,” he stammered out.

“Good.
 
The information we are gaining via this project is far more important than any single man.
 
And if any man endangers that relationship between our agencies and Chronodyne, he will be removed.”

Stockman did not want to ask if “removed” meant kicked out of his nice, plush job in Congress, or something worse.
 
One never knows with the spooks.

Adrian nodded to Stryker, who was grinning, and left.

“I believe you have a plane to catch back to Washington, Congressman Stockman?”

With only a quick nod as a goodbye, Stockman turned and walked out, giving his aide a nasty look as he did.
 
In the outer office, Adrian was talking with the Security Director Manhusen about something.

Back in his office, Stryker was telling Crane, “I don’t think we’ll get any more problems with Stockman.”

“Good riddance,” Crane agreed.

“And I’m certainly glad that our hastily erected cell held back the T-Rex.
 
I wasn’t certain those bars were strong enough.”

“So am I.
 
Did you know he bites?”