Recent discovery from the Judean desert

All other informal historical discussion, ancient or modern, falls here. This includes the topics of Islam, Buddhism, and other religious traditions.
Post Reply
User avatar
DCHindley
Posts: 3401
Joined: Mon Oct 07, 2013 9:53 am
Location: Ohio, USA

Recent discovery from the Judean desert

Post by DCHindley »

With all the discussion over "time shifts" and the possible basis of much of what is said of the history of Jesus in the Gospels in the Judean War of 66-70+ CE, I'll present this exercise to help "explain" what Hegesippus might have come across in his travels that he used to craft his, let's face it, highly imaginative, story about the trial and death of Jacob the Just:
Official transcript of the summary statement and confession of the accused, Jacob son of Sosas, the commander of the Idumean contingent, who had feigned support for Simon, who heads the Judean State, and sought to betray that trust by offering to force the capitulation of the Judean State to the Romans, for selfish concessions. To be posted in public throughout the capital city.

"I shall now speak of myself, of the reasons for my repentance. Of course, it must be admitted that incriminating evidence plays a very important part: For three months I refused to say anything. Then I began to testify. Why? Because while in prison I made a revaluation of my entire past. For when you ask yourself: 'lf you must die, what are you dying for?' An absolutely black vacuity suddenly rises before you with startling vividness. There was nothing to die for, if one wanted to die unrepentant. On the contrary, everything positive that glistens in the Judean State acquires new dimensions in a man's mind. This in the end disarmed me completely and led me to bend my knees before the ruling Party and the country.

And when you ask yourself: 'Very well, suppose you do not die; suppose by some miracle you remain alive, again what for? Isolated from everybody, an enemy of the people, in an inhuman position, completely isolated from everything that constitutes the essence of life...' And at once the sane reply arises. And at such moments, Citizens Judges, all the personal incrustation, all the rancor, pride, and a number of other things, fall away, and disappear. And, in addition, when the reverberations of the broad international struggle reach your ear, all this in its entirety does its work, and the result is the complete internal moral victory of the Judean State, over its kneeling opponents.

I happened by chance to get the book of Parables, sent about the nation by Simon before he assumed the supreme command, from the prison library. There it refers to the breaking of the teeth of the rulers and powerful and of their elect, by a mere Son of Man. It produced a profound impression on me. World history is a world court of judgement: A number of groups of revolutionary leaders went bankrupt when they sought surrender on terms with the Romans, and have been cast into the pit. For in reality the whole country stands behind Simon, as 'the' Son of Man; he is the hope of the world; he is a creator of a new world order, ordained eons ago by the Lord of Spirits.

I am about to finish. I am perhaps speaking for the last time in my life.

I am explaining how I came to realize the necessity of capitulating to the investigating authorities and to you, Citizen Judges. We came out against the joy of the new life with the most criminal methods of struggle. I refute the accusation of having plotted against the life of the Son of Man, but my counter-revolutionary confederates, and I at their head, endeavored to murder the cause of the Lord of Spirits, which is being carried on with such tremendous success by Simon.

The logic of this struggle with the divine plan of the Lord of Spirits led us conspirators step by step into the blackest quagmire. And it has once more been proved that departure from the position of the agenda of the Lord of Spirits means siding with political counter-revolutionary banditry of the so-called 'Zealots' headed by John of Gischala. This counter-revolutionary banditry of his faction of 'Zealots' has now been smashed, and we must now repent of our frightful crimes.

The point, of course, is not this repentance or my personal repentance in particular. The Court can pass its verdict without it. The confession of the accused is not essential. But here we also have the internal demolition of the forces of counter-revolution. And one must be a John of Gischala not to lay down-one's arms raised against the revolution.

I feel it my duty to say here that in the parallelogram of forces which went to make up the counter-revolutionary tactics, John of Gischala and the faction of the Zealots that he commanded, was the principal motive force. And the most acute methods - terrorism, espionage, the dismemberment of the Judean State, and sabotage - proceeded primarily from this source.

I might have inferred that John of Gischala and my other allies in crime, will endeavor to defend us, especially and particularly myself. I reject this defense, because I am kneeling before the Judean State, before the ruling Party, before the whole people. The monstrousness of my crimes is immeasurable especially in this new stage of the struggle of the Judean State. May this trial be the last severe lesson, and may the great might of the Judean State become clear to all.

Let it be clear to all that the People's Prosecutor was quite right when he mocked me, asking "Tell me, sir, what was the significance of the speech of the Chief Priest Jesus upon the city wall, when the gates had been shut to you?" It was my own anger and pride which caused me to reject his repudiation of the motives of my fellow Idumeans, and when we had him and the High priest Ananus in our hands, to cut their throats and cast them away unburied!

Now I realize that he was right about us all along. I now fully acknowledge before the Citizen Judges that you will all see Simon, the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven, to effect the destruction of the powerful and the rich and their elect, and install the just kingdom of the Lord of Spirits, just as the Lord of Spirits had decreed ages ago, but which I and my conspirators were unable to fathom, because of our wicked hearts.

It is in the consciousness of this that I await the verdict. What matters is not the personal feelings of a repentant enemy, but the flourishing progress of the establishment of this foundation of the eternal kingdom of the Lord of Spirits, and its importance for all nations of the inhabited earth."

At this point, the court declared Jacob son of Sosas guilty of death, and he was immediately thrown alive from the wall of the temple, as he had done to the dead bodies of Ananus and Jesus, then dispatched by club when he survived the fall.

[Signed]
Judas, of Peraea
Army Military Jurist
President of the Military Collegium of
the Supreme Court of the Judean State.
I return you now to the endless wrangling over nothing, commonly found on this board.

Before someone objects that it is "highly speculative", despite the fact that almost everything that we think we know about the early Christian movement is highly speculative, I based this piece of fiction on the transcript of an actual show-trial of Bukharin in Stalin's Great Purge of the late 1930s, so such things do in fact happen. https://www.marxists.org/archive/bukhar ... rial/3.htm

DCH

Edit 12/19/17 to add the link to the trial "confession" of Bukharin
Post Reply