History Written by the Winners
It has been said: “There are two sides to every story.” In the story I refer to, there is the way it actually happened and there is another story that may have been written in a way so as to change the historical narratives surrounding events. Then there are other writers who take the second story and rewrite it with their own spin to it. Sometimes the differences create contradictions.
There may be no way to know what the realities of history are because original stories are often destroyed or hidden in order to hide some inconvenient truths. The stories you are about to read are an examination of some of the happenings surrounding one of the most fascinating persons who ever lived in an attempt to determine what may have actually been the truth and what was fiction.
The reason for an alternate story is because of the fact that it is very obvious that much of the Truth in the stories in the gospels have been cut out, altered, added to and perhaps even completely rewritten to adhere to the Church’s agendas or pet doctrines. When one applies logic and critical thinking skills to what the writers have made out to be history, it becomes apparent that something isn’t quite right, many things just don’t add up.
This story is about a man widely known as Jesus, who was actually named Yeshuah at birth, or Joshua in English. But according to this writing I will refer to this character as Jesus, since he is well known with this name. Jesus was a man who was said to have been the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament by Christians, and the king of the Jews. According to Christianity, Jesus is believed to be the second person of the godhead trinity — “God the Son”.
The point of this writing is not about his name or about his place in the Trinity or even if the Trinity actually did exist, but this writing is about the story of Jesus’ life and death and maybe try to guess what may have been what actually did happen.
Since about the only resource we have is the New Testament, the best we can do is make some educated guesses with logic, about what actually did happen and what did not. As we know, “history is written by the winners”, and the winners aren’t always the good guys. Sometimes history is written in a way that twists the Truth to make if fit into certain religious agendas.
“history is written by the winners”, and the winners aren’t always the good guys.
Messiah King of the Jews?
According to the Old Testament, Messiah king of the Jews was prophesied to be a great king as was King David of old and deliver the Jews from their oppressors. The following passages show that the people around Jerusalem really believed that Jesus was the fulfillment of these prophecies and promises:
And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant [King] David;
As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:
That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;
To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant…
that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear (Luke 1:69-74)But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel… and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done. (Lk 24:21)
According to the New Testament and Christian theology, Jesus was the Messiah and king of the Jews as prophesied in the Bible. However, from a close examination of the gospels there is no evidence at all that Jesus believed that he was the Messiah or the King of the Jews. No matter what you believe about Jesus, whether he was God from all eternity as Christianity teaches, or whether he was raised and trained to be a king and knowledgeable in what the Messiah had to fulfill, it seems as though Jesus had no intentions of becoming king of the Jews, as many of the Jewish people believed him to be at the time, but he may have believed it was his role to become the promised Messiah. However, he didn’t fulfill most of the main prophecies that Messiah was supposed to fulfill.
Though the people saw Jesus as their “deliverer”, that the Messiah King of the Jews was promised to be, Jesus never did save the Jewish people from their enemies the Romans as the Messiah was prophesied to do in the Old Testament. From what the gospel writers wrote, it appears from the gospels that Jesus never even tried! Or did he in reality try and fail?
The Picture the Gospels Paint
There had always been envy between the Jewish religious leaders and Jesus. They were always trying to catch him in his words in order to get something that they could use against him, from what seems to be an insane jealousy, because of his popularity with the people. They simply wanted him dead!
Jesus didn’t seem to be a bit afraid of the religious leaders. He fearlessly stood up to them and even called them children of the Devil and liars. He often called them extremely offensive names. It seems not a wonder that they wanted to see him dead… at least according to the gospel writers.
In Matthew 26, we see the high priest tearing off his clothes, accusing Jesus of blasphemy; all of the religious leaders agreeing that he should be put to death. However, evidently blasphemy wasn’t a crime worthy of death to the Romans, somewhere along the line the accusation changed to insurrection — which would get them the death sentence that they desired.
Later, we read that Jesus is praying, extremely troubled about what he knows is about to happen to him. Judas Iscariot leads armed guards to where Jesus is, to arrest him. One of Jesus’s disciples drew his sword to protect him, but Jesus told him to put away his sword and that violence wasn’t the way.
According to the gospels, Jesus is mostly one who preaches peace and love of one’s enemies. For example: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” (Mat 5:44) . The gospels paint a picture of Jesus as a peacekeeper, not a king with an army to save his people from their enemies as King David.
Next, we see Jesus being interrogated by Pilate as to the accusations leveled at him by the Jewish religious establishment. Pilate didn’t seem to be very willing to execute Jesus, in fact he found Jesus to be innocent. The only crime Pilate would execute Jesus for would be for insurrection and claiming that he was a king. The Jews were pressing Pilate very hard to get an execution, though he marveled that they wanted to execute their own king. And from the sound of it they knew that if Jesus confessed to their lie that he was a king, they could get the execution of Jesus that they wanted.
Pilate asked Jesus during the interrogation:
“Art thou the King of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?
Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born…” (Jn 18:37)
The very fact that Jesus asked Pilate if someone else told him he was king of the Jews, reveals that Jesus felt that others were trying to convince him that Jesus was a king, when in reality Jesus never really was a king — in the same sense that King David was.
However, he didn’t deny that he was a king. In a way, this is a way of Jesus being able to say “yes and no” yet not confessing to the crime. But even Pilate wasn’t convinced that Jesus was a king, and being as famous as Jesus was, Pilate most likely knew that Jesus wasn’t a king, hence Pilate marveling that Jesus wouldn’t defend himself and deny the crime of being a king which was insurrection — carrying the penalty of death by a cruel execution. This version of the story fits in perfectly with the Christian idea that Jesus voluntarily let them crucify him in order to “take upon himself the sins of the world”.
Jesus Executed between Insurrectionists
What is very curious is that one called Barabbas was also involved in an insurrection for which he was being executed. Was this a slip up of the correctors that let this fact slide by? (A later gospel says that Barabbas was a thief!) And the very fact that the other two being executed with him were involved in an insurrection. It’s funny that the gospels say nothing of an insurrection going on in that area! The only insurrection in Jerusalem could have been between the Jews and the Romans! (However, there were always rebellions by the Jews against the Romans, and according to history many Jewish men were killed and executed during this time)
And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection. (Mk 15:7)
(the key word here is “them”. it doesn’t matter how you interpret this. Even if “him” refers to Barabbas, “them” would be two. Jesus was one of the two!)
So here’s Jesus, a pacifist who preaches to love and pray for your enemies accused of being a king, to which accusation he does not deny. Then Jesus gets executed between two insurrectionists. Apologists would say that Jesus didn’t declare his innocence because he knew he had to die for the sins of the world, so he LET them crucify him. But could there have actually have been an insurrection lead by Jesus himself and the uprising hidden from history — because it failed?
Jesus Must Not Have Believed He was Messiah King of the Jews
If he were the promised Messiah, then he would have been the king of the Jews and he would have raised an army to save the Jewish people from their enemies the Romans. But according to the stories written by the gospel writers in the New Testament, Jesus didn’t seem to consider himself a king, much less act or look like one. The prophesies in the Old Testament were speaking of the Messiah as a literal king who would deliver the Jewish people from their enemies. The Jewish people themselves, who are the people of that very book, understood the promised Messiah to be “a great leader like King David” of old — an actual king with an army!
Next: More Articles 2 | Executed for Insurrection Part 2