Trial and Crucifixion

We will look finally at the trial before the high priests and the crucifixion itself. In these famous parts of the Jesus narrative, we find an expression of the dynamic associations coming together and the tension they breed, Mark 14:60-64: 

The high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, saying, “You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against you?” But he kept silent and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, saying to him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed?” Jesus said, “I am. 

And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “What further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy! What do you think?” And they all condemned him to be deserving of death.

Jesus is accused by false witnesses of different things and he is silent before the High Priest as the judge. Then Jesus is asked if he is the Messiah the Son of G-d.

This is interesting. It could mean that there was a common understanding that there is a Messiah to come who is also the Son of G-d. It could also mean that there was an idea of Messiah and an idea of Son of G-d, but not as one and the same, so the question would essentially be: Are you both and? 

But then Jesus says yes, and speaks of himself in the third person, that he is the Son of Man, he will sit at the right hand of G-d, coming on the clouds, which is that direct reference to the apocalyptic Son of Man of Daniel 7.

This is considered total blasphemy. Why exactly? Because Jesus is claiming to be that figure? Or the belief that there is such a figure at G-d’s right hand, a second or quasi-divine being? Maybe both.

If Jesus was accused of being the Messiah, it wouldn’t be blasphemous I think, just preposterous or something. When he is transferred to Pilate to be sentenced, Jesus is asked if he is the King of the Jews, a clearer reference just to Messiah the Son of David. Jesus answers yes. Though it is written he was asked of more accusations, and Jesus said nothing. 

From then on begins the crucifixion procession by the Romans, and Jesus is treated like a mock king. They taunt him, put a crown of thorns on his head, clothe him in purple… Finally it is written above his head “King of the Jews”. 

The priests and such also taunt him for being some sort of Messiah King to be believed in, who cannot even save himself. Some people think Jesus is crying out to Elijah to help him. Jesus cries out “My G-d, why have you forsaken me?” When he dies, it says the Temple curtain was torn and the Centurion there says - “He truly was the Son of G-d.” (Not King, Son of Man, etc.)

[FYI - critical scholars are skeptical of the historical value of most things in the New Testament, but there is significant agreement that there was a man Jesus, he existed, and that he was crucified, and that there was a sign there that he is king of the Jews - this is because it is not some supernatural incident, and because the different Gospel accounts agree on this.]

The Rest is History

In summary, not everything is clear. There are more questions now than before. We still do not know exactly when and how messianism developed.

I think, as I have shown through Mark, that the Gospel narratives of Jesus in the New Testament writings are evidence of a pivotal point in this religious historical process. There are no acute expressions or organizations of messianism before nor after the Jesus movement of Early Christianity. 

I have posited to read Jesus of Nazareth as a charismatic preacher and mystical miracle worker who gathered a following and then proceeded to Jerusalem where he clashed with the religious leaders and institution of the Temple and the politics of it all and was crucified. 

During this career, people associated him with popular figures in their minds, such as Elijah and the Prophets and John the Baptist, as well as Messiah Son of David and the Son of Man and more, and this was when they converged enough that the religious movement that followed branded Jesus as Messiah, which meant at once the apocalyptic Son of Man redeemer as well as Davidic king. 

As this prototypical messianic career culminated, Jesus’ own self-consciousness absorbed and processed these associations, and also contemplated his own death and all the spiritual meaning there could be through death and dying.

The process actually continued after Jesus, as seen in other New Testament writings, that theologize his death extensively, and associate more and more concepts all to him - for example the Logos in the first chapter of the Gospel of John, the ultimate High Priest in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

We can also see evidence in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews that there were messianic adherents of sorts who viewed Jesus as the Great Angel, while others, the writer/s of the Epistle included, viewing Jesus as definitely not an angel but a divine category.

In the next stage of this series, we will look at messianism that follows Early Christianity, in lieu of Early Christianity, in the rabbinic literature.

It seems to me that in the first couple of centuries AD there was not much messianism to follow, and only a few centuries later, then rabbinic literature extensively dealt with the idea, and was influenced by debate between Judaism and Christianity, and thus naturally shared many of the base ideas of Early Christian messianism into the mainstream of traditional Judaism. (Of course Early Christianity drew from ancient Judaism so it is somewhat a question of what came first, the chicken or the egg…)

A final comment - after the final comment… What I will find interesting later, after the general review of messianism over Jewish history, is how in hindsight, there was great insight, in the spirituality and self-consciousness of Jesus of Nazareth, through the idea of Sonship.

The Kabbalistic and Hasidic sages incorporate sonship into their system of spiritual thinking and being. This is also relevant today in my humble opinion, for existential postmodern spirituality.