-Caveat Lector-
Bill Kingsbury wrote:
>
> -Caveat Lector-
>
> http://www.best.com/~dolphin/yeshua.html
>
> IT'S TIME FOR ISRAELIS TO LEARN JESUS WAS JEWISH
>
> [Excerpts from HA'ARETZ newspaper, Thursday, 23 December 1999]
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Israeli pupils hear about Jesus only once during 12 years of
> schooling, so they know nothing about Christianity, and don't have
> a key to understanding the history and culture of the western
> world. The education system prefers ignorance to being suspected of
> missionary activity.
>
> Ninth-graders at a high school in Bat Yam were asked last Friday, a
> week before Christmas, what they knew about Jesus. According to the
> high school history teacher who dared ask the question, most knew
> nothing - not even the most basic details: when he was born, where
> he lived and preached, when he died and how.
Not too unusual when you think about it. What do Americans know about the
Indians' gods.
> They did not know that he was a believing Jew,
One reason for that is that all knowledge of Jesus comes From Christian
sources and the logical conclusion would be that he was a Christian. This
of course is not at all true. He was NEVER a Christian and ALWAYS a Jew.
Very few people, especially Christians who worship him, know that he was
a practicing Jew. Up until recently, many Christians didn't know he was a
Jew at all. And there are still some who continue to deny it.
> who was born,
> according to historians in the year 4 BCE (and not in the year 0),
> in Bethlehem,
This is incorrect. No one knows when J was born, and it is unlikely that
he was born in Bethlehem. The gospel writers simply invented his background
to match the prophecies of the OT. They did a pretty poor job of it, and not
only contradict the OT and historical evidence, but also contradict each other.
> and that his mother's name was Miriam, that is, the
> Virgin Mary.
>
> Some thought that Mary Magdalene, the prostitute, was the mother of
> Jesus. They did not know of the decision by the Sanhedrin to turn
> him in on the grounds that he pretended to be "the king of the
> Jews,"
This is also incorrect. It is not a religious crime to claim to be King of
the Jews. This is a phony story.
> or of his trial before the Roman governor, Pilate. As for
> the Sermon on the Mount, the values he preached, the dispute
> between him and the Pharisees and the Sadducees over the
> interpretation of the law and the concept of the Messiah,
This is wrong too. There were serious differences between the three sects
mentioned here. But it was ok to have these differences as long as you remained
within the confines of Judaism. All three sects did that. The Pharisees were
at odds with the Temple Elites who were in cahoots with the Romans. The NT is
misleading about who opposed Jesus. Jesus was a threat to Rome and their
elite flunkies the Sadducees. The reason the gospel writers did this was to
blame their ( the gospel writers' ) enemies the Pharisees who kicked the
Gentile Christians out of the Synagogues when they became Pagan idol
worshipers.
> and the
> connection between Jesus and the Essene sect - the students knew
> nothing.
And neither does this reporter. There is no strong evidence that J was an
Essene. As a matter of fact (?), his parables and teaching and healing style
was pure Pharisee.
> History lecturers believe that this ignorance is not a negligible
> matter. Israeli students who do not know anything at all about the
> figure of Jesus are unable to understand the faith of the
> approximately two billion Christians in the world and they have no
> key to the understanding of the history, music, painting, sculpture
> and architecture of the western world. Moreover, they lack basic
> knowledge of the history of Judaism and society in the land of
> Israel 2000 years ago.
This is ridiculous. Israelis learn history just like everyone else in an
advanced country. They know quite well what the relationship has been
historically between Jews and Christians. They simply don't think that
Christian mythology is important to them. Furthermore, the time of Jesus
is one of the most important periods in all of Judaism's long history. The
Roman destruction of the Second Temple and the expulsion of the Jews is as
well known to Israelis as the Revolutionary war is to Americans.
snip>
> In the government-religious system, students learn even less: in
> the seventh grade textbook "From generation to generation" there is
> a brief and laconic treatment of Jesus in the chapter "Sects in
> Judaism." Sarah Weider, the supervisor of history instruction in
> the government-religious educational system, notes that religious
> teachers teach about Jesus with great reservations - for example,
> they do not mention his name explicitly. The reason: "Because it is
> impossible to ignore what Christianity did to the Jews, and
> attribute to the man what was done in his footsteps, even if he was
> not to blame."
Good point.
> According to history teachers, even on class outings from
> government schools to Jerusalem and the Galilee, Christian holy
> sites are totally ignored. Weider says about religious school
> trips, "They don't go into Catholic churches, because there is a
> halacha that prohibits this, but they do look at them from the
> outside."
How many of you Christians have been inside an active Synagogue or Mosque?
> History lecturers at the universities in Israel say that high
> school graduates arrive at university "totally ignorant" about
> everything concerning Jesus and Christianity. "They know nothing at
> all," says Dr. Aviad Kleinberg of Tel Aviv University, the author
> of the book "Christianity from its Beginnings to the Reformation,"
> a ministry of defense publication for the University of the
> Airwaves.
>
> "I encounter a great deal of rejection, hostility and ignorance
> with respect to Jesus and Christianity in general. They live two
> meters away from places that many Christians in the world only
> dream of visiting, and they know nothing about them."
>
> According to Kleinberg, this is the result of "neglect and
> conservatism in the educational system, which must be changed. The
> Israeli educational system must be less concentrated within itself
> and more open to the study of the other. It would not hurt children
> if they read a chapter from the New Testament and the Koran. This
> is not only important morally, but also for their Jewish identity:
> they should know what is similar and what is different.
This is Liberal bullshit. What do you Christians know about other religions?
Not much. What do Muslims know about Buddhism? Not much.
> It is
> important for Israeli students to know something about Jesus, and
> that they should read at least something about the Sermon on the
> Mount."
>
> In his classic text, "The Jewish Sources of Christianity,"
> Professor David Flusser wrote a great deal about the importance of
> the Sermon on the Mount to the understanding of the Jewish
> traditions of Jesus's time.
>
> "In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus interprets the words of the
> Torah with moral strictness," he wrote. For example, Jesus preached
> (in Hebrew and Aramaic): "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for
> theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn: for
> they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall
> inherit the earth- Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be
> called the children of God" (Matthew 5:3-5,9).
This is purely Pharisaic.
snip>
>
> Jesus also expressed a view contrary to the Judaism and established
> Christianity of our day, that views success and wealth as evidence
> that an individual has observed the commandments, and failure or
> poverty as punishment for sins.
This attitude is Christian, Protestant in particular, not Catholic. If
Jews have this attitude, they learned it from their neighbors. All groups
admire the wealthy, but Protestantism blamed the poor. Old John D. Rocker-
feller said " God gave me my money."
> According to Jesus, it is precisely the rich who need to examine
> themselves: "For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's
> eye, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven" (Luke
> 18:25).
snip>
Again, pure Pharisaism. The Wealthy Elites were the Sadducees.
Aint it the Gospel truth. So how come Capitalism developed in the West's
Christian culture, and why are Jews such good Capitalists?
> Israeli students who study this could perhaps perceive the beliefs
> that prevail today and lie at the basis of western capitalism in a
> more critical light.
>
> Professor Michael Harsegor, who has discussed Jesus in recent weeks
> on his program "History Hour" on army radio, says: "Jesus was the
> most famous Jew in the world, and students must know why he was
> famous and why he was a Jew."
Once again, even though this statement is true, J is perceived by all to
be a Christian.
> Harsegor says that students should know that "the greatest
> invention of Paul, the man who spread Christianity, was to give up
> two things in the Jewish tradition that frightened the gentiles of
> the time: the dietary restrictions of kashrut, and circumcision.
>
> Yet, adds Harsegor, "Jesus said several times that nothing in the
> Law (Torah) must be changed," snip>
Paul is the inventor of what became Christianity. The man Jeshua, the
historical Jesus, had nothing to do with it. The Jesus that is worshipped
is a mythology based on Jeshua.
snip>
> He says that students in Israel should also learn the parable of
> the good Samaritan: a Cohen and a Levite pass by a man who lay
> dying by the side of the road after thieves attacked him, and they
> do not come to his aid.
>
> "But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and
> when he saw him he had compassion on him, and went to him, and
> bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his
> own breast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him"
> (Luke 10:33-34).
>
> The lesson is clear, says Harsegor: "It is wrong to cling to the
> Torah, like Cohen and the Levite, and do nothing more. You have to
> be humane, like the Samaritan, who is not a religious Jew."
Three points here:
1) Cohens ( Temple Priests ) and Levis ( Temple Attendants ) are Sadducees.
2) It is the Pharisees who liberalized Torah law and made it MORE humane.
3) This story is a fabrication designed to appeal to gentiles ( Samaritans ),
and vilify the Jewish religion.
> Professor Guy G. Stroumza, chairman of the Center for Study of
> Christianity at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, says that
> "Jesus was a good Jew. There were a few things that the rabbinical
> establishment at the time didn't like, but he wasn't an especially
> great revolutionary either.
He means that J was not a revolutionary against Judaism as is depicted in the
NT. He WAS a great revolutionary against Rome. For this he was crucified.
There were only two scenarios that warranted crucifixion under the Romans.
Political insurrection, and runaway slaves.
Jews considered crucifixion an abomination like human sacrifice.
> "However, he was a uniquely interesting and important figure in
> western culture, a key figure in the land of Israel in the 1st
> century, at a time of political ferment. Students in Israel have a
> huge gap in their education. Altogether, the interest in religions
> is a new thing in the Israeli academy, perhaps because Zionism
> arose as an anti-religious movement. There is no doubt that it is
> necessary to study the New Testament.
Not really. It's much more important for Israelis to study the Koran.
> Dr. Ninmrod Aloni, who teaches an advanced seminar on humanist
> education at Seminar Hakibbutzim, says that he tries to teach Jesus
> as an example of the way, "the figure of a wonderful individual,
> the main point of whose teaching was love and charity and pity and
> solidarity and all the beautiful things, was exploited by the
> religious establishment - the Christian church, the Crusades and
> the Inquisition, which up until the 17th century burned people in
> his name.
>
> "I talk about the Jesus I know mainly from three sources - the New
> Testament, A.A. Kabak's 'In the Strait Path' and 'Gospel According
> to Jesus Christ' by Jose Saramago - in order to explain to people
> how religion can be opium for the masses, how it can make people
> forget its origins and encourage its exact opposite."
snip>
> "Ignoring Jesus is part of the tendency to concentrate only on
> ourselves, as if we had sprung up outside a universal context. In
> the case of Jesus, this is especially absurd, because Jesus is
> linked to our development.
This is also incorrect. Jesus is not linked to our ( Jewish ) development.
I have been trying to find Jeshua for years. He simply does not exist in
Jewish history. This is the most mind boggling mystery to me. All references
to " Jesus " in Jewish history are a reaction to the Christian Jesus of
Christian mythology, Jeshua is nowhere to be found. This may change as more
archaeologists of different religions focus on that place and period in
history.
> I hope that things will change, and that
> the system will realize that history is not just a collection of
> facts, but is about substantial issues that shape our world. The
> connection between Judaism and Christianity is definitely one of
> the issues that shapes our world."
>
> This year, says Weider, "out of sensitivity to the year 2000, we
> held a continuing education program this summer for teachers, and
> the relation between Judaism and Christianity was one of the
> subjects. We realized that this year educators have to be sensitive
> to this issue."
>
> Dr. Nili Keren of Seminar Hakibbutzim says that students from the
> college are going on field trips this year to the Judean desert,
> around the Dead Sea, in the footsteps of John the Baptist. But
> Michael Yaron, the education ministry's chief supervisor for the
> teaching of history says that nothing will change: there is no
> possibility for expanding and going more deeply into the study of
> Jesus in Israeli schools, because in any case there are not enough
> study hours," and, he adds, "considering the number of hours we do
> have to teach our students, I would not eliminate other subjects in
> order to add this subject.
>
> posted December 28, 1999.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh well... maybe next Millennium.
Joshua2
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
