The Passion of Jesus Christ (Written by John Van Auken, (ARE)
Mel Gibson's new movie, the Passion of the Christ, released February 25 (2004), is stirring up emotions among Christians, Jews, and humanitarians with no religious affiliation. Many scenes in this R-rated movie are hateful and bloody. The movie conveys that Jesus was killed by the Jews, a belief that has sparked much cruelty against the Jews in the Christian world for the past two thousand years. Mel Gibson claims that his movie reproduces the story as it is told in the Gospels. The violence and hatred are simply the reality of the story, he says. He also made an effort to modify the movie's judgment against the Jews by removing an English-language subtitle that revealed that the Jews in the crowd scene before Pontius Pilate are yelling: "May his blood be on us, and on our children," a line that is only found in Matthew 27:25.
Gibson focused his entire movie on the twelve hours dealing with the persecution and crucifixion. This was a common focus in the Middle Ages, called "Passion Plays," passion in this context meaning "suffering." Violence, hate, and blood are not new themes in Gibson's movies. When asked if he is anti-Semitic, he strongly replied to the contrary, saying that it would be anti-Christian to be anti-Semitic.
Let's review the passion of Jesus Christ. Since Edgar Cayce tuned in to the Universal Consciousness and the Akashic records, where all actions make a lasting impression, let's review what his readings have to say about those times, the people involved, and the suffering of Jesus Christ. Let's also add information gathered from historical records beyond the four Gospels.
At the time of Jesus' birth, greater Judea was ruled by the pro-Roman leader, Herod the Great (73 B.C. to 4 A.D.). None other than Mark Anthony had appointed Herod ruler of the Jewish nation. Mark Anthony had divided the Roman Empire in two, Anthony ruled with his lover, Cleopatra, the Eastern Empire, while Octavian (Augustus) and the Senate ruled the Western Empire. In 31 B.C. Mark Anthony and Cleopatra were defeated by Octavian. In a brilliant speech, Herod boasted of his loyalty to Mark Anthony and promised the same to the new master of the Roman Empire. Octavian was impressed by Herod's audacity, and declared Herod king of the Jewish nation, even adding the coast of Judea and Samaria to his realm. Herod built a new port in honor of the emperor, Caesarea. This magnificent and opulent city, dedicated in 9 B.C., was built in a Greek manner, with a market, an aqueduct, government offices, baths, villas, a circus, and pagan temples. The most important of these was a temple where the emperor himself was the object of worship. This upset many of the Jewish people.
Herod also built an army He had already defeated the Arabs from Petra, Jordan, in 31 B.C. and repeated this in 9 B.C. In 23 B.C., Iturea and the Golan Heights were added to Herod's realms, and in 20 B.C. several other districts. The Romans became increasingly uncomfortable with his independent behavior. The orthodox Jews came to hate him because he brought Roman and Greek influences into their culture. The Sadducees hated him because he ended their influence on the Sanhedrin, a Jewish council. The Pharisees despised him because he ignored Jewish law. And all his subjects resented his excessive taxation. Often, Herod had to resort to violence, employing mercenaries and a secret police, to enforce his will. He even hung a golden eagle on top of the gate of the rebuilt Jewish Temple. This eagle was hated by the people because it was a symbol of Roman power over the Temple. Worse, Emperor Augustus (Octavian' s new name) ordered and paid the priests of the Temple to sacrifice twice a day, on behalf of the Roman Emperor, the senate, and the Roman people!
But two events sealed Herod's fall from power: First, the monastery at Qumran, the home of the Essenes, was deliberately destroyed by fire in 8 B.C. Many felt that Herod was responsible. Thus, when the king fell ill (Cayce's readings indicate that he developed cancer, 2067-2), two popular Jewish teachers, Judas and Matthias, incited their pupils to remove the golden eagle from the gate of the Temple. Second, Jewish scholars at that time announced that they had discovered that 76 generations had passed since the Creation, and there was a well-known prophecy (from the Book of Daniel) that the Messiah was to deliver Israel from its oppressors in the 77th generation! Thus messianic hopes and dreams s read throughout the nation.
Most who believed in the Messiah, including Judas Iscariot, considered the oppressor of the Jews to be Rome's control over their lives. Few believers understood the oppressor to be the possession of the people's spirits and souls by their own egoism and physicality. The oppressor the Messiah was coming to overthrow was within the people's hearts and minds. Cayce's readings explain this: "Can the mind of man comprehend no desire to sin, no purpose but that the glory of the Son may be manifested in one's life? Is this not a new heaven, a new earth? For the former things would have passed away. For as the desires, the purposes, the aims are to bring about the whole change physically, so does it create in the experience of each soul a new vision, anew comprehension." (281-37)
But let's return to our story. For removing the ease from the gate to the Temple, Herod the Great had the two teachers and their pupils burned alive. And when the Magi informed Herod that the stars indicated that the Messiah, the King of the Jews, had been bom in Judea, he had all male babies under two years of age brutally torn from their mothers and killed. Herod the Great died in 4 A.D.
Herod's succession led to factional strife in his family. Shortly before his death, Herod decided against his sons Aristobulus and Antipater and had them executed in 7 and 4 B.C., causing the emperor Augustus (emperor from 32 B.C. to 14 A.D.) to joke that it was preferable to be Herod's pig (hus) than his son (huios). Ultimately, the emperor himself divided greater Judea among Herod's remaining sons. Herod Antipas (the beheader of John the Baptist) was to rule Galilee and the east bank of the Jordan as a tetrarch (regional ruler); Philip was to be tetrarch of the Golan Heights in the northeast; and Archelaus became the ethnarch (national ruler) of Samaria and Judea. But in 6 A.D., Archelaus was replaced by Roman governors. In 26 A.D., Pontius Pilate became governor, and ruled to 36, covering the entire ministry of both John the Baptist and Jesus Christ.. In addition to the ordinary duty of financial administration (mostly tax collection), Pilate was given supreme judicial power to oversee all trials. The official residence of the governor was the palace in Caesarea, where there was a military force of about 3,000 soldiers. These soldiers came down to Jerusalem during feasts, when the city was full of strangers, to provide more security; hence it was that Pilate had come to Jerusalem at the time of the capture of Jesus. It was the feast of Passover.
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