THE PASSOVER PLOT
The Passover Plot by Hugh Schonfield sold over three million copies. What I
don’t like in this book, is how it is an interpretation of what might have
happened to Jesus that occasionally rests on the gospel evidence and then on
conjecture. If you wish to get rid of Christianity, it is better to just treat
the gospels as if they are telling the truth and base a heretical interpretation
on this basis alone. That would show that the gospels are not evidence for any
supernatural event surrounding Christ. If they fail to verify the resurrection
and they do fail dismally, then their other supernatural claims are dubious for
they are lesser claims and the resurrection was what Jesus is supposed to be all
about.
The book says that Jesus was completely sincere for there is no indication of
duplicity in him (48). That is disproved by the answer he gave to the Jews who
surmised that he was casting out devils by Satan for a mysterious purpose – he
replied that Satan would not do that. Of course he would. Besides, possessing
people doesn't do Satan much good. He would be better expending his energy
putting bad suggestions into people's heads.
No evidence is granted for the assumption that Jesus was not born of a virgin
(58) even though Schonfield said he would make it clear when he was into
speculation (16).
He says that the more hostile Jews would not have sought for Jesus to be
executed but for him to be locked up like the Baptist had been (98). Then, why
did they not do so especially if the assertion that only a few took Jesus
seriously though many liked to listen to him (98) is true? And why didn’t they
do this at the start of his ministry? The gospels say that things had turned
sour between Jesus and the Jewish leaders at the start.
He takes it for granted that the story in John of Christ raising Lazarus from
the dead was imagined because of the parable in Luke of the rich man and Lazarus
which he assumes to be a memory of Lazarus seeming to come back to life (132).
First, the two names being the same is not evidence for this and second, Luke
never said that Jesus raised a Lazarus. That is too much.
He says the council had to be careful with how it treated Jesus in case they
would cause an uprising (141). They would have dealt with him secretly if they
had. And if Pilate thought that their bringing Jesus to him was a trap meant for
him like the book surmises (141) he would not have tried Jesus nor would they
have brought Jesus to Pilate for they would never have gotten away with a scam
like that.
Would the man who allegedly drugged Jesus really have allowed himself to have
been spotted at the tomb? (page 200).
The good points of the book are these.
Schonfield admits that the destruction of Jerusalem and the Holy Land that took
place when the Jews revolted against Rome in 66 AD saw to it that documentation
and memory could not be used anymore to support the Jesus story (15). It is good
that he says that the Jews believing that the time predicted by the prophet
Daniel for the coming of the Messiah had caused tremendous messianic excitement
in the time of Christ (26). This would have affected their critical faculties.
They desperately wanted deliverance from the cruel Romans who once crucified two
thousand at Jerusalem (36). They could have fell for a completely imaginary or
reasonably careful fraudulent Messiah. Daniel 7 was likewise taken by them to
speak of the Messiah coming to destroy Rome the evil empire. Josephus said that
the scriptures inspired tremendous messianic fervour (219).
It is good of him to point out that there was no obvious importance in the name
of Jesus or Joshua which was given to Mary’s baby because it was a common name
(60). And he speaks of the Genesis Apocryphon from the Dead Sea Scrolls which
said that Lamech suspected that his wife had been impregnated by an angel. And
that when Abraham was born a great star came up in the east. King Nimrod wanted
to kill the child so his mother fled with him in secret. These legends could
have inspired the gospel stories.
Since the times given in John conflict with the other gospels it is argued that
John was going by the Roman way of reckoning time. Thankfully, the book says
that it is very unlikely that Pilate would have had to try Jesus in the middle
of night before it was morning (148).
It does not bother Schonfield to suggest that Jesus might have known about Judas
pilfering from the apostles’ common purse which strains his argument that Jesus
was a genuine and honest person (155).
Page 160 contends that there were fourteen, not thirteen at the last supper –
the beloved disciple spoken of only in John making up the fourteenth person. But
John never says that this man is not one of the twelve.
The gospel of Mark states that a young man was found semi-naked with Jesus in
the garden where Jesus was arrested. If the young man mentioned in Mark really
had been in the garden when Jesus was apprehended in order to warn him like the
books says he might have been (166) he would not have been there when the band
arrived. The young man was possibly invented by libertine Christianity which may
have thought Jesus had been having gay sex that night. It is hard to see any
other reason why he would have been with Jesus in a state of near undress.
Would Pilate really have been scared to execute a man without evidence in case
the emperor would hear of it? (175). He allegedly did just that. Pilate was
notorious for mass murders of innocent people.
Page 180, we read that the Jewish leaders would not have come to attend the
execution of Jesus for they would have been to blame for it. The synoptic
gospels – the first three gospels – say they were. It is certainly true that if
the gospels were right to blame these leaders they would not have been present.
Pilate and Joseph of Arimathea could have urged discretion about what was done
to the corpse of Jesus (191). The gospels never say that the failed to be
discreet which is important for possibly explaining why the body vanished for it
was never buried.
Joseph asked for the soma, the body of Jesus and Pilate tells him he can have
the ptoma, the corpse (192). Did Joseph believe that Jesus was not dead? When
Joseph asks for Jesus as if he were not dead or necessarily dead and Pilate
answers him using a word for Jesus indicating that he thought or pretended to
think he really was dead what can we think? Christians will object that Joseph
would hardly ask Pilate for the living body of Jesus for he wouldn’t have wanted
Pilate to think Jesus was alive. The answer is perhaps that the gospel was in
Greek – a different language to that used by these men. So Pilate might not have
noticed what Joseph meant. The Gospel is saying that that though Joseph asked
for body he meant a living one and this meaning was not put across to Pilate who
interpreted body as meaning corpse.
The way the story of the stabbing of Jesus with a lance (193) is told shows that
it was not believed so the gospeller has to say he saw it. So many testimonies
stood against that one in John. He was lying for he did not even give his name
and anonymous testimonies are as useless as anonymous letters. If he cared about
Jesus he would have went to some safe place for he travelled enough and so he
could have been able to put his name on the gospel. He gave the impression as
well that the witness wasn’t himself. Why write, “A witness saw this”, instead
of, “I saw this”? Why turn a piece of evidence into hearsay – hearsay is no
good? If he had been claiming to have seen it himself then he was a liar.
He says the women did not expect a resurrection when they came to anoint him
(193). They were not reliable witnesses to the resurrection when they refused to
believe that Jesus would rise as he said he would accusing him of being a false
prophet if he was a true prophet.
Page 198 says something very important, Isaiah 53, which Christ thought was
written about him says that the servant was buried with the wicked and buried
with the wealthy in his DEATHS. This infers that he servant was to die at least
twice, he was going to survive the first death – which was probably a coma or
something and many did think you were dead when in a coma. Jesus could have
schemed to die a fake death over this prophecy.
It is significant that we read that bodies could have been stolen for magical
purposes regardless of the penalty of death that hung over such actions (198).
It is noticed that the stories of the appearances of Jesus are so vague that
they could even withstand a spiritualist interpretation (205).
A contradiction is seen between the disciples not being sure that Jesus rose
when they saw him in Galilee in Matthew and the account that they met him for
the first time in Jerusalem the day he rose (203). Had Jesus appeared in Galilee
to the disciples they would have been sure it was him because they would have
seen him before leaving Jerusalem.
The historian Josephus who lived through it all estimated that in the siege of
Jerusalem which happened after Jesus resulted in one million one hundred
thousand deaths (219). One reason the number was that enormous what that loads
of pilgrims had come to worship in the holy city (220). Christianity was
headquartered in Jerusalem. The Jews were wiped out in Caesarea (221 or
Josephus, Jewish Wars II, 18:49, 29:1). Galilee was covered in corpses and many
were enslaved (221 or Josephus, Jewish Wars III, 4:1, 10:9). These were Jesus’
haunts. Now for an important quotation: “If Jesus was crucified under Pontius
Pilate, and therefore before A.D. 37, very few who had seen and heard him can
have been alive forty years later” (221). These people wouldn’t have had the
importance and power to be able to write an exposure of Christians lies that
could become big enough to strike it in dangers blow. And people had more
important things to think about than religious disputes. The Christians would
have left through persecution and we know through Eusebius there were not many
of them in the Holy Land so who is going to worry about a sect that was no
threat to the Jews?
If Mark was composed in Italy, Matthew in Egypt, Luke in Greece and John in Asia
Minor (282) it only makes the situation worse for the gospels were written far
away from the people who might have known Jesus.
The Testimony Book, an early book about the teaching of Christ was supposed to
have been out by 50 AD and have been a short scroll that was easy to copy (266).
The fact is there is no evidence of its existence. There is no reason why
Matthew, Mark and Luke could not have invented the teachings of Jesus. The
hypothesis of an older book is based on the syntax used but that would only mean
they plagiarised something which might have had nothing to do with Jesus at all.
It is more likely that the Church at that time scorned books except the Old
Testament in case they would stifle the living word of the Spirit – the Church
was thoroughly Pentecostal. Why else would the body of the first Christian
writings be so small barring the possibility that the Church burned them later
for they were unfavourable to its agenda?
Papias was said to have said that Matthew put the oracles written in Hebrew
together. This is assumed to refer to his gospel. But the book says that oracles
or logia refer to the Old Testament prophecies of Jesus (267). So Papias then
did not know Matthew’s gospel but only Matthew’s compilation of the Old
Testament texts that allegedly taught the gospel.
Schonfield assumes that when Jewish tradition says that Jesus had five
disciples, Matthai, Naki, Netsar, Buni and Todah that it means the five authors
of the first Jesus books (270). But that interpretation is not likely or
necessary. Why say the disciples when you mean authors?
Page 299, Pilate lost his job in 36 or early 37 AD. He had to answer for
accusations made by the Jews and the Samaritans. Caiaphas lost his as well at
the Passover time in 37. Jesus could not have possibly been killed later than
Passover of the year 36.
In 62 AD, the high priest was defrocked and replaced for committing illegal acts
to get rid of James, Jesus’ brother including convening an illegal council
(299). If this had happened with Jesus as the gospels say then why didn’t the
high priest get into bother then? Christians answer problems like this with a
whole pile of ifs and maybes and have solutions that are more complicated than
non-religious ones. They offend the law of economy that the likeliest thing is
the simplest.
CONCLUSION:
The gospels show that Jesus did try to use fake wonders to get popularity.
Schonfield's Jesus tries to fake a resurrection but dies despite his efforts.
WORKS CONSULTED
Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible, John W Haley, Whitaker House, Pennsylvania,
undated
Conspiracies and the Cross, Timothy Paul Jones, Front Line, A Strang Company,
Florida, 2008
Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Vol 1, Josh McDowell, Alpha Scripture Press
Foundation, Bucks, 1995
Handbook of Christian Apologetics, Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli, Monarch,
East Sussex, 1995
In Defence of the Faith, Dave Hunt, Harvest House, Eugene, Oregon, 1996
In Search of Certainty, John Guest Regal Books, Ventura, California, 1983
Jesus and the Four Gospels, John Drane,ion Books, Herts, 1984
Jesus Lived in India, Holger Kersten, Element, Dorset, 1994
Jesus the Evidence, Ian Wilson Pan, London 1985
Mind Out of Time, Ian Wilson, Gollanez, London, 1981
Mother of Nations, Joan Ashton, Veritas, Dublin, 1988
The Bible Fact or Fantasy? John Drane, Lion Books, Oxford, 1989
The Encyclopaedia of Bible Difficulties, Gleason W Archer, Zondervan, Grand
Rapids, Michigan, 1982
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh & Henry
Lincoln, Corgi, London, 1982
The Jesus Conspiracy, Holger Kersten and Elmar R Gruber, Element, Dorset, 1995
The Jesus Inquest, Charles Foster, Monarch Books, Oxford, 2006
The Messianic Legacy, Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh & Henry Lincoln, Corgi,
London, 1987
The Metaphor of God Incarnate, John Hick, SCM Press Ltd, London, 1993
The Passover Plot, Hugh Schonfield, Element Books, Dorset, 1996
The Resurrection Factor, Josh McDowell, Alpha Scripture Press Foundation, Bucks,
1993
The Resurrection of Jesus, Pinchas Lapide, SPCK, London, 1984
The Truth of Christianity, WH Turton, Wells Gardner, Darton & Co Ltd, London,
1905
The Turin Shroud is Genuine, Rodney Hoare, Souvenir Press, London, 1998HoarHo
The Unauthorised Version, Robin Lane Fox, Penguin, Middlesex, 1992
The Vatican Papers, Nino Lo Bello, New English Library, Sevenoaks, Kent, 1982
The Virginal Conception and Bodily Resurrection of Jesus Raymond E Brown Paulist
Press, New York, 1973
The Womb and the Tomb, Hugh Montefiore, Fount – HarperCollins, London, 1992
Verdict on the Empty Tomb, Val Grieve, Falcon, London, 1976
Who Moved the Stone? Frank Morison, OM Publishing Cumbria, 1997
Why People believe Weird Things, Michael Shermer, Freeman, New York, 1997
BIBLE VERSION USED
The Amplified Bible
THE WWW
Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead? Dan Barker debates Mike Horner.
www.ffrf.org/debates/barker_horner.html
A Naturalistic Account of the Resurrection
http://www.phlab.missouri.edu/~c570529/PhilosoStop/resurrection.html
Earliest Christianity, G A Wells, Internet Infidels
www.infidels.org/library/modern/g_a_wells/earliest.html
A Resurrection Debate by G A Wells,
www.infidels.org/library/modern/g_a_wells/resurrection.html
Still Standing on Sinking Sand, Farrell Till,
www.infidels.org/library/magazines/tsr/1997/1/1sink97.html
Why I Don’t Buy the Resurrection Story, by Richard Carrier
www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/resurrection/index.shtml
The Resurrection by Steven Carr
www.bowness.demon.co.uk/resr.htm
The Evangelical Apologists: Are They Reliable? Robert Price
www.infidels.org/library/modern/robert_price/beyond_born_again/chap5.html
Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead? Dan Barker versus Mike Horner
www.ffrf.org/debates/barker_horner.html
Jesus Slept! This page asks if Jesus could have been doped on the cross meaning
that the explanation for the resurrection was that he was never dead.
http://www.forteantimes.com/articles/146%20mandrake.schtml
Beyond Born Again
http://www.infidels.org//library/modern/robert_price/beyond_born_again/chap6.html
Did Early Christians use Hallucinogenic Mushrooms? Archaeological Evidence.
Franco Fabbro.
http://people.etnoteam.it/maiocchi/fabbro.htm
Blessed Easter
www.mindspring.com/~bab5/BIB/lessons.htm
Craig’s Empty Tomb and Habermas on the Post-Resurrection Appearances of Jesus
www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/indef/4e.html
The Case For Christianity Examined: Truth or Lies?
www.askwhy.co.uk/awstruth/ChristianCase.html
Challenging the Verdict
A Cross-Examination of Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ
http://human.st/jesuspuzzle/CTVExcerptsThree.htm#Twelve