Crucifixion Or Cruci-Fiction

 

CHAPTER 11

WHY THE INVERTED
COMMAS ". . . "?

 

 

 

JEWS SUSPICIOUS AND UNEASY

 

We must not suppose that Jesus was buried 6 feet underground. The
sepulchre was a big, airy chamber and not a grave. Jim Bishop (a
Christian authority of note), in his book "The Day Christ Died,"
gives the dimensions as 5 feet wide by 7 feet high by 15 feet deep,
with a ledge or ledges inside, which any "pondokkie" dweller in our
slums would have been happy to own as his residence. The Jews were
suspicious. It was all very "fishy."

(a) The tomb within easy reach.

(b) Helping hands of his "secret" disciples.

(c) His "crossmates" still alive.

(d) His legs not broken, whereas those of his "crossmates" were!

(e) Quick and easy permission granted by Pilate to obtain the body
of Jesus.

For these and many more reasons, the Jews were suspicious. They felt
that they had been cheated. Jesus was ALIVE! (?) So they ran to Pilate.
But they had missed the bus again! They were 24 hours too late!

 

JEWISH ERRORS

"Now the NEXT day . .. the chief priests and
Pharisees came together unto Pilate,
Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said . . .
Command, therefore, that the sepulchre be made sure until the third
day, lest . . .
the LAST error shall be worse than the FIRST (error)."

(HOLY BIBLE) Matthew 27:62-64

The Jews are talking about "first" and
"last", not realising that in all their nervous haste they had made
another slip. They had gone to Pilate only the NEXT day. They wanted to
close the stable-door after the horse had bolted. Pilate was not
interested in their childish plots. He had had enough of them. So he
says to them:

"... Ye have a watch; ¹go your way,
make it as sure as ye can. "

(HOLY BIBLE) Matthew 27:65

 

He was not going to pander to their whim. He had more than enough
reasons to hate them.

 

1. From
the word "watch" in the King James Version of the Bible, and "guard"
of the Roman Catholic Version; the 32 Christian scholars of the R.SV.
have now interpolated the words, "of soldiers" after the word
"GUARD", reading "guard of soldiers". There is no end to
Christian theological ingenuity! As was discussed earlier; the revisers
have now re-revised the R.S.V. and have re-inserted the spicy verses
about the women "caught in the act" once more into their 1971
Version.

CULTISTS' MANIA

What the Jews did or did not do after Pilate's curt
reply is immaterial. They had already lost a day! But the Christian
cultists clutching at straws, transform the Jewish temple "guard"
to soldiers, and make these "soldiers" into "Roman"
soldiers. Then fill pages expounding the efficiency of the Roman
military machine; that it can never be caught napping or caught
off-guard! And the dire consequences in store for any that slipped. Did
all this make the Roman soldier impeccable, faultless (?). By the time
the unwary and weary reader wades through the profuse irrelevant
details, he is ready to swallow everything hook, line, and sinker
uncritically. It is a deception they have developed as an art!

What was the FIRST "error" that the Jews made
in wanting to eliminate Jesus? The first was that they had permitted
Jesus to be brought down from the cross without breaking his legs,
under the false assumption that he had died. The LAST would be to allow
the "secret" disciples of Jesus to render help to the wounded man, by
NOT sealing off the tomb. But in the meantime, they made another
mistake by approaching Pilate the "NEXT" day which was TOO
LATE! God works in a mysterious way. His Ways are not our ways. He
says:

 

SUNDAY
MORNING

It was Sunday morning, the FIRST day of the week,
according to Hebrew calculations, with Saturday the Sabbath as
the seventh, when Mary Magdalene alone (Mark 16:9
and John 20:1) visited the tomb of Jesus.

The question arises: "Why did she go there?" "TO
ANOINT HIM", Mark 16:1 tells
us. The Hebrew word for anoint is "masaha", which means to rub,
to massage, to anoint. ¹ The second question is: "Do Jews massage dead bodies after 3
days?" The answer is "No!" "Do the Christians massage dead bodies after
3 days?" The answer is again, "No!" Do the Muslims (who are the nearest
to the Jews in their ceremonial laws) massage dead bodies after 3 days?
And the answer is again, "No!" Then why should a Jewess want to
massage a dead, decaying body after 3 days? We know that within 3 hours
rigor mortis sets in — the stiffening of the body after death. In 3
days time, the body would be fermenting from within — the body cells
would be breaking up and decomposing. If anyone rubs such a decaying
body, it will fall to pieces. Does the rubbing make sense? No!

It would, however, make sense if she was looking for
a LIVE person. You see, she was about, the only person besides Joseph
of Arimathe'a and Nicodemus who had given the final rites to the body
of Jesus. If she had seen any sign of life in the limp body of Jesus
when he was taken down from the cross, she was not going to shout, "HE
IS ALIVE!" She returns after 2 nights and a day, when the Jewish
Sabbath had passed, to take care of Jesus.

1. This
aspect is dealt with in greater detail in a book: <!a href="http://www.jamaat.net/stone/TheStone.html">"WHO MOVED THE STONE".<!/a>

STONE REMOVED — WINDING SHEETS
UNWOUND

She was sorely amazed to find on arrival, that
somebody had already removed the stone and, on peeping into the tomb,
she finds that the winding sheets (shroud) were folded up inside. More
questions arise? "Why Was the stone removed?" Because for a resurrected
body, one which had conquered death, it was not necessary for the stone
to be removed for it to get out, nor was it necessary for the winding
sheets to- be unwound for it to move. Because, for a spiritualised
body: "STONE WALLS DO NOT A PRISON MAKE, NOR IRON BARS A CAGE."

The removal of the stone and the unwinding of the
winding sheets was the need of a physically resuscitated body,
not that of a resurrected¹ body! The empty tomb was an anti-climax to what she had
expected! So the hysterical woman (Jesus had had to cast out of her
"seven devils" - Mark 16:9)
breaks down and sobs. Jesus was all the while watching her from the
vicinity — not from heaven, but from earth.

This burial vault (tomb) was a privately-owned
property belonging to Joseph of Arimathe'a (a very rich, influential
Jew), who could afford to carve out of rock the big roomy chamber. ² Around this
tomb was his vegetable garden. Please do not try to tell me that this
Jew was so generous that he was planting vegetables 5 miles out of
town, for other people's goats and sheep to graze upon. Surely, he must
also have built gardeners' quarters for his labourers and his own
country home for himself and his family to relax during the weekends?

1. See <!a href="http://www.jamaat.net/resurr/Resurrect.htm">"RESURRECTION OR
RESUSCITATION?"<!/a>

2.
Dimensions already given earlier.

A PRACTICAL JOKE

Jesus is there! He is watching this woman. He knows
who she is, and he knows why she is there. He approaches her from
behind, and finds her crying. So he asks her:

"Woman, why wee pest thou?
Whom seekest thou? —

(HOLY BIBLE) John 20:15

Before she replies, allow me to interject: "Why does
he ask what appears to be silly questions? Doesn't he know the obvious
reasons? Of course he does! Then why the silly questions?"

The answer is that in reality they are not silly
questions, though they appear to be so. He knows that this woman is
looking for him, and she is disappointed on not finding him; hence the
weeping. But he also knows that because of his heavy disguise she would
not be able to recognise him. So metaphorically speaking he is pulling
her leg. In describing this incident John, referring to Mary Magdalene,
says:

"She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto
him".

 

(Still John 20:15)

 

Now why should she suppose that he is a gardener?
Do resurrected persons look like "gardeners"? Nol! Then why does she
suppose him to be a gardener? Because he is disguised as a
GARDENER! Why is he disguised as a gardener? Because he is afraid
of the Jews! Why is he afraid of the Jews? Because he did not die
and did not conquer death! If he had died, and if he had
conquered death, then he would not be afraid anymore. Why not? Because
a resurrected body cannot die twice! Who says so? The Bible says so.
Where? In the Book of Hebrews 9:27.
It says:

". . . It is ordained unto all men ONCE to die,
and after that the judgement."

BACK FROM THE DEAD

 

But what about the hundreds of people who have come back from the
"dead"? We read about them daily in our newspapers. Those persons who
were certified dead, by medical men, and who subsequently came back to
life;

were not really DEAD, in the sense of DEATH AND RESURRECTION. Our
Doctors have erred and will continue to make mistakes; it cannot be
helped. But I want you to note the word "dead" on page 63, and "Corpse"
on page 22, and "crucifixion" on page 85. All these words are in
inverted commas. The honest and alert newspaper reporter in each case
is telling us, very subtly, that the "DEAD" was not really dead. That
the "CORPSE" was not really a corpse, and that the "CRUCIFIXIONS" were
not really crucifixions but cruel-fictions!
They were SO-CALLED dead, the SO-CALLED corpse, the SO-CALLED
crucifixions, etc. But from the newspaper circulation point of view,
the word "SO-CALLED" would greatly diminish the sensationalism, lessen
the news value, and reduce possible sales. After all business is
business! Hence the inverted commas "..." In actual fact, no man ever
dies twice. No matter how many death certificates are issued.

 

THE DRAMA CONTINUES

Mary supposing the disguised Jesus to be a gardener,
says unto him:

"Sir, if you have taken HIM hence, tell me where
have you laid HIM . . ."

(HOLY BIBLE) John 20:15

She is not looking for a corpse, for "it".
She is looking for a LIVE person, for "HIM". And further, she
wants to know as to "where have you ‘LAID’ him?" (i.e.
To rest, to relax, to recuperate!) NOT, "where have you
BURIED him?"

"So that I might take HIM away."

(HOLY BIBLE) John 20:15

Take HIM away, where? What would she want with a dead
(?), decomposing body? She could only bury it. Who dug the grave?
Carrying a corpse is one thing for an American Super-woman, but another
for this frail Jewess; carrying a corpse of at least a hundred and
sixty pounds. That weight plus another 100 pounds of medicaments
(according to John 19:39) would
make a neat load of 260 pounds. Carrying would be one thing, but
burying? She would have to dump it in a hole! Does it make any sense?

The prank that Jesus was playing upon this woman had
gone too far. The woman had not been able to see through the disguise
yet and Jesus was "laughing under his breath", but could restrain
himself no longer. He blurts out: "M-A-R-Y!"
Only the one word! But it was enough. This one word, "Mary!" did
what all the exchange of words failed to do. It enabled Mary to
recognise her Master. Everyone has his or her unique and peculiar way
of calling one's nearest and dearest. It was not the mere utterance of
the word "Mary", but its deliberate intonation which made her respond:
"Master! Master!". Mad with happiness, she lunges forward to grab her
Master, to pay reverence. Jesus says,

 

"Touch me not!"

 

(HOLY BIBLE) John 20:17

 

SOBERING QUESTIONS

 

Why not? Is he a bundle of electricity, a dynamo,
that if she touches him, she might get electrocuted? No! "Touch
me not!", because it would hurt. Though he appears normal to all
intents and purposes, he had, nevertheless, been through a violent,
physical and emotional ordeal. It would be excruciatingly painful if he
allowed her any enthusiastic contact. Jesus continues:

 

"For I am not yet ASCENDED unto my Father."

 

(HOLY BIBLE) John 20:17

She is not blind. She can see the man standing
there before her. What does he mean by "not yet ascended" — GONE
UP — when he was DOWN right there? He is, in fact, telling her
that he is not RESURRECTED from the DEAD. In the language of the
Jew, in the idiom of the Jew, he is saying: "I AM NOT DEAD YETl" — He
is saying: "I AM ALIVE!"

"And they (the disciples),
when they heard that he was ALIVE, and had been seen by her
(Mary Magdalene),they BELIEVED NOT."

(HOLY BIBLE) Mark 16:11