Oddbean

Follow-up on my piece 👇 on the killing of Jesus: The biblical texts referring to Jesus lashing the money changers, overthrowing their tables and driving them out of the temple court in Jerusalem a few days before he was arrested and killed, don't mention at all that the temple was much more than a religious building. The texts don't mention that the temple also was the largest and most powerful bank in the region. Neither do they mention that Pontius Pilate most certainly taxed the profits that the high priests made from deposits, loans and money changing. Therefore, the story about Jesus chasing away the money changers lacks important context. Directly after his arrest, the high priests held a meeting where they interrogated Jesus, before they led him to Pilate. The high priests took Jesus to Pilate and asked him to execute the rebel. According to the gospel of Luke, they said to Pilate: "He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah, a king.” It seems likely that "taxes to Caesar" referred to taxes on the temple's banking business, which were paid by the high priests to Pilate on behalf of the Roman empire, and which Jesus directly or indirectly had objected against when he created the ruckus in the temple yard. However, when Pilate went on to examine Jesus, he didn't mention the subject of taxes at all. The scriptures also make it seem like Pilate was reluctant to the proposed execution of Jesus. All of this seems very odd to me. I suspect that it throughout history has been a great deal of politically motivated editing of these texts. I believe that the motive for this censorship has been to steer clear of the fact that political control over religion, especially when it comes to the the monotheistic religions of Judaism and Christianity, goes hand in hand with political control of the monetary system. It's an unholy marriage that stretches a long way back in time, long before Jesus lived. He demonstrated against this sinful arrangement and was punished accordingly. And instead of focusing on the evil profiteering of the state and the high priests, today's narrative seems to me to focus a whole lot on Judas the betrayer, who became a useful fall guy. It's disgusting. I have no other word for it. We shouldn't be kept in the dark about these things. https://image.nostr.build/6fe58f252fc1121926d4c62ea713ed5fe4ac063ce1a05289f6e796645455a557.jpg nostr:nevent1qqsxpvwll6rwka0xxrrg25ar977ya5wrt9j3t5af3d63p348fkavlyspz3mhxue69uhkummnw3ezummcw3ezuer9wcpzpqe29v7w7jch2nz2w4efvjjymdjdr8klvflvg5tek5vapf02aqveqvzqqqqqqya4tlp9

“And instead of focusing on the evil profiteering of the state and the high priests, today’s narrative seems to me to focus a whole lot on Judas the betrayer, who became a useful fall guy. It’s disgusting.” 💯

Honest weights and measures. Turns out they are important. nostr:nevent1qqsfq3wgj5r87snlzrp799h7806zrkka8vdmegjt67f3cfxkkzdmrvcpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wd68ytnzvupzpqe29v7w7jch2nz2w4efvjjymdjdr8klvflvg5tek5vapf02aqveqvzqqqqqqy2ggps9

The Gospel according to John provides an interesting account: ‭John 18:33-38 ESV‬ [33] So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” [34] Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” [35] Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” [36] Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” [37] Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” [38] Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him. Jesus was not concerned with worldly power. He was concerned with ushering in the Kingdom of God. Remember, Satan promised Jesus the world as He was being tempted in the wilderness. Jesus addresses the Sanhedrin as they are accusing him prior to Pilots to bring forth any accusations of anything that He said were false and they were unable to. The Pharasees are merely trying to appeal to Roman brutality in order to get Rome to kill Jesus.

💯! The priests and Pilate are cowardly and false! We are all the priests. We are all Pilate. We are all Peter who denied Jesus 3 times. Praise Jesus that despite our sin, He STILL died for us. ‭John 21:25 ESV‬ [25] Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. I understand frustration. But take heart that God is not a god of secrecy. He wishes to be known and He can be fully known in His son and in His word. We can have faith that even in the areas where we don't know, He knows. And in Jesus, we can look forward to the day when He can tell us those stories face-to-face. Jesus doesn't want us to be angry. Look to Jesus' example in the garden when Peter cut off the ear of the guard coming to arrest him! Something to remember on this Good Friday, brother ❤️🙏

Very good story, nicely represented, from the little I know about Jesus and what I think is established historical context it fits. Gives extra interesting background by what may be the most important story of western civilisation. The source I know that most corrobates your version is a little book "Jezus van Nazareth" (in Dutch) by Paul Verhoeven, Hollywood director of (a.o.) RoboCop and Basic Instinct. Verhoeven was fascinated by Jesus story, studied it almost scientifically (or should i say religiously) for years and tried (and failed) to turn the story into a movie, so he settled for a book. Verhoeven paints Jesus as a (part of a) revolutionary rebel(ry) and also points to his temple rebellion as the most likely cause of Jesus becoming an outlaw and of his arrest. I was wondering: do you know if the temple incident leading to the arrest is still a very likely theory according to most historians or where you got that theory from if you remember? I'm guessing its not Verhoevens book,as I'm not even sure it has been published in English. Verhoeven claims to have used some of the best and verified scientific sources available, but I trusted him and did not verify that.

This thread alone earned me almost as much as X pays me in a whole month for the content I share there, which is mindblowing, since I have 10 x as many followers on X as I have on Nostr. Thx for all the great feedback. nostr:nevent1qqsfq3wgj5r87snlzrp799h7806zrkka8vdmegjt67f3cfxkkzdmrvcpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfdupzpqe29v7w7jch2nz2w4efvjjymdjdr8klvflvg5tek5vapf02aqveqvzqqqqqqyg4sujv

I was thinking there, about the devil entering Judas. Doesn't that absolve him of his actions if they weren't his own. Could we not say the 'devil' went into Rothschild or Jamie Dimon or Mark Kearny or Larry Fink or any number of them?

I enjoyed the novel analysis but the conclusion that there has been a centuries-long politically-motivated censorship of the Bible gives your ideas too much credit. A more likely explanation would be that the historical context you are alleging is missing is that the biblical authors assumed that info to be known generally, so no need to state the obvious. Afterall, you seemed to be able to deduce these missing facts 2 centuries later using primarily the Biblical text itself. Another possible explanation would be that the original authors simply didnt intend to convey the ideas you are asserting, ie you're wrong. Our oldest complete NT manuscripts date to the 300s AD. So if editing/censorship happened, it didnt happen "throughout history." But textual critics have pretty strong arguments refuting editing during period as well.

Fair points, you might be right. Info about the coin, the mint, herod, the debt business, deposit service, the profits and possibly some other details I didn't deduce from the gospels, but found them in various articles on the Internet. But I find it noteworthy and strange that Pilate's and the high priests' economic motives aren't at all reflected in the gospels. It's subjects like blasphemi, Judas' betrayel, and the people freeing Barabas instead of Jesus that comes across as important. I can't say for sure that someone has messed with the texts, but considering that the result is favorable for the political class and the fact that it's so normal that "winners write the history books" I wouldn't at all be surprised, especially considering how important this specific story is for politics, religion and culture.

"But I find it noteworthy and strange that Pilate's and the high priests' economic motives aren't at all reflected in the gospels." I think this is where the modern reader can go wrong: we risk imposing our worldview on the ancient writer. So it'll seem strange that economic motives aren't mentioned only if we presume the authors considered such concepts. But I dont think people thought that way about things back then. Economics as a discipline developed way after the gospel writers...Adam Smith didnt write his wealth of nations stuff until the 1700s I believe. Im not saying there werent economic motivations throughout history. Im just saying we only started to recognize them over the past few hundred years, so there is no need to jump to a censorship thesis to explain why they arent reflected explicitly in the bible. Thanks for the stimulating interaction!

What happened in the temple that caused Yeshua (Jesus) to do what he did in righteous indignation was that they, the Pharisees, were practicing Babylonian money magick and practicing the Talmud. The Talmud is counter to everything He had taught, so it's only natural that those practicing the Talmud be named as the enemies of Yahweh.

Let me explain it this way: The Torah (what I practice) is the inverse of the Talmud. For the example that I gave, in the Talmud, dishonest weights and measures are a thing, whereas in the Torah, you're supposed to have honest weights and measures. Therefore, what the Pharisees were doing was using dishonest weights and measures by making a fiat currency.