How fortunate the World of Secular and Religious Justice, is, that I was born to be a Nazarite, it ordained while in my mother’s womb…..for we have entered the Era of The Duel Rulings, and, I might own The Wisdom of King Solomon.
“One federal judge said the F.D.A.’s approval of the drug mifepristone was invalid, while another federal judge ordered the agency to keep the pill available. The legal fallout is just beginning.”
James Dobson leads the charge against those sinners who made his Wicked List. Women who marry Women, are his enemy, and the enemy of the unborn. Prove it. Can the unborn – speak? This righteous Christian leader is declaring LGBTQ People will not be ministered to by any man of God, and, any laws they make in my Democracy – will be CAST OUT! Did you know the mother of Jesus is called a Prostitutes? Some say Jesus married a Prostitute Jesus said…
“I have come for the sinners, and not the righteous!”
Woe be The Righteous, if Jesus returns! For I was named after John the Baptist, by my mother Rosemary, who made porno movies for the Mafia, and fled to Los Angeles when she got arrested for Prostitution. She was considering abandoning her four children. The ex-president of the United States had relations with a Porn Star. Is James Dobson condemning Donald Trump? Is he advocating he go to prison – and just to tell the truth – for the sake of unborn children?
I know what Jesus wrote in the dust. Woe be you righteous ones, for the Judgement of God is upon you.
My grandmother’s name is Mary Magdalene Rosamond. No one has ever owned this name, but her. She was a devout Catholic. She gave this name to my mother….Rosemary Rose of the World!
James Dobson touts Christian Marriages, yet the divorce rate amongst Christians – is too high. His organization attacked Obamacare and secular solutions for treating COVID. All six members of my natal family suffered from the Disease of Alcoholism. I entered Serenity Lane in 1987. I entered a Homeless program and ended my homelessness. I just finished three years of therapy. In dealing with the Homeless Problem, Governor Kotek will be dealing with alcoholism, and mental illness. My therapist said…”I don’t know how you survived! ” I told her, once again, that three seers said I died in 1967, when I was twenty years old. I celebrated thirty-six years sober – yesterday!
“This means…..I was reborn!”
Who amongst you – can handle this……TRUTH? How many of you are prepared for the Return of Jesus – or just John the Baptist? Dobson and the ADF has become Pharisees a “den of vipors! Jesus and Paul hated the Judaizers, Jews who adhered to the law. I can prove these Pharisees are not allowed to speak for Chritians – and do things for Christians. They can sue who they want – without invoking God. Make me a test case.
Good job Governor Kotek! You are a Woman of Your Word!
John ‘The Nazarite’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaizers
Gov. Tina Kotek signed a $200 million bipartisan housing and homelessness package on Wednesday, which was among her top policy priorities for this session. Dave Killen / The Oregonian
Paul said married couples should live as if they were NOT married, meaning, they should NOT engage is sexual activity of any kind!
29 What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do NOT;
“Then I went to Jerusalem and to every part of Judea and told the people there. I also went to the non-Jewish people.
“This is why the Jews grabbed me and were trying to kill me at the Temple.”
Paul of Tarsus
9 “I used to think that I should do everything I could against Jesus from Nazareth. 10 And that’s what I did, beginning in Jerusalem. The leading priests gave me the authority to put many of God’s people in jail. And when they were being killed, I agreed that it was a good thing. 11 I visited all the synagogues and punished them, trying to make them curse[a] Jesus. My anger against these people was so strong that I went to other cities to find them and punish them.
30 King Agrippa, Governor Festus, Bernice, and all the people sitting with them stood up 31 and left the room. They were talking to each other. They said, “This man has done nothing worthy of being put to death or even put in jail.” 32 And Agrippa said to Festus, “We could let him go free, but he has asked to see Caesar.”
Protestant
The Pew Research Center found Protestant individuals (anyone who identified themselves as non-Catholic, but Christian) included 74% of all Christians, and had a divorce rate of approximately 51 percent out of a sampling of 4,752 individuals. However, these were broken down by Evangelical Protestant, Mainline Protestant, and Historically Black Protestant. Of this 74%, the highest number of divorces among this group were the Evangelical Protestants at 28 percent. The Historically Black Protestants had a divorce rate of only 9 percent according to the study.”
https://divorce.lovetoknow.com/Divorce_Statistics_by_Religion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_Defending_Freedom
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_on_the_Family
It most prominently lobbies against LGBT rights — including those related to marriage, adoption, and parenting — labeling it a “particularly evil lie of Satan”.[6][7] Focus on the Family has been criticized by psychiatrists, psychologists, and social scientists for misrepresenting their research in order to bolster its religious ideology and political agenda, as well as for their anti-LGBT views.[8] The organization also seeks to change public policy in the areas of sex education, creationism, abortion, state-sponsored school prayer, gambling, drugs, and enforcement of their interpretation of proper gender roles.[9][10][11]
Shift to direct litigation
The Alliance Defense Fund changed its name to Alliance Defending Freedom on July 9, 2012. The name change was intended to reflect the organization’s shift in focus from funding allied attorneys to directly litigating cases.[42] By 2014 the organization had more than 40 staff attorneys, and had “emerged as the largest legal force of the religious right, arguing hundreds of pro bono cases across the country.”[18]. The ADF garnered national attention in its 2014 challenge to the Affordable Care Act. In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., the Court ruled that the birth control mandate in employee funded health plans was unconstitutional[43] since there existed a less restrictive means of furthering the law’s interest.[44]
COVID-19 anti-vaccination and anti-lockdown cases
ADF has opposed government measures aimed to stop the spread of COVID-19 in the United States and in other countries. In the US, ADF partnered with The Daily Wire in a legal challenge against the Biden administration’s OSHA vaccine mandate.[117] In Uganda, ADF joined a Texas libertarian organization in backing a campaign to end restrictions on large gatherings that the government had implemented to reduce COVID-19 spread.[118] ADF brought legal challenges against the Ugandan government’s regulations on large gatherings.[119] In Scotland, ADF fought against COVID-19 regulations on large gatherings, claiming that the measures were unfair to religious groups.[120] The ADF-backed lawsuit won in Scotland’s high court. A poll commissioned by the Humanist Society showed that more than three-quarters of Scots were opposed to the church’s reopening and the Church of Scotland distanced itself from the legal action, saying that they accepted measures to prevent COVID-19 spread.[121]
The Unborn Marked As Sinners
Posted on October 6, 2022 by Royal Rosamond Press
“I have come for sinners”
Posted on December 3, 2017 by Royal Rosamond Press
“To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.”
Jesus made a strange statement that took me fifteen years to solve the riddle in it.
“I have come, not to get the upright, but sinners, so that they may be turned from their sins. ”
When I began to study the Bible at fifty years of age I had no problem with looking at the teaching of the Jews. When I read the Sanhedrin made a law stating no Rabbi need minster to a man or woman premarked a sinner by God while inside their mother’s womb, I had found the key to Jesus’s miracles and Christianity. Jesus came to get rid of this law, and as a Go’El Redeemer put an end to INHERENT SIN FROM THE PARENTS. Jesus declared there were no longer any BORN SINNERS!
This is why Rabbi Jesus died on the cross. This transference of evil from adults to the unborn, was over. Note the father of the boy born blind fears he and his son will be thrown out of the synagogue if they testify Jesus healed this son. There is no death warrant for believing Jesus is the Messiah. This is why Jesus bids them not to tell anyone so they can remain in the Synagogue and be ministered to by a Rabbi.
John ‘The Nazarite’
Everything I write is protected by a special Copyright fashioned for Ministers. With the pending passing of the Tax Bill, that applies the MARK OF THE BEAST to the poor, and gives GOLD to the rich, GOD-L has given me a message to give unto you………
“You have broken my heart!”
“They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. 19 “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”
20 “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. 21 But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
Mark 7.36 expresses Jesus’ command to the witnesses not to tell anyone of the event that had taken place. This is not the only indication of secrecy in the Markan gospel; Mark 1.43-44, Mark 5.43 and Mark 7.24, and their synoptic counterparts (Matthew 8.4 and Luke 5.14 for 1.43-44, and Luke 8.56 for Mark 5.43) exhibit this also. There is evidence to suggest that these miracle stories and this command for secrecy was not directly to do with the messianic secret because the actual identity of Jesus is not an issue. Mark’s secrecy motif though indicates that the gospel writer did acknowledge these acts as works of the Messiah.[6] This indicates a link between Jesus’ commands and the Messianic secret. It is possible that this was the originally use of these sayings, to provide a link between the identity of the Messiah and the acts that he performed. When one considers redaction then Mark could have recorded the verses without their original sense (the link to the identity of the Messiah), if he chose to interpret them in a different way.
Jesus’ wish for secrecy appears obvious, but this assumes the attitude of Jesus based purely on his words and not on reaction. With Jesus telling the people not to talk of the miracle, they talked more. By this time Jesus would have surely been aware of the reaction people would have to his miracles and his commands. Jesus’ intention could have been a form of reverse psychology which acted as a catalyst for the spread of the story. This is though an issue of interpretation, attitude and redaction criticism which remains in contest.
| Mark 7.31-3731.) Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis.32.) There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on him.33.) After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spat and touched the man’s tongue.34.) He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means, “Be opened!”).35.) At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue loosened and he began to speak plainly.36.) Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it.37.) People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” |
SCOTUS And St. Paul
Posted on August 2, 2022 by Royal Rosamond Press
Posted on March 7, 2013 by Royal Rosamond Press
Every adult needs to read about the friends of Ginni Thomas. She was very close with Tim Lahaye.
People all over the world who are sure they will not be “accepting Christ” should know Christ did not forgive St. Paul and make him the head of his religion. This is the Greatest Lie Ever Told. God would not create a schism in His church called ‘The Way’ that was already under attack before this evil serial killer was HIRED by pro-Roman Slavers. Paul is saying he TORTURED WOMEN “TO THEIR DEATH” . Would that torture include – BEING CRUCIFED?
“I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as also the high priest and all the Council can testify. I even obtained letters from them to their brothers in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished” (Acts 22:4-5).
SCOTUS sicked the Evil Eye of Paul on the alleged enemies of Christ. Write your Senators and Congress and demand they investigate Ginni Thomas and Friends.
Ginni Thomas and The LaHayes
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department is investigating the leak of secret documents from the Pentagon on the war effort in Ukraine that show sensitive data on military activities, including U.S. drone spy planes in the region and use of ammunition by Ukrainian forces.
The Justice Department, at the Pentagon’s request, has launched an investigation of the leak and who is responsible for the intelligence breach. It’s unclear, officials said Saturday, if more documents could be released or the motivation for leaking them.
“The Department of Defense is actively reviewing the matter, and has made a formal referral to the Department of Justice for investigation,” Sabrina Singh, the Pentagon’s deputy press secretary, said in a statement.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D) reacted to the news on Twitter, calling the decision an “outrageous attack” on women’s health, adding that it “threatens to rip away access to the full range of reproductive health care, further restrict the right to choose and inflict suffering on millions of women and their families.”
Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group, filed the suit in November in a federal court in Amarillo, Texas, arguing that the FDA went beyond its authority 22 years ago and fast-tracked the approval of mifepristone. The group claimed that the FDA incorrectly approved mifepristone through an expedited process meant for medications for life-threatening illnesses ― a category the organization said pregnancy does not fall under.
lliance Defending Freedom, https://adflegal.org/sites/default/files/2022-11/Alliance-for-Hippocratic-Medicine-v-FDA-2022-11-18-Complaint.pdf
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis ramped up his fight against Walt Disney Co, seeking to void an agreement that Disney passed to limit the power of a board appointed by DeSantis to oversee its Florida theme park property.
One federal judge said the F.D.A.’s approval of the drug mifepristone was invalid, while another federal judge ordered the agency to keep the pill available. The legal fallout is just beginning.
The dramatic dueling rulings by two federal district judges on Friday about access to a widely used abortion pill set up a lower court conflict that legal experts say will almost certainly send the dispute to the Supreme Court.
“It really turbocharges the imperative for the Supreme Court to step in and to do so sooner rather than later,” said Stephen I. Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
In 2015, the issue of same-sex marriage led to another collision between courts. After a federal judge in Alabama declared the state’s prohibitions against same-sex marriage unconstitutional, the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court ordered the state’s probate judges not to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.
https://www.columbian.com/news/2023/mar/21/letter-protect-unborn-human-child/
Nowhere, in this editorial, is the most vulnerable person in the debate mentioned — the unborn human child. Where is the advocacy for the dignity and sanctity of human life to include the unborn child? Why is there no discussion at all about the unborn baby? “For You (God) formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works; my soul knows it very well.” (Psalm 139:13-14)
Posted on March 25, 2022 by Royal Rosamond Press
The spiritual battle I have been having with Tim and Beverly LaHayes has reached epic proportions with the revelation their compatriot, Gini Thoams, advocated the negation and reversal of a FAIR ELECTION! We are looking at Religious-Political Propaganda built upon the Fan Base of the Left Behind series, that is Christianized Terrorism. Imagine if Dan Brown had formed a think tank in Washington aimed at gathering a flock-block of loyal voters – then selling them to the highest bidder!
Paul said married couples should live as if they were NOT married, meaning, they should NOT engage is sexual activity of any kind!
29 What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do NOT;
Justice Alito said this…
Returning to religious freedom, Alito said that a challenge is to “convince people that religious liberty is worth defending if they don’t think that religion is a good thing that deserves protection.”
He said that such an effort could entail a focus on how religion promotes “domestic tranquility.”
“domestic tranquility.“domestic tranquility.“domestic tranquility.“domestic tranquility.“
What is this DRAFT DODGER talking about? Is he talking about MARRIED LIFE, or, life in the streets OF AMERICA – and not the streets of Communist Hanoi that was being bombed in the illegal war the U.S. declared. These are – GODLESS PEOPLE!
“don’t think that religion is a good thing don’t think that religion is a good thing’
Alito said that a challenge is to “convince people that religious liberty is worth defending
Ginni belonged to a cult, and studied cults. Was she against the war in Vietnam? How about her husband, Justice Clarence Thomas?
John Presco
Putting Paul And Jesus On Trial
Posted on August 3, 2022 by Royal Rosamond Press
In this painting by Russian artist Vasily Surikov dated to 1875, the Apostle Paul speaks before King Agrippa II, his sister Julia Berenice, and the proconsul Festus
Like most people these days, I have been upset about the crises affecting our family, our
Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem Painting
Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump climb a wall at the Capitol during a violent protest against the certification of the 2020 presidential election. (Photo by REUTERS/Jim Urquhart)
“Then I went to Jerusalem and to every part of Judea and told the people there. I also went to the non-Jewish people.
“This is why the Jews grabbed me and were trying to kill me at the Temple.”
Paul of Tarsus
I am in profoundly unique position to CALL FOR THE TRAIL OF PAUL AND JESUS. I am steeped in Biblical knowledge, and I ran for Republican Governor of Oregon. I was also a write-in for Republican Candidate for President of the United States. I am kin to John Fremont the first Republican candidate for President, and co-founder of the Republican Party that appears to have been taken over by ‘Jesus Freaks’ – many who deny President Biden – WON!
Political Realities are being SEVERELY IGNORED, and replaced by what can be titled ‘Biblical Prophecy’. There is talk of Donald Trump going on trial. Millions of Christians are calling for the ex-President to SEIZE the reigns of power – and run in 2024. This time they know they GOT IT RIGHT and will not be calling for the release of the prisoner BARABBAS who means “Son of The Father” and “Son of The Rabbi”. Was Jesus’ father a rabbi? Was not Jesus called the Son of God The Father? Did not radical, but saintly Jews begin a TAX REBELLION that the powers in Rome wanted – CRUSHED? Did Pilate and his soldiers go to war with these Rebels? Did he crucify those rebels he captured? Were some of them – WOMEN?
When I saw the video and pics of The Trumpites storming Our Capitol, I thought of the painting of the destruction of the temple by Francesco Hayez. Timing is everything. I knew MY TIME HAD COME as a Nazarite Prophet. When I read the Bible for the first time at forty years of age, I was shocked when I read about Paul, and his alleged trial before Agrippa, his sister, and Festus. Paul says he murdered and tortured Jews – EVEN WOMEN – and got permission to hunt them down in foreign lands – FROM THE PRIESTHOOD – who did not want hint him to spread the teaching of Jesus outside of Jerusalem? Well, they did not want Jesus to spread his teaching – IN JERUSALEM! Surely the King and Queen of Jerusalem has a say so. They want to find Paul guilty of SOMETHING, but are afraid to, because Paul is threatening to talk to the Emperor of Rome – who might like Paul a whole lot – because it looks like he is hell bent on destroying the leaders and followers of…..A TAX REBELLION THAT IS SPREADING TROUGH THE ROMAN EMPIRE!
Was there a crowd outside the palace while Paul was being found NOT GUILTY of going into synagogues and arresting people he later put to death? Would Christians forgive gay people for going inside Churches and arresting people? How many Christian Ministers – forgive LGBTQ people? Was this crowd very angry, and were they shouting…
“GIVE US THE SON OF RABBI………..SO WE CAN HANG HIM FOR BETRAYING GOD1”
Was Paul THE SON of a famous Rabbi, who preached pro-Roman sermons? Is there anyone like this? YES. Didn’t Paul say he studied under Gamaliel? Which one, the one that bathed in a Roman bath house – with statue of Aphrodite? If so, why would Paul be arrested for giving a teaching to non-Jews” I will invite Jewish rabbis and scholars to take part in ‘The Trial of Paul and Jesus’.
John Presco ‘Nazarite Judge’
Rabban Gamaliel | My Jewish Learning
In the Christian tradition, Gamaliel is recognized as a Pharisee doctor of Jewish Law.[2]Acts of the Apostles, 5 speaks of Gamaliel as a man held in great esteem by all Jews and as the Jewish law teacher of Paul the Apostle in Acts 22:3.[5] Gamaliel encouraged his fellow Pharisees to show leniency to the apostles of Jesus Christ in Acts 5:34.[6]
9 “I used to think that I should do everything I could against Jesus from Nazareth. 10 And that’s what I did, beginning in Jerusalem. The leading priests gave me the authority to put many of God’s people in jail. And when they were being killed, I agreed that it was a good thing. 11 I visited all the synagogues and punished them, trying to make them curse[a] Jesus. My anger against these people was so strong that I went to other cities to find them and punish them.
30 King Agrippa, Governor Festus, Bernice, and all the people sitting with them stood up 31 and left the room. They were talking to each other. They said, “This man has done nothing worthy of being put to death or even put in jail.” 32 And Agrippa said to Festus, “We could let him go free, but he has asked to see Caesar.”
Then I went to Jerusalem and to every part of Judea and told the people there. I also went to the non-Jewish people.
“This is why the Jews grabbed me and were trying to kill me at the Temple.
Echoes are also to be found of the close relationship between the princes and the Romans. It is said, for instance, that many young men of the house of Rabban Gamaliel studied “Greek wisdom” (Sotah49b), a statement that was much discussed in the medieval debates on the study of philosophy. Gamaliel is also said to have bathed in a bath-house in which there was a statue of Aphrodite (Mishnah AvodahZarah3:4), which practice he defended on the grounds that the statue was purely decorative and in no way dedicated to the goddess.
Rabbi Joshua, who lived in the first to second centuries CE, was one of the most distinguished of the early Rabbinic teachers known as the Tannaim. Rabbi Joshua was a disciple of Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai and a colleague of Rabbi Eliezer; the debates between these two teachers are found throughout the Talmud.
Rabbi Joshua appears to have had a somewhat conciliatory attitude towards the Romans after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. In a famous parable attributed to him, a fox put his head into a lion’s mouth in order to remove a bone that had lodged in the lion’s teeth and was troubling the lion. When the fox demanded a reward for his pains, the lion replied that for a creature to have its head in a lion’s mouth and yet remain unscathed was in itself sufficient reward.
When some zealots wished to give expression to their mourning over the destruction of the Temple by abstaining from wine and from marriage, Rabbi Joshua is said to have advocated less severe tokens of mourning, since one does not impose on the community regulations impossible for the majority to follow (Bava Batra 60b).
On a number of occasions Rabban Gamaliel is said to have behaved in an autocratic manner towards Rabbi Joshua, as a result of which Rabban Gamaliel was deposed for a time from his position as Nasi and head of the Sanhedrin.
As tensions built toward war, Agrippa attempted to convince his fellow Jews not to revolt. In the end, he and his sister Berenice were expelled from Jerusalem and sided with Rome, fighting alongside Vespasian and Titus to put down the rebellion. For his loyal service during this crisis, he was rewarded with the title of praetor. After the revolt ended, he lived as a private citizen in Rome. The date of his death is uncertain, probably around 93-94 in Rome.
Agrippa II – New World Encyclopedia
Around 59, Agrippa and Berenice heard the case of the Apostle Paul at Caesarea Maritima, where the current Roman procurator, Porcius Festus, had attempted to induce Paul to return to Jerusalem for trial, but Paul insisted on his rights as a Roman citizen to be heard in Caesar’s court. The scene is recorded in considerable detail in Acts 25-26. Paul appeals to Agrippa as being well acquainted with Jewish affairs. Paul explains that he is of the party of the Pharisees and a believer in the resurrection of the dead, which his accusers, the Sadducees, deny. Paul goes on to testify to Agrippa about his conversion experience and his belief that Jesus, the Messiah, fulfilled the prophetic doctrine of the resurrection. Agrippa’s famous response in Acts 26:28 is a subject of much debate, translated in the King James Version as, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” Modern renditions translate the same passage as “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?” (NIV) More clear is Agrippa’s comment to Festus after Paul leaves, indicating that the apostle had made a serious tactical error by appealing to Rome: “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.” The point seems to be that Agrippa agreed with Festus that Paul had done nothing worthy of death and would have exonerated Paul if it had been left up to him. Paul went on to Rome where he was martyred.
In an attempt to prevent violence from further escalating, Agrippa assembled the populace and delivered a tearful speech to the crowd with Berenice by his side. In an oration preserved by Josephus, he employed substantial eloquence to warn the inflamed leaders against extremes, and counseled a return to calmness and deliberation (Josephus, Wars of the Jews ii. 16, §§ 4, 5). Things by this time had reached the point of no return, however, as the insurgents burned down the Herods’ palaces. Agrippa and Berenice barely fled with their lives to Galilee and joined the Roman cause. It was during this period that Berenice met and fell in love with Titus, who was ten years her junior.
According to Max Dimont, the story of Barabbas as related in the gospels lacks credibility from both the Roman and Jewish standpoint. The story, on its face, presents the Roman authority, Pontius Pilate, backed by overwhelming military might, being cowed by a small crowd of unarmed civilians into releasing a prisoner condemned to death for insurrection against the Roman Empire.[17] Further, Dimont argues against the believability of the Barabbas story by noting that the alleged custom of privilegium Paschale, “the privilege of Passover“, where a criminal is set free, is only found in the Gospels. Raymond E. Brown argued that the Gospels’ narratives about Barabbas cannot be considered historical, but that it is probable that a prisoner referred to as Barabbas (bar abba, “son of the father”) was indeed freed around the period Jesus was crucified and this gave birth to the story.[18]
Paul Before King Agrippa
26 Agrippa said to Paul, “You may now speak to defend yourself.” Paul raised his hand to get their attention and began to speak. 2 He said, “King Agrippa, I feel fortunate that I can stand here before you today and answer all the charges these Jews have made against me. 3 I am very happy to talk to you, because you know so much about all the Jewish customs and the things the Jews argue about. Please listen to me patiently.
4 “All the Jews know about my whole life. They know the way I lived from the beginning in my own country and later in Jerusalem. 5 These Jews have known me for a long time. If they want to, they can tell you that I was a good Pharisee. And the Pharisees obey the laws of the Jewish religion more carefully than any other group. 6 Now I am on trial because I hope for the promise that God made to our fathers. 7 This is the promise that all the twelve tribes of our people hope to receive. For this hope the Jews serve God day and night. My king, the Jews have accused me because I hope for this same promise. 8 Why do you people think it is impossible for God to raise people from death?
9 “I used to think that I should do everything I could against Jesus from Nazareth. 10 And that’s what I did, beginning in Jerusalem. The leading priests gave me the authority to put many of God’s people in jail. And when they were being killed, I agreed that it was a good thing. 11 I visited all the synagogues and punished them, trying to make them curse[a] Jesus. My anger against these people was so strong that I went to other cities to find them and punish them.
Paul Tells About Seeing Jesus
12 “One time the leading priests gave me permission and the authority to go to the city of Damascus. 13 On the way there, at noon, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun. It shined all around me and those traveling with me. 14 We all fell to the ground. Then I heard a voice talking to me in Aramaic. The voice said, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? You are only hurting yourself by fighting me.’
15 “I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’
“The Lord said, ‘I am Jesus. I am the one you are persecuting. 16 Stand up! I have chosen you to be my servant. You will tell people about me—what you have seen today and what I will show you. This is why I have come to you. 17 I will keep you safe from your own people and from the non-Jewish people, the ones I am sending you to. 18 You will make them able to understand the truth. They will turn away from darkness to the light. They will turn away from the power of Satan, and they will turn to God. Then their sins can be forgiven, and they can be given a place among God’s people—those who have been made holy by believing in me.’”
Paul Tells About His Work
19 Paul continued speaking: “King Agrippa, after I had this vision from heaven, I obeyed it. 20 I began telling people to change their hearts and lives and turn back to God. And I told them to do what would show that they had really changed. I went first to people in Damascus. Then I went to Jerusalem and to every part of Judea and told the people there. I also went to the non-Jewish people.
21 “This is why the Jews grabbed me and were trying to kill me at the Temple. 22 But God helped me, and he is still helping me today. With God’s help I am standing here today and telling all people what I have seen. But I am saying nothing new. I am saying only what Moses and the prophets said would happen. 23 They said that the Messiah would die and be the first to rise from death. They said that he would bring the light of God’s saving truth[b] to the Jewish people and to the non-Jewish people.”
Paul Tries to Persuade Agrippa
24 While Paul was still defending himself, Festus shouted, “Paul, you are out of your mind! Too much study has made you crazy.”
25 Paul said, “Most Honorable Festus, I am not crazy. What I am saying is true. It all makes perfect sense. 26 King Agrippa knows about all this, and I can speak freely to him. I know that he has heard about these things, because they happened where everyone could see them. 27 King Agrippa, do you believe what the prophets wrote? I know you believe!”
28 King Agrippa said to Paul, “Do you think you can persuade me to become a ‘Christ-follower’ so easily?”
29 Paul said, “It is not important if it is easy or if it is hard. I pray to God that not only you but that everyone listening to me today could be saved and be just like me—except for these chains I have!”
30 King Agrippa, Governor Festus, Bernice, and all the people sitting with them stood up 31 and left the room. They were talking to each other. They said, “This man has done nothing worthy of being put to death or even put in jail.” 32 And Agrippa said to Festus, “We could let him go free, but he has asked to see Caesar.”
Rabban Gamaliel is the name and title of six holders of the office of Nasi, Prince, in Palestine during the first five centuries CE. The title Rabban, “our master,” was used to distinguish the Nasi from other rabbis. The office of Nasi was primarily one of religious authority but the Nasi also played an occasional political role in representing the Jewish community to the Roman authorities.
Since practically all the references to the office are in sources compiled later and are far from being contemporary records, it is difficult to know for certain how the office came about and the precise way in which the affairs of the Nasi were conducted. From the later sources (Talmudic and Midrashic) it appears that the first Nasi was Rabban Yochanan Ben Zakkai, a disciple of Hillel, after whom Rabban Gamaliel, a grandson of Hillel, served as Nasi; the office then became a hereditary one held by Gamaliel’s descendants.
Yochanan Ben Zakkai
A list of princes until the end of the Mishnaic period, that is, until the beginning of the third century CE, can now be given:
1. Rabban Gamaliel the Elder (Gamaliel I), first half of the first century.
2. Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel (Simeon ben Gamaliel I), son of (1).
3. Rabban Gamaliel of Yabneh (Gamaliel II), son of (2).
4. Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel (Simeon ben Gamaliel II), son of (3).
5. Rabbi Judah the Prince, editor of the Mishnah , son of (4).
6. Rabban Gamaliel (Gamaliel III) son of (5).
The other three Gamaliels are referred to only very infrequently. Gamaliel VI died in 426 CE, after which the office of Nasi was abolished.
Granted that, as above, the majority of the sources are late, there are echoes in these sources of a degree of conflict between the Nasi, the representative of the establishment, and certain other scholars. According to the Mishnah (Rosh Hashanah 2:8-9), in a dispute between Rabban Gamaliel II and Rabbi Joshua regarding the exact date of Yom Kippur , Gamaliel ordered Joshua to appear before him on “his” Yom Kippur carrying his stick and his money-bag so as to establish the Nasi’s authority. According to a Talmudic account (Berakhot27b-28a), after further humiliations of Rabbi Joshua by Rabban Gamaliel, the latter was deposed, for a time, from the office of Nasi.
In another Talmudic account (Horayot13b) Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel II had a dispute with Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Nathan, resulting in the exclusion of these two teachers from participation in the debates in the House of Learning.
In the first chapter of Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkei Avot) and in the beginning of chapter 2, a list of sayings of the various Princes is given from Gamaliel I to Gamaliel III but no saying at all of Gamaliel II is quoted. This may be because of Gamaliel II’s deposition but it is more likely that sayings of this teacher were originally in the list and were simply slipped out by accident.
Although Rabban Gamaliel I is sometimes referred to as “the Elder,” he is often referred to simply as Rabban Gamaliel, making it difficult to know whether a source refers to him or to his grandson, Gamaliel II. With regard to extra-Talmudic sources, there are two references to Gamaliel I in the New Testament. In one (Acts 22:3), he is said to have been Paul’s teacher. In another, (Acts 34-40), the Rabban encourages the Sanhedrin to give interfaith tolerance toward the then-new Christian church.
Echoes are also to be found of the close relationship between the princes and the Romans. It is said, for instance, that many young men of the house of Rabban Gamaliel studied “Greek wisdom” (Sotah49b), a statement that was much discussed in the medieval debates on the study of philosophy. Gamaliel is also said to have bathed in a bath-house in which there was a statue of Aphrodite (Mishnah AvodahZarah3:4), which practice he defended on the grounds that the statue was purely decorative and in no way dedicated to the goddess.
There is also an account of Rabban Gamaliel, Rabbi Joshua and other Rabbis visiting Rome. Especially interesting in this connection are the Talmudic tales, largely legendary, of the close friendship between Rabbi Judah the Prince and “Antoninus,” though it is none too clear which Roman emperor is referred to by this name in these tales.
Jesus instead of Barabbas
I suppose you all know the true story of how Jesus was crucified, at least the basic facts about that event. But do you remember another man mentioned in the Gospels who was also there? A man who was supposed to be crucified for his crimes on that day, but who was saved from death at the last moment? His name was Barabbas.
Now at the [Passover] feast he [Pontius Pilate] used to release for them [the Jewish people] one prisoner for whom they asked. 7 And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection [violent uprising against the government], there was a man called Barabbas. 8 And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. 9 And he answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” [i.e., Jesus] 10 For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. 12 And Pilate again said to them, “Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” 13 And they cried out again, “Crucify him.” 14 And Pilate said to them, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.” 15 So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified (Mark 15.6-15 ESV).
On the day Jesus was crucified, it happened to be an annual custom that the Roman governor of Judea would release a Jewish prisoner to the Jews as a political favor to them. Pilate had legally examined Jesus and found no fault in Him. Pilate also knew that the Jewish religious leaders were jealous of all the acclaim Jesus was receiving from the people, and so their conspiracy to kill him was unjust. Pilate wanted to release Jesus if it was not too politically costly.
You see, there was political pressure on Pilate to crucify Jesus as the chief priests wanted. They could make things difficult for Pilate if he displeased them. This is where Pilate saw an opportunity. The Jewish crowd had a better opinion of Jesus than the chief priests, and Pilate knew it. He could make the appeal to the crowd that Jesus, their religious celebrity who had become known as “the King of the Jews,” should be released. Then he could blame the crowd for choosing to set Jesus free.
A notorious prisoner was in custody on death row. His name was Barabbas, and nobody loved him. He was a violent man, a public menace, and very despicable. Since the Jewish leaders had all their rage focused on
Jesus that day, they didn’t care who else was set free. We read in this Bible passage that they persuaded the crowd to seek mercy for Barabbas instead of Jesus. Pilate knew this was totally unjust, so he protested right in front of them. “What crime has Jesus committed?” But the crowd had been whipped into a frenzy by Jesus’ enemies, and all they said in response was, “Crucify him, crucify him.” And true to the disappointing pattern of most politicians, Pilate yielded to the public pressure instead of standing on principle and doing the right thing. He let Barabbas go and turned over Jesus to be
crucified.
Now, one or the other of these two men could have been set free, either Jesus or Barabbas but not both. Jesus was the innocent one and did not deserve to be crucified. Barabbas was the guilty one and very much did deserve crucifixion. When Jesus died in Barabbas’ place, that meant that Barabbas was allowed to live. With respect to Barabbas, Jesus death was substitutionary, one instead of the other.
My friends, this is a great historic illustration of the spiritual significance of the death of Jesus Christ for His people. Everyone who will ever be forgiven their sins and go to heaven has already been chosen from eternity by God. He always knew whom He would save and whom would let perish in hell. And for the elect, God sent Jesus, His only begotten Son, to die in their place, even though they deserved to die just as much as any other sinners. By dying in their place, Jesus forever delivered His chosen people from the punishment of their sins. Because Jesus died to save them, He also grants them the gift of saving faith to believe in Him by the grace of God.
I don’t expect you to believe this just because I say it. God’s Holy Word in the Bible teaches it. For example, it says, “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit” (1 Pet 3.18). “The just for the unjust” means the righteous One, Jesus, instead of the unrighteous ones—all the sinners who would ever become real Christians by faith in Christ.
Probably some of you are not Christians. You might not feel guilty for your sins or worry about the afterlife, but you should. Some of you might feel very guilty and worried. Well, I have good news for you. Jesus Christ died on the cross two thousand years ago on a hill just outside Jerusalem. It is the most significant event that has ever happened in human history, because it was the fulfillment of God’s plan to save His chosen people from eternal ruin. Christ’s death that day effectively delivered millions and millions of sinners, people morally like Barabbas—rebellious, guilty, and detestable in God’s sight. God loved them so much that He delivered up His only begotten Son to the cross with all its pain, suffering, horrors, and death, so that whoever believes on Christ should not perish, but have everlasting life.
I know you’ve probably heard all your life that Jesus died for everyone in the whole world without exception. Well, that’s just not true. He died as a substitutionary sacrifice to pay for the sins of certain people chosen by God, so that they definitely would be saved at last. How can you know if you are one of them? If you will believe on Christ, trusting Him alone to save you, then you can know. If you realize you are a horrible sinner like Barabbas, and if you will trust in Christ to be your Savior, the One who died in your place for your salvation, then you can be happy with all other Christians that God loves you and will take you to heaven someday. I urge you to believe in Jesus even today, while you have the opportunity. This Barabbas already has, and I’d like to see many more rescued from doom by my Savior Jesus. Amen.
Barabbas
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This article is about the biblical figure Barabbas. For other uses, see Barabbas (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Barnabas.
Barabbas, according to a representation in The Bible and Its Story Taught by One Thousand Picture Lessons, from 1910
Barabbas (/bəˈræbəs/; Biblical Greek: Bαραββᾶς, romanized: Barabbās)[1] was, according to the New Testament, a prisoner who was chosen by the crowd in Jerusalem, over Jesus, to be pardoned and released by Roman governor Pontius Pilate at the Passover feast.[2]
Contents
- 1Biblical account
- 2Name
- 3Historicity
- 4Antisemitism
- 5Art, literature, and media
- 6See also
- 7References
Biblical account[edit]
According to all four canonical gospels there was a prevailing Passover custom in Jerusalem that allowed Pilate, the praefectus or governor of Judea, to commute (reduce) one prisoner’s death sentence by popular acclaim. In one such instance, the “crowd” (ochlos), “the Jews” and “the multitude” in some sources, were offered the choice to have either Barabbas or Jesus released from Roman custody. According to the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew,[3]Mark,[Mark 15:6–15] and Luke,[Luke 23:13–25] and the account in John,[John 18:38–19:16] the crowd chose Barabbas to be released and Jesus of Nazareth to be crucified.[Mark 15:6-15] Pilate reluctantly yields to the insistence of the crowd. One passage, found in the Gospel of Matthew, has the crowd saying (of Jesus), “Let his blood be upon us and upon our children.”[Matthew 27:25]
Matthew refers to Barabbas only as a “notorious prisoner”.[Matthew 27:16] Mark and Luke further refer to Barabbas as one involved in a στάσις (stasis, a riot), probably “one of the numerous insurrections against the Roman power”[4] who had committed murder.[Mark 15:7][Luke 23:19] Robert Eisenman states that John 18:40 refers to Barabbas as a λῃστής (lēstēs, “bandit”), “the word Josephus always employs when talking about Revolutionaries”.[a]
Three gospels state that there was a custom that at Passover the Roman governor would release a prisoner of the crowd’s choice; Mark 15:6, Matthew 27:15, and John 18:39. Later copies of Luke contain a corresponding verse (Luke 23:17), although this is not present in the earliest manuscripts, and may be a later gloss to bring Luke into conformity.[5]
The custom of releasing prisoners in Jerusalem at Passover is known to theologians as the Paschal Pardon,[6] but this custom (whether at Passover or any other time) is not recorded in any historical document other than the gospels, leading some scholars to question its historicity and make further claims that such a custom was a mere narrative invention of the Bible’s writers.[7][8]
Name[edit]
Portrait of Barabbas by James Tissot (1836–1902)
There exist several versions of this figure’s name in gospel manuscripts, most commonly simply Biblical Greek: Bαραββᾶς, romanized: Barabbās without a first name. However the variations (Biblical Greek: Ἰησοῦς Bαῤῥαββᾶν, romanized: Iēsoûs Bar-rhabbân, Biblical Greek: Ἰησοῦς Bαραββᾶς, romanized: Iēsoûs Barabbâs, Biblical Greek: Ἰησοῦς Bαῤῥαββᾶς, romanized: Iēsoûs Bar-rhabbâs) found in different manuscripts of the Gospel of Matthew 27:16–17 give this figure the first name “Jesus”, making his full name “Jesus Barabbas” or “Jesus Bar-rabban”, and giving him the same first, given name as Jesus.[b] The Codex Koridethi seems to emphasise Bar-rabban as composed of two elements in line with a patronymic Aramaic name.[10][11] These versions, featuring the first name “Jesus” are considered original by a number of modern scholars.[12][13] The Church Father Origen seems to refer to this passage of Matthew in claiming that it must be a corruption, as no sinful man ever bore the name “Jesus” and argues for its exclusion from the text.[14] He however does not account for the high priest Biblical Greek: Ἰάσων, romanized: Iásōn from 2 Maccabees 4:13, whose name seems to transliterate the same Aramaic name into Greek, as well as other bearers of the name Jesus mentioned by Josephus.[10] It is however also possible that later scribes, when copying the passage, removed the name “Jesus” from “Jesus Barabbas” to avoid dishonor to the name of Jesus whom they considered the Messiah.[15]
Etymology[edit]
The name Biblical Greek: Bαραββᾶς, romanized: Barabbâs appears in some Greek gospel manuscripts. It appears to derive ultimately from Aramaic: בּר אַבָּא, romanized: Bar ʾAbbā, lit. ‘Son of ʾAbbā/[the] father’,” a patronymic Aramaic name.[10] However, Abbā has been found as a personal name in a 1st-century burial at Giv’at ha-Mivtar, and it appears fairly often as a personal name in the Gemara section of the Talmud, dating from AD 200–400.[16]
Historicity[edit]
According to Max Dimont, the story of Barabbas as related in the gospels lacks credibility from both the Roman and Jewish standpoint. The story, on its face, presents the Roman authority, Pontius Pilate, backed by overwhelming military might, being cowed by a small crowd of unarmed civilians into releasing a prisoner condemned to death for insurrection against the Roman Empire.[17] Further, Dimont argues against the believability of the Barabbas story by noting that the alleged custom of privilegium Paschale, “the privilege of Passover“, where a criminal is set free, is only found in the Gospels. Raymond E. Brown argued that the Gospels’ narratives about Barabbas cannot be considered historical, but that it is probable that a prisoner referred to as Barabbas (bar abba, “son of the father”) was indeed freed around the period Jesus was crucified and this gave birth to the story.[18]
On the other hand, Craig A. Evans and N. T. Wright argue in favor of the historicity of the Passover pardon narrative, quoting evidence of such pardons from Livy‘s Books from the Foundation of the City, Josephus‘s Antiquities of the Jews, Papyrus Florence, Pliny the Younger‘s Epistles and the Misnah.[19]
The similarities of the name Biblical Greek: Ἰησοῦς Bαραββᾶς, romanized: Iēsoûs Barabbâs in some manuscripts and the name of Jesus have led some modern scholars argue that the counter-intuitive similarity of the two men’s names is evidence of its historicity. They doubt a Christian writer would invent a similar name for a criminal, practically equating Christ with a criminal, if he were fictionalizing the story for a polemical or theological purpose.[1][15][17]
A minority of scholars, including Benjamin Urrutia, Stevan Davies, Hyam Maccoby and Horace Abram Rigg, have contended that Barabbas and Jesus were the same person.[20][21][22][23]
Antisemitism[edit]
See also: Blood curse
The story of Barabbas has played a role in historical antisemitism because it has historically been used to lay the blame for the crucifixion of Jesus on the Jews, and thereby to justify antisemitism – an interpretation known as Jewish deicide. Pope Benedict XVI, in his 2011 book Jesus of Nazareth, dismisses this reading, since the Greek word “ochlos” in Mark means “crowd”, rather than “Jewish people“.[Mark 15:6-15][24][25]
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