THE REAL REASON KAYAFA REJECTED YESHUA

[Rebbe]

The Gospel of John [Part 21]

THE SIXTH "SIGN" -- THE REAL REASON WHY KAYAFA THE HIGH PRIEST CONDEMNED YESHUA!

Copyright © BRI 1983, 2002, 2015 All Rights Reserved Worldwide by Les Aron Gosling,
Messianic Lecturer (BRI/IMCF)

CAUTION: BRI Yeshiva notes are not available to the general public. They are not for distribution. They are not for reproduction. The notes may also bear little or no resemblance to the actual audio or video recorded BRI Yeshiva lecture.

"Yeshua was silent. Then the high priest said to him, "I put you under oath before the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God." Yeshua said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, From now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven." Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, "He has blasphemed! Why do we still need witnesses? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?" They answered, "He deserves death" -- (Mt 26.63-66 cf Mk 14.63)

THE SIXTH "SIGN" -- THE TEXT
"When Yeshua arrived, he found that El'azar had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Marta and Miriam to console them about their brother. When Marta heard that Yeshua was coming, she went and met him, while Miriam stayed at home.

"Marta said to Yeshua, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him. Yeshua said to her, Your brother will rise again. Marta said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Yeshua said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? She said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world."

"When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Miriam, and told her privately, The Teacher is here and is calling for you. And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Yeshua had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Marta had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Miriam get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Miriam came where Yeshua was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

"When Yeshua saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he snorted like a horse in anger and he was violently angry. He said, Where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. Yeshua began to weep. So the Jews said, See how he loved him! But some of them said, Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"

"Then Yeshua, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Yeshua said, Take away the stone. Marta, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days. Yeshua said to her, Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone."

"And Yeshua looked upwards and said, Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me. When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, El'azar, here, out! The dead man rolled out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Yeshua said to them, Unbind him, and let him go. Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Miriam and had seen what Yeshua did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done."

"So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation. But one of them, Kayafa, who was high priest that year, said to them, You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed. He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Yeshua was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned [orchestrated together] to put him to death" (Jn 11.17-53).

CHRISTIAN SCHOLAR STATES THE OBVIOUS ABOUT EL'AZAR
When I was quite young I read the religious stories about Lazarus and his physical resurrection from the dead at the command of Yeshua. But he was bound hand and foot with grave-clothes and wrapping. How did he walk so steadily out of the tomb? I also asked this question of ministers of different denominations and they always looked flustered in response.

Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest in his Expanded Greek translation recognises the difficulty and so translates the passage, "He shouted with a great voice, Lazarus, here, out. There came out the dead man, bound securely as to his feet and his hands with swathing-bands. And his face was bound around with a handkerchief. Jesus says to them, Untie him at once and permit him to be departing..."

Wuest mentions Lazarus "came out" but still "bound securely as to his feet" without stating how he actually exited the tomb.

But if you look at my rendering of the text you will note that I have written: "He cried with a loud voice, El'azar, here -- out! The dead man rolled out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Yeshua said to them, Unbind him, and let him go." I base my version on Geddes MacGregor's assessment which makes a great deal of sense. Professor MacGregor writes:

"...they take away the boulder. Then Jesus, lifting up his eyes, prays, thanking God for already having listened to him. The implication is that what he has sought to happen has already occurred. Having finished his short prayer, he then says in a loud voice, 'Lazarus, here! Come out!' And Lazarus, who has been partly bandaged according to custom, 'comes out,' which probably means that he rolls out, since the bandages would inhibit movement. Jesus then orders that the bandages be taken off to set Lazarus free" (Geddes MacGregor, The Gospels as a Mandala of Wisdom, 1982, 139).

CHRISTIAN HISTORY MUST BE REWRITTEN
A restored history of the middle-to-late Second Temple Period -- the story of the period dominated by the Fifth Procuratorship of Judaea (a short time covered by the rule of Pontius Pilatus, the representative in Jerusalem of the Imperial Pax Romana) -- is beginning to reveal what I as a Messianic Rebbe have been teaching now for over 40 years (34 years in my own ministry): the vast majority of Jews and the Jewish authorities of Our Lord Yeshua's time not only accepted him as their Messiah but for that very reason intentionally precipitated his death. At first glance this may seem to be contradictory to everything we have been taught, but a close reading of Jewish and Christian (Messianic Jewish) Scripture suggests otherwise. (I am not alone in my endeavour to restore the truth of this issue. Although he is a Christ-rejecter, I am in league with the Donmeh Reb Yakov Leib HaKohain who has also written on this matter. I make no apology for this. All truth is God's truth no matter where it is located and by whose mouth it ushers forth (See The Priest: A Journal of Catholic Theology, April, 1996. Others have also written extensively on Leib HaKohain's work, e.g., James David Audlin, The Gospel of John. The Original Version Restored & Translated with Commentaries, Vol. 1. The Text: and an Early History of the Text, 2013, 2014, 2015 from which work I have largely drawn for this historical exposition).

The emissary Yochanan in his Gospel (Jn 11.46-53) indicates that both the Prushim (Pharisees) AND High Priests ultimately accepted Mashiach when they became convinced that he embodied the Resurrection, and acting on a Jewish Oral Scripture that the Messiah must "die for the people" (e.g., Zohar 5.218a), they instructed their followers to call for his death and thereby inaugurate the expected Messianic Millennial Kingdom.

Because Gentile Christians fail to understand Jewish thoughtform they find it difficult to explain how the tens of thousands of pilgrims gathered for the Pesach cried out "Osanna!" one day and "Crucify him!" a week later (Jn 12.13, 19.15).

Luke, the student and physician of Rav Shaul (Paul), informs us that the common population teemed to Yeshua. As HaKohain has also pointed out, the first 5,000 Christians were Jews (Ac 4.4). Then there was the requirement that Gentiles had to convert to Judaism before they could join the Jerusalem Church of Kefa (Peter) and Yaakov (James) (Ac 15.1) Even some of the "painted Pharisees" (Peter Graves, Nazarene Gospel Restored) acknowledged the Mashiach, albeit grudgingly. It is little realised by most Jews and Christians that it has been estimated that by the end of the first century more than a million Jews had accepted and acknowledged Yeshua as their Messiah.

Nakdimon (known to Christians today as Nicodemus), a prime leader of the Sanhedrin, hailed Yeshua as "a teacher who comes from God" (Jn 3.1-2). Rav Gam'liel, Rav Shaul's teacher, declared, "If [the Messianic Movement] comes from God you [the Sanhedrin] will not only be unable to destroy [it], but you might find yourselves fighting against God" (Ac 5.34-39).

THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN WITNESS
There can be little doubt that he understood what most Christians (including Catholics) fail to grasp -- the subjecting Sovereignty of God in His plan and purpose for humankind. The Sanhedrin concluded "It is obvious to everybody in Jerusalem that a miracle... has been worked through [Mashiach's disciples] in public and we cannot deny it" (Ac 4.16).

Then there is Midrash evidence: "The son of Rabbi Joshua ben Levi had a choking fit. He [Rabbi Joshua] went and brought one of the followers of [Yeshua] to relieve his son's choking" (Midrash Rabbah, Ecclesiastes 10.4.1). Rav Menachim of Speyer noted, "A Christian may be permitted to heal a Jew even if he invokes the aid of Jesus and the Saints." Even Maimonides wrote, "Ultimately, all the deeds of Jesus of Nazareth... will only serve to prepare the way for the Messiah's coming and the improvement of the entire world" (Mishnah Torah: Hilchot Melachim U'Milchamoteihem 11.4).

These non-hostile pro-Yeshua evidences have been pointed out by a number of rabbinic scholars, as well as scholars despised by both Jews and Christians alike (Reb HaKohain [Lawrence Corey] is a prime example of one who has suffered ridicule and shouldered suspicion over the years, yet his research on this matter of a Sanhedrin actively engaged in promoting the goal and aims of Yeshua in fulfilling his Messianic destiny must one day be not only "heard" but given the acknowledgement he rightly deserves).

NON-RELIGIOUS POLITICAL SANHEDRIN COURT CONDEMNED YESHUA
We all acknowledge a political (non-religious) Sanhedrin condemned Yeshua to death. Josephus tells us there were two Sanhedrins during the Fifth Procuratorship of Judaea. Maimonides writes in the Mishnah Torah, "Jesus... aspired to be the Messiah and was executed by the court" (Hilchot Melachim U'Milchamoteihem 11:4).

To be "Messiah" is to occupy a political Office and an appointed political court only had the power to bring down a judgment involving a sentence of execution to which Maimonides here alludes. Additionally, the Talmud states: "On the eve of the Passover, Yeshu was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, 'He is going forth to be stoned because he has practised sorcery and enticed Israel to apostacy. Anyone who can say anything in his favour, let him come forward and plead on his behalf.' But as nothing was brought forward in his favour he was hanged on the eve of the Passover... Rabbi Ulla asked, 'Do you suppose that he was one for whom a defence could have been made?'  Was he not a Mesith [enticer] concerning whom Scripture says, Neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him? With Yeshu however it was different, for he was descended from the royalty" (Tractate Sanhedrin 43a).

HaKohain suggests, basing his assessment on scholar R. Travers Herford's remarks in the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, that such historical references to Yeshua in the Talmud may be historically accurate, probably originating with "the Tanna Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, having learned them directly from his own teacher, Johanan ben Zakkai, who was a contemporary" of Our Lord (R. Travers Herford, The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. 6, 88.) He adds, "Therefore, this particular Gemara is interesting for several reasons."

It substantiates that a political Sanhedrin did sentence Yeshua, but not for the reasons espoused by the Christian Church. The Talmud says that Yeshua was condemned for "sorcery" and "apostasy" -- and here I differ with HaKohain who disagrees with the charge of "blasphemy" as contained in the four Gospels -- as "blasphemy" would include the knowing misuse of so-called "magical powers" in contradistinction to that which originates from the One God (Mt 26.65, Mk 14.64, Lk 5.21, Jn 10.33). But he is right in pointing out that merely claiming to be the Messiah, or even the "Son of God," did not constitute blasphemy in rabbinic law. For example, the Talmud states: "If a man say to thee, 'I am God,' he is [only] a liar; if [he says I am] 'the son of man,' in the end people will laugh at him" (Tr. Yer. Taan. 65b; see also Rabbi Baruch Horovitz, The Disputations, Scholarly Publications, 1972, 151.)

This charge of sorcery and not apostasy is confirmed by recent scholarship. It is widely realised that Professor Morton Smith at Columbia University has written: "Outsiders [those hostile to Yeshua] spread the word that his family had tried to put him under restraint as insane, that he was possessed, that he had a demon, and that his miracles were done by magic" (Jesus the Magician, Harper & Row, 1978, 43; see also by the same author Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark, Harvard University Press, 1973.) This charge of insanity was also pointed out by the Rebbetzin and myself in our publication Messiah's Mum. A Controversial & Radical Reconsideration of the Life of the Holy Family: A Messianic Primer.

This Tractate Sanhedrin 43a text also openly acknowledges Yeshua to have been "connected with the government [of David]" or "descended from the royalty" (i.e., the Throne of David), which implies that he was a legitimate heir, in their eyes, to the office of Messiah -- and, furthermore, it was because of that very royal lineage that "a defence could not be made" on his behalf, as stated by Rabbi Ulla in the Gemara in question. What we are starting to see is that the Jews of the Fifth Procuratorship of Judaea condemned Yeshua to death in order to facilitate his Messianic destiny. The Talmud tells us further that "nothing was brought forward in His favour" at his trial. According to the Gospels, and again as pointed out by HaKohain and others, Yeshua had many powerful and respected allies who could have testified on his behalf. These included the "rich young aristocrat" of Judea (Mt 19.16); Yosef of Ramatayim (Mk 15.43); Jairus "the synagogue official" (Mk 5.35); the "centurion of K'far'Nachum" (Lk 7.1); the "rich son of a leading family" (Lk 18.18); Zakkai "the senior tax collector" (Lk 19.1); Nakdimon the Pharisee (Jn 3.1, 7.50, 19.39); and the "court official" of Kanah (Jn 4.46). And, of course, there were many more.

Notes HaKohain: "Why did none of these come forward on Jesus's behalf at his trial by the Sanhedrin? The standard explanation, given by Christian exegetes, is that these prominent people were 'afraid of the Sanhedrin' -- whose power under Roman rule, incidentally, was highly questionable. Another more-probable and less-often considered answer to this question lies in the Gospel of John... that they refrained from testifying on Jesus's behalf not out of fear or hostility, but in order to assist him in the fulfillment of his Messianic destiny. This is the sequence of these highly-significant events: first, Jesus announces He is the Messiah (Jn 10:25); second, He also calls himself 'the resurrection' (ibid 11:25); and third, the Jewish elders decide to kill Him (ibid 11:45)."

The decision of the Jewish elders to "kill" Yeshua took place not out of hostility, but as an effort to fulfil the Jewish prophecy that the Messiah must "die for the people." And when did this plan to finally kill Yeshua formulate? The answer to this question throws more light on this astonishing historical event.

YESHUA FULFILS THE FESTIVAL OF HANUKKAH
Yeshua purposely chose Hanukkah (or "Feast of Lights" and "Festival of Dedication") to announce to the Jewish people that he was the "Son of God" (Jn 10.22) -- this is a festival that invariably occurs on the 25th day of Kislev in the Hebrew calendar and which date has a major significance in a prophetic way in relation to the laying of the corner stone of the future Temple of God. Whatever the case in relation to the prophetic outcome and spiritual significance of the Festival of Lights, the rabbis noted that the 25th word of Genesis in the Masoretic text is Oyer, or "Light" (Bereshit 1.3). While it remains true that the festival of Hanukkah commemorates an event that took place regarding the Menorah, after the Maccabees cleansed the desecrated Temple and rededicated it to the God of Israel, a non-biblical tradition located in the Talmud insists that a small container of oil was found which had not been defiled by the Hellenists and there was enough oil in it to light the Temple menorah -- enough to last only a day. However, a miraculous event occurred in which the Menorah stayed alight for a full 8 days! The numeral eight incidentally speaks of the coming Mashiach. Eight is the number of Yeshua!

"Thus," says HaKohain, "the spiritual meaning of these temporal events is that the light of God could not be extinguished by the forces of darkness. This corresponds to the opening passage of John's Gospel: 'All that came to be had life in him, and that life was the light of men, a light that shines in the dark, a light that darkness could not overpower' (Jn 1:4,5)." This event sets the stage for those to follow.

After Yeshua announced that he was the "Son of God," he went to the home of Miriam and Marta in Beit-Anyah. There he proclaimed the next stage of his vocation: "I am the resurrection... If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live" (Jn 11.25). Then, as if to prove this bold assertion, he raises El'azar from the dead (Jn 11.43-44).

Now, the doctrine of the Resurrection polarised the two main schools of the existing Judaisms of the Second Temple Period: the Pharisees (the P'rushim whom all biblical students realise believed in it -- along with the doctrine of transmigration of the soul) and that of the Sadducees (the Tzadukim who did not accept either stand on the immortality of humankind). The Synoptic Gospels record the incident in which the Tzadukim challenged Yeshua to take a stand on the issue (Mt 22.23, Mk 12.18, Lk 10.27). "This was an attempt," writes HaKohain, "to ferret out his political leanings more than an enquiry into" his quaint religious beliefs. If he came down against it, notes the Reb, he was a Tzadukim; if in favour of it, a P'rushim. As usual, the Lord Yeshua "evaded their attempts to pin him down."

He says, "God is God, not of the dead but of the living," which seems to beg the question (Mt 22.32). "Only after he announces that he is the Son of God does he take an unequivocal stand": not only are the Tzadukim wrong about the Resurrection but he, Mashiach Yeshua, is its living embodiment, as proven by his raising of El'azar from the dead. Strange as it may seem, this aligned him with the very P'rushim whom he elsewhere appears to have condemned for their heightened hypocrisy.

LET'S GET YESHUA'S DEATH RIGHT!
After seeing Yeshua raise El'azar, some of Miriam and Marta's guests "went to tell the Pharisees what he had done," and as a result "the chief priests and Pharisees called a meeting" (Jn 11.45). This meeting was most important. It is integral to an understanding that the Jews of his time called for Yeshua's death not out of hostility and rejection (as we all have been told for 2000 years by a carnal church hostile to the real Mashiach's Lordship and the Jewish race in particular), but out of a recognition of his Messianic role and an attempt to precipitate it.

Two things are noteworthy in these events. ONE, that the informants ran to the P'rushim, rather than the Tzadukim; and TWO, that the chief priests, who were presumably Sadducees themselves, would have accepted an invitation from their supposed enemies to decide the fate of Yeshua. Something of compelling significance must have drawn these arch enemies into collaborating with each other -- something more than merely putting down one of the many (and not particularly different) messianic movements taking place in Palestine at the time. Whatever the case, a remarkable meeting ensues, as described by John:

"Then the chief priests and Pharisees called a meeting. 'Here is this man working all these signs,' they said, 'and what action are we taking? If we let him go on this way everybody will believe in him and the Romans will come and destroy the Holy Place and our nation.' One of them, Kayafa, the high priest that year, said, 'You don't seem to have grasped the situation at all: you fail to see that it is better for one man to die for all the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed.' He did not speak in his own person, it was as high priest he made this prophecy that Yeshua was to die for the nation -- and not for the nation only, but to gather together in unity the scattered children of God. From that day they were determined to kill him" (Jn 11.47-53).

Read it again: the high priest, and all the Jewish leaders assembled with him, agreed that [THREE] Yeshua must die not only for the salvation of Israel, but "to gather together in unity the scattered children of God" -- in other words, to fulfil the Messianic commission. It is for this reason -- to actualise the Jewish prophecy that the Messiah must "die for the people" and "gather the scattered children of God" -- that the Jewish leaders determined to "kill" him, and not, as we have been told by two thousand years of Gentile-Christian history, because they and the Jews whom they led "despised" and "rejected" him.

Kayafa (Caiaphas) speaking as a prophet proclaims that Yeshua must be executed, not as a punishment for claiming to be the Messiah but, on the contrary, in order to fulfil his Messianic destiny: "Yeshua," he says, "must die for the nation [of Israel]... and not for the nation only, but to gather together in unity the scattered children of God." Kayafa is calling on the authority of Jewish Oral Scripture. The first part of his prophecy that "Yeshua [must] die for the nation" parallels the Jewish, pre-Christian Oral Scripture: "When God desires to give healing to the world He smites one righteous man among them... and through him gives healing to all... A righteous man is never afflicted save to bring healing to his generation and to make atonement for it" (Zohar 5.218a).

This Atoning Messiah of Judaism not only "dies for the people," but also rises from the dead after three days -- as shown in another Jewish Oral Scripture that states: "(The) Messiah [ben Joseph] will... be slain and lay in the streets for three days. Then... the prophet Elijah will go and revive [him]... And in the hour when the Tribes of Israel will come forth, Clouds of Glory will go before them. And the Holy One, blessed be He, will open for them the sources of the Tree of Life, and will give them to drink on that day" (Otot Ha-Mashiach).

Clearly, this pre-Christian, Judaic doctrine anticipates Christ's alleged prediction throughout the Gospels that on the "third day" He would "rise again."

The second part of Kayafa's prophecy -- "and not for the nation only, but to gather together in unity the scattered children of God" -- refers to another Jewish Oral Scripture: "And then the Community of Israel communes with the Holy One, blessed be He, and that hour is a time of Grace for all, and the King [Messiah] holds out to [Israel], and all who are with her, his scepter of the thread of Grace so that they all may be wholly united to the Holy King" (Zohar 5.45a). Furthermore, a Mishnah by Maimonides states, "If a king will arise from the House of David [who]... gathers the dispersed of Israel [as Kayafa believes Yeshua could do], he is definitely the Messiah" (Mishnah Torah: Hilchot Melachim U'Milchamoteihem 4.11).

Thus, by alluding to these two commonly held doctrines, Kayafa prevails, and the assembled Jewish leaders finally "grasp the situation."

Recall that the Jewish religious leaders had the responsibility to "dog" the steps of any Jew who proclaimed himself to be the Messiah and to take note of any "signs" he may provide as evidence of his calling. This is the reason why Yeshua was asked repeatedly to give a "sign" by representatives of the Sanhedrin.

With the awesome resurrection of El'azar from Sheol the final conclusive "sign" was made available to them. Yeshua had fulfilled the "signs of the Messiah" and, therefore, according to Jewish Oral Scripture, he must enter the next stage of the scenario, which is to "die for the people" in order to "make atonement for his generation" and "unite the scattered children of God." Consequently, they determine to "kill" him, not as a punishment for his claims, but to catalyse his Messianic vocation.

New light is now thrown on why the Jewish "mob" demanded Mashiach's crucifixion (Mt 27.11, Mk 15.1, Lk 23.13, Jn 19.1). Viewed from the perspective of Kayafa's prophecy, and the Jewish Oral Scriptures that prompted it, their assertion "his blood be on us and our children" (Mt 27.25) can now be taken to mean, as Rav Shaul later wrote, "Through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins" (Eph 1.1-7).

Contrary to current popular belief, according to the Gospels themselves thousands of religious Jews flocked to Yeshua during his lifetime and even before Paul brought his message to the Gentiles. This strongly suggests that there was no contradiction in their minds between the "Orthodox" Judaisms of the day and Yeshua's teachings. In fact, we're told, the early Church "went as a body to the Temple every day" (Ac 2.46).

Moreover, the Jews who cried "Crucify him!" and "Let his blood be on us!" did so because they believed, as their Oral Scriptures had told them, that his sacrificial death would free them from sin and initiate the Messianic Era -- a belief that would later become the cornerstone of Gentile Pauline Christology.

As long as the cry "Crucify him!" is articulated as a cry for Yeshua's blood precisely because those who so cried wanted him dead in their rejection of his Messiahship -- as long as this crude misunderstanding is allowed to perpetuate itself -- so anti-Semitism will be the cross that all Jews living in a Christianised society will be forced to bear.

Its high time the positive cry "Crucify him!" is propounded to overthrow the perpetuation of a darkened religious ignorance which must finally give way to God's loving penetrative powerful Light of Life.

As we now progress to the seventh "sign" there is a need to reflect more on the elements associated with, and surrounding, the resurrection of El'azar. These will constitute the composition of our next lecture.