The Passover Plot

(Conspiracy Nation, 05/03/08) – In “The Secret Plot To Switch Jesus” (http://www.shout.net/~bigred/SwitchJesus.html) mention was made of the 1965 international best-seller, “The Passover Plot”. Through an inter-library loan, Conspiracy Nation has obtained a copy of the book, written by Dr. Hugh J. Schonfield. (Published by Bernard Geis Associates, distributed by Random House, 1965). Controversial speculation follows: Readers who are easily upset are advised to read no further.

Dr. Schonfield, author of “The Passover Plot”, was educated at the University of Glasgow, where he began studying the New Testament. He devoted over forty years to Biblical studies and was one of the world's leading Biblical scholars. Besides the international best-seller, The Passover Plot, Dr. Schonfield authored several other books, including "Saints Against Caesar", "Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls", and "The Authentic New Testament". History, not theology, is the focus of his book. However it cannot be helped that theological matters intrude.

At this point in time, Christianity faces a dilemma. It is so insistent on seeing God in Jesus Christ that it is in danger of being unable to apprehend the existence of God without him. Pandered to over the centuries have been simple persons unable to comprehend God without an image, in this case Jesus. The need remains for a human embodiment of the deity, for many people. Take away the divinity of Jesus, and the reaction is atheism, for many. This is also the dilemma Dr. Schonfield faced: getting at the historical Jesus meant revealing him to be a remarkable man, but human, not God.

Like Michael Baigent (“The Jesus Papers”) and James D. Tabor (“The Jesus Dynasty”), Schonfield also perceived a “witting Jesus” who purposefully tailored his actions to mirror Old Testament prophecy. It had been prophesied that "the Lord shall raise up from Levi as it were a High Priest, and from Judah as it were a King: he shall save all the race of Israel." The Jesus Dynasty was the fruit of the marriage between Joseph, a man of the royal line of David, and Mary, of the priestly line of Aaron. Throughout his life, Jesus, knowledgeable about Old Testament prophecy, purposefully fit his actions to match the predictions.

The Galilean Faction

In the time of Jesus, Roman domination created psychologic abnormality amongst the populace of the Holy Land. Almost every event was "seized upon, scrutinised, and analysed..." The "strangest tales and imaginings could find ready credence." A "new pseudononymous literature came into being...”

One reason Jesus spoke in parables was to thwart spies and informers. His cryptic utterances furnished no solid evidence upon which Jesus could be denounced. His chosen disciples were fishermen because, in part at least, they had boats. This provided a line of escape from the lakeside town of Bethsaida. Emergency retreat could be made to the independent territory of Decapolis.

Galilee, in the north, clashed with Jerusalem to the south. Northern Palestine had retained the original Judaism while Jerusalem, to the south, had strayed from the original teaching. It is "possible even to detect in Primitive Christianity the clash of Galilean and Jerusalem traditions."

Jesus was aligned with the Galilean faction. The Pharisees were aligned with Jerusalem. There was a distinction amongst Jews, with Judeans being understood as Jews in the narrower sense. A further split in the northern faction included those who considered John the Baptist to be the "Messiah" (shown by Schonfield to mean an earthly liberator). The Mandaean offshoot, situated now in Iraq, still holds to John the Baptist as Messiah.

Jesus the Nazorean has northern, sectarian implications. The Nazoreans were purportedly the "maintainers" or "preservers" of the true faith of Israel. The Samaritans (the Shamerine) also separately claimed to be the "custodians" or "keepers" of the original Israelite religion in opposition to the Judeans (Jews). Both separately held that the southerners in Jerusalem had falsified the Law of Moses. The Sadducees appear to be the Zadokites, writes Schonfield. They belonged to the Essene sect and called themselves the "Sons of Zadok." These also disagreed with the Judeans.

The Zadokite Temple

The Samaritans believed the Jerusalem Temple was a false temple. The true temple was on Mount Gerazim. The Samaritans were hostile to both the Galileans and the Judeans, thus making another distinct faction at the time.

Michael Baigent, in “The Jesus Papers” (HarperCollins, 2006), speculates convincingly that the True Temple located itself at Tell el-Yehoudieh (the “Mound of Judea”), near Cairo, in Egypt. Its priests were “the sons of Zadok”. (“But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from me, shall come near to me to minister to me...” Ezekiel 44: 15)

Solomon's Temple, the original temple, had not been built in Jerusalem, according to Prince Michael of Albany, controversial claimant to the Scottish throne. The original temple was erected in western Arabia, if Prince Michael is correct. (Background: “Kaaba Is The Cornerstone?” http://www.shout.net/~bigred/KaabaCornerstone.html)

The Beloved Disciple

The disciple whom Jesus loved is usually assumed to be John. Others believe the Beloved Disciple was Mary Magdalene. According to Dr. Schonfield, The "disciple whom Jesus loved" is unnamed. It is assumed to be John, but might have been a Jewish priest. The unnamed Beloved Disciple, along with Lazarus, were residents of Jerusalem and not Galileans. The Beloved Disciple enabled Peter to enter the palace of Annas after Jesus had been arrested. Peter was not "in the loop" for key parts of the Passover Plot. Insiders were the Beloved Disciple and Lazarus, but even they were not privy to the overall conspiracy. Jesus used a "need to know" arrangement, with individual followers only told about various aspects of the plan. The Beloved Disciple was the contact man between Jesus and secret sympathizers in the Sanhedrin. Judas Iscariot also was assigned a special role. Joseph of Arimathea is another mystery man: in the Bible, Joseph of Arimathea "enters the story unheralded, and after his task is fulfilled he disappears completely from the New Testament records."

At the Last Supper, there were "fourteen, not thirteen persons, who reclined at the table for the paschal meal." This number included, besides the 12 Apostles, the unnamed Beloved Disciple.

The Passover Plot

Jesus manuevered things so he would be condemned on Sabbath eve. Jesus "could roughly reckon that he would experience crucifixion for not much more than three or four hours, whereas normally the agonies of the crucified lasted for as many days." In accordance with custom, a "dead" Jesus would not remain on the cross over the Sabbath. A drug was administered to Jesus while on the cross which gave Jesus the appearance of premature death. Jesus gave the pre-arranged signal, saying, "I thirst." A sponge, supposedly saturated with vinegar but really with opium and other sedatives, knocked Jesus out. There is, writes Schonfield, "some doubt" as to whether a lance had been thrust into Jesus. Joseph of Arimathea just happened to have a tomb nearby. Otherwise, Jesus would have been thrown into a mass grave. At the first possibile opportunity, Jesus was taken from the tomb and revived. He had "risen from the dead." Disciples began to see Jesus alive and walking around.

But Jesus could only show himself intermittently and at secure locations. The Roman government was becoming a laughingstock, with credible rumors of Jesus having outwitted their authority. Pressure intensified to get Jesus and finish him off. For this reason, Jesus had to flee the Holy Land, together possibly with Mary Magdalene. This is the informed speculation by Conspiracy Nation and others. Dr. Schonfield does not delve into what happened to Jesus after he “rose from the dead.” Escape by Jesus and Mary Magdalene would have been by boat, to the Zadokite Temple in Egypt. From there the trail leads to the south of France (Gaul). Baigent (op. cit.) includes hearsay evidence that Jesus was alive in 45 A.D. Conspiracy Nation is looking into the post-crucifixion scenarios. Look for further updates in future issues.

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