Epistle Ki Tavo
Epistle Ki Tavo
John 18:19-40
Recall, Yeshua has been arrested and is now being questioned.
John, continued:
Joh 18:19 The high priest then asked Yeshua of his disciples, and of his doctrine.
Joh 18:20 Yeshua answered him, I spoke openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, and wherever the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing.
Joh 18:21 Why do you ask me? ask them which heard me, what I have said unto them: behold, they know what I said.
The politically appointed Sanhedrin either didn’t really understand his teachings or were fishing for grounds to have him executed, probably the latter.
John, continued:
Joh 18:22 And when he had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by struck Yeshua with the palm of his hand, saying, Do you answer the high priest so?
Joh 18:23 Yeshua answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why do you strike me?
There’s always somebody whose answer for everything is violence. That is not supposed to be our plan. Militancy will not solve the problems of the Tribulation.
John, continued:
Joh 18:24 Now Annas had sent him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest.
Joh 18:25 And Simon Peter stood and warmed himself. They said to him, Are not you also one of his disciples? He denied it, and said, I am not.
Joh 18:26 One of the servants of the high priest, being his kinsman whose ear Peter cut off, said, Did not I see thee in the garden with him?
Joh 18:27 Peter then denied again: and immediately the cock crew.
Poor Keifa. We read in the other gospels that he wept bitterly upon realizing what he had done. But even so, Yeshua never condemns him or removes his place among the talmidim. He made a big mistake – out of fear, under duress – and Yeshua understood. He asked forgiveness and received it. So can we.
John, continued:
Joh 18:28 Then led they Yeshua from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover.
Not all sects observed passover on the same day. Yeshua had already observed Pesach with his talmidim the night before, on what was Wednesday evening that year, the sundown beginning Nisan 14th. This date is the Biblically ordained time to eat the passover, and this is substantiated in the narrative of Moshe at the first passover, where they were specifically told to kill their lambs and to stay indoors and not come out until sunrise, on pain of death. They had to be in their homes all night with the blood on the doorpost to be saved from the angel of death.
Lev 23:5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at evening is YHWH’s Passover. Lev 23:6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto YHWH: seven days you must eat unleavened bread.
On the Hebrew calendar a day always starts the evening before, because the “evening and the morning were the first day,” and the second day, and so on. After sundown on the evening which ends Nisan 14th it is no longer Nisan 14th, and you have missed Passover.
But since Yeshua himself was sacrificed on the morning of the daylight hours of Nisan the 14th – which would have been the daylight hours of Thursday that year – apparently as long as your seder is “between the evenings”, that is, anytime from sundown beginning Nisan 14th to the sundown ending Nisan 14th, it is considered acceptable to Elohim. The sundown beginning Nisan 15th, of course, is the First Convocation of Unleavened Bread. The pharisees, however, sacrificed their lambs late on the 14th and ate their passover seder after sundown on the 15th – which Rabbinic Judaism still does to this day, conflating the two moedim and invalidating their Passover seders.
John, continued:
Joh 18:29 Pilate then went out unto them, and said, What accusation bring you against this man?
Joh 18:30 They answered and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto you.
Joh 18:31 Then said Pilate unto them, Take him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death:
Joh 18:32 That the saying of Yeshua might be fulfilled, which he spoke, signifying what death he should die.
Yeshua warned them several times that the Kingdom was not going to be set up now, and that he would be killed – but they didn’t want to hear that, so they didn’t hear that.
John, continued:
Joh 18:33 Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Yeshua, and said unto him, Are you the King of the Jews?
Joh 18:34 Yeshua answered him, Do you say this thing of your own accord, or did others tell it to you about me?
Joh 18:35 Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you unto me: what have you done?
Joh 18:36 Yeshua answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Judeanss: but now is my kingdom not from here.
Here we see the gnostic beliefs of the writers of the book of John peeping through. Prophecy, of course, is clear that the Messianic Kingdom takes place here on earth, and requires the physical obedience of all the nations, as we saw in the Haftarah portion.
John, continued:
Joh 18:37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Are you a king then? Yeshua answered, You say that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth hears my voice.
Joh 18:38 Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Judeans, and said unto them, I find in him no fault.
No fault that could be prosecuted under Roman law. There was now law against being crazy and thinking you had a kingdom in the sky.
But as has been mentioned previously – there is no record anywhere else of Pilate having an attack of generosity and finding someone “not guilty.” In Josephus and the writings of then-contemporary roman dignitaries we see that Pilate was such as bloodthirsty terror that he crucified thousands of people during the time he ruled Judea and was eventually recalled to Rome and executed by the Emperor for giving the empire a bad name. It’s likely this chapter has been edited or glossed over by later redactors, who wanted to portray Rome as the good guys and “Jews” as the bad guys. However, Jesus and all his followers were themselves Jews – those who opposed him were the Judean politically appointed Roman collaborators, and not for religious reasons. Their positions of power, influence and money were threatened much more than their religious beliefs. Yeshua was hardly the first to teach against the traditions and precedents of the Pharisees.
John, continued:
Joh 18:39 But you have a custom, that I should release unto you one [prisoner] at the passover: will you therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews?
Joh 18:40 Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.
The crowd was full of people planted there by the politically appointed Sanhedrin. We know from reading the gospels that thousands of people loved and followed Yeshua – that’s why he was so dangerous to them in the first place.
It is possible, also, that those in the crowd had become disillusioned with Yeshua’s rather pacifist and spiritual message – it is said by some commentaries that Barabbas was not a robber but a “freedom fighter,” what we would call a terrorist. The crowd may have felt that his brand of salvation would work better than Yeshua’s. There are still those today who are not willing to “turn the other cheek” and “kill them with kindness,” and instead intent to resort to violence when persecutions arise. These plans are doomed to fail.
Next: Kollel Ki Tavo.
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