The Gospels as Midrash

[outhouse]

Role of the Sadducees

The religious responsibilities of the Sadducees included the maintenance of the Temple in Jerusalem. Their high social status was reinforced by their priestly responsibilities, as mandated in the Torah. The Priests were responsible for performing sacrifices at the Temple, the primary method of worship in Ancient Israel. This also included presiding over sacrifices on the three festivals of pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Their religious beliefs and social status were mutually reinforcing, as the Priesthood often represented the highest class in Judean society. Sadducees and the priests were not completely synonymous. Cohen points out that "not all priests, high priests, and aristocrats were Sadducees; many were Pharisees, and many were not members of any group at all."[9]

So here I see the complete elimination of the Mishmarot with the above sect.

[Charles Wilson]

Is midrash used to historicize mythology (or write mythology in historical guise) or to mythologize actual history? It seems to me the former, so I am not getting the connection of your theory to midrash.

I am looking to place a Context for the flawed Texts that are given in the NT. I have the slighest, smallest glimpse of what appears to be Priests who survived the Destruction of the Temple and became - evidently with permission of Vespasian (Is Weitzman of value here?) - the first Rabbis. I'm becoming more confident in Zakkai having a part in this. The Priests who remained at the Temple during the Destruction were all killed.

Yavneh, approved by Vespasian, carries a purpose. I don't want to get too conspiratorial here.

So we get to the point where there are stories of a savior/god who was predicted by OT Texts. "Everyone should have seen this stuff..." Yet, we have this savior/god showing up for a Passover the day after Passover.

The Story of Bilgah is, I am convinced, carried in the Gospels as the character "John". What was Bilgah's Error? One fragment suggests that it was a woman of Bilgah who beat her sandals against the Altar. Another suggests that Bilgah was late for an Ordained Function. This lateness forced Jesheshbeab to continue - Double Shifting, as it were - which gave the "Prerogatives of Bilgah" to Jesheshbeab. Presumably, this involved the end products of the sacrifices.

It is barely and I mean barely conceivable that Bilgah would have lost the Sabbath of the week which means that it would have lost the meaning of another day, a High Sabbath, which resulted in the loss of time. The first thought here is that Passover is the day before the High Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

The Day of Atonement had its Fasting Obligation moved so that people did not have to Fast for 2 days in a row. Arrangements were made.

Someone is confused about "Passover", "The Day of Preparation" and "The Feast of Unleavened Bread". I was but I know a little more than I did before. It is extremely difficult to see how a Story that starts with mistaking "Passover" and "The First Day of Unleavened Bread" leads to the death of 3000 at the Passover featuring Bilgah and Immer (and the other Mishmarot Groups) and the Crucifixion 12 years later of a Priest who survived this.

Until you get to Matthew 6: 25 - 31 (RSV):

[25] "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
[26] Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
[27] And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life?
[28] And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin;
[29] yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
[30] But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith?
[31] Therefore do not be anxious, saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall we drink?' or `What shall we wear?'

The Story in front of this should be "The Prodigal Son". The witnesses to the Priest-Who-Survived watch him get Crucified 12 years later. All they can do is ask, "WHY?". They cannot repudiate God. They can only go back to the Priesthood and do what they know to do.

This gives the appearance of a written Story that illustrates something possibly remembered, possibly known. Maybe even History. I don't know if it's Midrash. It's a very long Novel, I know that. It is something that was remade into a New Religion. What was it originally? The Timeline suggests something like a Midrash. The appearance of Yavneh as a School for Survivors, headed by Zakkai points to something. R. Jose stating that Jehoiarib was on Duty at the Destruction of the Temple points to something as well.

CW

[Charles Wilson]

Add to this the Pharisees were also divided between Hellenism and more pious views. So in your shoes I would be looking for a connection between rotating temple shifts of pious Pharisees, and more details of how the Sanhedrin governed.

If you can Prove that Thesis in a Skollerly manner, I will sing and dance at your PhD award ceremony and buy you a 6 oz. Outback Special at the nearest Outback Restaurant - and a drink if it's at 2-for-1 and I can have the 2nd one.

outhouse, if you would understand what I see, take a step in my shoes. The Pharisees are absolutely, positively Hated by the Hasmoneans and by the Mishmarot Priesthood. Hyrcanus 1 gets smeared with a racial smear at a banquet. Queen Salome is smeared by Josephus. Jannaeus. The "Little People" reject this at the Ascension of Archelaus.

Matthew 23: 13 (RSV):

[13] "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in.

Did Mishmarot continue during and after Herod? I do not believe that in any conceivable Universe that the answer would be no. Mishmarot continued through the Destruction of the Temple:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/t04/taa09.htm :

"Whence do we know that the second Temple was also destroyed on the 9th of Abh? We have learned in a Boraitha: "A happy event is credited to the day on which another happy event happened, while a calamity is ascribed to the day when another calamity occurred; and it was said that when the first Temple was destroyed it was on the eve preceding the 9th of Abh, which was also the night at the close of the Sabbath and also the close of the Sabbatical year. The watch at the time was that of Jehoyoreb, and the Levites were chanting in their proper places, at that moment reciting the passage [Psalms, xciv. 23]: "And he will bring back upon them their own injustice, and in their own wickedness will he destroy them"; and they did not have time to end the passage, which concludes, "yea, he will destroy them--the Lord our God," before the enemy entered and took possession of the Temple. This happened also at the destruction of the second Temple..."

That from Rabbi Jose ben Halafta, approx. 80 years after the Destruction of the Temple. If the Mishmarot had been replaced, I think that the early Rabbis would have had something, ANYTHING, to say about it. The Mishmarot Priesthood was championed by the Hasmoneans and the Priests were working in their Duties until the Destruction.

outhouse, if you try to understand what I see then take a chance and look at the evidence and consider it first, please. There will be plenty of time to denounce this as Not Evidence but there is a consistent, wide ranging Story that appears to be there. This Thread is an attempt to see if others see the Intro to the "Last Passover of Jesus" as a real Contradiction or not.

I do not see any connection with Sadducees, and it is safe to say these were everyone's enemy. Their tie would be keeping money flowing to Rome and their own personal wealth running the treasury and I see them the most profitable while oppressing the people. But we also have Pharisees playing on this greed.

After Herod murders everyone in sight, I don't know what was left of the Opposition from the Sadducees. Any insight you have would be welcome.

CW

[EDIT NOTE]: All of this makes the Story of the Ascension of Queen Salome even more incredible. Jannaeus crucifies the Pharisees and slits the throats of the wives and the children in front of those being crucified and then asks Salome to give his body to the Pharisees and act like a Queen when she does it and all will be well. OH, and include the Pharisees in all decision making.

How'd THAT work out?