Another Messiah killed by rabbis: Bar-Kokhba (!)

[Giuseppe]

In hindsight, of course, few would wish to be associated with a failed campaign,
and it is understandable that some would seek ways to distance themselves from such
events in the aftermath of failure. Thus, in a late rabbinic text from the Babylonian
Talmud (b. Sanh. 93b), Bar Kokhba appears before the rabbinic sages and claims to be
the messiah, but the rabbis actually find him to be an imposter and have him killed!
Obviously there is no authentic historical recollection regarding Bar Kokhba in this
anecdote. Instead, as the Babylonian rabbis looked back at Bar Kokhba, who from their 
angle was a false messiah and leader of a failed and misguided revolt, they wrestled with
the issue of how one of their greatest rabbinic sages (R. Akiva) had offered his support
for this “messianic pretender.” As a result, the Babylonian sages polished their heritage
 by claiming that their rabbinic predecessors actually killed Bar Kokhba, thereby putting
an end to a revolt they felt uneasy being associated with (Oppenheimer 1984, 156–57).

(my bold, Jewish Followers of Jesus and the Bar Kokhba Revolt: Re-examining the Christian Sources, Annette Y Reed).

This raises interesting questions. Was the Gospel Jesus invented as a kind of anti-Messiah, assuming for Messiah that adored as such by the Jews, i.e. Bar-Kokhba ?

Could the idea of a Pharisaic Conspiracy against Jesus be derived from a similar rabbinical legend about Bar-Kokhba?

We are said a lot of times that it was not a blasphemy to proclaim himself a Messiah. But in the case of Bar-Kokhba, we see the rabbis declare him guilty of blasphemy, if they kill him!

Therefore, also in this crucial point, Mark can be written only after Bar-Kokhba.

Then the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”
62 Jesus said, “I am. And you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
63 Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and said, “Why do we need other witnesses? 64 You have all heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?”
“Guilty!” they all cried. “He deserves to die!”
65 Then some of them began to spit at him, and they blindfolded him and beat him with their fists. “Prophesy to us,” they jeered. And the guards slapped him as they took him away.

(Mark 14:61-65)

[Giuseppe]

Bar Koziba reigned two and a half years, and then said to the Rabbis, “I am the Messiah”. They answered, “Of the Messiah it is written that he smells and judges (referring to Isaiah 11:2-4); let us see whether he [Bar Koziba] can do so. When they saw that he was unable to judge by the scent, they slew him”

(Talmud, Sanhedrin, 93b)

This seems really the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

[Giuseppe]

When they saw that he was unable to judge by the scent,

...is an allusion to Isaiah 11:4 :

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
    with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked

The same allusion to Isaiah seems to be at work in Mark 14:65 :

65 Then some of them began to spit at him, and they blindfolded him and beat him with their fists. “Prophesy to us,”they jeered. And the guards slapped him as they took him away.

...that was not simply a show of sadism by the guards. A ''blindfolded'' Christ would be able, even so, ''to judge by the scent'' who beat him. It seems a contradiction to what Isaiah predicted about the Messiah.

[Ben C. Smith]

When they saw that he was unable to judge by the scent,

...is an allusion to Isaiah 11:4 :

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
    with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked

I believe it is actually an allusion to Isaiah 11.3, the first word of which is, in Hebrew, והריחו. The Soncino edition of the Talmud has two footnotes which explain:

Raba said: He smells [a man] and judges,¹⁴ as it is written, and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither
reprove after the hearing of his ears, yet with righteousness shall he judge the poor.<sup>15

14</sup> Thereby definitely knowing whether he is guilty or innocent. והריחו is thus derived from ריח reah, smell.
¹⁵ .... Since he uses neither his eyes nor his ears, he must judge through his sense of smell.

[Secret Alias]

ריח is Hebrew http://cal1.cn.huc.edu/showjastrow.php?page=1473 it is related to the familiar word for spirit רוח.

[Ben C. Smith]

ריח is Hebrew http://cal1.cn.huc.edu/showjastrow.php?page=1473 it is related to the familiar word for spirit.

So much so that digitally searching for examples of one will often produce examples of the other.

[Secret Alias]

I suspect that the way God is portrayed in the Pentateuch reacting to the ריח of sacrifices - viz. the Israelites abating his wrath by sweet odors has something to do with the idea here. Maybe I am wrong.

[Ben C. Smith]

I suspect that the way God is portrayed in the Pentateuch reacting to the ריח of sacrifices - viz. the Israelites abating his wrath by sweet odors has something to do with the idea here. Maybe I am wrong.

As the ריח goes upward the רוח comes downward?

This is hardly the only linguistic connection between smell and air (spirit), of course. In English there is a semantic nexus between miasma (bad odor), malaria (literally "bad air"), and the concept of disease (the so-called "miasma theory" of disease).

[Secret Alias]

Tal (who basically appropriated Ben Hayyim's life work unfinished at the time of his death) notes that in Samaritan Aramaic ריח also means wind or spirit https://books.google.com/books?id=6K-9C ... nd&f=false It is likely that the Samaritans preserved a common meaning with Aramaic speaking Jews at the time.

[Secret Alias]

The Samaritan use of the terminology to mean 'grace' is very interesting too. Isaiah often preserves Samaritanisms (or perhaps better - Isaiah and Samaritan sources preserve older traditions) because of its age (ratson = Divine Favour is calculable for Samaritans by Jubilees and Isa. 61. 1 with its mention of proclaiming liberty etc).