Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise (1819-1900), scholar and novelist
http://collections.americanjewisharchiv ... wealth.pdf
jewish and Christian scholarship in Germany, stressed that Jesus
was born a Jew and remained one throughout his life. He was,
Isaac Mayer Wise insisted in 1888, "an enthusiastic and thoroughly
Jewish patriot, who fully understood the questions of his age and
the problems of his people, and felt the invincible desire to solve
them." Wise had by then discarded his earlier doubts as to whether
Jesus existed and had determined that Christianity's founder was
actually a "Pharisean doctor of the Hillel School."
https://www.brandeis.edu/hornstein/sarn ... merica.pdf
It seems that at one time Rabbi Wise had doubts as to whether Jesus existed. His quote, referenced above, from 1880, indicates that he was aware of some connection between the execution of the last King and High Priest of the Jews, Antigonus II Mattathias, and the gospel Jesus crucified story.
That Rabbi Wise later 'discarded his earlier doubts' regarding the gospel Jesus figure in no way discounts the relevance his earlier comment has to an interpretation of the gospel Jesus story and a search for early christian origins.
To seek to discard his quote on the base that he changed his mind regarding the gospel Jesus is shortsighted. Obviously, the quote presents serious questions for a historicist interpretation of the gospel Jesus figure. Consequently, historicists would seek to downplay any relevance Rabbi Wise's comment might have. Instead of such a negative approach perhaps historicists would do well to ask themselves why would Rabbi Wise make such a comment. What was it in the history of the Roman execution of Antigonus that made Rabbi Wise consider that there might be a connection to the gospel Jesus story ?
Below is part of a chart I originally posted to FRDB forum (10 years ago....) The chart references Josephus regarding the Roman execution of Antigonus - and demonstrates how the gospel writers drew upon this Roman execution of a King of the Jews as a model for their Jesus crucifixion story.
Jewish History |
Josephus |
Gospels and Acts. |
---|---|---|
King Antigonus Mattathias II High Priest of the Jews: 4 b.c.e. – 37 b.c.e. Hasmonean Bilingual Coins, Hebrew and Greek. | Antigonus enters Jerusalem: Antigonus himself also bit off Hyrcanus's ears with his own teeth, as he fell down upon his knees to him, that so he might never be able upon any mutation of affairs to take the high priesthood again, for the high priests that officiated were to be complete, and without blemish. War: Book 1.ch.13 | John 18.10; Mark 14.47; Matthew 26.51; Luke 22.50. John and Luke specifying right ear, Mark and Matthew have 'ear'. gJohn stating that Peter cut off the ear of the High Priest's servant. |
Now as winter was going off, Herod marched to Jerusalem, and brought his army to the wall of it; this was the third year since he had been made king at Rome; War: Book 1. ch.17 (37 b.c.).. Herod on his own account, in order to take the government from Antigonus, who was declared an enemy at Rome, and that he might himself be king, according to the decree of the Senate. Antiquities Book 14 ch.16. | gJohn indicates a three year ministry for JC. | |
Cassius Dio: Antigonus. These people Antony entrusted to one Herod to govern, and Antigonus he bound to a cross and flogged,—treatment accorded to no other king by the Romans,—and subsequently slew him. Roman History, Book xlix, c.22 | Then it was that Antigonus, without any regard to his former or to his present fortune, came down from the citadel, and fell at Sosius's feet, who without pitying him at all, upon the change of his condition, laughed at him beyond measure, and called him Antigona. Yet did he not treat him like a woman, or let him go free, but put him into bonds, and kept him in custody.... Sosius ......went away from Jerusalem, leading Antigonus away in bonds to Antony; then did the axe bring him to his end..War: Book 1.ch.18. .. | The soldiers mock Jesus: Mark 15.16-20; Matthew 27:27-31.Jesus flogged: John 19:1; Mark 15:15; Matthew 27:26. JC crucified. Trilingual sign over cross: Aramaic, Latin and Greek. gJohn 19.19-21. JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Other variations: THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS; THE KING OF THE JEWS; THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. |
..and then but Herod was afraid lest Antigonus should be kept in prison [only] by Antony, and that when he was carried to Rome by him, he might get his cause to be heard by the senate, and might demonstrate, as he was himself of the royal blood, and Herod but a private man, that therefore it belonged to his sons however to have the kingdom, on account of the family they were of, in case he had himself offended the Romans by what he had done. Out of Herod's fear of this it was that he, by giving Antony a great deal of money, endeavoured to persuade him to have Antigonus slain. Antiquities: Book 14 ch.16. | Judas betrays JC for 30 pieces of silver. Matthew 27.3. | |
Now when Antony had received Antigonus as his captive, he determined to keep him against his triumph; but when he heard that the nation grew seditious, and that, out of their hatred to Herod, they continued to bear good-will to Antigonus, he resolved to behead him at Antioch, for otherwise the Jews could no way be brought to be quiet. (37 b.c.) Antiquities: Book 15 ch.1. | Acts: 11:16.The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. | |
http://jesuspuzzle.humanists.net/rfset5.htm#Mary
In the gospels, the two Jesus figures -- the human preacher of Q and the supernatural personage of the early epistles who sojourned briefly on Earth as a man, and then, rejected, returned to heaven -- have been fused into one. The Galilean preacher of Q has been given a salvivic death and resurrection, and these have been set not in an unspecified past (as in the Pauline and other early letters), but in a historical context consonant with the date of the Galilean preaching.
https://infidels.org/library/modern/g_a ... lding.html
Doherty acknowledges that historical figures fed into the myth of the gospel Jesus. Wells maintains that his Galilean preacher figure was not crucified. Wells maintains that two Jesus figures were fused into one. In other words; the gospel Jesus figure is a literary composite figure. A composite literary figure allows the historical execution of the last King and High Priest of the Jews to be reflected in the gospel Jesus crucifixion story - as the above chart seeks to demonstrate.
If Wells is correct re a Galilean non crucified preacher figure - then perhaps the Jesus historicist could get their act together and find such a figure. A non crucified Jesus, a messiah figure, living in the first century. The gospel Jesus crucifixion under Pilate is not history - it is allegory, a political allegory. A political allegory that relates to the Roman execution of Antigonus II Mattathias - King and High Priest of the Jews - 40 b.c. to 37 b.c.
<snip>
In what may come to be regarded as one of the more unusual, indeed astonishing, oversights in the history of Qumran scholarship, so far as is known it seems no previous scholar has proposed that Antigonus Mattathias, the last Hasmonean king of Israel, executed by the Romans in 37 BCE, might be the figure underlying the Wicked Priest of Pesher Habakkuk or the doomed ruler of Pesher Nahum. The actual allusion of the figure of these texts, Antigonus Mattathias, remained unseen even though it was always in open view, as obvious as it could be. And in wondering how Antigonus Mattathias was missed in the history of scholarship I include myself, for I too missed this in my 2001 study of Pesher Nahum.
https://bibleinterp.arizona.edu/article ... /dou398018