The Second Coming: An Apocalyptic Retrial of Jesus of Nazareth, Based on Biblical and Extra-Biblical Texts

By Victor Sasson

Jesus of Nazareths blasphemous statements, contradicting Gods Torah and the teachings of the Hebrew Prophets, had earned him a place in Gehinnom. His scheme of a Second Coming to smite all those that do not worship him as son of God and mankinds saviour led him to a second trial this time by a Heavenly Sanhedrin. An array of biblical and extra-biblical persons cross-examine him or testify in the case. These include Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Zechariah, Micah, Obadiah, Daniel, Ezra the Scribe, a Pharisee and a Sadducee, Pontius Pilate, Joseph Caiaphas, the DSS Teacher of Righteousness, Paul of Tarsus, and the harbinger of the true Messiah Elijah the Tishbite. With a powerful Attorney defending him in Court, will Jesus repent of his blasphemies and renounce his second coming, or will he choose to face further legal consequences?

The Second Coming is a trial of Jesus of Nazareth conducted in the Heavenly Sphere and backed by Adonai Elohim. A fast-moving courtroom drama, it will appeal to both biblical scholars and laymen alike.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jan 15, 2015
• ISBN: 9781491757499

Victor Sasson

Victor Sasson grew up in Baghdad. He is British-educated, with degrees from the University of London, and a Ph.D. from New York University. A biblical scholar, specialist in Hebrew and Aramaic Epigraphy, he has also published fiction, no-fiction, and poetry. His three verse plays, Shylock of Venice, King Caliban, and Elijah the Tishbite, were published in 2012, 2013, and 2018, respectively.

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Copyright © 2015 Victor Sasson.

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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-5748-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-5749-9 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 01/05/2015

CONTENTS

Preface

PART ONE

The Background

PART TWO

The Year 3001 Common Era

A Saviour Intent on Revenge Killing of Millions

In Three Days’ Time

A Scoffing Satan in the Divine Order

Hell’s Hospitality

Abraham’s Call for Compassionate Justice

The Prophets Chosen to Officiate in the Trial

PART THREE

Preliminary Hearing

Satan volunteers to defend Jesus in the Heavenly Sanhedrin

Formal Charges against Jesus

PART FOUR

Cross-Examination by Prophet Isaiah

Cross-Examination by Prophet Jeremiah

Cross-Examination by Prophet Ezekiel

Cross-Examination by Prophet Hosea

Cross-Examination by Prophet Joel

Cross-Examination by Prophet Amos

Cross-Examination by Prophet Obadiah

Cross-Examination by Prophet Jonah

Cross-Examination by Prophet Micah

Cross-Examination by Prophet Zechariah

Court Testimony of Ezra the Scribe

Cross-Examination by Visionary Daniel

Cross-Examination by the Psalmist

Cross-Examination of Pontius Pilate, Roman Procurator of Judea 26-36 C.E.

Cross-Examination of Joseph Caiaphas, Temple High Priest

Testimonies of a Pharisee and a Sadducee

Testimony of the Teacher of Righteousness

Paul the Apostate and his Useful Idiot – A Cross-Examination

‘You have Heard it Said, but I say Unto You’ — Moses Cross-Examines Jesus

Cross-Examination by Elijah the Prophet

PART FIVE

Summation by the Prosecution

Summation by the Defence

PART SIX

Court Deliberations, Prophet Elijah Recalled, Jesus Repents, Final Verdict

BY VICTOR SASSON

Novels:

DESTINED TO DIE

CONFESSIONS OF A SHEEP FOR SLAUGHTER

DR. BUSH AND MR. HIDE

KING JEHOASH AND THE MYSTERY OF THE

TEMPLE OF SOLOMON INSCRIPTION

THE SECOND COMING

Plays:

THE MARRIAGE OF MAGGIE AND RONNIE

SHYLOCK OF VENICE

KING CALIBAN

Non-Fiction:

ESSAYS FROM OCCUPIED HOLY LAND

MEMOIRS OF A BAGHDAD CHILDHOOD

Dramatic Monologues:

CALIBAN ON LANGUAGE

SHYLOCK OUTSIDE COURT

Preface

Recently I re-read one of Charles Lamb’s essays. His ‘Imperfect Sympathies’ speaks, among other things, about Jews and calls them ‘a piece of stubborn antiquity.’ He continues thus:

‘Old prejudices cling about me … I do not relish the approximation of Jew and Christian, which has become so fashionable … I do not like to see the Church and Synagogue kissing and congeeing in awkward postures of affected civility… I do not understand these half-convertites. Jews christianizing – Christians judaizing – puzzle me.’

Lamb’s words came to my mind when I was ruminating about some books recently written by (Ashkenazi) Jewish scholars in the West who, it is claimed, wish to reclaim Jesus of Nazareth as a true and loyal Jew, and whom we should embrace. Being a native of the Middle East and a descendant of Babylonian Jews in Babylon (very much closer in terms of geography and mental and emotional climate to this Yeshua), I do not understand all of this. In their concentrated form, and being focused on one illusory person – reputed to have been a magician – the so-called ‘new testament’ appears to have some satanic or bewitching effects. Even a prominent novelist, like Norman Mailer, fell under its spell and wrote a biographical novel of Jesus instead of writing a biographical novel of, say, Moses or Isaiah, or Jeremiah.

My own personal experiences have convinced me that Jews do not need to reclaim Jesus - even if he was indeed an observant and loyal Jew. It is Christianity that is the issue here. I have seen and heard enough to convince me of the virulent hatred Christians have for Jews and Judaism. Only recently, I was flatly told by a Taiwanese woman: ‘Jesus was a good man. Why did you kill him?’ I could have answered her in one way or another. I could have said, for instance, that if Jesus was a Jew, then it was our own business what we Jews did with him.

It is for Christian scholars, and Christians in general, who need to change. It is they who need to reclaim Jews and Judaism, not for Jews to reclaim the graven image Yeshu has been turned into. Thus, Daniel Boyarin’s book, The Jewish Gospels will do more harm to Jews and Judaism but will be of real benefit to Christians and Christianity. That is why his book has generated raving reviews from committed Christians, for to unearth the skeletons of ‘Christian’ Judaism (so to speak) can only be most welcome to Christians, but will do nothing to abate the poisonous hatred of the Christian missionary and the preacher, and the Christian man in the street.

Regarding the Vision of Gabriel tablet, I have myself dealt with it in an extended online research article: ‘The Vision of Gabriel and Messiah in Mainstream Judaism and in Christianity’ (which can be accessed, and has been accessed worldwide through my Hebrew and Aramaic blog). I did not submit the article to a scholarly journal as Jewish journals are loath to antagonize Christian scholars for mostly personal reasons; and Christian publications would have rejected it outright for my portrayal of Christianity. For that reason I added some relevant personal comments, something which would have made my essay less attractive to a scholarly publication. I mention this tablet because the dust jacket of Boyarin’s book refers to the New York Times and its article about the discovery of this archaeological text. The article suggests that the idea of a dead and risen Messiah (Mashiah) was well established in Jewish prophetic writings well before the times of Jesus. As I have shown in my study, there is no single mention and no hint of a messiah in the tablet, and the reconstructions made by the scholar (a historian, not an epigrapher) who first dealt with it were speculations. Boyarin himself states in one of his footnotes that the Gabriel Vision is too fragmentary to make such a claim, and this agrees with my own research published in 2009.

In the long run, however, Boyarin’s book will prove to be a defence for ‘Jews for Jesus’, and for Jews to assimilate further. Alas, it does not seem that he is aware of this.

Let me point out that although I am into Hebrew Bible studies, having specialised in epigraphic/archaeological Hebrew and Aramaic texts (mainly literary), I am not into what is known as ‘new testament’ studies. Decades ago when I was a curious young man I looked into this ‘new testament’ and found it not to my liking at all. A fellow Babylonian Jew recently told me he once looked into a copy handed to him by a missionary and found it weird and objectionable. When you grow up on Biblical Hebrew texts, Jewish prayer books, and Sabbath and Festival traditions, and then encounter the ‘new testament’, you find it is all Greek and generally a cheap polemic against the Jewish faith.

I need to make it clear that in this novel I am not interested in the pursuit of the historical Jesus. My interest here is more in the way his believers worship him and the things he is reported to have said. Primarily, I wanted to see how the Heavenly Sanhedrin, composed of Moses and the Hebrew Prophets and other historical persons would have dealt and tackled this man who is worshipped as a god incarnate by Western Europe and other nations they have managed - peaceably or by persecution - to convert.

One thing is clear to me: if Jesus was a true Jew and was literate and steeped in the Prophetic Tradition (as, for instance, Mailer makes him), he would have written his pronouncements in Hebrew or Aramaic. Even Greek would be acceptable to me. But nothing of the sort happened. What we have is a preacher who is wonderfully paraphrasing the sayings of the Hebrew Prophets or the sayings of major Jewish sages, including probably the Pharisees. But I tend to believe that these paraphrases were in fact the work of those who wrote the so-called ‘gospels’ - writers who were versed in Greek literature and in the Hebrew Bible (in translation), not the utterances of an illiterate but charismatic preacher.

One sometimes reads that Jesus and his followers changed the course of world history, as if Western civilization is the only great civilization in the world. This sort of statement reflects Western snobbery and sheer ignorance. For without the Hebrew Bible, Christianity is a mere nothing. The Hebrew sages of old recognised the worth of the Jewish Bible. The Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings, constitute a treasure trove that the thieves of the Gentile world robbed the Jewish People of and claimed it as their own. It is time for the West to let the Hebrew Bible alone. Only then the so-called ‘new’ testament will reveal its stark shallowness. Here is what Nietzsche wrote:

In the Jewish ‘Old Testament’, the book of divine justice, there are men, things and speeches of so grand a style that Greek and Indian literature have nothing to set beside it. One stands in reverence and trembling before these remnants of what man once was …

And

"To have glued this New Testament, a species of rococo taste in every respect, on to the Old Testament to form a single book, as ‘bible’, as ‘the book of books’: that is perhaps the greatest piece of temerity and ‘sin against the spirit’ that literary Europe has on its conscience.’" (Beyond Good and Evil, section 52; translation by R.J. Hollingdale).

Those who claim that Jesus – whether he was responsible or not for the establishment of Christianity - was the most perfect Jew that ever lived are not aware they are insulting all Jews, not to mention Moses and the Hebrew Prophets. They are also miserably ignorant of what the Hebrew prophetic books contain. Jesus is a mere cipher compared to the towering Isaiah and his teachings. Not even Shakespeare comes near to Isaiah in the force and beauty of his poetic powers in his biblical Hebrew oracles. On the whole, Jesus of Nazareth appears to me to be a composite picture, an imaginative portrait of a supposedly divine being (=a graven image) that the Greek and the Roman worlds (=Western Europe) desperately needed.

28th February, 2014

Part One

The Background

2000 BCE – 70 CE

It all began when a certain Abraham, living in Ur of the Chaldees, had a vision. It was a great discovery, and a long-lasting Conversation began between the Jews of the ancient Near East and Adonai Elohim, God.

Then Abraham moved to Canaan and God told him to circumcise himself, which he did. And Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat twelve sons who became twelve tribes. And later there were Hebrew slaves in Egypt and Moses took them out of the House of Bondage, and everyone wandered in the wilderness, heading for the Promised Land. Then Moses went up Mount Sinai and came down with the Torah only to find his faithful worshipping a Golden Calf. And there was a Conquest of Canaan, with Joshua commanding the Sun itself to stand still at Gibeon. And there were the Canaanites, the Philistines, and the Assyrians and Babylonians. And there were wars and deportations, and forced population transfers. The destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem followed by a forced Exile of Judean Jews to Babylonia.

Then a new era dawned with the Greeks and their Hellenic culture and pagan worship, wrecking havoc on Jewish observances and traditions. There was Antiochus Epiphanes, the insane king who could not tolerate Jewish worship, seeing himself as god incarnate. And then the Roman armies occupied the Holy Land. To top it all, there were internal religious and ideological rivalries among the Jews themselves, with Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. All these created a cauldron of flux, of uncertainty, and an urgent desire to see the coming of the long awaited Mashiah – a political and religious leader - to usher in better times for the Jewish people.

Prophet Isaiah spoke of ‘Galilee of the Gentiles’. But the Galilee of Isaiah and the Galilee of first century of the Common Era could not have been the same. It was similar but not the same. Judah and Jerusalem to the south were a little more immune to