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Follow-up on my piece 👇 on the killing of Jesus:

The biblical texts referring to Jesus lashing the money changers, overthrowing their tables and driving them out of the temple court in Jerusalem a few days before he was arrested and killed, don't mention at all that the temple was much more than a religious building.

The texts don't mention that the temple also was the largest and most powerful bank in the region.

Neither do they mention that Pontius Pilate most certainly taxed the profits that the high priests made from deposits, loans and money changing.

Therefore, the story about Jesus chasing away the money changers lacks important context.

Directly after his arrest, the high priests held a meeting where they interrogated Jesus, before they led him to Pilate.

The high priests took Jesus to Pilate and asked him to execute the rebel.

According to the gospel of Luke, they said to Pilate:

"He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah, a king.”

It seems likely that "taxes to Caesar" referred to taxes on the temple's banking business, which were paid by the high priests to Pilate on behalf of the Roman empire, and which Jesus directly or indirectly had objected against when he created the ruckus in the temple yard.

However, when Pilate went on to examine Jesus, he didn't mention the subject of taxes at all.

The scriptures also make it seem like Pilate was reluctant to the proposed execution of Jesus.

All of this seems very odd to me.

I suspect that it throughout history has been a great deal of politically motivated editing of these texts.

I believe that the motive for this censorship has been to steer clear of the fact that political control over religion, especially when it comes to the the monotheistic religions of Judaism and Christianity, goes hand in hand with political control of the monetary system.

It's an unholy marriage that stretches a long way back in time, long before Jesus lived.

He demonstrated against this sinful arrangement and was punished accordingly.

And instead of focusing on the evil profiteering of the state and the high priests, today's narrative seems to me to focus a whole lot on Judas the betrayer, who became a useful fall guy.

It's disgusting.

I have no other word for it.

We shouldn't be kept in the dark about these things.

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ETT 1y ago

I enjoyed the novel analysis but the conclusion that there has been a centuries-long politically-motivated censorship of the Bible gives your ideas too much credit.

A more likely explanation would be that the historical context you are alleging is missing is that the biblical authors assumed that info to be known generally, so no need to state the obvious. Afterall, you seemed to be able to deduce these missing facts 2 centuries later using primarily the Biblical text itself.

Another possible explanation would be that the original authors simply didnt intend to convey the ideas you are asserting, ie you're wrong.

Our oldest complete NT manuscripts date to the 300s AD. So if editing/censorship happened, it didnt happen "throughout history." But textual critics have pretty strong arguments refuting editing during period as well.

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Rune Østgård 1y ago

Fair points, you might be right. Info about the coin, the mint, herod, the debt business, deposit service, the profits and possibly some other details I didn't deduce from the gospels, but found them in various articles on the Internet.

But I find it noteworthy and strange that Pilate's and the high priests' economic motives aren't at all reflected in the gospels. It's subjects like blasphemi, Judas' betrayel, and the people freeing Barabas instead of Jesus that comes across as important.

I can't say for sure that someone has messed with the texts, but considering that the result is favorable for the political class and the fact that it's so normal that "winners write the history books" I wouldn't at all be surprised, especially considering how important this specific story is for politics, religion and culture.

ETT 1y ago

"But I find it noteworthy and strange that Pilate's and the high priests' economic motives aren't at all reflected in the gospels."

I think this is where the modern reader can go wrong: we risk imposing our worldview on the ancient writer.

So it'll seem strange that economic motives aren't mentioned only if we presume the authors considered such concepts. But I dont think people thought that way about things back then. Economics as a discipline developed way after the gospel writers...Adam Smith didnt write his wealth of nations stuff until the 1700s I believe.

Im not saying there werent economic motivations throughout history. Im just saying we only started to recognize them over the past few hundred years, so there is no need to jump to a censorship thesis to explain why they arent reflected explicitly in the bible.

Thanks for the stimulating interaction!

Rune Østgård 1y ago

Highly relevant points. But I actually think more people had a good understanding of money then than they have today, and the evils of monerary policy were probably widely understood.