The DeConstruction of the New Testament

In the historical-critical method the events of each Gospel are stacked up beside each other and compared as to their content. How are they similar? How are they different? This is also called the horizontal method as opposed to the vertical method in which a book is read in a devotional way before going on to the next book. I must say, though, that there are hundreds of ways of studying the Bible. The event after the Last Supper and the Initiation of the Eucharist (which was enacted only in a couple of books) is the agony in the garden. I don’t know why it is traditionally called the Garden of Gesthemane because the Mt. of Olives is mentioned in all three Synoptic Gospels. John doesn’t put a name to the place; he only says it’s across the Kidron Valley. From where? Jesus goes off to pray and sweats bullets-no, blood, and finds his 3 favorite disciples asleep 3 times when they are supposed to be awake and praying. The number 3 comes up the Gospels too many times to count. It has many meanings, too many for this short blog. Then Jesus is arrested. The “Kiss of Death” as a saying must have come from the kiss Judas gave Jesus to tell the soldiers whom to arrest. According to the Gospel, Jesus has varying reactions or no reaction at all in Mark. Judas doesn’t kiss Jesus in John; he merely points him out to the soldiers. Peter took his sword and cut the ear off the high priest’s servant, and John adds the tidbit that the man’s name was Malchus. John has other very interesting information, too. When asked, Jesus admits he is ‘Jesus the Nazorean’ adding also “I AM,” quoting Yahweh, the Supreme God of the Jews. When he said that, the Jewish guards turned and fell to the ground (although the text says “all”, so I’m guessing here).

Some scholars think that Judas was not a true historical person; he was only put in the Gospels to fill a function, that of betraying Jesus (somebody had to do it, right?) It wasn’t as though Jesus’ perfection didn’t stand out for all to see. In Luke it’s a bystander who cuts the ear off the high priest’s servant, who is not named. Jesus doesn’t react to Judas because the thugs have immediately grabbed him and he is reacting to that: “Have you came out as against a robber, with swords and clubs, to seize me?!”

In Matthew Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss, to which Jesus reacts, saying, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?!” Judas deeply regrets what he has done and tries to give the 30 pieces of silver back to the priests, but they can’t take blood money, so they buy a plot of land and use it for a cemetery for foreigners. The field is called Field of Blood. Judas goes and hangs himself.

In John’s Gospel, again, there is no Judas kiss; Judas merely leads the thugs to where they find Jesus. When Jesus is before the Sanhedrin, there is an interesting remark by Ciaiphas, the high priest. He “counseled the Jews that it was better that one man should die than the people.” (18:14) That remark opens a real can of worms! According to the Urantia Book, Jesus (Michael) came to 7 planets to become sovereign God of his universe, not to be a sacrifice for Humanity’s sins. But the Jewish religion had a long tradition of placing their sins on an animal and sacrificing that animal. Before that, they sacrificed humans. But they were probably one of the first tribes to stop sacrificing humans. Nonetheless, Christian dogma says Christ died for our sins, no matter how wrongheaded that is. And humans never needed saving, anyway. We are perfect as we are-we have many defects, but we don’t have sins. John says nothing more about Judas.

Luke saved his description of the aftermath for his second book, the Acts of the Apostles. The arrest is In Luke’s Gospel, but in Acts Peter gets up before a council and announces that “Judas bought a parcel of land with the wages of his iniquity and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his insides spilled out.” (1:18). That is a perfect ending!