What the Bible Tells Me So: Symbols and Reality

[NEWater040]

The symbol of Jesus as a savior to mankind is being reverberated by its biblical significance, more so than its historical accuracy. This is not to claim that the life story of Jesus in biblical context is historically inaccurate; instead, it highlights the iconic representation that Jesus holds, which will change the way Man views Jesus as well as religion on the whole in the years, centuries, and millennia to come.

What is the difference betwixt symbolism and the historical, which could seem so similar, and even more so, be regarded as one and the same by hundreds of millions of people the world over? In this paper, I will attempt to draw a single pertinent example of perceived scriptural truths that possesses vast popular support and belief, as opposed to painstakingly gathered historical evidence, and their impact upon us all.

As Clifford Geertz in The Interpretation of Cultures puts it fittingly, he defines religion as:

(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.

How do these wonderful symbols purportedly work their powerful magic across Man? Consider this hypothetical situation: a new high school is opened to honor of the memory of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Fronting the main campus building is a large, steel statue depicting the popular image of Lincoln garbed in suit and bowtie, ever donning his iconic Lincoln top hat, and a slave in a supine position before him. Armed with nothing but a compassionate smile and a sledgehammer lifted over his head, he seems to have himself ready to break open the shackles that keep the unfortunate slave bonded to unindentured servitude.

Some may argue that the statue, while utterly flattering to Lincoln’s memory is unfitting, because it did not portray him historically. It was never recorded, be it in image or the written word that Lincoln had carried out such a physical act, and therefore this statue was untrue. It might encourage this school’s future students to jump into conclusions without first ensuring the full validity of the facts.

Yet, some may come into the defense of this statue, claiming that the statue was very fitting to Lincoln’s memory because of his lifetime accomplishment to set the United States off on the long road to racial equality by legislating the state’s recognition of the slave’s intrinsic worth as a human being. It was not particularly what Lincoln truly did physically that mattered, but the fact that Lincoln, as a symbol set an example for the myriad generations to come was important.

[NEWater040]

Here we come to the constant hemming and hawing of many Christians and other people hailing with creeds of the Book claiming that everything recorded within their Scripture was historically and absolutely true, and many atheists and skeptics on the other side claiming that it is not, that the bible is fiction and nothing more than an elaborate collection of high fantasy tales. What is true, and what is false?

Fortunately for Christians, not much has to be historically proven for them in this present day in order to continue to have faith in what they believe in. The narrative of the four Gospels in the New Testament of the Bible is so independently strong, consistent with one another and looking somewhat consistent to the untrained eye of the amateur historian, there is little wonder that there are so many believers who may react vehemently to the slightest hint or tease of an idea that what they believe in may not be so historically accurate, after all.

To cite this one incident in the New Testament, there is a rather curious account of Pontius Pilate, the famous Roman governor of Judea who supposedly found no fault in a Jesus that was arrested and put before him. The Gospels of the New Testament paint Pilate as a completely just and fair Roman governor sensitive to Hebrew traditions and sensibilities. To quote Mark 15:6 – 15:

Now at the festival he used to release a prisoner for them, anyone for whom they asked. Now a man called Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder during the insurrection. So the crowd came and began to ask Pilate to do for them according to his custom. Then he answered them, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” For he realized that it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed him over. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead. Pilate spoke to them again, “Then what do you wish me to do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” They shouted back, “Crucify him!” Pilate asked them, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him!” So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them, and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.

There are several unfortunate problems with this account. The first and foremost problem lies in the fact that Pilate was historically proven to show no regard for Jewish religious sensitivities, and did not hesitate to use swift and brutal martial force in the form of multiple Roman legions to quell resistances and insurrections amongst the Jewish peasantry. To illustrate this, a group of Samaritans who attempted to partake in a Moses-like re-enactment by a trek up Mount Gerizim, where Moses supposedly left behind sacred vessels with which the Samaritans could hope to fight against the Romans, in the hope to free themselves of Roman occupation as their ancestors did with the Egyptians gathered at a village named Tirathana, and when Pilate heard of such an incident, I quote the Antiquities 18.85 – 87 in the incident of the Samaritan Prophet:

“…Pilate blocked their projected route up the mountain with a detachment of cavalry and heavy-armed infantry, who in the encounter with the firstcomers in the village slew some in a pitched battle and put the others to flight. Many prisoners were taken, of whom Pilate put to death the principal leaders and those who were most influential..

Secondly, it is difficult to imagine the authors of the Gospels – Jesus’ apostles – to have had a first-hand account of what had transpired. Jesus was arrested as a peasant rabble rouser who tried to block the collection of taxes for Rome, which was a capital crime during that period. To make things worse for Jesus; according to Luke 19:1 – 9, he apparently managed to influence Zacchaeus, a “chief tax collector” in Jericho to resign and give his riches to the poor. This poses a problem, as Jericho was directly under Pilate’s taxation jurisdiction, and such a severe crime worthy of capital punishment would not have easily escaped Pilate’s attention. At the time of Jesus’ arrest, all of his disciplines ran away fearing for their lives, save for Judas who betrayed him to inform on Jesus to the Jewish High Priests. To go back to the quoted tax by Mark in Page 3, it could not have been possible for Pilate to practice any form of open amnesty during a time such as the Passover Festival. It is noted, in detailed Roman records that typical Roman governors treated crucified prisoners during festival periods by postponing the execution until after the festival, or allow the burial of the crucified by his or her family.

[NEWater040]

Now that we have established that Pilate’s alleged meek compliance to a shouting mob, and his alleged sensitivities to Jewish customs are most likely a work of fiction by Mark, we have to find out: for what reason did Mark partake in this kind of Scriptural fiction?

His created narrative about Jerusalem choosing Barabbas, a common armed rebel over Jesus characterizes his perceived fate of Jerusalem, and in doing so, his excerpt in Page 3 is noted to be one of symbolic dramatization, or in other words, prophecy fulfillment for the sake of it to lend credence to Jesus’ existence.

For the historical Jesus was but a peasant nobody in the typical Roman eyes, just another rabble rouser with radical social ideas that has gained enough attention within Judea to attract also, the attention of the local Jewish and Roman authorities to put him down. It was most likely that the Romans would have merely done away with someone like Jesus by the manner of crucifixion without any manner of official record, or even to have a governor so much as to take notice of Jesus to hammer a notice of “Jesus of Nazereth – King of the Jews” on his cross. In attempting to fulfill prophecy, Mark created this symbol to lend Jesus some manner of exceptionism and significance to brand him as the prophesized Messiah.

What have the implications been, behind this one incident of Pilate heeding the demands of the gathered Jews to crucify Jesus as a symbol? One of the most tragic and unfortunate outcomes in the coming centuries and millennia, was anti-Semitism. It boiled for centuries at first, against Jews in European Christendom because Mark’s account in Page 3, which became widely accepted historical truth by then, gave justification to the abusive treatment of Jews because of their perceived “pride over Christ” and because they demanded Jesus to be slain, “Christ-killers”, and were ultimately, unbelievers. Very popular and well-known examples of Mark-justified anti-Semitism reside in the fictional, such as portrayal of Shylock the Jewish Moneylender in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice during the Renaissance period, and its horrific nonfictional manifestation in the Holocaust in the early 20th century.

Even if it could be completely proven with utterly undeniable historical facts that the biblical Pilate incident did not exist, and disseminated popularly throughout the world in this present day, such a concept in Christians cannot be easily erased, because it is a standard assumption amongst Christians that all that is said in the Bible is absolutely true where symbol and history meld for them, and to actively doubt that even one incident did not historically happen, threatens to destroy the entire chain that is Jesus’ exceptional lifetime as a Messiah on earth and severely diminish the belief of the average Christian. But, with this flawed perception to exist, even if outright, active anti-Semitism is not seen in this 21st century with the exception of pockets of immature skinhead movements, the author here can say with confidence that, I, am also one of the affected. Even if I had categorically rejected the Christian faith more than half a decade ago, I still am unable to shake away the passive, chiding anti-Semitism in me, that causes me to think of “the over-proud killers of Christ” every time the thought of Jews appear in my mind, be it in speech or contemplation.

[The_Splurd]

tl;dr;

[Chengyuan79]

Nice read, I must say. I have watched similar documentaries from the Discovery Channel too, on how the Roman Empire actually uses Christianity to control the masses, together with the cute policy of Bread and Circus.

Esp after conquering Greece, a land that worships pagan gods, the Roman Empire finds it difficult to control its fierce people. Christianity is chosen as one of the tools to use, since it has a nature to propagate and spread. It must be said that the emperor is almost worshipped as a demi-god too, so it becomes something like worshipping the emperor in a ... well, strange way.

This explains why Christianity is so widespread in the European countries. The Roman Empire was that big, you know ...

Dont flame me please, I just said what I saw in the documentary~!

Still, NEWater friend, you may wanna consider the feelings of our fellow Christian readers. IMHumbleO, and esp that you acknowledged that they are really devoted to their religion, its a bold writing, to say the least (even though you are mostly correct.)

[lostsouls]

Durrrrrrrrrrr............

[gurrybear]

A lesson in Biblical studies?

[Lucifier78]

It's good to see people discussing religion objectively. That's nothing sacred about it to be hush hush about. It's just another thinking of humanity. While science, politics, economics, etc are been widely debated openly. Religion should not be given special "treatment".