Millions Insulted by Liberals' Use of Jesus Christ/Pontius Pilate Line

Rush Limbaugh ^ | September 12, 2008 | Rush Limbaugh

[yoe]

RUSH: Now, here's Susan Sarandon, and we're going to keep it going: 12, 13, and 14 coming up here. This is Susan Sarandon. Last night on Entertainment Tonight, a reporter asked her what she thought of Sarah Palin.

SARANDON: Jesus was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor. That's all I have to say!

[snip] BRAZILE: Jesus was a community organizer. Pontius Pilate was a governor, and perhaps they should understand the role of a -- a community organizer to help people in distress.

[snip] The real comparison here, if you want to start talking about Jesus was a community organizer, the real model for Barack Obama's community organization efforts was Saul Alinsky, Rules For Radicals.

[snip] Saul Alinsky dedicated his own book to the first-ever community organizer, the first ever real man of dissent, and this man ended up with his own empire. His name was Lucifer. Saul Alinsky has dedicated his book, did dedicate his book, Rules for Radicals, to Satan! The work that Obama's done with ACORN and some of the radical stuff that he actually did, it's no wonder they don't tell this story, and they're trying to paper it over with flowery language about helping downtrodden get back on their feet. That's not at all what he did. He organized to keep the ROTC out of schools. He organized to have kids be taught themselves how to be radicals. The reason that you don't see any of the so-called people that Obama has helped is because they don't want you to see them. They're not people who grew up in the gutter and somehow found religion and found inspiration and motivation and now live in the suburbs, and they have a white picket fence and 2.8 kids. That's not who they are.

[Osage Orange]

According to Obama.....Mary was punished with a baby.

Chew on that awhile....MSM / DBM

[Osage Orange]

Of all people, Donna Brazille?!!?? I thought she most of all had class. I thought wrong.

Where you been hiding?

[truthluva]

According to Obama.....Mary was punished with a baby.

Bull's Eye!!!!!

[Verginius Rufus]

Mark 14:55 says "the chief priests and all the synedrion" (= council).

I recall reading something written by a Jewish scholar who argued that the Sanhedrin did not operate as is described in the Gospels (meeting in the middle of the night). My guess would be that it wasn't a normal meeting of the entire body but a rump session hastily called together by the chief priests, consisting of those members they thought likely to go along, in order to give a cover of legality to the proceedings. Those suspected of a favorable attitude towards Jesus or known to be sticklers for legality wouldn't have been informed of the meeting.

I guess I'm accusing Mark of not being literally accurate in saying "the whole council" but unless someone who attended later joined the followers of Jesus, the Christians would have just known that there was a meeting of the council, and not had precise information on how well-attended the meeting was...which is unimportant for Mark's purpose anyway.

[Mad Dawgg]

"I thought she most of all had class."

I always thought so as well...

or more precisely I always thought she was a "class" sans the "C"and "L"...

[theophilusscribe]

Actually, the Primary fault of His death lies in Scriptures, which indicates it was the sin of the world that demanded a sacrifice for sin.

BINGO! We have a winner!

[Sherman Logan]

I fully agree with what you say. The middle of the night meeting implies more of a kangaroo conspiracy than a full legal trial.

It’s pretty obvious Jesus was wildly popular among the Jewish populace, which scared the cr*p out of some of the religious leaders who saw him as a threat. They got together and had him judicially murdered.

It is probable some of these leaders were among the Pharisee sect. If I rembmer correctly, the Bible says something about Jesus’ execution being the occasion of a rapproachment between the party followers of Herod and the party of the priests (Saducees).

Quite possibly some members of the Pharisees were included this group that congratulated themselves on dodging the Jesus bullet. Equally obviously, others such as Gamaliel and Joseph would have objected strongly to such illegal shenanigans had they been present.

[Sherman Logan]

Paul in Thessalonians refers to the Jews, not to the Pharisees, who were just one of at least a dozen contending religious/political parties among the Jews.

[LtKerst]

SARANDON: Jesus was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor. That’s all I have to say!

Well Jimmah Carter was also a Governor...whats that make him?

does that mean that Jimmy Carter killed Jesus?

no...what it means is Sarandon is a Moron, and a smelly old skank

[Verginius Rufus]

I'm sorry if I came across as overly critical--I don't want to be like Charlie Gibson, looking superciliously over my reading glasses at the person I'm trying to trip up. I've never taken any college courses in the Bible and you're probably way ahead of me in that area and in knowledge of Christian theology.

It's easy for the different groups who were hostile to Jesus to merge together in our minds, and my point was just that it's useful to pay attention to what the text actually says--and for whatever reason, the Pharisees aren't specifically mentioned in the accounts of the passion.

But the basic analogy with Obama still holds--just that it's the chief priests rather than the Pharisees who are playing the role of community organizers (Mark 15.11).

[Verginius Rufus]

Mark 14.1-2 has the chief priests and scribes wanting to put Jesus to death, but being afraid of an uproar from the people--which is why they are delighted when Judas comes and gives them a way to arrest him quietly when there's no crowd around (Mark 14.10-11). The presumption is that most of the people liked Jesus and would have been upset if they saw him being arrested. The mob that called for his death was probably very unrepresentative of the population of Jerusalem, most of whom were at home sleeping while this was going on.

Luke is the only one who mentions Pilate sending Jesus to Herod, and he's the one who says they became friends as a result (23.7-12).

[theophilusscribe]

You are right that the Synopitc Gospels do not specifically say Pharisees, but they do indicate that the ruling Council (the Sanhedrin) was there.

Mark 15:1: "Early in the morning the chief priests with the elders and scribes and the whole Council, immediately held a consultation; and binding Jesus, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pilate."

Luke 22:66: "When it was day, the Council of elders of the people assembled, both chief priests and scribes, and they led Him away to their council chamber."

The Council they are referring to is the Sanhedrin.

SANHEDRIN

(Ssan hee' drihn) The highest Jewish council in the first century. The council had 71 members and was presided over by the high priest. The Sanhedrin included both of the main Jewish parties among its membership. Since the high priest presided, the Sadducean priestly party seems to have predominated; but some leading Pharisees also were members (Acts 5:34; Acts 23:1-9). http://www.studylight.org/dic/hbd/view.cgi?number=T5477

Also, about the arrest, John 18:3 reports: "Judas then, having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons."

So yes, they were there.

[realcleanguy]

Well, it was Caiaphas, the chief Priest, leader of the Pharisees, who conspired with the Saducees to arrest jesus. They used a small detachment from the Roman Guard, along with the “soldiers of the Sanhedrin” to arrest him in the garden. Jesus was taken to Caiaphas first, where He was questioned on Scriptures. Who do you say you are? He was also arrested on the OT rule of 2 witnesses who also conspired to bring charges against Him. The only thing not followed was rules in the Talmud, which the arrest and inquisition in the middle of the night was a direct violation of the law. All arrests were to be open, and to include all leadership. In this case a select few who were threatened by Jesus had the inquisition so others could not protest.

So, no arrest could have happened unless Caiaphas had authorized it. He was the head of the Pharisees, and Chief Priest. The Pharisees held the key to the Law. They alone were the ones who administered the Law, Commandments and controlled the Temple. They arose after the Macabean revolt, about 165BC. They are like the Mullahs of islam

The Sadducees were the aristocrats, or the money power base of Israel at the time. The interesting thing of that time was Caiaphas, who has sat at the head of the Sadducee council, and was also Chief priest and head of the Pharisees. These folks would be like todays Al Zawahri.

[Sherman Logan]

Thanks, you are right.

It was Pilate and Herod who became friends as a result of Jesus’ trial, not the priests and the Herodians.

[Sherman Logan]

Thanks, you are right.

It was Pilate and Herod who became friends as a result of Jesus’ trial, not the priests and the Herodians.

[Sherman Logan]

So, no arrest could have happened unless Caiaphas had authorized it. He was the head of the Pharisees, and Chief Priest. The Pharisees held the key to the Law. They alone were the ones who administered the Law, Commandments and controlled the Temple. They arose after the Macabean revolt, about 165BC. They are like the Mullahs of islam.

Incorrect. The priests were members of the Saducee sect, with Caiphas as High Priest as their official leader.

The Pharisees were much more a "grass roots" movement among the Jewish people. Hence their survival after 70 CE and the destruction of Jerusalem, when the Zealots, Saducees, Herodians and most other Jewish religious/political parties disappeared.

[realcleanguy]

Caiaphas had been both part of the Sanhedrin and a Pharisee. He was Chief Priest at the time of the arrest. Caiaphas has always had the distinction of having served on both. Annas was “president” if you may of the Sanhedrin at the time, although he had been removed as Chief priest. But the guard that arrested Jesus was the Sanhedrin guard.

But there is more to this. the High Priest, Caiaphas, did not limit himself to religious matters clearly accepted by all Jewish factions. Indeed, on many items of faith there was no agreement! Jesus of Nazareth was but one area of conflict.

Caiaphas had to cobble together either a coalition of the three most powerful forces in Jerusalem (Sadducees, Pharisees, Herodians) or he had to cunningly act without the knowledge of, or in the face of, the other factions.

His success in ostracizing Jesus of Nazareth from mainstream Jewish circles is an amazing victory over competing Jewish factions.

[Verginius Rufus]

OK, I stand corrected...I had checked the accounts in the Gospels before my initial post, but hadn't looked back enough in the text of John (should have turned the page).

John 18.3 doesn't actually say that the Pharisees came to the garden where Jesus was arrested, but joins them with the chief priests as the source of Judas' troops. There is similar language in John 7 about an earlier incident, where both the chief priests and Pharisees send men to arrest Jesus.

It does seem a bit peculiar though--apart from these two passages I don't know if there is anything to suggest that the Pharisees had troops under their command. Maybe the troops were officially at the disposal of the chief priests, but John wants to show the Pharisees as joining with them.

[phillyfanatic]

Absolutely correct. Not going to their absurd anti-American flickers would help too. Americans should only support those films which are fair to values, history, and a good story line. Opeders, letter writers, bloggers ought to make it clear that these Hollywood flackers for liberalism have as much cred as their hero , Moore.

[theophilusscribe]

Interesting question. John 18:12 says it was a Roman cohort. I don’t know that they were under orders from the Sanhedrin (or Pharisees or Sadducees, etc.), but were responding to their reports of a violation of the law? I don’t know. It would be interesting to look into.