Is the New Testament Accurate and Reliable? Archaeology?, page 9

Hi Roger:

Ref: my statement:

NEOAMADEUS: "Also if you’ll recall, Shimeon bar Koseva was also called “ho Christos”…”

ROGER PEARSE: "I know this gets said, but I don't know what the source for this statement is. Any idea? "

NEOAMADEUS:

[cf: Matt 24:5

"For many shall come in my name, saying, I am the "Christ" and shall deceive the Many..."

cf: Matt 24:24

"For there shall arise in that day many false "Christs", and false prophets, which shall show forth great signs and wonders in order that they may lead astray the Many and attempt to deceive the Elect Ones ["as if that were possible"].

see also Luke 17:23 etc.

Actually, we might be splitting hairs here, but to answer your question, I was thinking of Shimeon Bar-Kokhba who was regarded as "Ho Christos (=Basileios ho Christos, "King Messiah", or Melekh-Meshiach) by none other than the great Rabbi Akiva (c. AD 55 to c. AD 135-- R. Akiva and many of his leading his followers spoke/wrote Greek as well as Hebrew-Aramaic like most of the generation following Rabban Gamaliel, see Sotah 49b in the BabTalmud) a cause for which he gave his life-- as you know he was killed during the 2nd Failed Jewish Messianic Revolt against Rome.

But R. Akiva's positive identification of Bar Kokhba with "King Messiah" (after witnessing the ballast miracle) was widely criticised by many of his contemporary Jews, many of whom were getting tired of so many Christs appearing and failing to overthrow the Romans and promising to introduce the restored Daviddic Kingdom of God..."in the last days..."

(see: Lamentations Rabba for a taste of this identification with a non-Jesian Messiah-Christ in the BabTalmud)

Akiva’s post Jewish Failed 1st Revolt generation era Jews (i.e. roughly around the time of Suetonius writing about "Chrestus" in c. AD 120) were certainly conversant with the title “Christos” in Greek---which for most of them meant “King Messiah” (i.e. a political figure) who was some day going to appear and “really overthrow” the Roman yoke, this time once and for all---curiously the messianic hope did not die after AD 66-72 but again reared its ugly head c. 134-136 AD on the 200th anniversary of Pompey’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem in BC 63.

As we have seen, Jews living in the Diaspora (i.e. outside Palestine) since the time of Alexander the Great (c. 331 BC) in fact began to lose their desire to communicate in Hebrew/Aramaic in everyday speech and certainly by 250 BC began to adopt koine Greek (the lingua franca of the larger Hellenistic world) as their main language--which was one of the main reasons for the emergence of the Greek Septuaginta LXX translation of the Torah and other Hebrew writings being produced (BC 250 to BC 100) ---i.e. for weekly use in Greek speaking Jewish synagogues throughout the Roman empire so that the Diaspora Jews could listen to their scriptures being read in the diaspora synagogues--since they could no longer understand the texts in Hebrew.

I suppose we could also mention Philo of Alexandria, a contemporary Greek speaking diaspora Jew of the time of the Suetonius’ “Chrestus-riot” in Rome (AD 49/50) and the expulsion of the Jews immediately afterwards, as does Saul of Tarsus in Cilicia (another contemporary of the "Chrestus Riot") whose writings are of course preserved in koine Greek in the NTl---both of these “Diaspora Jews” referring to a future "Messiah" figure of Israel in Greek terms, e.g. “Ho Christos” or "Basileius ho Christos," King Messiah etc.).

Also a good deal of the Dead sea scroll correspondence (especially the Bar Kokhba correspondence written during the 2nd Revolt) was written in Greek (i.e. fragments of the later non Qumran-caves type material) such as those found at Wadi Muraba'at etc where the term "Christos" (=Christ) was used (as with the LXX) for "Meshiach/Messiah"...

R. Yehudah HaNasi, (R. “Rabbi Judah the Prince”) another “royal” Daviddic leader active under the post 2nd Revolt Roman occupation around AD 170, having been born according to legend on the day that R. Akiva died during the 2nd Revolt was also fluent in Greek which helped him communicate with the Roman authorities.

He even encouraged the few remaining Jewish families still resident in the Galilee after the two humiliatingly failed coup attempts (1st failed Revolt=AD 66-72 and the 2nd Failed Revolt =AD 134-136) that no longer spoke Hebrew or Aramaic should consider Greek as the official language of the country…

So the term "Christos" seems to have ben a widely understood Messianic concept among 1st and 2nd century AD Jews especially in the Diaspora---and one which would have understood by Jewish Messianic groups rioting in Rome as well.

So we are certainly not surprised to hear that Greek terms such as "Christos" or "Chrestos" etc. were being bandied about in connexion with Diaspora Messianic Jews even in Rome...

Since Suetonius (writing in c. 120 AD---some 80 years after the event being described) stated that (presumably Greek speaking) Jews were rioting in Rome c. AD 49/50 at the instigation of “Chrestus”---the question of the day is... whether (in fact) he meant “Christos”, the Greek for “Messiah” ---or not.

But it does seem (from the context in the Latin text) that he is assuming that this "Chrestus" figure, whoever he meant, was STILL LIVING AND BREATHING during the time of Claudius, and able to lead riots among the Jews in Rome ("at the instigation of Chrestus") and not necesarily referring to a specific dead/failed Daviddic Messiah figure of the past (e.g. R. Yehoshua bar Yosef the Galilean aka, "Jesus of Nazareth" who was executed by crucifixion as a seditionist in c. AD 36 during the reign of Tiberius some 15 years earlier.).

It all goes back to the frequent use of "Christos" as a generic title for the Messiah figure in antiquity which could be applied to more than one person---and not a specific proper name of a single exact individual, especially in the 1st & 2nd centuries AD during the Roman occpation of Judaea (especially outside of the more narrowly focussed Jesian church circles)----which is news to most modern "Christians" today who have a tendency to regard the term "Christ" as ALWAYS referring to a single historical individual (R. Yehoshua bar Yosef the Galilean, c. BC 12 to c. AD 36, aka "Jesus")...

There are many other examples of non Jesian Messiah/Christ figures in antiquity , but these should be enough to get the point across that Suetonius' "Chrestus" does not necessarily mean what we mean today by "Jesus" ....

Clear as mud?

[edit on 15-9-2005 by NEOAMADEUS]