Christ Conspiracy_ The Greatest Story Ever Sold - Acharya S [125]
The fact that the whole judicial process took place in the middle of the night shows its unhistorical character. The exigencies of drama are responsible for hunting up "false witnesses" throughout Jerusalem in the dead of night. . . . The Crucifixion and Resurrection scenes, even the final appearance in Galilee, are set forth in Matthew as they would be represented on a stage. The gospel ends abruptly with the words of the risen Lord. Where the play ends, the narrative ends.74
Carpenter says:
If anyone will read, for instance, in the four Gospels, the events of the night preceding the crucifixion and reckon the time which they would necessarily have taken to enact-the Last Supper, the agony in the Garden, the betrayal by Judas, the hauling before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, and then before Pilate in the Hall of Judgment . . . then-in Luke-the interposed visit to Herod, and the return to Pilate; Pilate's speeches and washing of hands before the crowd; then the scourging and the mocking and the arraying of Jesus in purple robe as a king; then the preparation of a Cross and the long and painful journey to Golgotha; and finally the Crucifixion at sunrise-he will see-as has often been pointed out-that the whole story is physically impossible. As a record of actual events the story is impossible; but as a record or series of notes derived from the witnessing of a "mystery-play"-and such plays with very similar incidents were common enough in antiquity in connection with cults of a dying Savior, it very likely is true (one can see the very dramatic character of the incidents: the washing of hands, the threefold denial by Peter, the purple robe and crown of thorns, and so forth); and as such it is now accepted by many well-qualified authorities.75
And Dujardin concurs:
The improbabilities of the accounts in the gospels are transparent . . . let us note only that Jesus is arrested, arraigned before two courts, and executed in the space of a few hours. The Jewish tribunal sits during the night, and this very night is the night of a religious feast, an absurdity which of itself proves how far the writer was from the events and place about which he wrote. No custom is respected; the Sabbath for instance, is again and again violated, and Jewish law and custom are ignored. As for Pilate, he is an inconceivable caricature of a Roman magistrate.
Thus, Christ's Passion is indeed a play, with its condensed time-frame, stage directions and ritualistic lines.
"Let His Blood Be Upon Us and Our Children"
As stated, the blood of the scapegoat was sprinkled upon the congregation or audience of the play, who would cry, "Let his blood be upon us and our children," a standard play and ritual line that was designed to ensure future fertility and the continuation of life. This ritual is reflected at Exodus 24:8, when Moses throws the oxen blood on the people to seal the Lord's covenant with them and was passed down in the Christian doctrine of being "washed in the blood of the Lamb of God." It is also displayed in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the priests have even developed a "technology" to emulate the sprinkling of the blood.
Golgotha, "Place of the Skulls"
The site where Jesus is crucified is called Golgotha or Calvary, which is the Latin for "place of bare skulls." Walker relates:
There were many Middle-Eastern peoples whose habit it was to preserve skulls of the dead for later necromantic consultation, especially the skulls of sacred kings. Their place of sacrifice called Golgotha, alleged scene of Jesus's crucifixion, meant "the place of skulls."76
According to Doane, the word Golgotha does not appear in Jewish literature, nor is there any evidence of such a place near Jerusalem. As Dujardin states:
As in the case of Nazareth, no trace of [Golgotha] is to be found prior to the gospels. This is inexplicable, for the story places Golgotha at the gates of Jerusalem . . . These considerations