An international team of archaeologists, led by professors Cassius Herusker and Aaron Schiffmann, working on the outskirts of the historic Jerusalem, came last week across scrolls of papyri from the first half of the first century AD written in Hebrew and Latin and preserved in an extraordinarily good condition. The documents found are – as international agencies were informed yesterday at a press conference in Tel Aviv – the faithful record of the last words by Jesus of Nazareth, called The Christ. These documents are in fact nothing else than a collection of minutes of the trial which condemned Jesus as a heretic, blasphemer and a rebel.
The records on the scrolls have already been compared to the minutes almost exactly 1400 years later of the condemnation trial of Joan of Arc in Rouen from the period February – May 1431. Surprising is the coincidence of charges against both defendants and their style of defence. Both were judged as political rebels and blasphemers, who attributed to themselves actions resulting from a direct intervention by God. Analogies exist in a number of expressions, among others he characterized himself as “Son of God”, and she has used in relation to herself the term “daughter of God.”
The contents of scrolls suggest that, contrary to the popular story in the gospels of the New Testament, the trial of Christ dragged on for at least several weeks. The total length of all texts is in fact larger than all the three so-called “synoptic gospels” (i.e. the gospels according to Mark, Matthew and Luke) combined. The scholars have already established questions the defendant was asked as well as answers given by him.
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Let us imagine this kind of title virtually “screaming” from the headlines and this kind of beginning of a press report or television news. Undoubtedly, this news would become a veritable “bomb”, which would overshadow many local armed conflicts in the world and many terrorist actions. At least for some time Libya, Syria and Iran (as well as Israel …) would disappear from headlines, the military intervention in Afghanistan and the exploits of the government of North Korea would recede into the background.
But something else is also certain: political authorities of individual countries (including Israel and the Vatican) and international institutions would immediately take action because of the person of the defendant and due to the size of the global Christian community, representing a total of about one-third of the world’s population. The authorities most concerned would put their hands on these documents before even one line of text could see the light of day. Israel would like to know whether the texts found could be classified as “anti-Semitic”, that is, whether Jewish characters appearing as witnesses (or in an even more active role …) do not present themselves all too negatively in the records. The world´s Jewish organizations, led by the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith (ADL) in the USA would also mobilize their forces to this end..
The Vatican for its part would first like to see if the answers provided in court by Jesus are not too “heretical”, if they do not affect any dogma accumulated over many centuries and whether they are consistent with the catechism. The Vatican officials would be given a hand by the World Council of Churches, as denominations associated in it also have their dogma, their doctrines and “the foundations of Christian faith.” To this day it does not allow churches among its members if they do not fit with the its dogmas and “foundations”.
While on the one hand, there would be a kind of “stalking game” going on between the Christian Churches and the Jewish side, on the other hand the Christian churches themselves, despite their close cooperation with each other, would also welcome Christ´s every sentence supporting their own doctrine, while being delighted, when His comments debunked any doctrine of other churches. One can imagine that this would not be without humorous situations …
Prominent representatives of Islam, whose followers number a currently estimated 1.6 billion, or 23% of the world’s population (as of 2009), would also show interest in the issue. Governments of peoples dominated by that religion (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Indonesia) would make their desire known that they would wish to send their representatives to supervise the research process. Here and there one would hear voices warning against serious consequences, if the texts disclosed constituted an “insult to Islam” …
The Christian Gnostics and the followers of the great religions of the East, who have no dogmatized views on the Defendant would most likely be reacting relatively calmly to the whole issue…