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by Paul Sumner In the New Testament, the responsibility for the death of Yeshua of Nazareth is placed at the feet of Three Entities. One is the leaders of the religious establishment in Jerusalem. A second is the Roman Empire and its local representatives: Pontius Pilate and Herod. The third agent who ultimately orchestrated ending Yeshua's life is God Himself. Agent 1: Jerusalem The Jewish leaders who opposed Yeshua are typically described as the "elders and chief priests and scribes." They encompass: the Pharisees (the evangelical fundamentalist Orthodox Torah teachers) the Sadducees (the liberal, wealthy, cultured party that controlled the national cathedral—the Jerusalem Temple — the de facto Jewish "vatican," who sold their souls to Rome to preserve their power and status). the Scribes (the copiers or transcribers of the Scripture scrolls). These were yeshiva(seminary)-trained Bible interpreters, exegetes, and theological shepherds — among the most dangerous men on earth because they used the Scriptures to mislead people about God's will. But in the New Testament, the responsibility for Yeshua's execution is never laid at the feet of all Israel, the entire Jewish people. Only those who were directly involved in his rejection and who called for his crucifixion are culpable (Acts 3:12-17). Even then, their culpability is less than that of their leaders, whom they followed. Most important: Israel—in the New Testament—is divided about Yeshua, not unanimously against him. Thousands of Jews believed in him—and do so to this day. For most of history, the Synagogue and Church have joined to conceal this truth: not all Jews have rejected Yeshua. [Read Acts 6:7; 21:20; John 2:23; 7:31; 8:30.] [See the full story: The Myth that All Jews Rejected Jesus.] [Top] Agent 2: Rome (The Gentile World) Yeshua and his disciples also put blame for his murder on the heads of "the Gentiles," the so-called "godless men" (Acts 2:23) — embodied by Rome — whose kingdom he opposed and whose well-oiled machine of Law and Order actually performed his execution. But the Roman soldiers who murdered Yeshua were merely obedient agents of the occupying Roman government, not the entire Gentile world. They were emphatically not representatives of every non-Jew living then or to this day. The anti-Jewish Gentiles of those days are mirrored in today's Jew-hating neo-Nazis, Marxist/Communists, radical Islamists, and Progressive Leftist Atheist intellectuals who inhabit Western universities and liberal governments. And in some Christian institutions, one can hear voices of Marcionic Replacement theology, anti-Israel political views, and advocacy of openly anti-biblical, demeaning sexual and inhumane reproductive nihilism. But these phenomena do not represent the entire Christian world. The Bible, however, categorizes all people as defendants before the divine Judge — both Jew and non-Jew. According to the prophet, the apostle, and Yeshua himself, all of us are responsible for Yeshua's death because of what we've done. The LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon him.... He bore the sin of many. (Isaiah 53:6,12a) God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Messiah died for us. (Romans 5:8) I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. (John 12:47) [Top] Agent 3: "Heaven" — God Himself According to the New Testament, the ultimate power that muscled Yeshua into the hands of all his enemies was God. It was his Plan to do so, according to the Hebrew prophets: "Yeshua the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God…[was] delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God." (Acts 2:22-23) "[These things] God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer." (Acts 3:18) So even though specific human beings are held accountable for their hatred of the Messiah and their plotting to destroy him, their plans fit into the larger Plan. This was the Plan by which God would reverse their evil and turn it into incomprehensible good. God turned Yeshua's demonic execution on Golgotha into a holy Passover ransom that would save anyone who came to the Table of reconciliation to participate. This is the Message of the "stake," the cross, the emblem of horror. This is the ancient Besorah or Good Tidings that can free anyone living then, or right now. Note the final line in Isaiah's description of the Servant whom we all killed: "He interceded for the transgressors." (Isaiah 53:12b) [Top] Supporting Texts Matthew 16:21 From that time Yeshua Messiah began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Matthew 20:18-19 The Son of Man will be delivered up to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him up to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify him, and on the third day he will be raised up. Acts 2:22, 23 [Peter in Jerusalem at Shavuot] Men of Israel, listen to these words: Yeshua the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God ... this [man], delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you fastened to a tree by the hands of godless men and put [him] to death. Acts 2:36 [Peter in Jerusalem at Shavuot] Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Messiah—this Yeshua whom you crucified. Acts 3:12-15, 17-18 [Peter in the Temple portico] Men of Israel, ... the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers has glorified his Servant Yeshua, the one whom you delivered up and disowned in the presence of Pilate. . . . You disowned the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life.... I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Messiah should suffer, he has thus fulfilled. [Top] Acts 4:8-11 [Peter to the Sanhedrin] Rulers and elders of the people, ... let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Yeshua Messiah the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this [healed] man stands here before you in good health. [Yeshua] is the Stone which was rejected by you, the builders. Acts 4:27-28 [The disciples in prayer to God] In this city there were gathered together against your Holy Servant Yeshua, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your purpose predestined to occur. Acts 5:30 [Peter to the Sanhedrin] The God of our fathers raised up Yeshua, whom you had put to death by hanging him on a tree ... a Prince and Savior. Acts 7:51-52 [Stephen to the Sanhedrin] You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. [Top] Acts 10:39 [Peter to people in Caesarea] We are witnesses of all the things he did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. And they also put him to death by hanging him on a tree. Acts 13:26-27, 30 [Paul to the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch] Brethren, sons of Abraham's family, and those among you who fear God, to us the word of this salvation is sent out. For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning him. And though they found no ground for putting him to death, they asked Pilate that he be executed... In spite of all this, "God Raised the Lord" from the dead. [Top]

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