The last “prophecy” also tied to D’varim / Deuteronomy 21 (actually 22-23), and here it is again. “When a man is legally sentenced to death and executed, you must then hang him on a gallows. However, you may not allow his body to remain on the gallows overnight, but you must bury it on the same day. Since a person who has been hanged is a curse to G-d (The word אלהים in D'varim / Deuteronomy 21:23, translated here as "G-d" could refer to human judges, not G-d. The meaning of the verse is more likely referring to the natural human reaction of people seeing a corpse hanging from a gibbet, which is to curse the judges who condemned him to death. It probably has nothing to do with a "curse against G-d", but this is the translation found in the Judaica Press translation), you must not [let it] defile the land that G-d your L-rd is giving you as a heritage.” D’varim / Deuteronomy 21:22-23. Once more we see the list maker using a non-prophetic passage and stating it is a prophecy. This passage speaks of how the body of an executed man is to be handled. Very few people were ever executed under Jewish law, but those who were would all have been said to "fulfill" this prophecy (because it is part of how the sentence was conducted, it is NOT a prophecy). Nowhere in the Christian bible are we told that Jesus' body hung on a tree as per D’varim / Deuteronomy 21:22-23. D’varim / Deuteronomy 21:22-23 is speaking of a gallows, not a tree (see the translation in the first paragraph). The Rambam specifically says that a tree that is still growing was not to exhibit the corpse of an executed criminal. The body was suspended from, together with its projecting beam, had to be uprooted and buried with him so that people shouldn't say זה העץ שנתלה עליו פלוני ("That's the post so-and-so was hung from") -- see Mishneh Torah, Sanhedrin 15:9. The Rambam also wrote that only the bodies of a מדגף (reviler, blasphemer) or an עובד עבדה זרה (an idolater) had to be exhibited -- not all executed criminals. When was Jesus' dead body hung from a gallows? If D’varim / Deuteronomy 21:22-23. were about Jesus how many missionaries are willing to accept the fact that Jesus was cursed by G-d? "a person who has been hanged is a curse to G-d." Tying Jesus to this passage = Jesus is cursed by G-d. D’varim / Deuteronomy 21:22-23 is not a prophecy -- it is speaking of any man who is legally sentenced to death by a Jewish court (which was not the case with Jesus as the Jews no longer had the ability to pass a death sentence by 33 CE). Clearly this passage does not fit Jesus. The legal power of the Sanhedrin to pass a death penalty (which was so rare only one in 70 years occurred) was taken away by the Romans when Archelous was banished in 6 CE. In year 6 of the common era (CE) the Sanhedrin lost the ability to try death penalty cases -- that power was given to the puppet Roman procurator. See Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book 2, chapter 8, quote "Judea was reduced into a province, and Caponius, one of the Equestrian order of the Romans, was sent as a procurator, having the power of life and death put into his hands by Caesar!" Thus by the time of Jesus execution the power of life and death was given to the Roman procurator (in this case Pontius Pilate) – the Jews had no power to pass a death sentence. Although the Christian bible portrays Pilate in a good light (as if he did not want to execute Jesus) history paints a very different picture of Pilate. In Josephus' "War of the Jews" (2.175-177), written in the first century of the common era, we learn that Pilate had soldiers, dressed as civilians, enter a crowd of Jews and kill many of them. ידידיה הכהן / Yedidia HaKohen (Jedediah the Priest) also known as Philo wrote of Pilate: "his venality, his violence, his thefts, his assaults, his abusive behavior, his frequent executions of untried prisoners, and his endless savage ferocity” (Gaium 302, circa 40 CE). Philo also wrote of Pilate that he "was a man of inflexible, stubborn, and cruel disposition." (Embassy 38:299-305 (Smallwood translation) circa 40 CE). Ergo the Christian bible version of Pilate is at great variance with the actual historical reality. Pilate was more than willing to attack and kill Jews with little to no pity. His behavior was so horrid that Pilate was recalled by Rome after he was said to have slaughtered thousands of Samaritan pilgrims. So, if Jesus existed and if he was crucified by Rome this was done by the orders of the Romans. Pilate was highly unlikely to be swayed by Jewish arguments to either save the man or kill him -- given historical details about his governing of the land. The Christian bible says a Jewish court met to condemn Jesus to death – but this is not possibly true. A death penalty could only be handed down in Jewish Law by a Minor Sanhedrin consisting of 23 Judges, sitting in the לִשְׁכַּת הַגָּזִית / lishkat hagazit (“Chamber of Hewn Stone”) located in the Temple. This chamber was destroyed around 30 CE – meaning that could not possibly have been condemned to death by the Sanhedrin. The trial of Jesus as described in the Christian bible is a total impossibility. There are other reasons the story of Jesus’ condemnation by the Jewish court as portrayed in the Christian bible is false – beside the fact that both by Jewish law and Roman law the Jews had no authority to pass a sentence of death.
The Jews didn't have the authority to pass a death sentence and the "trial" as portrayed in the GT is nothing but a farce. It is akin to thinking the United States Supreme court would meet in Dick Cheney's house with Cheney acting as the head of the court. The executed criminal had his dead body was hung from a tree during that day (again this was not done with Jesus, who was supposedly killed by the Roman method of crucifixion. However, when Jesus was dead the Christian bible states that his body was buried – not hung on a tree). . . The body is taken down and buried before nightfall – again, not applicable to Jesus since his dead body was not hung on a tree post-death to begin with. So what does Galatians 3:10-13 say? “For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before G-d, because “the righteous will live by faith.” The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.” (Jesus) redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” Quite a lot being said there. Galatians 3:13 begins, "(Jesus) has redeemed us from the curse of the Law..." Is the Torah (what Galatians calls “the law”) a curse? The statement is false. The Torah is a blessing, not a curse. “(Torah) is a tree of life to those who take hold of it, and those who support it are fortunate." (Mishlei / Proverbs 3:18). The mitzvot (commandments) are not a curse, they are a blessing. The mitzvot do not restrict our lives – they enhance them, allowing us to live on a holier life, closer to G-d. Galatians seems to view the commandments of the Torah as something we just have to do in order to get our just reward in the World to Come. Thus Jesus came and took away the “curse.” The focus of Judaism and of Torah is that it is an instruction book on how to live a better life -- of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong. G-d gave us the so that we could enjoy olam hazeh, this world. Vayikra / Leviticus 18:5 says, “Keep My decrees and laws so that a person may do them and live by them.” Jesus could not have taken away the joy of the mitzvot, because the T’nach tells us that they are eternal – and that we will observe them in the time of the true messiah. Ergo the anonymous author of Galatians is distorting (changing) the eternal words of G-d in His Torah. “And I shall give them one heart, and shall put a new spirit within them. And I shall take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances, and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their HaShem.” (Yechezkel / Ezekiel 11:19-20). “My servant David (the messiah) will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees.” (Yechezkel / Ezekiel 37:24) The commentaries on this verse ask, what does “vachai bahem” mean – that a person shall do the commandments and “live by them”? It means that the Torah was given to us to enable us to live optimally in this world and to derive the maximum joy out of it. The mitzvot are not only about what is right and wrong, and receiving reward in the World to Come. Rather, G-d structured the world in such a way that through the mitzvot we can enjoy this world to the fullest. Galatians 3:13 also misquotes the Torah when it says “it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” Only executed criminals were hung on a tree (not a pole).” After an executed man is put to death, he is hung up by his hands. He is hung up just before sunset and immediately taken down again (Yad, Sanhedrin 15:7). Again, this never happened with Jesus. Why does the Torah tell us the body must be removed before nightfall? Humans, even executed criminals, were created in G-d’s image. It is disrespectful both to the human and to G-d Himself to mistreat the body of a human. The body is displayed as a warning to others to be law abiding -- but the body was only displayed for a short period of time, and then respectfully buried.
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