On Apr 10, 2009, at 6:33 PM, Shane Mage wrote:
There were disappointingly few responses, but at least correct answers were suggested for the first three questions.
> Today much of the world is commemorating a day some 1,979 years ago
> when the Romans were intending to crucify a Jewish prisoner but the
> Jewish masses demanded his release.
>
> Four questions:
>
> (1) Who was BarAbbas?
>
A notorious rebel against Rome, imprisoned for insurrection (*)
> (2) What was his first name?
>
Jesus (**)
> (3) What was the meaning of his last name?
>
Son (Bar) of the Father (Abbas)(***)
> (4) What happened to him?
Jesus, Son of the Father, was crucified and his bones were placed in an ossuary in the family tomb. (****)
(*)Matthew 27:15, Mark 15:6 (**) Matthew 27:16, fn. (***) The father of Jesus, a Jewish recruit into the Roman legions named (according to his tombstone)Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera, was transferred with his legion to the region of Trier in the Rhineland (where he was to remain all his life and be buried) before his marriage to Mary could be solemnized. The elderly Joseph married Mary to provide legitimacy for her unborn child. By never naming Jesus's real father the writers of the gospels, whoever they were, were able to play on confusion between the real (but unmentionable) father of Jesus and the "heavenly father" of all mankind, probably following, in this respect, the example of Jesus himself. cf. *The Jesus Dynasty* by John Tabor. (****) Tabor, op. cit.
Shane Mage
> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos