The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H.

Weiler

On March 7, 2010, Professor J. H. H. Weiler of New York University School of Law

delivered an Erasmus Lecture on the subject "The trial of Jesus", of which an adapted
version was posted as an article in First Things in June 2010 [1]. This article is a
response to the hypothesis that Prof. Weiler presented in his 2010 article and in his
responses to the letters on the article sent by several First Things' readers [2]. The
article is structured as a series of 12 theses. Biblical quotes are from the English
Standard Version (ESV) unless noted otherwise.

Thesis 1: The charge of blasphemy in the Gospels, both during Jesus' ministry and in
his trial, does not refer to the specific and technical definition of blasphemy, which
according to tractate Sanhedrin, Chapter VII, Mishna VI, requires the blasphemer to
have mentioned the Name, i.e. the Tetragrammaton, which Jesus never did. Rather,
the charge of blasphemy refers to Jesus' claim of divinity. Below I present the Gospel
passages that show this to be the case both during Jesus' ministry and in his trial.

a. Charges of blasphemy during Jesus' ministry

The meaning of the charge of blasphemy is clear in the very first encounter of Jesus
and the scribes recorded in all synoptic Gospels, when Jesus forgives the sins of a
paralytic in Capernaum and then heals him:

And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."
Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, "Why does
this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
(Mk 2:5-7; also Mt 9:2-3 and Lk 5:20-21).

In John, the substance of the charge against Jesus is clear in all three occasions when
"the Jews", not the Sanhedrin, decided, or actually tried, to kill Him during his
ministry. Of these three occasions, only in the third is that charge given a name,
which is precisely blasphemy:
The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H. Weiler 2

This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he
breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself
equal with God. (Jn 5:18)

Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." So they
picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
(Jn 8:58-59)

(Jesus said) "I and the Father are one." The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.
Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from the Father; for
which of them are you going to stone me?" The Jews answered him, "It is not for a
good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a
man, make yourself God." (Jn 10:30-33)

b. Charge of blasphemy in Jesus' trial

I will quote the text in Mark as it is more likely to have greater literal fidelity to the
words spoken, as Simon Peter was a direct witness of the trial and Mark composed
his Gospel from what he heard from Peter, most probably in Jerusalem in the 40's:

But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, "Are
you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" And Jesus said, "I am, and you will see the
Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of
heaven." And the high priest tore his garments and said, "What further witnesses do
we need? You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?" And they all
condemned him as deserving death. (Mk 14:61-64)

I hypothesize that, while Caiaphas asked his question in Aramaic, Jesus answered in
Hebrew, both the "I am" and the following scriptural quote, so that his "I am" was
clearly understood by those knowledgeable in the Torah as the "Ehyeh" of Ex 3:14,
the Name of God in First Person, i.e. when used by God Himself. This would have
been an explicit claim of divinity in addition to the one implied in the following
combined quote of Psalm 110:1 and Dan 7:13.
The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H. Weiler 3

Note that in all the occasions when Jesus was charged with blasphemy, both during
his ministry and in his trial, there was no mention whatsoever of an attempt by Him
to change any commandment of the Law.

Thesis 2: The charge of instigation to perform idolatry in the Talmudic retelling of

Jesus' trial is the logical consecuence of the substance of the charge against Jesus in
the Gospels, namely his claim of divinity, if the Rabbis writing the Gemara thought,
as they obviously did, that Jesus was not God.

Quoting two paragraphs of the uncensored version of tractate Sanhedrin, Chapter VI,
indicating with square brackets the text absent in some manuscripts according to
the article by Professor Chaim Saiman "The halakhah of Jesus' trial" [3]:

On [Sabbath eve and] the eve of Passover, Jesus [the Nazarene] was hanged. And a
herald went forth before him forty days proclaiming "Jesus [the Nazarene] is going
forth to be stoned because he practiced sorcery and instigated and seduced Israel to
idolatry. Whoever knows anything in his defense may come and state it." But since
they did not find anything in his defense, they hanged him on [Sabbath eve and] the
eve of Passover.

The Talmud then records a rabbi as objecting: Ulla said: "Do you suppose that Jesus
[the Nazarene] was one for whom a defense could be made? He was a mesit
[someone who instigates others to perform idolatry], concerning whom the Merciful
[God] says: "Show him no compassion and do not shield him" (Deut. 13:9)."

As a minor detail, the biblical quote is actually from (Deut 13:8).

Since idolatry is worshiping an entity that is not God, proving the charge of
instigating others to perform idolatry requires:

- that it is not possible to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Jesus was God, since
the presumption is that he, or any other person, is not;
The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H. Weiler 4

- that Jesus not only claimed divine status for Himself by his actions and/or words,
but also prompted or allowed others to worship Him. This is clearly stated in the
Gospels and will be shown in the next thesis.

Note that in the Talmudic passage there is no mention whatsoever of an attempt by

Jesus to change any commandment of the Law.

Thesis 3: There are at least three passages in the Gospels occurring at a time before
the trial in which Jesus allows or prompts others to worship Him.

First, in the synoptics there are two occasions when Jesus showed his complete
mastery of the sea and wind. At the end of the first occasion, after Jesus calmed the
storm that was threatening the boat, the disciples, marvelled, said: "What sort of man
is this, that even winds and sea obey him?" (Mt 8:27). At the end of the second
occasion, after Jesus had walked on the water and the wind ceased when He got into
the boat, the previous question had already been answered in the minds of the
disciples:

And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God." (Mt
14:33).

While in Matthew's Gospel the Greek verb prosekyneo is used also to mean
prostration as homage to a human person without implying worship, as e. g. a slave
to his king in Mt 18:26, it is clear from the words of the Apostles that in this episode
it means worship.

Second, in John's Gospel Jesus Himself teaches explicitely that the Father's will is
"that all will honor the Son just as they honor the Father":

"The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will
honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does
not honor the Father who sent him." (Jn 5:22-23)
The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H. Weiler 5

The clarity of this passage makes it amazing that there could be anyone at all, let
alone as many as the Arians of IV-VI centuries, that, at the same time, held John's
Gospel to be divinely inspired and denied the consubstantiality of the Son and the
Father. Because if They were not "homoousios", then Jn 5:23 would state that the
Father's will is that all commit idolatry! (Accordingly, the cosmic worship in Rev 5:13
is addressed to the Father and the Son equally.)

Third, there is the healing of the man born blind in John's Gospel. The use of
prosekyneo in this passage is very important because, in contrast with Matthew, John
uses that word, both in his Gospel and in the book of Revelation, exclusively to mean
worship directed to God. I will quote it verse by verse:

9:35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, "Do you
believe in the Son of Man?"
9:36 He answered, "And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?"
9:37 Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you."
9:38 He said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.

There are two textual issues with this passage: first, verse 38 is omitted in a few old
manuscripts of Alexandrian text-type (P75, Sinaiticus, Washingtonianus). Second, in
some of the manuscripts that do have verse 38, "Son of Man" in verse 35 is changed
to "Son of God". While some scholars [4] suggest that 9:38 was introduced later into
the text for its liturgical use in the baptism of adults, so that the reading would
culminate in the confession of faith in Jesus by the former blind man, there is a
different view [5] which I find more plausible: that the original text was as quoted
above, and both the omission and the change were introduced to solve, by different
NT scribes and in different directions, the perceived challenge, even to the point of
scandal, resulting from the man born blind worshiping a man who called himself "the
Son of Man" and who, for all the healed man APPARENTLY knew about him, could be
just a prophet. Faced with that challenge, some NT scribes decided to take out the
worship verse, while other scribes decided to change Jesus' self-given title to make
the case for worship by the former blind man epistemically more plausible from his
APPARENT viewpoint.
The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H. Weiler 6

The challenge presented by this passage is real and pressing, as in a first reading all
the possible explanations of why worshiping Jesus was the right thing to do by the
healed man at that time are less than satisfactory. From acceptable to most
unacceptable, they are:

a) The man born blind had a divinely-inspired intuition that the man who had healed
him was God. Good for him, but then his case is not transferable to less fortunate
folks who have to rely on their reason. (*)

b) If a man has a) given sight to a man born blind and b) called himself "the Son of
Man", then those concurrent facts prove that said man is God.

c) If a man has a) given sight to a man born blind and b) called himself "the Son of
Man", then it is legitimate (or mandatory?) for the healed man (or for everyone?) to
worship said man, no matter whether he is God or not.

I propose a hypothesis (in my view, plausible, and as far as I know, original,) that
provides the key for an intelligent (inte-legere: read into) reading of the passage that
avoids these explanations: the epistemic situation of the man born blind about Jesus,
at the time of their second encounter, was much better than what can be assumed in
a cursory reading of the passage, as noted with the "APPARENTLY"/"APPARENT"
qualifications above. The passage offers three data items that make this hypothesis
plausible:

1. Focusing on 9:35, we read that Jesus "heard that they had cast him (the former
blind) out (of the synagogue)". This brings about the subject of the relationship
between Jesus' human intellect and the divine Intellect, which is not really different
from the divine Essence. The divine Intellect was not permanently "direcly feeding"
Jesus' human intellect with the kind of information on temporal matters that ordinary
people acquire by ordinary means. Although such direct infusion of earthly
knowledge did happen occasionally, it was the exception and not the rule. Acquiring
such information in the same way as ordinary people do was part of Jesus' self-
emptying or "kenosis", of his "taking the form of a servant" (aristotelian form, not
just appearance, as the previous verse says that "he was in the form of God" (Phil
The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H. Weiler 7

2:4-7)). E.g., in the episode of the woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages
for twelve years (Mk 5:25-34), Jesus really did not know who had touched his
garments and He really was looking around to see who had done it. And in John's
Gospel, Jesus sincerely asked where they had laid Lazarus (Jn 11:34).

Thus, in the episode at hand, Jesus really learned that the Pharisees had cast the
former blind out of the synagogue by hearing about the event from a third person,
probably several hours after the event. And after hearing about the event, Jesus
looked for the healed man in Jerusalem just as ordinary people look for someone.
Therefore it is very likely that between the expulsion of the man from the synagogue
and his second encounter with Jesus there was an interval of several hours.

2. In a previous passage in John, the officers whom the chief priests and Pharisees
had sent to arrest Jesus (7:32) return to their bosses, who are gathered in one place,
and are scolded by them for having let themselves be impressed by Jesus' words
(7:45-49). The passage adds that Nicodemus, who according to Jn 3:1 was a
Pharisee and "a ruler of the Jews", i. e. a member of the Sanhedrin, was one of the
Pharisees present at that time (7:50) and that he spoke in Jesus' defense at the
procedural level: "Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and
learning what he does?" (7:51).

From this passage, it is likely that Nicodemus was present also during the argument
raised by the healing of the blind man. Moreover, Nicodemus' presence at that event
is not just likely but very likely, because the Pharisees that spoke in Jesus' defence at
this occasion, not at the procedural but at the substantial level, were more than one:

Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the
Sabbath." But others said, "How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?" And there
was a division among them. (Jn 9:16)

Since not many members of the Sanhedrin were likely to speak in Jesus' defence, it is
highly probable that Nicodemus was one of those "others".

At this point, I ask the reader to place himself/herself in the shoes (or rather sandals)
The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H. Weiler 8

of Nicodemus. You not only believe that Jesus is the Son of God but also have
learned from Jesus the way in which we must live, his halakha. You have learned that
the essence of that way, regarding what you must do (**), is to love God with all your
being and to love your neighbour as yourself, which is also the essence of the Law
(Mk 12:28-33). You have also learned that, in Jesus' way, loving your neighbour goes
beyond what is required by the Law, and involves feeling compassion for your
neighbour and showing mercy to him (Lk 10:25-37), thus imitating the Heavenly
Father who is "merciful and compassionate". Even more precisely, it involves loving
compassionately your neighbour precisely because God loves him so, and being
merciful to him because God wants you to be a sign and instrument of His mercy.
(This synthesizes the core of both Christian soteriology and moral: Jesus makes us
"partakers of the divine nature" in Him (2 Pe 1:4), and this projects into, and at the
same time requires, partaking of his feelings and actions.)

With that mindset, you see the man being cast out of the synagogue, and probably
also being avoided by people. He is in good health and able to work, but since he
was born blind he now has no clue about how to go on with his life, find lodging,
find a job. He could physically work in a workshop or in the field, but what are the
names of those tools? And how are they used? And where are workshops and fields,
anyway? So you feel compassion for this man who is in such complete intellectual
indigence and reach out to him and start teaching him the basic knowledge
necessary to go on with his life. While at that, it would be just natural that the
conversation turns at some time to the subject of this prophet who healed him. And
you, being aware of the immense good that knowing Jesus is, start telling the man
what you have learned about Jesus from Jesus Himself (Jn 3:10-21): that He is much
more than a prophet, He is "the Son of Man" "who descended from heaven" and "who
is in heaven" (***) (Jn 3:13) predicted in Dan 7:13. After a few hours, you lead the
man to a lodging where he can take shelter and part ways, giving him some coins to
get through the day.

3. At that point in time, Jesus finds the man. Now, let's recall that the man has never
seen Jesus yet, because Jesus sent him to "wash in the pool of Siloam" (9:7) while he
was still blind, and Jesus was no longer there when the man came back seeing. Thus,
when Jesus found him and asked him: "Do you believe in the Son of Man?", the
The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H. Weiler 9

former blind had no idea that the man asking that question was Jesus. Therefore,
when he answered: "And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?", he was not
meaning: "And what are the qualifications of the Son of Man (who I know is you), that
I may believe in him?" but rather: "And which of the persons around is the Son of
Man (whose qualifications I already know from my own experience and Nicodemus),
that I may believe in Him?"

(*) That statement will probably place me under heavy friendly fire, so a clarification
is required. In faith strictly defined, what moves us to believe some revealed truth T
is not the fact that T appears as true and intelligible in the light of our natural
reason. Rather, we believe T because of the authority of God who revealed T, who
can neither deceive nor be deceived. But God does not reveal that truth T directly to
each person, but through a revelatory medium M. Therefore, in order to assent to
the whole truth that God has revealed, the person must first identify the medium M
through which God reveals (e.g. a prophet or God incarnate Himself, while any of
them is alive on earth, and thereafter a book containing his teachings, in the
Protestant and Karaite views, or a book plus a tradition with both interpreted by an
authoritative magisterium, in the Catholic/Orthodox and Rabbinic views). Clearly the
strict definition of faith above does not apply to the identification of M as the
medium through which God reveals, which is based on rational motives of credibility.
Otherwise, a person should have to identify M as the medium through which God
reveals by an assent to the truth that God reveals through M based on the authority
of God who revealed (through M) said truth (i.e. that He reveals through M)!

(**) In the Christian way the first and foremost thing is what God does in us, the new
creation (Eze 36:25-29; Jn 6:28-29; 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15; Eph 2:10).

(***) The ending "who is in heaven" in Jn 3:13 is omitted in some old manuscripts of
Alexandrian text-type (P66, P75, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Washingtonianus). On the
other hand, it appears in the works of early Christian writers such as Tatian's
"Diatessaron" (c. 160-175) and Hippolytus' (170235) "Against Noetus", and then
consistently in the works of almost all Church Fathers. I share the view [6] that, just
as it probably happened with the "worship" verse Jn 9:38, the ending was omitted by
The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H. Weiler 10

an NT scribe to avoid the challenge posed by Jesus telling Nicodemus that, at the
same time that He was there talking to him, He was also in heaven!

In my view, it is perfectly likely that Jesus made such a clear and direct statement of
his divinity to Nicodemus at an early time of his ministry if He knew, per his divine
insight into minds and hearts, that Nicodemus was able to handle the challenge
involved. After all, probably not much longer than a year later Jesus was telling "the
Jews" in general that before Abraham came into existence, He was (Jn 8:58).

Deuteronomical passages referenced by the next theses

Deut 13:1-5: the test of Israel. Quoted from the New American Standard Bible
(NASB), as the ESV render of verse 2 does not state that the sign or wonder that
comes true has been offered by the prophet as support of his instigation to commit
idolatry.

1 "If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a
wonder,
2 and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying,
'Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known ) and let us serve them,'
3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the
LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your
heart and with all your soul.
4 "You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His
commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.
5 "But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has
counseled rebellion against the LORD your God who brought you from the land of
Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to seduce you from the way in
which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from
among you.

Deut 18:15-22: the future prophet like Moses and the test of a prophet.
The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H. Weiler 11

15 "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you,
from your brothers--you shall listen to him--
16 just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly,
when you said, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great
fire any more, lest I die.'
17 And the LORD said to me, 'They are right in what they have spoken.
18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will
put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself
will require it of him.
20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not
commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same
prophet shall die.'
21 And if you say in your heart, 'How may we know the word that the LORD has not
spoken?'--
22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to
pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has
spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

From these passages, the table below lists the possible combinations of the pair
(entity in whose name the prophet speaks, outcome of prediction), and, for each
combination, the commanded course of action for Israel.

If the prophet speaks and his prediction then you shall ...
in the name of ... is ...

the LORD fulfilled listen to him (18:15)

the LORD not fulfilled not be afraid of him (18:22)

kill him (18:20 + 18:22)

other gods fulfilled kill him (13:5)

kill him (18:20) (*)

other gods not fulfilled kill him (18:20) (*)

(*) irrespective of prediction fulfillment

The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H. Weiler 12

Thesis 4: In Deut 13:1-5, the evil against which Moses warns Israel is going after
other gods, not any change in the Law given at Sinai. Accordingly, it cannot be
inferred from that passage, as Prof. Weiler does, that a state of "epistemic
insulation", excluding the possibility of acknowledging further divine interventions
and revelation, had been divinely mandated to Israel, much less if the passage is
read in conjunction with Deut 18:15-22. Moreover, the latter passage implies that
Israel was in a state of "epistemic openness" (clearly not indiscriminate but with very
stringent requirements to ascertain that the future prophet is speaking in the name
of the LORD and, moreover, speaking only the words that the LORD has commanded
him to speak.)

I support this thesis by reading the command in Deut 13:4 as meaning exactly what
it says:

"follow the LORD your God": wherever He leads you, at any time, provided that it is
He who is leading you.

"keep His commandments": whatever commandments He gives you, whenever He

speaks to you, not just the commandments He gave at Sinai. He, and only He, can
add a commandment, e.g. because you were not ready to keep it in the past (such as
the prohibition of divorce and remarriage), and take away another, e.g. because you
no longer need to keep it (such as the food regulations).

"listen to His voice": as He spoke at Sinai through Moses, and as He will speak in the
future through the promised "prophet like him" (Deut 18:15,18,19). Moreover, if
that future prophet will be "like Moses", it is just to be expected that God will speak
through him the same kind of words He spoke through Moses. i.e. give
commandments.

Thesis 5: For Jesus to pass the charge against Him in the Gospels and the Talmud,
and the test on Him of Deut 13:1-5, it is necessary and sufficient,

- at the objective level, that Jesus is God;

The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H. Weiler 13

- at the subjective/objective level (related to competence as judge) of a person

making the judgment, that he has been provided with proof beyond reasonable
doubt that Jesus is God, because the reasonable initial assumption about any person
is that he is not God;

- at the subjective/subjective level (related to moral righteousness) of a person

making the judgment, that he has perceived that there is proof beyond reasonable
doubt that Jesus is God, because the reasonable initial assumption about any person
is that he is not God.

I will show that below, focusing on just the objective level.

Charge in the Gospels: as showed in thesis 1, the charge of blasphemy referred to

Jesus' claim of divinity, with both the claim and its relationship to the charge being
stated most clearly in Jn 10:30-33. A claim of divinity contains an at least implicit
prompt for worship. That prompt for worship is not an instigation to "go after other
gods" if, and only if, Jesus is God.

Charge in the Talmud: as showed in thesis 2, the charge of instigating others to

perform idolatry is based on the assumption that Jesus is not God, and on the facts
that Jesus a) claimed divinity for Himself, as shown in thesis 1, and b) allowed his
followers to worship Him, as shown in thesis 3. That claim and behaviour is not
instigation to perform idolatry if, and only if, Jesus is God.

As noted at the end of Theses 1 and 2, in all the occasions when Jesus was charged
with blasphemy in the Gospels, both during his ministry and in his trial, and in the
Talmudic retelling of his trial, there was no mention whatsoever of an attempt by
Him to change any commandment of the Law. In any case, if Jesus is God, He has full
authority to do that.

Test on Jesus of Deut 13:1-5: Jesus taught his disciples to love and follow Him as
God (Mt 10:37-39), to honor Him as God (Jn 5:23) and to keep his commandments
(i.e. of Jesus) (Jn 14:15-26 & 15:9-17). These teachings can avoid being the
The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H. Weiler 14

instigation to idolatry of Deut 13:2, and can comply with Deut 13:4, if, and only if,
Jesus is God.

Thesis 6: For Jesus to pass the tests on the future prophet of Deut 18:15-22, given
that He had predicted three times to his apostles that He would be condemned by
the Sanhedrin, handed over to the Gentiles and killed, it was necessary that those
events would come to pass.

Deut 18:20 commands two tests on the future prophet: whether he speaks in the
name of the LORD or of other gods, and, in the first case, whether he speaks only
the words that the LORD has commanded him to speak.

Regarding the first test, it is clear from John's Gospel that Jesus spoke in the name of
the LORD, as He stated many times that He spoke the words that He had heard from
the Father (Jn 5:19,30,43; 7:16; 8:28,38,40; 12:49-50; 14:10,24; 17:8,14,26).
Additionally, the three Synoptics record that, when asked about the first
commandment, Jesus answered with the Shema and the commandment following it
(Mk 12:28-34). Moreover, just before that dialogue, Jesus had provided as scriptural
basis for the belief in the resurrection of the dead the passage about the bush in
which God spoke to Moses, "saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob'" (Mk 12:24-27).

Regarding the second test, Deut 18:22 sets as criterion for ascertaining that the
prophet is speaking only the words that the LORD has spoken, that the word spoken
by the prophet must come to pass.

On this criterion, it is critical to distinguish between the epistemic situation of the

Pharisees and chief priests on one side, and that of the twelve apostles of Jesus on
the other.

From the viewpoint of both Jesus' disciples and the Pharisees, the healings and
resurrections that Jesus had performed amounted to a fulfillment of his predictions:
there had been no case in which Jesus had commanded an event - healing or
The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H. Weiler 15

resurrection - and the event did not come to pass.

But from the viewpoint of only the twelve apostles, there was an additional word
spoken by Jesus that needed to come true: Jesus had predicted to them, not once but
three times (Mk 8:31; 9:31 and 10:32-34), that "the Son of Man will be delivered to
the chief priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will hand
Him over to the Gentiles. They will mock Him and spit on Him, and scourge Him and
kill Him, and three days later He will rise again." (Mk 10:33-34, quoted from NASB).

Therefore, for Jesus to pass the test of Deut 18:20-22 in the eyes of the twelve
apostles, proving to them that He was speaking only the words that the LORD had
spoken, it was necessary that He was condemned by the Sanhedrin. Which does not
mean that it was God's positive will that the members of the Sanhedrin would not
acknowledge Jesus' divinity and would consequently convict Him of instigation to
commit idolatry. Rather, it was God's permissive will, and foreknowledge, that they
would do that.

Thesis 7: From thesis 5, it follows that, for the Sanhedrin to acquit Jesus on the
charge of instigation to perform idolatry, it was necessary that its members had
come to the conclusion that Jesus was God, which means that it was necessary that
they had come to full Christian faith, comprising both Nicene trinitarian (*) theology
and Chalcedonian christology:

- There is one divine Nature or Essence and three (*) divine Persons. Each divine
Person is (eternally) the (absolutely simple) divine Essence.

- The divine Person of the consubstantial Son of God has assumed a human nature
and made it his own, from his conception. That union in the Person (hypostatic
union) did not involve any change to either the divine or the human nature: "The
distinction between the natures was never abolished by their union, but rather the
character proper to each of the two natures was preserved as they came together in
one person (prosopon) and one hypostasis." (Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon).
The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H. Weiler 16

Thus, for the members of the Sanhedrin to acquit Jesus, it was necessary that they
believed that Jesus is truly the Son of God who, without ceasing to be God and LORD,
became a man and our brother: "the Son of Man" "who descended from heaven" and
"who is in heaven" at the same time that He is on earth (Jn 3:13). Did they have
objective "motives of credibility" for perceiving that Jesus was God, so that they could
give a reasonable assent to that truth? Or in legal terms, had they been provided
with proof beyond reasonable doubt that Jesus was God? I will examine that question
in the theses following the next.

(*) At the time of Jesus' trial, the members of the Sanhedrin could have had only the
provisional binitarian form of Christian faith, since Jesus revealed the Holy Spirit as
another divine Person to the eleven faithful apostles at the Last Supper (Jn 14:15 -
16:15), just a few hours before the trial.

Thesis 8: From thesis 5, it follows that whether Jesus' conviction was unjust depends:

- at the objective level, on whether Jesus was God;

- at the subjective/objective level (related to competence as judges) of the members

of the Sanhedrin, on whether they had been provided with proof beyond reasonable
doubt that Jesus was God;

- at the subjective/subjective level (related to moral righteousness) of each member

of the Sanhedrin, on whether he had perceived that there was proof beyond
reasonable doubt that Jesus was God.

Thesis 9: In contrast to the case of Israel as shown in thesis 4, Jesus did mandate
absolute epistemic insulation after Him to the Church. For that mandate not to be
contrary to reason, two conditions must be fulfilled:

a. There is a fundamental difference between the situation of Israel after the

The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H. Weiler 17

revelation at Sinai and the situation of the Church after Christ.

b. A sign from God is distinguishable from a sign from a false prophet, a false christ,
an antichrist or "the" antichrist.

This thesis may seem a digression from the subject of this article, but is actually an
essential part of it, because it is necessary to show that Jesus' mandate of epistemic
insulation to the Church after Him is not "ad hoc" but is justified on a principled
basis, and also that the signs from God performed by Jesus can be distinguished
from the signs from an evil agent on a principled basis.

The mandate in question is in the Synoptics in two passages. First a shorter passage
related to the time of the siege and fall of Jerusalem (Mt 24:4-5; Mk 13:5-6; Lk
21:8):

And Jesus began to say to them, "See that no one leads you astray. Many will come in
my name, saying, 'I am he!' and they will lead many astray." (Mk 13:5-6)

Then a longer passage related to the time of the last tribulation (Mt 24:23-25; Mk
13:21-23):

"And then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'Look, there he is!' do
not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and
wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. But be on guard; I have told you all
things beforehand." (Mk 13:21-23)

The precise definitions of the mentioned categories are:

- false prophet: someone who speaks in the name of false gods, or who speaks in
the name of God what God has not commanded him to speak.

- false christ: someone who claims to be the Christ.

- antichrist: someone who denies that Jesus of Nazareth is the consubstantial Son of
The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H. Weiler 18

God. Defined in 1 Jn 2:22:

Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he
who denies the Father and the Son.

- "the" antichrist: an antichrist that will come at the end of times. Described in 2
Thess 2:3-12.

These categories are not mutually exclusive. E.g., if a false Christ denies that Jesus is
the Son of God, he is also an antichrist. But he would be only a false christ and not
an antichrist if he did not deny that Jesus was the Son of God, claiming instead that
he is a subsequent encarnation, in the way that Rama and Krishna are said to be
succesive encarnations of Vishnu.

Thesis 10: There is a fundamental difference between the situation of Israel after the
revelation at Sinai and the situation of the Church after Christ, and therefore there is
a principled reason why Moses told Israel: "The LORD your God will raise up for you a
prophet like me" while Jesus did NOT tell the Church: "The Father will send down
from heaven for you a Christ like Me": Jesus revealed all the truth that God wanted to
reveal to us, and carried out all the "foundational" work that God willed that his Son
perform on earth for our salvation. No further Encarnation of the Son or revelation by
a prophet is necessary, and none is forthcoming.

The reason why the Old Covenant was provisional while the New Covenant is
definitive can be clearly perceived from their respective essences: in the Old, God
commands man what to do; in the New, God does his work in man.

Thesis 11: The signs or wonders that can be performed by a magician, a false
prophet, a false christ, an antichrist or "the" antichrist, as support for an instigation
to go after false gods, or to disobey God, or to deny Jesus Christ, are not performed
directly by God. Rather, they are performed by an evil angel, whom God has
permitted to do it, by his own power.
The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H. Weiler 19

It is clear from the Bible that an angel, either good or evil, can affect the material
world by his own power if God permits him to do it. Job 1:6 - 2:7 describes some of
the signs or wonders that an evil angel can perform if permitted by God: fire falls
from the sky, a great wind blows, Job is struck with loathsome sores. Paul describes
the antichrist thus:

Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His
mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; that is, the one whose
coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false
wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because
they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. (2 Thess 2:8-10, quoted
from NASB)

Thesis 12: A sign from God is distinguishable from a sign from a false prophet, a
false christ, an antichrist or "the" antichrist, on two levels: degree of power and
wisdom displayed by the agent, and character of the sign.

Focusing first on the degree of power and wisdom displayed by the agent, clearly the
resurrection of a human being stands on top. This is evident at the physical level
since, in order to bring a dead body, human or animal, back to biological life, the
acting entity must rearrange all atoms and electrons in the body ("restore the photo")
and immediately restart the coordinated "motion" of all those atoms and electrons
("restart the movie"). Doing that requires an extremely high degree of power and
wisdom, the higher the more complex the organism to be resurrected is, with the
complexity being maximum in the case of human beings due to the development of
their central nervous system. It is highly doubtful that a non-divine entity can do
just that.

But to bring a dead human being back to human life, not just biological life, the
entity must also infuse to the resurrected body a spiritual soul, which could in
principle be the same soul that had left that body at the time of death, the soul of
another dead person, or a new soul created out of nothing. Otherwise the result of
The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H. Weiler 20

the resurrection would not be a human being with intellectual capabilities but the
metaphysical, cognitive and behavioral equivalent of a Neanderthal, if biblical Adam
was y-chromosomal Adam, or a Homo Habilis, if biblical Adam was a Homo
Antecessor or Ergaster, which I strongly doubt, or, to use a literary figure familiar to
Jewish readers, a golem. And infusing a spiritual soul to a human body is a work that
can be performed only by God, who is also the only One who:

- can create a soul out of nothing, a point relevant in the case of the conception of a
new human being, and
- has in his hands the souls of the departed (which is obvious but also explicitely
stated in Wis 3:1), a point relevant in the case of a resurrection.

Thus, the resurrection of a human being is a work necessarily performed directly by

God, who by that work would be unequivocally certifying in the eyes of the witnesses
that the servant through whose intervention God is performing that work has God's
"seal of approval", like the prophet Elisha (2 Ki 4:32-35), Jesus (Lk 7:11-17; Lk 8:49-
56; Jn 11:38-44), and the apostle Peter (Acts 9:36-42). Thus, if Jesus, by performing
resurrections, shows to have God's seal of approval, then what he said was true.
Therefore if Jesus claimed divinity, He is God.

Clearly the maximum "seal of approval" that God can confer to a servant of His, as
Christians believe He did to his Servant par excellence, Jesus, is to resurrect him to a
glorious state. We will not take this event into consideration here because we are
dealing primarily with the epistemic situation of the members of the Sanhedrin at the
time of Jesus' trial.

Focusing now on the character of the sign, there is a basic difference between the
signs of the Christ and the signs of a false prophet or antichrist, which is evident in
the passages when Jesus refuses to perform a sign requested of Him.

First, when tempted in the desert after his baptism in the Jordan. Jesus refused to
command stones to become loaves of bread or to throw Himself down the pinnacle
of the Temple (Mt 4:1-7), either possibility being a sensationalistic exhibition that
would be an easy way to gain followers.
The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H. Weiler 21

Second, when the Pharisees, on one occasion with the scribes (Mt 12:38-40) and on
another with the Sadducees (Mt 16:1-4), asked Jesus to give them a sign from
heaven. Mark describes the reaction that the request elicited in Jesus' spirit:

The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from
heaven to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, "Why does this
generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation."
(Mk 8:11-12)

Actually, the "sign from heaven" that the Pharisees asked Jesus to provide was
precisely the kind described in Job 1:16. Thus, it would not have been proof that
Jesus had come from God but rather the opposite.

Finally, when on the cross, He was tempted by the last time:

And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, "You who
would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the
Son of God, come down from the cross." So also the chief priests, with the scribes
and elders, mocked him, saying, "He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the
King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him."
(Mt 27:39-42)

Actually, as I noted in thesis 6, the sign that the chief priests and scribes asked Jesus
to provide would have been definitive proof for the eleven apostles that Jesus' words
did NOT come from God, since the prediction that Jesus had made three times to his
apostles would not be coming to pass.

What these passages have in common is that Jesus consistently refuses to give a sign
which is primarily a sign and not a work of God in itself. And what are the works of
God that Jesus performs? The works that show God's merciful and compassionate
love towards man, in Hebrew hesed or rahamim, as Jesus replied to the disciples of
John the Baptist: "the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed
and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have the good news preached
The trial of Jesus: a response to J. H. H. Weiler 22

to them" (Mt 11:5). And when Jesus did multiply the loaves of bread to feed the
people, He did that after having fed them with the word of God by teaching them for
hours (Mk 6:34-25). Thus Jesus performed the works of God described in Is 26:19,
29:18, 35:5-6 and 42:7, and in Ps 146:7-9. And therefore He can justly say to all
men, first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles:

"If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though
you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that
the Father is in Me, and I in the Father." (Jn 10:37-38).

References:

[1] http://www.firstthings.com/article/2010/06/the-trial-of-jesus

[2] http://www.firstthings.com/article/2010/10/letters

[3] http://www.firstthings.com/article/2013/08/the-halakhah-of-jesus-trial

[4]
http://aejt.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/421747/AEJT11.35_Final_Formatted
_Theophilos_An_Assessment_of_the_Authenticity.pdf

[5] http://www.bsw.org/biblica/vol-91-2010/m-steegen-to-worship-the-
johannine-son-of-man-john-9-38-as-refocusing-on-the-father/456

[6] http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/ted_hildebrandt/ntesources/ntarticles/gtj-
nt/black-jn3-gtj-85.pdf