Newsletter 5942-028

The Stoning of Messiah

I have asked a few people recently, how did Yeshua die. A couple said He died by Crucifixion. And when I suggested He died by stoning they were adamant that he was crucified. Another said if He did not die by crucifixion then show me the scriptures that said He died another way.

This second approach is what I call the Berean attitude. It is an attitude that says maybe I do not know it all. And if you know something and can prove it by scriptures, then I might listen. I enjoy discussing things with people like this. We end up teaching each other.

If you are of the opinion that you might like to learn a deeper truth to the crucifixion, then this paper might be of interest to you. If you already know it all, then now is the time to hit delete.

I have a game of four way Chess that I promote and play on occasion. Those who do play this game are excited to play and soon find out that it is very taxing on the mind. It forces you to think outside the box. In this case the box is unilateral thinking. You versus your opponent. Outside the box thinking, would be on a multi faceted level. In the example of the chess game it is playing three other opponents at the same time as they are attacking you from three different sides at the same time. I find it very much fun and very challenging.

I mention this game to make a point. How many times are we “In the Box” per say, as to our thinking on the scriptures? How much of what we understand is just what others have fed us and we have never really thought much about? Have we proven all that we believe? We should, shouldn’t we? After all we are going to be persecuted for our beliefs. And in like manner, how do you know I am going to state the truth on this matter, or that any author you read has correctly done the same?

May I suggest you do as we did so many years ago, and open our minds and our bibles and step outside our comfort zone and out side of our own little safe boxes. And see if we can’t learn something more profound as we approach Passover in a very short time.

I wish I could say I have discovered this new thinking on my own. I can not though. Since coming back from Israel I have been engrossed in a number of books by Ernest L. Martin. In one book entitled Secrets of Golgatha, Mr. Martin claims that the Messiah was killed by Stoning and did not died by crucifixion. This was extremely different to my understanding. So I read on. And now having read this book and two others by him, I wish to share the high points with you and encourage you to get and read these books.

So lets get started.

One of the big misbelieves that we have in our modern times is that The Jesus we think we follow is muscular, and strong, and as many pictures now show us, very handsome. Even in the recent movie The Passion, he was portrayed as a good looking man. Was He?

Mr. Martin shows that by reading the suffering servant prophesy in Isaiah, we can see that the Messiah was not handsome. He was not muscular. In fact He was “a tender twig”, “Comely” and “a root out of dry ground”. This is a description of the Messiah from His birth and not just at his last days on earth.

A tender plant is not strong, or robust, but weakly, and feeble. A root out of dry ground, is one that is undernourished, thin, not fully muscular but skinny and weak.

Comely is a polite word for ugly. And the Messiah would be sickly and be sick. He was sick and suffered the trials of sickness just as we all do and yet never sinned. Heb 4:15. Infirmities is also translated sicknesses in other translations.

Matt 8: 17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our infirmities And bore our sicknesses.” The implication here is that he bore our sicknesses all His life. Not just on the tree He was crucified on.

Isaiah 52:13 Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. 14 Just as many were astonished at you, So His visage was marred more than any man, And His form more than the sons of men; 15 So shall He sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at Him; For what had not been told them they shall see, And what they had not heard they shall consider.

Isaiah 53:1 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our grief’s And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. 9 And they made His grave with the wicked– But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.

In the book titled The Fifty-Third Chapter of Isaiah by S.R Driver and A.Neubauer, printed by Ktav Publishing, NY, are the writings of Jewish scholars from the past 22 centuries describing the Messiah’s sufferings. And because of their understanding of Isaiah 53 and the misinterpretation of Christians of this same chapter, we now have so many Jews refusing to believe Jesus is the Messiah. Because Christians relate sickness to sin, and the Messiah never sinned there for He could never have been sick. But the Jews now he was sickly from birth.

I’ll let Mr. Martin finish this part of the study with more proofs when you read his book.

But I would like to tell you about a child I went to school with. He was always sick. He was very thin and he smelled of manure all the time. I think he was sick because his water may have been contaminated from the barn yard. He had no strength and was not pleasant to look at. No one would hang around him, afraid to catch something. No one would play with him. No one did any thing with him except tease and taunt him continually. He was not retarded, as he would pull off 90% almost all the time except in Phys ed. I see him walking around town now and then and am ashamed of how we teased him. I am even more ashamed when I consider how he may have been a twin to our Messiah.

Now I’ll just mention briefly about the Centurion that had stuck the spear into Yeshua. When you read it in Matt 27:51-54 you’ll see that he saw the curtain torn from top to bottom. I went to the traditional Golgotha site, while in Jerusalem, where Ron Wyatt claims he found the three cross holes and the ark of the covenant. I wanted to believe Mr. Wyatt. I wanted to believe him dearly, but when you stand at this site near the traditional garden tomb, and look towards the Temple area, you realize something very quickly. You are looking at the back of the temple. No matter which temple site you are believing in, whether the Dome of the Rock site or between the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque, or south of the Southern wall over the Gihon Spring, all of them face east towards the Mount of Olives and you are standing here looking at the back of where the Temple was. It is not possible to have seen the curtain from this location. Yeshua had to have been killed on the mount of Olives.

Now consider the fact that the Red Heifer, which was a sin offering and the Atonement Goat which was a sin offering, had to be taken out of the temple area and burnt. Numbers 19, and Lev 16, Lev 4:12, 21; 6:11.

The sin offering had to be taken out the eastern gate to the mount of Olives and totally burnt at the Miphkad Altar. Type and anti-type.

One little problem, Yeshua was not burnt up. But he was killed on the Mount of Olives near the same place the Burnt offering was made. Why was he not burnt? Why should he have been burnt?

We read in Joshua 7:15, 25, 26 about Achan and how he was accursed for taking of the things from Jerico. Therefor he and all his possessions were cursed and to be burnt by fire. To purify the Israelites from the curse.

To be in compliance with the law Yeshua, who was accursed, Galatians 3:13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”*), which is taken from Duet. 21:23. his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.

Notice a couple of things here before I go on. No where in the law of God are we told to hang a person on a tree and kill him. But only here in Duet. 21:22-23 are we told that if we do hang a dead man on a tree that we are not to leave him there over night. I found this rather interesting. Also note that it says tree, not a cross. And it also said to bury the dead man. So you could both burn the entire accursed objects according to the law or bury the man and burn the accursed things that had come in contact with the accursed person.

In Mark 15:23 the Greek says that Joseph went to Pilate with the utmost urgency to claim the body of Yeshua. Why because the Jews were going to burn the tree and everything on it because it was accursed. From this place of execution, it would take about 15-20 minutes to walk down Golgotha across the bridge to the Temple and across the causeway joining the temple to Fort Antonio where Pilot was near the present Dome of the Rock.

But now make note of what Pilate says in the next verse of Mark 15:44 Pilate marvelled that He was already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him if He had been dead for some time.

Why was Pilate so marveled that our Messiah was ALREADY dead when the other two criminals were not yet dead? Yeshua died at 3 PM. But the other criminals were not expected to die until an hour before sunset when they’re legs were broken.

Please understand, this is not mente to be a point of contention or arguments. But it is to show you just how much our savior actually did go through on our behalf.

In Isaiah 52:14 Just as many were astonished at you, So His visage was marred more than any man, And His form more than the sons of men.

Psalms 22: 11 Be not far from Me, For trouble is near; For there is none to help. 12 Many bulls have surrounded Me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me. 13 They gape at Me with their mouths, Like a raging and roaring lion. 14 I am poured out like water, And all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death. 16 For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; 17 I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. 18 They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.

What kind of punishment could do this to our Messiah. A whipping? This is more than the whipping he took before. Because Pilate was going to let him go after that, so it could not have been the whipping that killed Him. Luke 23:22 This is more than just being nailed to a tree. Yes he was nailed to a tree as if to be crucified, but he did not die from crucifixion.

His appearance was so badly marred. His bones were out of joint but not broken, and he could see all his bones sticking out of his skin.

There is only one type of execution that fits the description we have. And it was a common form of execution, at this time. And it was the only type of Execution that the Law of Moses allowed for capital offences.

In John 18:31 we are told that Pilot said “You take Him and judge Him according to your law.”

And the Law says in Lev 24: 13 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 14 “Take outside the camp him who has cursed; then let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. 15 Then you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. 16 And whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him, the stranger as well as him who is born in the land. When he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death.

This was a law, and if we look in John 8:59, and 10:31-33, and even in John 11:8, we can see that the Jews were trying to stone Yeshua many times.

When you read Psalm 38:4 For my iniquities have gone over my head; Like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. 5 My wounds are foul and festering Because of my foolishness. 6 I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. 7 For my loins are full of inflammation, And there is no soundness in my flesh. 8 I am feeble and severely broken; I groan because of the turmoil of my heart. 9 Lord, all my desire is before You; And my sighing is not hidden from You. 10 My heart pants, my strength fails me; As for the light of my eyes, it also has gone from me. 11 My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my plague, And my relatives stand afar off. 12 Those also who seek my life lay snares for me; Those who seek my hurt speak of destruction, And plan deception all the day long. 13 But I, like a deaf man, do not hear; And I am like a mute who does not open his mouth. 14 Thus I am like a man who does not hear, And in whose mouth is no response.

When a person is being stoned, the target is usually the head. Mark 12:4. And with repeated volleys being thrown at our Messiah, he would have been hit many time in the head and groin area. His feet were nailed to the tree, and his hands. He was naked and exposed in the front to the repeated volleys of stones hurled at Him and he could not move out of the way or protect Himself . His loins would no doubt be on fire in pain or full of inflammation and swelling and bleeding. His hearing would be ringing from the repeated blows to the head. His eyes would be swelled shut and bloodied. Junks of flesh would have been cut open and torn off by the sharp stones ripping through Him.

The apostle Paul knows full well what the Messiah went through. Acts 14: 19 Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there; and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. 20 However, when the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and went into the city.

And 4 years later Paul wrote to the Galatians and said 17 From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. He said in Gal 6 he bore the scars of Jesus, because he was also stoned and left for dead. And in Gal 4:13-15 Paul talks about his vision being impaired and again in Gal 6:11. This is because Paul was stoned and the main target in a stoning is the head. Paul’s eyes were injured and his flesh was scared from the cuts.

We are also told that Stephen was martyred by stoning in Acts 6.

Yeshua, our Messiah was hung on a tree with two other criminals, and stripped naked and suffered repeated volleys of sharp stones thrown at him non stop for that whole time.

One last source as proof. And it comes from the Sanhedrin 43a of the Talmud
” On the eve of the Passover Yeshua the Nazarean was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went froth and cried, “He is going forth To Be Stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Any one who can say anything on his favor, let him come forward and plead on his behalf.” But since nothing was brought forward in his favor he was hanged on the eve of Passover.”

Mr Martin goes on to show how the tree on which Yeshua was killed is represented by the Menorah. The seven arms are representing the six arms of those killed on the tree and the Head of Yeshua.

He also explains the reason the Fig tree is cursed and what tree our Messiah was killed on.

I won’t tell you everything the book says, but I do highly recommend it to every one. Especially in respect to Passover soon being here. A must read before Passover by all.

So the next time you turn on the TV and see a mob of people throwing stones. Imagine them doing it to our Messiah for six hours non stop. Kids trying to have a competition aiming at certain parts of the anatomy, and the crowd cheering when they got a bulls eye. This Passover count the cost paid by our Redeemer, to redeem you from the captivity of Satan. Count the Cost.

Joe Dumond

For further evidence I refer the reader to http://hope-of-israel.org/stonejes.htm