Thursday 20 April 2023
Tuesday 11 April 2023
PASCHA (The Harrowing of Hell)
PASCHA (21st NISAN)
Pascha is the Romaniote Jewish word for the holy Yom Tov Sabbath of the 21st after sunset on Paraskeue. Messianic Noahides commemorate it as the Harrowing of Hades.
PARASKEUE (The Day of Crucifixion)
PARASKEUE (20th NISAN)
Paraskeué is the Romaniote Jewish word for the sunset-to-sunset preparation day on the 20th of Nisan when Jesus was crucified in the morning and buried before sunset.
The first 12 hours of Paraskeue are from first light. The next 12 hours are from late afternoon to first light. In total 24 hours where 12 hours are from Preparation day's Evening and 12 hours are from Preparation day's Sunrise. Pontius Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified at the 6th hour from Perparation day's Evening and Jesus was crucified at the 3rd hour from Preparation day's firstlight until its 9th hour. That is the correct way to tell the time in the Romaniote Jewish Minhag.
Pilate could have set Jesus free if he had thought Jesus was harmless. To determine a legal basis to execute him he gave the crowd a choice between Jesus the King and an insurrectionist accused of murder Jesus Son of the Father. Assuming the majority of the crowd had perfect eyesight at the time, it would still not be easy to recognize which Jesus was the one everyone had been talking about when he rode into town on a donkey the week beforehand and caused a riot in the temple. There were no TVs no posters no Internet, it was a verbal culture not a visual culture. So the crowd made a choice based on what they had heard and they chose the insurrectionist Jesus Son of the God that the Jews call Father not simply a more popular new king than Herod. For Pilate, the crowd's choice was a big sign of trouble; a king could be bought, but an insurrectionist regarded as God's Son was a real threat to Rome. By a lucky chance Pilate just so happened to have anither prisoner who had the name Jesus, not uncommon at the time, and everyone is a Father's son. So very sneakily Pilate pulled a cunning trick and released Barabbas then executed Jesus for treason, to which there was objection. Jesus they objected was not being executed for actual treason they said but only for a simple claim. What I have charged I have charged was Pilate's reply. And he gave orders to his soldiers to follow the instructions of the Temple authorities in this regard so that the crowd could know that it was their ow beloved Temple that had Jesus executed. If the people had any complaint it should be directed to the Temple not to Rome who had only done its duty in charging someone with treason. But as far as Pilate was concerned he had actually removed the threat of a Holy War in what he saw as its potential figurehead, Jesus. Embedded in the story, hidden in plain view from any censure by literary devices for anyone who had eyes to see, was Pilate's guilt despite his attempt to pretend he had nothing to do with it. And there was an earthquake and the temple veil was split in two and the temple door would never shut again due to the distortion for 40 years until it's final destruction.
