The Conspiratorial Plot Against Paul
Acts 22:30
The next day the commander, wanting to learn the real reason Paul was accused by the Jews, released him and ordered the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul down and had him stand before them.
Acts 23:6-15
Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and others [were] Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. It is because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.”
As soon as he had said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. For the Sadducees say that there is neither a resurrection, nor angels, nor spirits, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.
A great clamor arose, and some scribes from the party of the Pharisees got up and contended sharply, “We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?”
The dispute grew so violent that the commander was afraid they would tear Paul to pieces. He ordered the soldiers to go down and remove him by force and bring him into the barracks.
The following night the LORD stood near Paul and said, “Take courage! As you have testified about Me in Jerusalem, so also you must testify in Rome.”
When daylight came, the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. More than forty of them were involved in this plot. They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have bound ourselves with a solemn oath not to eat anything until we have killed Paul. Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring him down to you on the pretext of examining his case more carefully. We are ready to kill him on the way.”
The Conspiratorial Plot Against Jesus the Messiah
Matthew 26:1-5
When Jesus had finished all these words, He said to His disciples, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is to be handed over for crucifixion.”
At that time the chief priests and the elders of the people were gathered together in the courtyard of the high priest named Caiaphas; and they plotted together to arrest Jesus covertly and kill Him. But they were saying, “Not during the festival, otherwise a riot might occur among the people.”
Matthew 26:14-16
Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?” And they set out for him thirty pieces of silver. And from then on he looked for a good opportunity to betray Jesus.
Matthew 26:57
Those who had arrested Jesus led Him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were gathered together.
Matthew 26:63-68
And the high priest said to Him, “I place You under oath by the living God, to tell us whether You are the Messiah, the Son of God.”
Jesus said to him, “You have said it yourself. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Then the high priest tore his own robes and said, “He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? See, you have now heard the blasphemy; what do you think?”
They answered, “He deserves death!”
Then they spit in His face and beat Him with their fists; and others slapped Him, and said, “Prophesy to us, You Messiah; who is the one who hit You?”
Matthew 27:1-2
Now when morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Jesus to put Him to death; and they bound Him and led Him away, and handed Him over to Pilate the governor.
Matthew 27:15-26
Now at the Passover Feast the governor was accustomed to release for the people any one prisoner whom they wanted. And at that time they were holding a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.
So when the people gathered together, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Messiah?” For he knew that it was because of envy that the religious leaders had handed Him over.
And while Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message, saying, “See that you have nothing to do with that righteous Man; for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of Him.”
But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas, and to put Jesus to death.
And the governor said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?”
And the crowd replied, “Barabbas!”
Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Messiah?”
They all said, “Crucify Him!”
But Pilate asked, “Why? What evil has He done?”
Yet the crowd kept shouting all the more, saying, “Crucify Him!”
Now when Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this Man’s blood; you yourselves shall see.”
And all the people replied, “His blood shall be on us and on our children!” Then Pilate released Barabbas for them. But after having Jesus flogged, Pilate handed Him over to be crucified.
Those Who Say They Are Jews, But Are Not
“And to
the angel of the Church in Smyrna write: The Alpha and the Omega, who was
dead, and has come to life, says this: ‘I know your tribulation and your
poverty (but you are [spiritually] rich), and the slander by those who say
they are Jews, and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.’”
New research shows that the majority of
the world’s modern Jewish population is descended mainly from people from
ancient Turkey, rather than from elsewhere in the Middle East. Most of the
Jewish population of northern and eastern Europe – normally known as Ashkenazic
Jews – are the descendants of Greeks, Iranians and others who colonized what is
now northern Turkey more than 2000 years ago and were then converted to
Judaism, probably in the first few centuries AD by Jews from Persia. At that
stage, the Persian Empire was home to the world’s largest Jewish communities.
According to research carried out by the geneticist, Dr Eran Elhaik of the University of Sheffield, over 90 per cent of Ashkenazic ancestors come from that converted partially Greek-originating ancient community in north-east Turkey.
His research is based on genetic, historical and place-name evidence. For his geographic genetic research, Dr Elhaik used a Geographic Population Structure computer modelling system to convert Ashkenazic Jewish DNA data into geographical information.
Dr Elhaik, an Israeli-born geneticist who gained his doctorate in molecular evolution from the University of Houston, believes that three still-surviving Turkish villages – Iskenaz, Eskenaz and Ashanaz – on the western part of an ancient Silk Road route were part of the original Ashkenazic homeland. He believes that the word Ashkenaz originally comes from Ashguza - the ancient Assyrian and Babylonian name for the Iron Age Eurasian steppeland people, the Scythians.
Referring to the names of the three Turkish villages, Dr Elhaik points out that “north-east Turkey is the only place in the world where these place-names exist”.
Some analyses of Yiddish suggests that it
was originally a Slavic language, and Dr Elhaik and others believe that it was
developed, probably in the 8th and 9th centuries AD, by Jewish merchants
trading along some of the more northerly Silk Roads linking China and Europe.
By the 730s A.D., the Khazar Empire had begun to convert to Judaism. But when the Khazar Empire declined around the 11th century, most of the Khazar population practicing Judaism west into Central Europe. There, as the Slav-Yiddish-speaking merchants came into contact with central European, often Germanic-speaking, peoples, they began to replace the Slavic words with large numbers of Germanic and Germanic-derived Yiddish words, while retaining some of its Slav-originating grammar. Many Hebrew words also appear to have been later added by that stage.
The genetic modelling used in the research was based on DNA data from 367 Jews of northern and eastern European origin and more than 600 non-Jewish people mainly from Europe and western Asia.
Further research is planned to try to measure the precise size of the Semitic genetic input into Jewish and non-Jewish genomes.
The History of the Jews in Iran
Reza Shah Pahlavi (Persian: رضا شاه پهلوی; Born 15 March 1878; Died 26 July 1944 at the age of 66) was an Iranian military officer, politician (who served as minister of war and prime minister), the first Shah of the House of Pahlavi of the Imperial State of Iran, and father of the last Shah of Iran. He reigned from 15 December 1925 until he was forced to abdicate by the Soviet Communist invasion of Iran on 16 September 1941.
Reza Shah introduced many social, economic, and political reforms during his reign, ultimately laying the foundation of the modern Iranian state. Therefore, he is regarded as the founder of modern Iran.
- Reza Shah prohibited forced Islamic conversion of Jews and eliminated the Shi'ite concept of ritual uncleanness of non-Muslims.
- Modern Hebrew was incorporated into the curriculum of Jewish schools.
- Jewish newspapers were published.
- Jews were also allowed to hold government jobs.
- In 1915, two Jewish brothers, Mordechai and Asher ben Avaraham, opened the first Jewish newspaper called "Shalom".
- These changes moved the balance of power in the Jewish community from Elders and Rabbis to the Youth.
- The establishment of Zionist Organization of Persia further accelerated this transfer of power to the young Jews.
In the wake of Zionist activity, many Persian Jews emigrated to Palestine.
- However this Zionist awakening led to bitter rivalry between two leaders of Jewish community: Loqman Nehourai and Shmuel Hayyim.
Furthermore, even though Reza Shah was sympathetic to the Jews in the beginning, he became distrustful of Jewish movements with the growth of Zionism.
- Reza Shah sought to unite the different ethnic groups in Iran under the flag of nationalism.
- Reza Shah's main purpose was to fight Communism, but he distrusted Zionism as well. He arrested Shmuel Hayyim and had him executed in 1931 under the charges of conspiracy to murder the Shah and change the form of government from constitutional monarchy to a republic. Jewish schools were closed in the 1920s.
Many Iranian Jews joined the Tudeh party and advocated for Communism.
- Even though Jews comprised less than two percent of Iranian population, almost fifty percent of the members of the Tudeh party were Jewish.
- The Tudeh party was the only party among the Iranian political parties that accepted Jews with open arms.
- Most writers for party publications were Jewish.
- Furthermore, many Iranian Jews viewed Communism as a Jewish movement since many leading members of the Communist Bolshevik Revolution in Russia were Jewish and were looked upon favorably by Persian Jews.
- Shmuel Hayyim, leader of the Jewish community and Communist movement in Iran, was arrested and executed by the order of Reza Shah.
After the establishment of the state of Israel
A spike in anti-Jewish sentiment occurred after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and continued until 1953, due to the weakening of the central government and strengthening of the clergy in the course of political struggles between the Shah and Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.
Although Mossadegh viewed the establishment of the state of Israel as a form of colonialism, he had a good relationship with the Jewish community. On his trip to United States, a Jewish journalist, Raby Moshfegh Hamadani, was accompanying him and giving advice.
The most prominent anti-Israeli member of the government was Hossein Fatemi. Fatemi closed the office of the Jewish Agency on Israel's independence day in 1953. He also annulled an agreement permitting Israeli El Al airplanes to land in Iran. Fatemi, from time to time, published semi-official documents hinting that Iran no longer recognizes the state of Israel.
However, Mossadegh continued commercial ties with the state of Israel and allowed the negotiations between the Bank Melli and Bank Leumi in Israel to continue.
The Six-Day War between Arabs and Israel in 1967 created a tense environment for Persian Jewry.
Obedience Is The Key!
Deuteronomy 6:4-5
Hear the LORD our God, O Israel; the LORD is One. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
James 2:19
You believe that God is One. Good for you! Even the demons believe that — and shudder.
Mark 12:29-30
Jesus said: “This is the most important: ‘Hear the LORD our God, O Israel; the LORD is One. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’”
1 Samuel 15:22-23
“Does the LORD have as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than a sacrifice, and to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as reprehensible as the sin of divination and witchcraft, and insubordination is as reprehensible as the wickedness of idolatry.”
Ecclesiastes 5:1
Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.
John 15:10
Jesus said: “If you obey My commandments, you will remain in My love.”
John 14:24
Jesus said: “The one who doesn’t love Me won’t obey My words.”
Acts 5:32
“And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
Hebrews 5:9
And having been made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.