I have just recently watched for a third time the Netflix series “Surviving Black Hawk Down.” This is Ridley Scott’s documentary remake of his acclaimed 2001 film Black Hawk Down starring none other than Josh Hartnett, Eric Bana, Ewan McGregor, Tom Hardy, Tom Sizemore, Orlando Bloom, William Fichtner, Jason Isaacs, and Sam Shepard, along with other marquee names. The movie and later docuseries is about the U.S. “aid” involvement in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993 along with the United Nations.
However, before I discuss my opinions and critique of the Ridley Scott’s docuseries and how actual participants portray those bloody days/nights, let’s get into some contextual background of 1980’s to 1993 Somalia first. This is the background Wikipedia offers…
Throughout the 1980s the Somali Rebellion escalated, eventually culminating in the full outbreak of the Somali Civil War and the collapse of the regime of President Siad Barre at the start of 1991. Food shortages began in mid-1990, the final year of Siad Barre’s rule.[26] By early 1991, the formal economy collapsed as rebel groups toppled the Somali Democratic Republic.[27] A severe drought hit southern Somalia in 1991–1992,[28][29] while the civil war disrupted traditional coping mechanisms as law enforcement disintegrated. The famine’s primary cause was the war’s devastation of infrastructure and farmland in the inter-riverine regions.[30][31]
The main rebel faction that had toppled the regime was the United Somali Congress (USC),[32] which divided into two armed factions: one led by Ali Mahdi Muhammad, who later became president; and the other by General Mohamed Farrah Aidid, which became known as the Somali National Alliance (SNA).[33] After losing control of Mogadishu, remnants of former President Barres forces created the Somali National Front (SNF) and withdrew south into the nations breadbasket.[34] Serious damage was inflicted in Somalia’s agricultural regions during fighting between the SNF and Aidid’s forces, before the latter drove the SNF far into the south of the country.[35]
TheUNOSOM and UNITAF
In early 1992, as relief agencies initiated operations to respond to the humanitarian crisis, they encountered growing obstacles in delivering aid to the impacted affected inter-riverine region. The disintegration of Somali law enforcement paved the way for armed looters and criminals to steal food from storage sites and supply routes. Many thieves at Mogadishu’s sea and airport, the main supply hub, were linked to the rebel forces of Ali Mahdi and Mohamed Farah Aidid but were effectively demobilized following the rout of the SNF. With militia leaders lacking funds and Barre’s forces no longer presenting a unifying threat and, Aidid and Mahdi increasingly lost control over many young fighters, as did clan elders. As a result, many resorted to food theft for survival and income. In response to this deteriorating security situation, UNOSOM I was established in April 1992 under the leadership of Mohamed Sahnoun to help facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid.[36] In May 1992 the first UN aid shipment arrived in Mogadishu.[37]
During August 1992, U.S. President George H.W. Bush launched Operation Provide Relief, deploying U.S. military transport aircraft to support the UN relief effort in Somalia.[33] That same month, UNOSOM I head Mohammed Sahnoun secured Somali National Alliance approval for 500 peacekeepers, with further deployments requiring the groups consent. However, UN Secretary-General Boutros Ghali unilaterally announced an expansion to 3,500 troops days later, undermining the local support Sahnoun had built. Overruled by UN headquarters, he failed to delay the deployment.[38] The large-scale intervention in late 1992 fueled nationalist opposition, bolstering Aidid’s SNA, which denounced the UN’s perceived colonial approach.[39] By November 1992, largely owing to the mediation efforts of Mohamed Sahnoun, aid was flowing through the Mogadishu port unimpeded, with theft and banditry on the routes to famine zones averaging around 20%.[40] That same month, Sahnoun was replaced by Ismat T. Kittani, who took a confrontational approach, deploying UNOSOM troops into politically sensitive areas and triggering a security crisis with local factions. Kittani claimed 80% of aid shipments were looted, a figure later echoed by the UN Secretariat and the U.S. State Department to justify expanding intervention, though many top UN officials and aid workers disputed the figure.[41] In the view of some top UNOSOM I commanders, the scope of the famine was being exaggerated in order to justify using Somalia as an experiment,[42] as the UN Secretariat believed Somalia represented an ideal candidate for a test case of a UN operation of expanded size and mandate.[43]
On 9 December 1992, American troops began landing on the Somali coastline at Mogadishu under UNITAF (Operation Restore Hope). A total 17,800 US Marines and 10,000 US Army infantry were deployed.[44] The famine in Somalia was already concluding as the troops began landing.[45] The United States had various motives for military involvement in Somalia. The US armed forces wanted to prove it’s capability to conduct major ‘Operations Other Than War‘, while the US State Department wanted to set a precedent for humanitarian military intervention in the post-Cold War era.[43] The United Nations Secretariat believed Somalia represented an ideal candidate for a test case of a UN operation in expanded size and mandate.[43] The United Nations’ intervention, backed by U.S. Marines, has been credited with helping end the famine in Somalia, though the starvation had been improving in the worst-affected areas before troops arrived.[46][47] In November 1994, the Washington-based Refugee Policy Group NGO estimated that of the approximately 100,000 lives that were saved as a result of international assistance, 10,000 had been after the deployment of U.S. troops in December 1992.[48]
Within this framework above the United States got trapped in playing world police force once again as it has so, so, SO many times in recent history without an explicit exit plan so as to not end up the bad-guy or the invading military force in the eyes of the native population and the rest of the world. That is precisely what I loathe and despise about our country’s arrogant involvement in world affairs at the EXPENSE of U.S. military personnel and forces! I also often despise our military soldiers on the ground inside high-tension deployments and their super naive, prejudice, velcro’d-out testosterone-overloaded outlook on the native population and culture, as several of these American Battle of Mogadishu servicemen testify in this docuseries. Yuk! 🤢🤮 Man it rubs me wrong and raw!
And before I get into this and my negative and positive opinions about the entire Mogadishu operation, I want to remind any hyper-conservative, MAGA tRumpel supporters of the same cocky attitude, that George W. Bush put all of our valuable servicemen and women at high risk in the wasted, useless campaigns of Iraq 2003–2011 and the more useless, wasteful conflict in Afghanistan 2001–2021 where far too many American military lives were lost for, no reason, NO GAIN whatsoever for the U.S., for the world, or for the native countries we attacked and invaded. Neither Afghanistan or Iraq are better off. Period. Fact.
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The best part of Ridley Scott’s docuseries “Surviving Black Hawk Down” is that he gives ample interview time to the Somalis who lived through those horrific days and nights in October 1993. They bluntly speak about how indiscriminately the American Ranger forces and Army helicopter gunmen fired upon unarmed Somali citizens, including women and children from above up in the air. No wonder most all Somalis hated the U.S. armed forces, turned against them, and joined Mohamed Farah Adid’s rebel forces! Duh. This is clearly when hyped-up over-testosteroned, velcroed-up boys in our military get way out of hand and far too cocky! Way to go Rangers. 🙄 You just made your own job 10-times harder. Dumb.
Because the American forces wanted to impose their military cockiness it is no wonder the Somali militia wanted to kill Americans:
Throughout the documentary the interviewed Ranger and Delta Force (ex)servicemen talk as if killing Somalis is nothing, that it is a favor to the world. But when it comes to their own squad/platoon mates, it is an atrocity, a human violation, and punishable by brute force. When did global fairness, global justice, or even fair humane treatment for all humans sway and go over to ONLY an American point-of-view and justification!? When? This disturbed and bothered me greatly listening to these ex-servicemen. One of them, Ranger David Diemer, talks about killing Somalis indiscriminately as if they had no worth on this planet, no family, no children.
David Diemer, ex-U.S. Ranger
I couldn’t believe my ears and what I was hearing him say. But when he talked about how the Somalis felt they had to fight back, to him EVERYONE there was a shooter and he would shoot any of them whether they were carrying a weapon or not! It was utterly astonishing to listen to him talk so callously. 🤦♂️
And then there was Tom Satterly, a member of the U.S. Delta Force who joined forces with the Army Rangers in the Battle of Mogadishu. This man truly believed (back then) that he and Delta were the best and “untouchable” and everything they did for America was always right, always moral, and always the best thing for the world. Those are essentially HIS words, I sh*t you not.
There was one very true thing that Tom Satterly, ex-Delta Force, did say in the docuseries at the end that was indeed profoundly true. But, BUT it shows the narrow-mindedness of angry American soldiers when they are put into an impossible powder-keg of a situation by clueless American politicians and a Commander-in-Chief. Watch this and you’ll see/hear exactly what I mean:
There is such a huge disconnect from humanity from these servicemen, that it baffles the brain of any normal, decent, human being. I get it. It is the Fog of War. Our adrenaline is pumping so massively that we military-men lose our sane cognition. I’ve seen this a hundred thousand times in military men in conflict. It is part of the Fight or Flight mentality—kill, kill, kill or die—that all humans possess. It doesn’t make its behavior or consequences right, moral, or universal. But it does exist and rears its ugly head whether we like it or not.
If there is anything I do recommend about Ridley Scott’s docuseries Surviving Black Hawk Down, it is this: it will amply show you how brutally inhumane all people will get in severe, life-threatening conflict. Is it worth it in the ultimate end?
Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always
During these times of great sociopolitical distress, unknown national or global pathways caused by the last several months and since 2016, I have been forced to find some type of solace, some level of pleasure and joy to keep at bay my nagging depression for this nation called the Disunited States of America, and more so my native home state of Texas. What have I found, discovered to temporarily relieve my torment the last decade or more?
My lifelong passions of football/soccer, World War II aviation, and the history of Antiquity, specifically the Roman Empire of the 2nd-century BCE through its decline and fall. Sometimes, more often lately, these “escapes” have kept my sanity in tact; or rather, in tact as is possible these very trying years. Given my age and declining health due to my living situation caring for my Early Alzheimer’s mother, vodka and tequila are no longer viable options or escapes (lots of cussing under my breath for that).
Therefore, I have been forced to find other alternatives to relieve my chronic sadness, my chronic pain, and my chronic frustration from where my once great home country is now headed. As some of you might remember, I am a fanatic for these three areas of interest: footballing/soccer, WW2 history/aviation, and Antiquity and the Roman Empire. I love these areas of interest so very much! And I always look for an opportunity to immerse myself in all three as many times as possible given my time restrictions at home. So…
Are any of you, my followers, my visitors, a kindred spirit in these three areas? I’d love to know. And if so, let’s sometimes chit-chat about them. I get immense pleasure diving into these subjects and how profoundly they changed our current world and all of our lives, particularly in the West. Are any of you gamers? Or are you just well read in these areas? Please let me know. 🙂
Here are some YouTube videos on these three areas I am passionate about:
Football Manager 2024 —
DCS World WW2 —
Rome 2: Total War —
Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always
Some of you may have noticed that I have been around our blogging community less, perhaps noticeably less. You would be right. That has been the case for some 3-5 months now, I’m unsure really. Here’s why… well, several reasons why.
Life. And…
Immediate family, specifically my Early Alzheimer’s Mom and unfortunately and negatively my 61-year old sister.
Mom
Much of what I’ve been having to do to care full-time/overtime 14-16/7 hrs. per day, 365-days the past near four years for my Mom has been covered in these previous three blog-posts: Click here for the first post, then the 2nd and 3rd are all linked together after.
No surprise, she has declined a little more since my last Alzheimer update-post in November 2023. Hence, my free-time to write blogs, comment on blogs I follow, or explore new blogs I’d enjoy has gone by the wayside to this present day.
Mom has now reached the point where cognitively and physically she cannot and/or is unable to help me do anything at all around our apartment. None of the daily or weekly chores for both our bedrooms, the bathrooms, the tub/shower, cleaning the kitchen daily 2-4 times per day, preparing two meals a day, all the grocery weekly/bi-weekly shopping and pharmacy trips, vacuuming and mopping of the apartment, caring for all the plants inside and outside as well as my herb garden outside—all of which are dead now and most are dead inside—and the chauffeuring to quarterly or biannual doctor appointments; she no longer drives.
Regarding my hard work on my herb garden, roses, and gorgeous geraniums outside last year, this past summer, autumn, and now winter has been utterly brutal on all outdoor plants/gardens. In the summer last year we had one of the worst infestations of huge tan-brown-green grasshoppers that devoured everyone’s plants. Some huge grasshoppers were at least 4-inches long. Extreme boiling temps in the day and extreme frigid temps at night doomed my 2024 efforts. On top of this unmitigated garden disaster, for 8-days straight I was so deathly ill I could not get out of bed, ever. I struggled bad to walk to the bathroom. I never ate during those 8-days. Consequently, all the indoor and outdoor plants suffered horribly.
One of my top priorities this late January is reapplying for her Long-Term Medicaid assistance for her eventual admittance into a full-time Assisted Living Memory Care facility where here in the central Hill Country of Texas are all extremely expensive, between $4,800/mon. to $7,300/mon. Most are private pay only. I must get assistance for this third reapplication as I learned the hard way last year—by ending up in the hospital for four nights back in late June—by a Medicare family consultant to guarantee that Mom gets approved. She does incredible work and has tons of experience in this hyper-complicated politicized out-tha-whaa-zoo process here in Texas. That was part of the reason why I ended up in the hospital with serious heart and stress-hypertension problems.
Concluding with Mom I have this comparison…
I was a stay-at-home Dad when my son was an infant until he turned two and my daughter at the time was 7- to 8-years old in elementary school. In 1999-2001 I was the stay-home parent during the day when their mother (my ex-wife now) was at her 8-9 hr. job in downtown Dallas. We lived at that time in a nice starter home in Carrollton, Texas. When she returned from work, and I had dinner ready and homework done, I went to my graveyard shift security guard job at 7:00pm until 7:00am the next morning. I did this for 18-months. By far the hardest jobs I have EVER had in my life!
Now, since August 2021, I am caring for—for all intents and purposes—my last 4-year old child… Mom. Literally. The huge difference, however, between my stay-home-Dad days/nights and right now since August 2021 is that I have been and still am “A One Man Show and Bad Dance.” Back in my married months/year I at least had a wife-partner and parent. Not this go round. This is harder than those 18-months, much harder. The “end” of this rough go will eventually be very different.
My Sister and Her 48-Year “Disease”
As a footnote to my header up top, my sister now weights over 275 lbs., not that weight in the Xmas 2014 picture. And that is the least health problems she has at present.
My 61-year old sister is also a Schizoid-affective Bipolar of about 25-30 years with regular bouts of very manic behavior. She is also a 48-year drug addict and alcoholic. And she also has poor judgement, cognition, and temperament or composure in stressful environments, all due in part to her psychiatric diagnoses. She is also presently on about 6-7 various psych meds daily. There’s the introductory details of what I must often help with, manage, or try to stop the hemorrhaging, as it were, when she has a psychotic meltdown.
On October 9th through October 17th, 2024, she had a major meltdown on me that involved her calling the police department on me—for a 2nd time that year, first in Feb. 2024—and became physically violent toward me inside Mom’s and my apartment almost breaking down or through my locked bedroom door. However, this was after her public meltdown with me at Western Union inside the local Walmart. If you are not familiar with psychiatric-psychologically dysfunctional people with a long, long history of disorders, eight prior felonies, prior addresses of residence that include over 25 Halfway Houses & Shelters, homeless 3-4 times under highway overpasses, and a long list of low-wage jobs that are longer than an encyclopedia… then just believe me when I say this: During those breakdowns/meltdowns, it is pure chaos and a rollercoaster of manic behavior sometimes lasting for over 10-12 hours without medication or in some cases until she is arrested by law-enforcement.
Then also imagine the stress, distress, crying, and emotional exhaustion she puts my elderly Mom through each episode, and you have a slight glimpse of what Mom and I have dealt with since 1978.
Should any of you wish to read the email (Page 1 click here, pg. 2 click here, short pg. 3 click here) I had to send to my sister about this latest 9-day/night psychotic meltdown on me—she was impossible to speak with civilly or maturely and logically those days and nights that I had to get a hotel room 2-nights when she wouldn’t leave Mom’s apartment—so consequently we have yet to speak to each other either in person or by phone or text message. She’s been and still being a royal, immature, asshole to me over a situation I had no control over whatsoever. As is often the case with arguing family members, the initial issue and subsequent meltdown at Walmart had to do with money, her portion of money Mom said she could have from the sale of Mom’s 2007 Toyota Avalon XL Sedan that I had completed after 4-months listed, all by myself, on Oct. 5th, 2024 for $7,600. The rest of the insanity is available via the “click here” links above.
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Therefore, the moral of my quick post here is that my “free-time” has been slipping further away the last 8-26 months as Mom continues to decline, my workload in everything around here increases because I have zero help—with the small exception of Mom’s professional hospice team that visits 3-times a week for 30-40 minutes at most, not on weekends or holidays—and my sister with her horribly shitty attitude and refusal to help out with Mom, much less help me with Mom with anything simple… just eats up every bit of every day now. And it doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon.
My apologies my friends and followers. It is the hand of cards I’ve been delt for the moment. 🤷♂️
P.S. Oh! Almost forgot, my two kids in the header picture above. Since Oct. 6th, 2019, both of them no longer consider me existing. They have been heavily brainwashed and influenced by their mother’s and their maternal grandfather’s radical evangy-fundy Christian nationalistic theology and behavior to all non-believers that “God’s and Christ’s truly saved people should not and cannot be of the world [of sin and Satan].” They must totally separate themselves as “truly saved ones,” from all non-Christians. My two kids have not uttered a word to me or sent me even a text message since Oct. 6th, 2019. And they haven’t once answered my calls, text messages, or birthday cards sent to both since Oct. 6, 2019. 😔
Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always
I’ve been interested lately in learning a bit about 1970’s Italian culture, specifically learning the language in an all female dance studio. It seemed most appropriate to me to get absorbed into the flair and the gyrating Italian hips, go-go boots, and hairdos that made so many Italian women standout, particularly when learning from a “unique” professor of boom-boom. Watch what I mean…
Professor Adriano Celentano is also an accomplished chicken farmer and apparently sheep dog breeder. He states that the secret to healthy hens, giant eggs, and happy dogs is upbeat, 70’s rap-music that “frees” the hips from inhibitions, even in farm animals!
I’m sure farmer Arkysatan in South Africa can also attest to this 70’s hip method of happy animals equals happy home. 😊🤭 And my GOODNESS I do like go-go boots! Let’s have some more shall we! Ooh La La is Italian isn’t it? 😉
I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming… 😁
Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Wear Go Go Boots!
It is the Christmas holidays now and we all know what takes place for the month of December, or actually immediately after Thanksgiving Day. No, check that. I am wrong: Christmas today as it has been for the last 2-3 decades in America now begins at Halloween, or weeks before then. Ugh. 🙄 So I thought this blog-post would be a good reminder to those who willingly choose to not do their historic homework about their own faith and beliefs.
At least once a month I receive Dr. Bart Ehrman’s blog emails on various subjects of Christianity, Jesus or Yeshua, and biblical history, particularly in regard to the four Gospels, Pseudographic, and non-Canonical manuscripts of Late Second Temple Judaism and earliest Christianity. One of his latest blog-posts was entitled, Why Should We Think Jesus Called Himself the Messiah? posted November 10, 2024.
I have always found this question to be of great intrigue and controversy. Why? Because so few modern Christians have an adequate knowledge and understanding of Jewish Late Second Temple Messianism during Jesus’ life, hereafter to be called Yeshua bar Yosef or Yeshua/Yeshuah. And without this Jewish knowledge and understanding there is no possible way modern Christians can truly know who their “Messiah,” their Yeshua actually was and who he thought he was to his fellow Jews and disciples at the time. Who Yeshua was and his role in Yahweh’s or God’s scheme of things in 20-35 CE were far from straightforward. It was all further muddled up and convoluted by the prevalent Hellenistic or Greco-Roman impositions, particularly from Saul of Tarsus, or Paul.
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Dr. Ehrman clearly believes that Yeshua bar Yosef believed himself to be the long awaited Jewish Messiah. However, I am not so convinced. Following are two points Bart Ehrman makes for Yeshua considering himself “the Jewish Messiah”:
Jesus was considered the messiah by his followers after his death, so much so that “Christ” became the most common designation for him. Nothing about his crucifixion, or the belief in his resurrection, would have led anyone to think he was the messiah (since the messiah was not supposed to be raised from the dead, let alone humiliated and crucified). So he must have been called the messiah *before* his followers came to believe in his resurrection. But the question is: did Jesus himself tell his followers this? To get to *that* question we have to consider what we know about what Jesus told his followers in general.
Jesus’ proclamation was all about the coming kingdom of God. He was an apocalypticist who believed that God would soon intervene in the course of history, overthrow the forces of evil, and establish a good (and very real, political) kingdom here on earth. His listeners had to turn to God in preparation for this imminent end.
The immediate problem I have with Ehrman’s conclusion is that he bases it upon just one literary source: the Greco-Roman Synoptic Gospels of which were copied some 40–78 years after Yeshua’s execution in 31-33 CE. Ehrman does not utilize other very relevant Jewish sources of the same time period! For example, Ehrman makes the common grave mistake of sourcing strictly the Greek Septuagint which eventually passes down to us as the Greco-Roman Old Testament. However, the Greek Septuagint is not the Hebrew Tanakh and Yeshua was clearly Hebrew! There are significant differences. What are some key differences?
Jewish Requirements to be the Messiah
The literal and proper translation of the Hebrew Messiah is “Moshiach – מָשִׁיחַ.” It simply means “anointed” referring to the Jewish Bronze and Iron Age ritual of anointing and consecrating someone or something with oil. In the Hebrew Tanakh (1 Samuel 10:1-2) such as a Jewish king (1 Kings 1:39), Jewish priests (Leviticus 4:3), prophets (Isaiah 61:1), the Jewish Temple and its utensils (Exodus 40:9-11), unleavened bread (Numbers 6:15), and a non-Jewish or Gentile king (Cyrus king of Persia, Isaiah 45:1). However, “Moshiach” is never translated as a Messiah; it is always a verb describing an action or occurrence, it is never a noun. There’s the first major screw-up of the Greco-Romans and the Septuagint.
If Christians are going to lay claim to a Hebrew-Jewish heritage for their Christos, or Yeshua, then it is completely fair that we examine closely what the Hebrew-Jewish literature says about the Messiah, yes? The Hebrew Tanakh makes it explicitly clear what and/or how the “Moshiach” will be completely and correctly fulfilled:
He must be Jewish (Deut. 17:15, Num. 24:17). This is obvious.
He must descend from the Tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:10) and a direct male descendant of both King David (1 Chron. 17:11, Psalm 89:29-38, Jerm. 33:17, 2 Sam. 7:12-16) and King Solomon (1 Chron. 22:10, 2 Chron. 7:18).
He must gather the Jewish people from exile and return them to Israel (Isaiah 27:12-13, Isaiah 11:12).
He must rebuild the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem (Micah 4:1).
He must bring world peace (Isaiah 2:4, Isaiah 11:6, Micah 4:3).
He must influence the entire world to acknowledge and serve one G-d (Isaiah 11:9, Isaiah 40:5, Zeph. 3:9).
All of these written requirements for the true “Moshiach” are best summed up in Ezekiel 37:24-28:
“And My servant David will be a king over them, and they will all have one shepherd, and they will walk in My ordinances, and keep My statutes, and observe them, and they shall live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant…and I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant and I will set my sanctuary in their midst forever and My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their G-d and they will be My people. And the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.”
Therefore, according to Yeshua’s own scriptures, if the Jewish individual fails to fulfill even one of these requirements, he cannot be the “Moshiach.” Period, no exceptions. Being as well studied and versed in Mishnaic Hebrew scriptures of his people during fervent Messianism of the day as Yeshua certainly was… he would’ve known that he could not possibly be the fulfilled Moshiach or Messiah.
The 12-year old boy Yeshua bar Yosef (Jesus) at the Temple in Jerusalem astounding the priests, scribes, rabbis
“Jesus did think of himself as the messiah. But not in the sense that later Christians said. For Jews of his day, and Jesus himself, the messiah was to be the king of the coming kingdom. Jesus understood the coming kingdom in completely apocalyptic terms. That is the key. He did not think that the nation of Israel would rouse a military opposition to the Romans and drive them out of the Promised Land. God himself was going to bring destruction on his enemies by sending the Son of Man from heaven (a cosmic savior; Jesus did not think that he himself was this one). The Son of Man would establish God’s kingdom on earth. And he would appoint Jesus to be its ruler. Jesus was the messiah of the coming kingdom.”
But in my opinion Dr. Ehrman doesn’t go far enough with the distinctions between the authentic Jewish Moshiach and the later created (or hijacked?) Greco-Roman extrapolation of Messiah. Additionally, I don’t think Ehrman is giving Yeshua enough scriptural credit to know that he could NOT be the Greco-Roman version of Messiah/Christos. I am convinced that Yeshua knew he was not the Moshiach/Messiah. I also think that a critical question is overlooked in Ehrman’s portrayal of the Messiah/Christos: why did Yeshua not proclaim publicly, to his own people, he was the real Messiah. He only proclaimed it—at least according to the Gospels—to his twelve disciples. Why create more drama and controversy by keeping the anointed-elect a secret? That is a Pandora’s Box or can of worms that given how the Jewish people had been long suffering under Roman authority and oppression just did not need! Is that how you unite and “gather the Jewish people” into world peace? No, it is not, especially if G-d has ordained you as Moshiach.
Why Yeshua/Jesus Was Not the Jewish Moshiach-Messiah
Of the six (6) criteria above to fulfill the role and title of Moshiach-Messiah, Yeshua fulfilled only one, that he was Jewish. There are many problematic accounts of Yeshua’s (Jesus’) genealogy in fulfilling #2 above, i.e. from the Tribe of Judah, from King David and King Solomon. The immediate obvious problem, according to the canonical Gospels, is that Yeshua did not have a biological father. And if that wasn’t disqualifying enough, the Greco-Roman Gospels claim that Joseph was a descendant of King Jeconiah. In the Tanakh King Jeconiah was cursed to never have any descendants (Jer. 22:30). These Hebrew passages further disqualify Yeshua as the Moshiach-Messiah.
Closer examination of Yeshua’s (Jesus’) genealogy according to the Greco-Roman New Testament Gospels show that in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 cause more serious contradictory narratives about his genealogy. Here the later Greco-Roman Church Fathers jump through hoops to explain away these contradictions! Using Yeshua’s mother, Mary, as legitimate lineage is completely unfounded in Jewish Messianism. This is shown even in the Greek Septuagint. Jewish lineage for the Moshiach-Messiah is passed down strictly through the father, not through the mother. Furthermore, the same Gospels claim that Joseph was a descendant of King Jeconiah. This is more damaging to Yeshua’s lineage because of Jeremiah 22:30:
“As I live, says the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim [Jeconiah], king of Judah, be a signet on My right hand, from there I will remove you. […]
So said the Lord: Inscribe this man childless, a man who will not prosper in his days, for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting on the throne of David or ruling anymore in Judah.”
It is safe to assume that either 1) for this problem the Greco-Roman New Testament scribes and copyists chose to trace Yeshua’s genealogy through Mary his mother, breaking from long established Jewish Messianism, or 2) didn’t know about the passage in Jeremiah 22 until it was too late to change it. Then there is further problems tracing Yeshua’s lineage through Mary and that is Luke 3:23-38. For the sake of brevity I will focus just on verse 31:
“…the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David…” — NASB 1995
Mary, being supposedly a descendant of David through Nathan, Solomon’s brother, and not through Solomon himself as mandatory by long established Jewish Messianism and 1 Chronicles 22:10, then this further disqualifies Yeshua (Jesus) as the Moshiach-Messiah. It simply isn’t possible. And we have only examined the first two Jewish Messianic requirements above! The remaining four criteria above have never been fulfilled—not in Yeshua’s lifetime nor since. Any retrofit imposed upon these six criteria by Greco-Roman Christians, including the earliest Church Fathers, by a “Second Coming” are purely irrelevant because authentic Jewish Moshiach-Messianism has no scriptural basis of the anointed one coming twice. This is merely a later invention by the Early Christian Church, that by the way, is completely Greco-Roman, not Homeland Messianic Judaism or Yeshua’s heritage at all.
Early Greco-Roman Christian Church Fathers — notice they appear with pale skin & nothing like Jewish Rabbis or Priests and none of them were even half Jewish
The later Christian inventions and fabrications of the Messiah in Yeshua differ so much from authentic Jewish Moshiach-Messianism that they are not even in the same orbit or solar system. The stark differences developed as a result of the Church’s Greco-Roman influences, or superimposing, during the time of Emperor Constantine and the Council of Nicaea. This council eventually drew up the Nicene Creed in 325 CE and forced one central authority and doctrinal orthodoxy, thus making Greco-Roman Catholicism the official religion of the Empire.
Be that as it may, according to authentic Jewish Messianism of the time (Yeshua’s lifetime and prior), the Moshiach (or Greek Messiah) was never meant to be an object of worship. The “anointed one’s” primary mission and final accomplishment was/is to bring global peace and to fulfill the entire world with the knowledge and awareness of only one G-d, and no others. Period. Full stop.
If Not the Jewish Messiah, Then Whose Messiah?
Imagine a hypothetical scenario for a moment. Imagine that you want to take advantage of the recent reparations offered by the U.S. government to the Native American Indian descendants due to America’s harsh atrocities done to them during the early and mid-19th century. The benefits, grants, and return of sacred lands to all the various tribes you have recognized as very advantageous and gaining an economic edge and eventual wealth accumulation. You want a part of it all, however, you also know full well that you possess no DNA of any Native American Indian ancestors, only white Anglo European-American. But you really envy desire all the reparations and benefits being handed out. Hmm, what to do… how to finagle?
Ah-HAH! 💡You rewrite and change history as well as the main and secondary characters to fit your best interests and your own agenda. While doing so you trash and/or eliminate the factual history and characters; wipe it out completely. Rome often did precisely that, simply destroy or distort the conquered and their culture so much that it is unrecognizable in the end.
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While traveling through a forest, a person noticed a circle marked on the tree with an arrow shot precisely into the center of the circle. A few yards away he noticed several more targets marked on other trees, each with arrows perfectly in the center of the circles. Eventually, the traveler met the talented archer and asked him, “How did you become such an expert archer that you always shoot your arrows into the very center of the bull’s eye?”
The archer replied, “It’s not difficult. First, I shoot the arrow into the tree and then I draw the circle around the arrow.”
When one unbiasedly and equitably scrutinizes 2nd thru 4th-century CE Christian “proof texts” of Yeshua (Jesus) being their promised Messiah, you must ask the question: Has an arrow been shot into a circle or has a circle been drawn around the arrow? To put it another way, has the passage or passages been mistranslated, wrongly extrapolated, misquoted, taken out of context, or completely fabricated? Let’s take a close look at the several common proof texts Christian Apologists offer for their Yeshua-Jesus being the foretold Messiah.
Matthew 2:23 and Nazareth: One of the easiest ways to fulfill a prophesy is one you yourself invented. The Gospel of Matthew claims that Yeshua was the Messiah because he lived in the town of Nazareth:
“…and [Jesus] came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: “He shall be called a Nazarene.””
Because a Nazarene might be interpreted as a resident of Nazareth, vaguely he could be called a Nazarene. However, there is a huge problem with an actual town called Nazareth in the time period of the Jewish Tanakh; it did not exist. Hence, there are no references to Nazareth in the Hebrew Bible. Nowhere. This was later fabricated by early Church Fathers drawing a circle, as it were, around the arrow. What modern Christian apologists will offer is to work with crude English retranslations of earlier Greek mistranslations while avoiding the original, authentic Hebrew scriptures.
Romans 11:26 and Isaiah 59:20: The passage in Isaiah in several English translations states, “The deliverer will come from Zion, he will remove ungodliness from Jacob…” This is an attempt to establish Old Testament support for the Christian belief that their Messiah will take away our sins. But this is not what the original Hebrew Isaiah says. The correct translation from the Hebrew is “A redeemer will come to Zion and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob, declares the Lord.” No, in authentic Jewish Messianism the Moshiach-Messiah’s role is not to take away all our sins, but instead when we choose to turn away from our sins, the Moshiach-Messiah will then arrive on Earth. Christian apologists translate Isaiah 59:20 correctly, but mistranslate it in Romans 11:26. Why? The obvious reason is that Romans was written/copied in c. 55-57 CE by Saul/Paul. Isaiah was written/copied c. last half of the 8th-century BCE to the last half of the 6th-century BCE. A massive time-lapse there of later answering and rebutting many critics of early Christianity authenticity! Or as it were, drawing the circles around the arrows.
Matthew 1:22-23 and a Virgin Birth: In the Gospel of Matthew is states, “Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” Christian apologists claim this fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 which says in the correct, original Hebrew: “Behold, the young woman is with child and will bear a son and she will call his name Emmanuel.”
The current Christian translation of this Isaiah verse is simply inaccurate for three reasons:
The Hebrew word, “almah -אלמה,” means a young woman, not a virgin. All Jewish biblical scholars recognize this fact.*1
The verse says “ha’ almah -הא עלמה” or “the young woman,” not a young woman, specifying a particular woman that was known to Isaiah during his lifetime; and
The verse says “she will call his name Emmanuel,” not “they shall call.”
Aside from these three inaccuracies above, if you read the entire chapter of Isaiah 7, from which this verse is taken, it is glaringly obvious that Christians have intentionally taken the verse out of context.
Prophecies or passages in the Hebrew Tanakh or Old Testament
Isaiah 7:16 and 8:4: Isaiah 7 speaks of a prophecy made to the Jewish King Ahaz to lessen his fears of two invading kings—those of Damascus and Samaria—both of whom were preparing to invade Jerusalem some 600 years before the birth of Yeshua (Jesus). Isaiah’s prophecy is meant for the very near future, not 600 years later as Christians wrongly claim. Verse 16 makes this quite clear:
“For before the na’ar (boy) shall understand to refuse the rah (evil), and choose the tov (good), the adamah (land) will be desolate, of whose two melachim (kings) thou art afraid.”
This can in fact be verified in the next chapter, Isaiah 8:4:
“For before the child shall know to cry, ‘My father and my mother’ the riches of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.”
Thus, this verse completely rules out any possible connection to Yeshua (Jesus) six millennia later. The verse doesn’t even hint in the least it is meant for six millennia later. There is further proof in fact that the verse could not have referred to Yeshua.
2 Samuel 7:14 and Hebrews 1:5: Christian apologists often refer to 2 Samuel 7:14 to refer to Yeshua as the Son of God in Hebrews 1:5. But when the entire passage is examined it doesn’t end with the phrase of Hebrews 1:5, it goes on to say:
“When he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men.”
In 3rd and 4th-century CE Christian theology of Yeshua’s sinless birth and boyhood, this cannot possibly fit the doctrine of a pure, holy Son of God and Lamb of God. No, instead the verse is speaking specifically about King Solomon, as 1 Chronicles 22:9-10 refers. It must be remembered too that the Hebrew Tanakh frequently refers to individuals as God’s “son,” even to the entire nation of Israel:
“Israel is My son, My firstborn.” — Exodus 4:22
Once again, drawing the circle around the arrow to appear as it’s not.
Micah 5:2 and Bethlehem: Christian evangelicals and apologists frequently attempt to use Micah 5:2 as a proof-text of Yeshua fulfilling the prophecy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. However, in the original Hebrew the passage simply states it has been preordained that the Jewish Messiah would trace his lineage back to Bethlehem. Being born there and being a resident there are not exclusively the same. This verse in Micah is consistent with the Messiah being a descendant of King David as properly read in 1 Samuel 16:18:
“And one of the young men answered and said, “Behold, I saw a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who knows how to play, a mighty man of valor, and a warrior, and prudent in affairs, and a handsome man, and the Lord is with him.””
That does not possibly mean the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem.
Furthermore, there is another major problem with this Christian proof-text. There is a huge difference between a scripture passage that serves as a proof, and one that serves as a requirement of the Messiah. A proof must be something so specific, so exclusive that only one individual can represent it or fulfill it. For example, one criterion of the Jewish Moshiach-Messiah is that he must be Jewish. If he is Jewish, like so many were at the time, then that is one and ONLY one requirement met. But in and of itself that doesn’t mean that one individual is the Moshiach-Messiah, for there were millions of Jews that met that criterion. Thousands of Jewish children were born in Bethlehem. That doesn’t prove a Messiah.
Conclusion: Not the Jewish Or the Christian Messiah
Because I have shown sufficiently that Yeshua bar Yosef (Jesus) could not have possibly been the foretold Jewish Moshiach-Messiah according to the original, authentic Hebrew Tanakh and Late Second Temple Judaism, then where does that leave Greco-Roman Christianity and all its tenets, inventions, and fabrications? The simple answer is Christianity is only as valid, or as factual as Greco-Roman mythology in Zeus and Quirinus, Mars and Venus, Jupiter and Juno, or Apollo and Diana. Nothing more. Why? I’ll briefly summarize.
Yeshua bar Yosef (Jesus) was not the fulfilled or foretold Jewish Messiah according to authentic Judaism.
Christianity lays claim to (or hijacks) Jewish Moshiach-Messianism, as their own. However, does so completely wrong based on authentic Judaism of the time and later invents their own Roman version.
If #1 is true (and it is), then #2 cannot be right or factually, accomplished or validated.
Therefore, Christianity’s basic core foundations of the fulfilled Messiah are invalid, bogus, and become Greco-Roman mythology at best.
Regarding Dr. Bart Ehrman’s blog-post Why Should We Think Jesus Called Himself the Messiah?, knowing well the Jewish history of the Late Second Temple Period, the Hebrew Tanakh in proper translation, and the contemporaneous Jewish literature of Yeshua’s time-frame, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, I’m convinced that Yeshua (Jesus) never admitted he was the hoped Jewish Messiah, not within Jewish sources—the Greco-Roman Gospels as only one source are nowhere near sufficient corroboration to Ehrman’s conclusion.
Yeshua bar Yosef (Jesus) is not the Jewish or the Christian Messiah. Period. He is no one’s Messiah.
* Some Christian apologists argue that in an ancient translation of the Bible called the “Septuagint,” 70 great rabbis translated the word “almah -אלמה” in Isaiah 7:14, as “parthenos –παρθενος ´ ,” and that this Greek word means a virgin. This claim is false for several reasons: 1) The 70 rabbis did not translate the book of Isaiah, only the “Pentateuch,” the five books of Moses. In fact, the introduction to the English edition of the Septuagint states concerning the translation, “The Pentateuch is considered to be the part, the best executed, while the book of Isaiah appears to be the very worst;” 2) In Genesis 34:2-3 the word “parthenos” is used in reference to a non-virgin, a young woman who had been raped; 3) The entire Septuagint version that missionaries quote from is not the original, but from a later, corrupted version. ↩︎
I have zero expectation that anything I ever say will end someone’s belief in their God. Not my goal or purpose. That alone belongs to the individual. ~ Zoe
'Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it' - Terry Pratchett
The Professor's Convatorium 
