Notes - Zero Hour and The Passover Plot

          You had a late lunch at Chipotle/Panera and now you are facing west and sitting at the central crossroad in Rose Hill Cemetery. Carol is on page 333 of Grisham’s novel. The sunning is brightly shining onto southwest Ohio and you have had a very good cooler Autumn day with many trees still having not changed yet. Let’s go to Pouch Five. – Amorella

         Time for bed. You worked on Pouch Five but did not complete it. Carol wanted to catch up on more shows so you finished the last three hours of “Zero Hour” and it turned out much as you suspected – the genetic bloodline of Christ is about to be re-born. This you based first on the similarities with Levin’s The Boys from Brazil and then the cross containing the blood of Jesus through insects that ate the cross. The basic idea that got you focused on writing novels in the first place – a clone of Jesus’ DNA way back in the late sixties. Only you had the cloning from blood on the Shroud of Turin. You still included aspects of this in the first three Merlyn series books but it is not included in the present series. – Amorella

         2253 hours. This concept has been in my mind since before reading The Passover Plot, which I enjoyed because it seems more plausible than the Biblical stories. I’m still open-minded about this. I am very much interested in Middle Eastern archeology and the history based on substantiated facts.

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The Passover Plot is a controversial, best-selling 1965 book, by British biblical scholar Hugh J. Schonfield who also published a translation of the New Testament with a Jewish perspective.

Planning

According to Schonfield's analysis, the events of the Passover, which are presented in all the Gospels, but inconsistently, are most accurately presented in the Gospel of John. His reading of that Gospel convinced him that John's account, though probably filtered through an assistant and transcription in John's old age, suggests that Jesus had planned everything. Among other things, so that he would not be on the cross for more than a few hours before the Sabbath arrived when it was required by law that Jews be taken down, so that one of his supporters, who was on hand, would give him water (to quench his thirst) that was actually laced with a drug to make him unconscious, and so that Joseph of Arimathea, a well-connected supporter, would collect him off the cross while still alive (but appearing dead) so that he could be secretly nursed back to health. Schonfield suggests that the plan went awry because of a soldier's actions with a spear. Schonfield gives evidence of a high-ranking member of the Sanhedrin who was one of Jesus' followers, likely the Beloved Disciple who is otherwise obscure, and notes several instances in which knowledge of or access to the Temple was available to one or more of Jesus' followers. He identifies this follower as John, the source of the Gospel many decades later whilst living in Asia Minor. He suggests that this Apostle, and Joseph of Arimathea, were responsible for events following the Crucifixion, and that it might have been this Apostle (an 'undercover Disciple', as it were) who was seen (by those who did not know him) at the Tomb on the morning of the Resurrection.

Second half of the book

After first laying out the storyline and outcome of Jesus' life in the first half of the book, along with supportive arguments, Schonfield devotes the second half of the book to a more in-depth exposé of the concepts and arguments used to support his conclusions. Schonfield also discusses how Jesus' original message and purpose may have become transformed during the century after his death.

Edited selected passages from Wikipedia – The Passover Plot

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         You also caught up on another favorite show “Covert Affairs”. – Amorella

         2310 hours. My main interests are with Jesus the man because there is a mystery that is more than based on faith, at least to me. I am also interested in the ‘Old Testament Prophets’; it was one of my favorite courses at Otterbein. I took that class because of personal interest. I did teach aspects of the Bible as literature in Brit lit; it is or was a part of the text – the different translations, that sort of thing.

         You are stirred up by these ideas because you think it would be interesting if a ‘possible genetic find of anyone historical or religious significance’ did appear because you think a clone would be created if at all possible. – Amorella

         2323 hours. Yes, for an example a clone of Julius Caesar would work as well – an identical twin (or close enough). I don’t think a clone of a person would necessarily have the same fingerprints, at least from what I’ve read. Identical twins do not. The personal behavior and environment would not be the same in any case. Mostly the whole idea would be based on wishful thinking. It is still interesting though as why we human beings might possibly do such a thing, even out of curiosity if nothing else.

         Post, boy. - Amorella