WALENDYsolje-Russia-and-the-Jews

L E T T E R S T O T H E E D I T O RWhy Judas Had to Kiss JesusIn the July/August 2006 issue of TBR, HarrellRhome, in his article “TBR Looks at theJudas Gospels” on how the chief priests andcaptains of the temple came to apprehend Jesusin the Garden of Olives, he makes the query:“They saw him every day or so; hence theymust have known who He was and what Helooked like. It seems hard to conclude that theyactually needed Judas to identify Him, thoughit makes for an interesting literary motif.”The reason was more than a literary motif.The answer can be found in the writings of Jacobusde Voragine, in his The Golden Legend:Readings on the Saints, written in 1260. In hisentry on St. James, he writes:“The apostle James is called James ofAlpheus, meaning son of Alpheus, the brotherof the Lord, James the Less, and James the Just.He is called the brother of the Lord because heis said to have borne a strong resemblance toJesus, so that very often they were mistakenone for the other. Hence, when the Jews set outto capture Christ, they had to avoid takingJames, because he looked like Christ, so theyengaged Judas, who could distinguish the Lordfrom James, to point Christ out with a kiss.”Ignatius confirms this likeness in his letterto John the Evangelist when he says: “If I haveyour permission, I want to come up to Jerusalemto see the venerable James, surnamed theJust, who they say resembled Jesus Christ soclosely in his features . . . I can see Jesus Christso far as bodily features are concerned.”Again, James is called the brother of theLord since Christ and James being descendedfrom two sisters were thought of as being descendedfrom two brothers, Joseph and Cleophas.The two sisters were Mary, the mother ofJesus, and her much older sister, by 20 years,Mary Heli. Mary Heli married Cleophas, thebrother of St. Joseph. Their daughter, calledMary Cleophas, married Alpheus. The childrenof this couple were James the Less, Simon,Jude Thaddeus, and Simon. When Alpheusmarried May Cleophas he was a widower witha son, Levi, who later became St. Matthew. TheJews of the era referred to brothers as thosewho were related on both sides.MRS. JEAN MEYERPennsylvaniaAbrahamic FaithsWas there really a historical man identifiableas the character in the Bible that we callJesus of Nazareth or Jesus Christ?Even the oldest writings in the New Testamentdate back only to about A.D. 70.I am one who cannot follow Christianity, Judaism,nor Islam, for all three are Semitic religionsand while these religions were forming,people existed throughout the whole world.Myself, I am not Semitic. I am a GermanAmerican.TIMOTHY STORZTexasMade-Up HistoryPeople are capable of making up history tosuit their own needs. The New York Times reportedthat Ms. Tania Head, a prominent 9-11“survivor,” made a number of unverifiableclaims concerning her experience during the attackon the World Trade Center. What motivatedher to fabricate her experience is unknown.What is clear is that she lied, just as those whocreated false history with respect to the Japanesecapture of Nanking in 1937.There are many Chinese “survivors” (and“remorseful Japanese former soldiers”) whosupposedly witnessed Japanese murders andrapes following the capture of Nanking. However,the facts, as reported by foreigners workingin the Nanking Safety Zone, do not squarewith the allegations. Even the Nazi industrialistJohn Rabe, who worked in the zone, did notwitness any of the alleged crimes occurring inNanking. As a true capitalist, Rabe was mostlyintent on maintaining business with the Chineseand saw Japanese competition as a threatto profits. Despite the obvious propagandavalue, at the time, even the Chinese communistsmade no mention of mass atrocities occurringwithin the (at the time) capital city.Remembrance of past traumatic experiencestends to be distorted, which is human nature.However, there is no benefit in perpetuating historybased on distorted memories or lies.D. LEEFloridaBringing History Into Accord With the Facts in Regard to Sept. 11, 2001IF THE AIRPLANES HIT TWO of the Worldtrade Center towers and collapsed them, an interestingquestion is, for what reason did athird building collapse in the same way?Most of our nation’s architects have questionedhow the three buildings of the WorldTrade Center came down without tippingover. The U.S. National Institute of Standardsand Technology admits to not having any answerson what caused the “global collapse” ofthe three towers, or “how the buildings couldhave collapsed tons of steel that was designedto resist that load.” This government organizationis obviously not going to release anyinformation that those who control the governmentdo not want released.There is much evidence that explosiveswere used to collapse all three buildings. Explosionswere heard by 118 first responders;explosive flashes were seen by reporters; therewas a 1,400-foot diameter field of equally distributeddebris. Blast waves blew out windowsin buildings 400 feet away. There was lateralejection of thousands of 20- to 50-ton steelbeams up to 500 feet away. Human bone fragmentswere found on top of buildings nearby.The incendiary explosive thermate wasfound at the building sites, which explainstons of molten metal found under all threebuildings. Pyroclastic dust clouds were evidenceof explosives being used. Windowsbeing blown out of nearby buildings is additionalevidence explosives were used to destroythe buildings. Along with seismometerevidence, everything points to explosivesbeing used to destroy the towers.Evidence demands a verdict. Lives of the2,800+ people killed in the three buildings,the lives of thousands of Americans killed inIraq and Afghanistan, and the other costs toAmericans, should be compensated for by thereal criminals. Concerned Americans need toact on this matter; justice must be done.LEROY S.WILSONNewYork60 S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 8 B A R N E S R E V I E W . C O M • 1 - 8 7 7 - 7 7 3 - 9 0 7 7 O R D E R I N G