There is much speculation, in the various religious discussion groups that I’ve participated in, about the sequence of events that lead to the eventual crucifixion and death of Yahshua Anointed.  Some say that the emotions of the Jewish people in Jerusalem had gotten so inflamed that a “mob mentality” took over and nothing could have stopped them from their goal of executing Yahshua.  Others have said that it was Yahshua himself who supernaturally placed an evil spirit in the hearts of his accusers, so–in a way–he “manipulated” events which caused his death.  This, they argue, is a more plausible explanation because there’s no way that he would fail or leave anything to chance in his purpose on earth of becoming a human sacrifice and dying for our sins so that we may all be forgiven.  Is either explanation right?  Is either one even close?

For the answer, we don’t have to debate among ourselves.  The answer is perfectly  explained in the Bible, but once again, here is a subject that cannot be fully understood without reading the text in both the Greek and Hebrew languages.  It requires the reader to truly be a “workman”, as Paul said, and dig into the original expression of the author.  In doing so, the meaning becomes self-evident.  The gospels of Matthew and Mark each describe the moment in question.

Matt. 26:63—But Yahshua held his peace, And the high priest answered and said unto him, “I adjure thee by the living Elohim, that thou tell us whether thou be the Anointed, the Son of Yahweh.”  64 Yahshua saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”  ⁶⁵ Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, “He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy.”

Mark 14:61–…Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, “Art thou the Anointed, the Son of the Blessed  ⁶² And Yahshua said, “I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”  ⁶³ Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, “What need we any further witnesses?  ⁶⁴ Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye?” And they all condemned him to be guilty of death.

In each of these passages, we have almost identical descriptions of this pivotal moment.  And, to most people, it appears that Yahshua merely equated himself to be in the same rank as Yahweh in heaven, as his son, and this alone was sufficient for the high priest to lose his mind, rend his clothes and declare that he’d just heard blasphemy from Yahshua’s own mouth!  After all, isn’t it considered “blasphemy” to falsely state that you are Yahweh’s peer?

Yes, but that’s not the only thing that occurred at this moment.  Not only did Yahshua assert that he would be sitting on Yahweh’s right hand, he actually used a word in his statement which was illegal to say.  In fact, the punishment for the use of this word is automatic execution.  Yahshua said it deliberately, at the precise moment that he intended to say it and it was this “crime” that forced the high priest to begin the only conviction that Jewish law demanded, that is, being put to death.  What was the forbidden word that Yahshua spoke?”

In both Matthew and Mark, that forbidden word is rendered “power” in our English Bibles.  That doesn’t seem like such a bad word, so what does it mean in the original Greek text?  In Greek, the word “power”, δύναμης, is transliterated “dunameOs”, which comes from the Hebrew word “adonai” from the Old Testament.  All Jewish citizens were forbidden to utter the actual name of Yahweh, so they used an insertion, such as “adonai”, which allowed them to refer to the father without uttering blasphemy by speaking his name.  In fact, the only Jewish person who was allowed to speak the name “Yahweh” was the high priest and HE was only allowed to say it on the Day of Atonement.  When Yahshua responded, he was speaking to the highest religious authority in the land, the high priest himself.  And the word he used was actually more than “adonai”.  It was the actual name of Yahweh, abbreviated, and this was worse than the first “sin”–which would have been bad enough–and the high priest immediately knew what had to be done.  To understand just how damning a word it was that Yahshua spoke, we need to see how the word “power” is identified in the Old Testament.

Gen. 31:29–“It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the Elohim of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.”

A brief word search in Strong’s Concordance shows that, in this verse, the Hebrew word for “power” is “el”, a masculine noun, which is the shortened version of the word “Elohim”, a.k.a. Yahweh himself.  This word is found throughout the Old Testament, but our Bibles always render it as Lord or God, so the reader cannot see when the author is using the short form of Elohim.  It was this word, a word that everyone in the 1st century A.D. understood to mean “Yahweh” that Yahshua spoke right to the high priest’s face.  THIS is why he lost his mind.  THIS is why he said there is no more need for any witnesses.  Nobody, anywhere, at ANY time would be stupid enough to do this.  It was like putting a gun to your head and pulling the trigger.  Since Yahshua has just spoken this illegal word and had also illegally placed himself to an identical position of power as Yahweh himself, each of these were crimes which had the identical punishment of death.

Throughout Yahshua’s life, he never sinned.  At this moment, he had to commit the worst “sins” possible (in the high priest’s mind) in order to cause his execution.  Prior to this moment, no matter how hard they tried and how many false witnesses were brought to accuse him of crimes, nothing was working.  If he had just kept his mouth shut, the high priest would have had no choice other than to let him go free.  But then, Yahshua spoke.  The sin of equating yourself to Elohim was a crime worthy of death.  The sin of speaking the name of Yahweh–even in its shortened form–is also a crime worthy of death.  Yahshua did both crimes (so they thought) and the rest of the events that followed were 100% of his own doing and 100% within his control.

The fact remains, he never did sin, but those who had to judge him according to Jewish law didn’t know it.  Because, according to the law, he DID sin, because he actually was human.  What they could not have known is that his actual father was Yahweh himself, who supernaturally impregnated Mary, meaning that even though Yahshua was a human, he actually never ceased being Elohim–a member of Yahweh’s heavenly family.  He, in essence, had dual-citizenship.  So by saying he would be sitting at the right hand of “el”, “power”, “adonai”, he was telling the truth.  When he used the name of the father, he was also only telling the truth, because at that time, nobody knew that he was speaking about this ACTUAL father, both physically and spiritually.  From birth to death, he lead a sin-free life.  He only had to “fake” sinning in order to fulfill his purpose of coming to earth in human form.

I often think about this moment and imagine the courage it had to have taken to deliberately do this final act.  He understood what kind of death he would be facing.  He knew the kind of pain it would mean.  After all, a human being feels all the same degrees of pain from the same torturous methods as he knew was about to occur.  That’s why, when he prayed the night before, drops of blood came from his pores as he prayed (Luke22: 44–“And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”)

And knowing this in advance, he spoke those brave words to the high priest anyway.

This is just one more reason to drop to your knees and give thanks for the gift of what that sacrifice means to all of us and how unworthy I am to deserve it.  I get emotional just thinking about it.