BEHIND THE TITLE OF THE SERIES: PART TWO

Early cover design for PART ONE.

Hovering around the Eucharistic sacrifice, the most viral Zombie meme ever screams out for fresh brains. The first post of the BIBLE FOR ZOMBIES blog, served up the blood and meat of the Eucharist Parable, to begin the explanation of why MacAdam titled his series "THE BIBLE FOR ZOMBIES." With this second blog post, the explanation of the title is continued, by highlighting two other Zombie memes, which lurk in the pages of the gospels in wait for brains. First up from the ground, is the Thriller episode in MATTHEW; few are aware that the gospel tells of many saints being resurrected from the dead, before Jesus even had a chance to roll over in his grave:

ο δε ιησους παλιν κραξας φωνη μεγαλη αφηκεν το πνευμα και ιδου το καταπετασμα του ναου εσχισθη εις δυο απο ανωθεν εως κατω και η γη εσεισθη και αι πετραι εσχισθησαν και τα μνημεια ανεωχθησαν και πολλα σωματα των κεκοιμημενων αγιων ηγερθη και εξελθοντες εκ των μνημειων μετα την εγερσιν αυτου εισηλθον εις την αγιαν πολιν και ενεφανισθησαν πολλοις

And Jesus having again cried with a great voice, sent forth the spirit
And lo, the veil of the sanctuary was split in two from top unto bottom
And the earth did quake
And the rocks were split
And the tombs were opened
And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep, arose
And having come forth out of the tombs
After His rising they went into the holy city
And appeared to many                           
                   ---MATTHEW (27:50-53)

Clearly this passage does not describe the end of the world and last judgement. This is an awakening of flesh that moves together in response to the death of Jesus on the cross, at a time when the King of the Jews was a slave under the Roman scourge. The bodies of these reanimated saints laid in wait until Jesus was resurrected, for they were to come marching in the "holy city" together. In THE BIBLE FOR ZOMBIES, MacAdams lays down the evidence that this passage ciphers fiery events which ancient Roman historians describe as having really taken place. It is not for the trumpet of this blog post, to give the entire revelation away. The revolting parade of reborn saints only reaches the optimum maximum, with a purchase of the book. 

Some will scoff, at any analysis which would liken unto zombies, these saints which MATTHEW's report surprisingly resurrects three days before the resurrection of Jesus. Nonetheless, such lazy readers are left with a whole series of questions they can't answer: 

• 1) Were the bodies of these resurrected saints uncorruptible or not? 
• 2) Did these who were resurrected early ascend to heaven with Jesus? 
• 3) What did they do for the symbolic "three days" that Jesus lay in the earth? 
• 4) Why are none of the above questions addressed by any gospel? 

The conclusion of THE BIBLE FOR ZOMBIES, PART ONE, handily dispenses with all these questions. Any rational argument against considering these saints as the undead, is totally negated by another passage which pointedly indicates Jesus was himself one of the walking undead after his own resurrection:

μαρια δε ειστηκει προς το μνημειον κλαιουσα εξω ως ουν εκλαιεν παρεκυψεν εις το μνημειον ... και ταυτα ειπουσα εστραφη εις τα οπισω και θεωρει τον ιησουν εστωτα και ουκ ηδει οτι ο ιησους εστιν ... λεγει αυτη ο ιησους μαρια στραφεισα εκεινη λεγει αυτω ραββουνι ο λεγεται διδασκαλε ... λεγει αυτη ο ιησους μη μου απτου ουπω γαρ αναβεβηκα προς τον πατερα μου πορευου δε προς τους αδελφους μου και ειπε αυτοις αναβαινω προς τον πατερα μου και πατερα υμων και θεον μου και θεον υμων

Mary stood outside the tomb crying ...
She turned around and saw Jesus standing there
But she did not realize that it was Jesus ...
Jesus said to her:
    “Mary!” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic:
    “Rabboni!”                                                                          (Which means [the Hugest] Teacher)
Jesus said:
    “DO NOT TOUCH ME !      For I have not yet returned to the Father
     Go instead to my brothers and tell them:
              “I am returning to my Father
               And your Father            
               To my God and your God.”                                         
                             ---JOHN (20:11-17)

To a Greek speaker without any knowledge of Jewish religious law, the word ἅπτου (haptou) has naughty sexual meaning here; 1 Corinthians (7:1) makes just such a point about male/female contact using the form ἅπτεσθαι (haptesthai). This drama smelled even naughtier to any awake Greek speaking Jew, for there is a prominent reference to Jewish law, which indicates that every limb, of large and in charge Rabbi Jesus, was indeed, still quite stiff as a ritually unclean corpse: 

 

יג כל הנגע במת בנפש האדם אשר ימות ולא יתחטא את משכן יהוה טמא--ונכרתה הנפש ההוא מישראל  כי מי נדה לא זרק ליו טמא יהיה--עוד טמאתו בו
 

Whoever touches the dead body of anyone
Is unclean for seven days           
                            ----NUMBERS (19:13)

A Resurrection of Christ recently reattributed to Botticini (c. 1470 AD). Note how the Roman guard to the far left appears to have been awakened by the smell of a Redeemer who has been dead three days. 

The Hebrew prohibitions against touching a corpse were very strong, as further detailed by NUMBERS (5:2), (6:6), (9:6), (31:19), and LEVITICUS (21:1), (21:11). Red bio-hazard flags shot up off the page, when any half-awake Greek speaking Jew read JOHN (20:11-17). Even if a shocked viewer of one of today's classic zombie films, has a hard time finding a serious message beneath all the metaphoric blood, sillified reanimations, and Bacchanalian cannibal consumption of human flesh, that should not mean such shocked viewers might not yet still listen to the very serious message at the foundation, of a mass of first century human flesh and blood, that was sacrificed to destroy an Imperial madness, so that we all might still live.

Like seed brings new crops, and dead trees push up new shoots, the burial of the dead originated with hopes of resurrection. The literary interpretation of the Bible comes into focus, once one realizes that the Jewish general Josephus Flavius wrote all four canonical gospels, in a pseudonymous sedition against Pagan Rome. The Imperial capitol was a city where corpses of Jews and Messianic proselytes were interred in catacombs, while Pagans were typically cremated. THE BIBLE FOR ZOMBIES clears the passages connecting the belief in resurrection to that of reincarnation. Josephus reports that reincarnation was a doctrine of every Jewish sect at the time of Christ, with the sole exception of the Sadducee sect which collaborated with the Imperial Roman occupation of Israel. An important collation links ANTIQUITIES (18:1:4) to MATTHEW (22:23):

Σαδδουκαίοις δὲ τὰς ψυχὰς ὁ λόγος συναφανίζει τοῖς σώμασι

The doctrine of the Sadducces is this:
That the souls die with the bodies
           ---ANTIQUITIES (18:1:4)

 

εν εκεινη τη ημερα προσηλθον αυτω Σαδδουκαίοι οι λεγοντες μη

ειναι αναστασιν και επηρωτησαν αυτον

On that day some Sadducces
Who say there is no resurrection
Came to Jesus and questioned Him
            ---MATTHEW (22:23)

The fact that the Sadducee sect went extinct in the carnage of the Jewish War has not escaped the notice of numerous commentators. The Old Testament foundation to the doctrine of resurrection, found in such citations as ISAIAH (26:19), JOB (19:25-26), and DANIEL (12:2), is rationally interpreted as the means of unfolding the evolution of God's plan for Adam's progeny through cycles of rebirth. The paradigm of a what is called a "Last Judgement," fits the situation of that generation which will finally witness the unveiling of God's established kingdom. Those who awaken to "everlasting shame" can be likened to those judged as obstructions to the fulfillment of this Biblical plan. To the prophet ZECHARIAH, such were Pagans who died in ignorance, and awoke to find that they were monsters without ears to hear or eyes to see; one who closes the ear, loses the tongue:

יב וזאת תהיה המגפה אשר יגף יהוה את כל העמים אשר צבאו על ירושלם המק בשרו והוא עמד על רגליו ועיניו תמקנה בחריהן ולשונו תמק בפיהם יג והיה ביום ההוא תהיה מהומת יהוה רבה בהם והחזיקו איש יד רעהו ועלתה ידו על יד רעהו

And this is the plague with which Yahweh will sicken
Every people who has warred against Jerusalem
He will consume away their flesh while they stand on their feet
And their eyes will be consumed in their holes
And their tongue will be consumed in their mouths
And it will come to pass in that day
That a great confusion from Yahweh will be among them
And each will grab hold of the hand of his neighbor
And will thrust up his hand against the hand of his neighbor
                       ----ZECHARIAH (20:11-17)

These citations from scripture are but a few of the more potent examples, given to validate that a title such as "THE BIBLE FOR ZOMBIES," be so boldly printed, on the cover of a very serious series of Biblical revelations. Perhaps MacAdams does not extend the metaphoric sense of these Biblical horrors, any deeper than the original intents, when he applies the zombie metaphor to every assembly which ritually consumes these sacred texts literally, rather than as a literature, chock full of moral teachings posed as puzzles to develop the mind. Left to its own devices, the homosphere will choke the life out of itself. Full of horror the Bible may be, but it is horror with historical lessons, which promise rebirth in a better world that still has humans. Taoism it is not:

και ειδον και ιδου νεφελη λευκη και επι την νεφελην καθημενος ομοιος υιω ανθρωπου εχων επι της κεφαλης αυτου στεφανον χρυσουν και εν τη χειρι αυτου δρεπανον οξυ και αλλος αγγελος εξηλθεν εκ του ναου κραζων εν μεγαλη φωνη τω καθημενω επι της νεφελης πεμψον το δρεπανον σου και θερισον οτι ηλθεν σοι η ωρα του θερισαι οτι εξηρανθη ο θερισμος της γης

And I looked and saw a white cloud
And upon the cloud one sitting like He was a son of man
Having upon His head a golden crown
And in His hand a sharp sickle
And another messenger did come forth out of the sanctuary
Screaming in a loud voice at Him sitting there upon the cloud:
“Swing your sickle and reap!
Because the hour of reaping has come to You
Because the harvest of the earth has ripened!”          
        ----REVELATION (14:14-15)

How can people adhere to a literal interpretation of the Bible (as opposed to a literary interpretation), when Jesus and the prophets speak in such rich metaphor? Are the weeds in the Parable of the Tares of MATTHEW (13:36-43) merely weeds? No, they are not literally vegetables at all, but higher mammals on the way down. The gospel does not glorify violence; it merely holds up a mirror at the harsh reality experienced by humanity. The Roman Sixth Legion was stationed in Megiddo at the time of the Kitos War. The "great wine-press of God's wrath" spoken of in REVELATION (14:19)  is a reference to the narrow pass in the Jezreel Valley, where one army after another sacrificed its blood. His Truth is marching on. He who has ears let him hear.

Moses gave the Hebrews a code of laws from the Creator which were written to ensure healthy future generations. Belief in reincarnation can be as metaphorically tentative as accepting that all future human generations are one's afterlife, even if one is still too skeptical to accept that these future babies are the well of one's own personal rebirth. Failure to respect the people of the future, leads to modes of living that disregard life and its rights in the present, while spoiling the planet. Still, the treasonous zombies at the Bacchanal direct the eyes away from their shame. They promote the lie that this intricate and marvelous planet we are part of is nothing but an accident of a cold uncalculating void. That lie leads to the fatal paradigm that there is no tomorrow (i.e. afterlife). This disease is that sad you see.

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