Monday, May 5, 1997 12:37:54 PM Beliefs Item From: Jonny Kurtzman Subject: Conspiracy Theories To: Beliefs I was listening to St. Matthew's Passion the other day and began to muse about the connection between the text (Matthew 26 and 27) and stuff like the X-Files. We're inundated with conspiracy theories, all of which assume contradictory things: that the government is inept at actually doing anything but extraordinarily adept at covering up. Anyway, in Matthew 27:51-53, when Jesus dies, there's an earthquake, the Temple "veil" is torn in half, graves open and saints reappear from the dead and walk around town (the last after Jesus himself is raised). Then the Pharisees go to Pilate and say they want to make sure no one believes this dead guy was the messiah and Pilate orders Jesus' grave blocked up. Certainly an indication that conspiracy theories run deep in our mental currents. From the point of view of a Jew, it's ridiculous to think that all this happened. If there were an earthquake, if the "veil" Ð which I assume must have been a big curtain in front of the ark Ð were really torn in half, if graves opened and people emerged, the common people would have noticed. It's not like all this would have happened in the Bronx so people in Manhatten couldn't see it; Jerusalem was a tiny place. So if we assume all this happened and go the X-Files route and assume the people were too stupid or otherwise engaged to notice, then we have a government cover-up of the first magnitude. This cover-up would be very like the ones we are told people believe today. As in, the Feds are keeping advanced alien technology secret assumes not only that we have alien technology but that there's some really good reason to keep it under wraps. I mean a reason strong enough to outweigh using this technology to win the cold war against the Soviets. The same element appears in the Matthew story; we have to assume this happened and that the Pharisees have some incredibly good reason to keep it secret. If all this happened, the conspiracy goes, the common people would know this was the messiah and that his death was part of God's plan (how could it not be) and would dispose of the "old" leadership. That basic thread acknowledges that the Jews of the day would accept a messiah, that the common Jewry was not adamantly against the idea Ð as indeed Jews have indeed actively pursued messianic beliefs through the millenia. But we have to assume that the leadership was so incompetent as to execute this guy (even though it would be obvious that his death had to be God's will) and then so competent as to cover-up what the ordinary Shlomo on the street would see. On top of that, we have to assume that the leadership could be so united in the face of their own hopes and beliefs being fulfilled Ð after all, they were supposed to be Jews, and thus supposed to be awaiting the messiah Ð that their urge toward preservation of authority was so great they could not even attempt to co-opt and take over this "new" messiah movement. It's no wonder people believe in conspiracies.