Political Distortions and the Pharisees
             The Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke, known as the synoptic gospels, that is, "seeing together," were the first writings within the Christian Bible that would come to be referred to as the New Testament. These Gospels were very similar and built upon one another through chronological development. The writings tell of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ through supposed first person accounts that cover the various miracles of Jesus and his miraculous death and resurrection (Thomas, 11/02). In the Gospels, Jesus is constantly portrayed as going against the status quo of the Jewish Pharisee sect and the Roman government in his quest to turn sinners into believers of his word. The Pharisee class is portrayed as the hypocritical antagonist by Jesus through the authors, though at times he is treated as a king by these very same Jews. In this paper I will argue that the three Gospel's treatment of the Pharisee class was biased and historically inaccurate. The reason for this bias was Greek and Roman anti-Semitism that permeated the society of the day. In a time when the Jewish people were being persecuted from all directions, the propagators of the Gospels wished to distance themselves from the persecuted Jews in order to avoid the wrath of the Establishment and make it easier and more plausible to convert the pagan society to the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
             I shall begin with the story of Jesus Barabbas (Documents, 66-68). In this story of the gospel, the Jews are supposedly given a "Passover privilege" once a year in which they are permitted to allow one prisoner to be released. The Jews, led by the Pharisaic class, are given the choice to free Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus of Nazareth, who are both in prison and soon to be executed for crimes against the State. The crowd, dissatisfied at the meek display of power by Jesus of Nazareth against the Ro...