Editor:

In his March 9 letter to the editor (“The Bible and ‘The Passion’ reek of anti-Semitism”), Jared Johnson, a computer science major, questions the validity of the Bible in regard to the existence of Jesus and the facts found in the Bible.

He writes: “…the false claim that the Jews could not carry out capital punishment at the time [is] a huge red [flag] that should warn us all not to take ‘The Passion of the Christ’ as anything resembling historical accuracy.” Is this statement true? The nondenominational Wycliffe Bible Dictionary states: “But because the legal authority to pass the death sentence belonged to the Roman governor and not to the Sanhedrin, the chief priests and elders of the Jews delivered Jesus to Pilate.”

For some strange reason, I tend to believe the theologians’ point of view under these circumstances. The typical books they read, in order to acquaint themselves with their profession, are usually published much before 1992, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Tell El-Amarna Letters or possibly the records of various discoveries at Murabba’at, Khirbet Mird, Nahal Hever and Wadi Daliyeh, to name just a few.

It is interesting that Johnson does not believe the story is true, in spite of the many accounts that are given. Instead of attacking the story because of differing views, the unification of all this evidence ascertains that Jesus did exist. So I find myself asking the question, “Why should I believe a computer science major?”

Clayton Perkins

Freshman, Undeclared