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The Sacrificial Heritage

by Dick Spicer
(Originally published in the January - March 2005 issue of The Irish Humanist, the quarterly publication of the Humanist Association of Ireland.)

The advent of the suicide bomber has prompted tones of superciliousness and puzzlement as if sacrificing one's life for a cause was somehow alien to western culture. Of course this cannot be so as many have sacrificed themselves in protests and wars and done so heroically.

The willingness to kill others as a consequence of sacrificing ones own life for a cause is a common feature of war so what is it about the suicide bomber that arouses such strong emotions? The fact that the victims are often non-military personnel can't be the answer as in our European wars the slaughter of 'enemy' civilians was seen as a strategic war aim by both sides, as in Dresden and Hiroshima.

The answer must be the fact that the act is often sanctioned by a religious perspective. This is strange because the god of Abraham, who both Muslim and Christian worship, specifically recommends such actions throughout the books of the Old Testament in the Bible.

The sacrificial hero who dies for his tribe and then represents them before the divinity was a common aspect of pagan religions. Indeed it was the similarity of the sacrifice of Jesus to the pagan tradition of sacrificial kings that caused a hostile reaction from much of Judaism to the self-induced crucifixion, extolled as a virtue by early Christians.

This sort of sacrifice that does not in the process harm others is more easily accepted by commentators in western society. The IRA hunger strikers for instance were able to garner support on this basis. It is a somewhat disingenuous distinction as the cause the sacrificial martyr may be promoting may advocate and advance violence and murder. Let us disregard that quibble however and say that the perception of martyrdom is acceptable within what are perceived to be Christian parameters.

The Islamic bomber is seen as alien because he/she ignores the subtleties of the Christian sacrificial tradition. The sacrifice of Christ was given its meaning however by Pauline Greek Jews who framed it in terms of the pagan heritage of culture wherein they dwelt. The self-sacrifice of Jesus was understood in a different way in my opinion within Jewish culture, which was bitterly at odds with Roman pagan overlordship.

The supporters of Jesus numbered Sicaari (Judas) and Zealots (Simon) amongst the twelve. These were the fundamentalist opponents of Rome disparaged by them as sheer terrorists. It is crystal clear that Jesus and his followers carefully arranged to fulfill the prophesies of the Old Testament in all that happened leading up to the crucifixion. They set about fulfilling what they saw as the signs that the day of judgement would dawn.

That Jesus was reared to fulfill his role is quite possible given the sayings of his cousin John the Baptist, and his testiness with his mother when he told her his time was not yet come as he enjoyed himself at a wedding. What then, within the Jewish context of Jesus, did those in the know expect to result from his self-sacrifice? The day of judgement would mean that Yahweh would descend to earth and judge its inhabitants. The non-Jews and those who had slipped from the teachings would be cast into eternal torture and pain worse than death alone. Indeed their children would also suffer in the same way, as the sins of the fathers would be visited on them!

In short the Roman oppressors with their alien pagan way of life, and their offspring, would be blown from the face of the earth and a pure theocratic, monotheistic and godly society would be established. The blast of the last trumpet that Jesus hoped to detonate by his fulfillment of the prophecies failed to ignite and his memory was recast by Paul in a way which would surely have horrified him. Jesus' martyrdom was undoubtedly heroic and from a Jewish perspective of oppression (whether true or not) a justified act. It meant of course the slaughter of countless civilians of another culture in the pursuit of a godly state but a religious perspective is able to encompass such as desirable. The self-induced crucifixion at the heart of the Christian tradition is exactly of a kind with the Islamic suicide bombers of our day. Jesus and at least some of his followers believed that his sacrifice could set off the only weapon of mass destruction known to them - the day of judgement. This would rid them of the infidel with the pagan and offensive morality and enormous military power. Jesus in short was the original 'suicide' bomber and maybe it is a niggling suspicion of this in the back of our subconscious minds that leads us to protest 'too much' that such acts are totally beyond our comprehension?

Dick Spicer is vice-chairperson and ceremonial coordinator of the Humanist Association of Ireland