Sons of Herod (Mark 3:6)

The previous account of Mark ended with the Pharisees and Herodians taking counsel on how to kill Christ, which is how they sought to reward Him for the love He displayed to a withered kinsman on the Sabbath. The measure with which they measured was ultimately brought back to them, because in the end, the fruitless fig tree of Jerusalem was made withered with the Roman sword.

In exploring types such as these, we did not take time to discuss the parties of the Pharisees and Herodians, and neither have we yet taken time in this commentary on Mark to examine the sects of Judaea at all. But it is important while reading the gospels to understand the political backdrop of Judaea and Galilee, especially as the narrative continues and Yahshua’s enemies gnash their teeth more boldly.

There is another reason why the topic is important. and that is the fact that the drum of history repeats itself. There is nothing new under the sun: in the politics of Judaea we can see a model of the modern world. A line can be seen which has always been drawn clearly in the sand. Who is a Pharisee, and who is a Christian? And similarly, who is a son of Herod, and who follows the King?

This commentary will take a more historical focus, as we examine the sects of Judaea.

A Discussion on the Sects of Judaea

As we said, not yet have we taken time to discuss the sects in first century Judaea, but with the political counsel which was uniquely recorded in Mark’s account of the man with the withered hand, it is likely a better opportunity than ever in this commentary to discuss the political backdrop of the gospels.

To preface: during the New Testament period, the children of Israel were under one of the tyrannical beast governments of their seven-times punishment of captivities forewarned in Leviticus, which was Rome; the beast empire that succeeded Greece, Persia, Babylon, and Assyria. 

With Judaea being a captive province of that iron oppressor, the sects within the nation were highly constrained in their power and influence. The high priests were permitted to tend to certain internal affairs within the province, while a Roman governor, either proconsul or procurator, oversaw the imperial interests. Certain matters, such as capital punishment, had to be enacted through the hand of Rome, and there was a constant dread of arousing strife with the authorities.

Flavius Josephus in his surviving works wrote of four sects in 1st century Judaea, and the most prominent of these were the Sadducees and Pharisees, followed by the Essenes who had no real voice in government. Josephus mentions a last sect, whom he called "the Zealots", and these were a band of insurgents seeking independence from Rome. (The Herodians are solely described in the Gospel and some early Christian literature, and were apparently not a party in the fullest sense of the word, we will get to them later)

Since our focus on this occasion rests on the Pharisees and Herodians, we will only briefly summarize the ideology of the other parties.

We will begin with the Sadducees, as they were the most powerful and influential among the sects, holding the position of magistrates over the people and acting as the party of the high priests, as witnessed explicitly in Acts 5:17. While that position was required by the law of Yahweh to be fulfilled by Levites, namely sons of Aaron, Josephus records of how Herod the “Great” appointed and unseated high priests at will, and that the only Levite he appointed among a sea of aliens was Aristobulus, whom Herod later murdered (Antiquities 20.247). This transgression explains why Luke, some generations later, identified the high priests as being of a different race, where he wrote “and Hannas the high priest and Kaiaphas and Iohannes and Alexandros and as many as were of the race of the high priest” (Acts 4:6); even shortly later distinguishing their race from that of the apostles, “And being released they [the apostles] went to their own countrymen and reported as much as the high priests and the elders said to them.” (Acts 4:23) As Paul explained in his epistle to the Romans, not everyone from Israel (geographically) was of Israel (racially), and scripture and history together demonstrate that the high priests of the time were not even of Levi.

If the high priests and their party of the Sadducees were a mixed assortment of Edomites and other bastards, then we must expect that their fruits would demonstrate such a wicked origin, because Christ said “from of the fruit the tree is known” (Matthew 12:33). Even a cursory investigation of this party confirms all suspicions. Despite the many plain words of Scripture, the incredulous Sadducees refused to believe in anything outside of the material world, and thus rejected the continuance of the spirit beyond death and with it the resurrection, and even messengers. They refused to accept the reality of fate, and in dismissing the omnipresent hand of God, they came as close as the culture of the time could permit them in denying His existence (Antiquities 18:16, Wars 2:164-165). Such vile humanism made the Sadducees unpopular among the people, and they were smaller in number compared to the Pharisees, who were held in much greater report; but regardless of their pernicious reputation, the Sadducees were still able to hold onto power by conducting themselves like a criminal enterprise, (they even beat and stole tithes from the disenfranchised Levites), and by having membership among the wealthy. (Antiquities 13:298, Antiquities 18:17, Antiquities 20:206)

[William Finck of Christogenea excellently expounded on the criminal conduct of the Sadducees in his commentary on the Gospel of John]

These beasts were even cruel towards one another, as Josephus wrote that “the behavior of the Sadducees one towards another is in some degree wild, and their conversation with those that are of their own party is as barbarous as if they were strangers to them." (Wars 2:166). In every way, the Sadducees were the antecedents of the atheist, humanist and moral relativist jews of their Edomite race today.

Even if those wicked fruits were somehow insufficient to expose their corrupt family tree, one cannot overlook the fact that the Sadducees were the very party responsible for arranging the murder of Christ (Matthew 26:3-4, Mark 14:1, Luke 22:2). These high priests shed His innocent blood with their lawless hands (Acts 2:23 - hands of those without the law), just as Cain murdered righteous Abel, and that first murderer was surely their ancestor. As Edomites, their lineage traced directly back to Cain through Esau's intermarriage with the Kenite and Rephaim-admixed Hittites. Therefore, Yahshua, as always, spoke the truth when He declared that the race responsible for Abel’s murder would also bear responsibility for all the righteous blood shed upon the earth (Matthew 23:35, Luke 11:51), which of course included His own blood, and the Edomite Sadducees continued their murderous history by stoning James, the brother of Christ, in 62 AD. (Antiquities 20:197) The children of Israel consented to Yahshua’s murder through those lawless hands of the Sadducees, and the High Priests were very aware of their culpability (Acts 5:28). 

Perhaps we should have been more clear in the past that the Pharisees were merely cooperating with the high priests, and that is most evident in John’s gospel (John 11:47).

Now the Pharisees certainly had their own share of Edomites and other bastards among them, as we have already seen implied in Mark. In fact, Christ upbraided the party of the Pharisees for their missionary campaigns aimed at "converting" racial aliens, much like the campaigns of today's Judaized churches, where He said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you go about the sea and the desert to make one convert, and when it happens you make him a son of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves!” (Matthew 23:15) But in spite of these errors, the sect of the Pharisees was not entirely compromised by wolves; there were still many genuine sheep among them. For this reason, Christ had communion with genuine Israelites from among the Pharisees, such as Nicodemus and Simon (John 3:1-21, Luke 7:36-50, Luke 22:1-6, John 11:47-57). But notably, there is not a single instance recorded where Christ had communion with the bastard Sadducees, and He only interacted with that vile party when they aggressively confronted Him. There is no question why He avoided them, when one’s fruits are indicative of their racial origin!

The only sect in Judaea which actually exercised racial discernment were the Essenes, whom Josephus uniquely described as only admitting “Judaeans by birth” (Wars 2:119). Such a detail would only have been relevant if the other sects had no care for one’s racial lineage being actually of Judah, and therefore the words of Christ are magnified where He says that He knows “the blasphemy from those saying for themselves to be Judaeans and they are not, but are a congregation of the Adversary.” (Revelation 2:9) Again, this is why Paul explained in his epistle to the Romans that not everyone from the geographical land of Israel was a racial Israelite, writing “not all those who are from Israel are those of Israel” (Romans 9:6). Paul then for good reason proceeded to discuss the vessel of wrath offspring of Esau, who were prevalent in Palestine at the time, and whose descendants still falsely claim to be Judahites until this very day, that being the accursed Edomite jews.

Naturally, the racial security of the sect of the Essenes can explain why they more closely followed the Word of Yahweh out of all those in Judaea. Josephus describes how they had great compassion and care for one another, exercised self-control (something which the apostles also taught - 1 Corinthians 9:25, 2 Peter 1:6), and believed that the rewards of the resurrection were to be earnestly striven for (Wars 2:119-122, Antiquities 18:18 ). The Essenes unsurprisingly were a fringe sect in comparison to the Sadducees and Pharisees, and had no real voice in Judaea, which remains to be the fate of those who sanctify themselves from the alien races and dedicate their ways to God in this wicked society. Despite their successes, the Essenes were evidently not Christian, as Josephus from the age of sixteen dwelt with the Essenes for three years. Since Josephus was born circa 37 AD, when he was sixteen it would have been two decades after the Passion and Resurrection of the Christ, and Josephus made not even the slightest indication that the Essenes were Christian.

So these were the three primary sects in first century Judaea, though Josephus described a “fourth sect” whom he called “the Zealots”. He ascribed Judas the Galilean, a tax protester, as beginning (or perhaps influencing) this sect, which was vehemently anti-Roman and sought liberty from their captivity even to death. They should have remembered that the captivity was instated by God and backed down. The sectarian literature of the Dead Sea Scrolls displays such revolutionary attitudes, perhaps most notably in what is called the War Scroll, and it is very plausible that the Qumran sect were these zealots of Judas the Galilean. Apart from their insurgent spirit, Josephus wrote that they agreed in all other things with the Pharisaic notions (Antiquities 18:23), even though the Qumran literature appears to reveal that they loathed the Pharisees as agents of Rome.

And so we can summarize these three parties thusly:

• Sadducees: The ruling sect of the high priests. Being virtually entirely composed of Edomites, they were oppressive and atheistic, with no regard towards righteousness or fear of God. They were small in number and generally disliked, only holding onto power through wealth and deviant means. Liable for the murder of Christ.
• Essenes: The only sect which required you to be a racial Judahite, and in exercising racial discernment this naturally resulted in their party yielding the most commendable fruits. However, they were a minor party and held no real voice.
• Zealots: The rebellious sect spurred on by Judas the Galilean. Anti-Roman and almost certainly the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

This brings us to the Pharisees and Herodians, who are recorded here in Mark 3:6 as taking counsel together, a detail which is not mentioned by the other gospels which share the account.

The Pharisees

Before we discuss the ideology and doctrine of the Pharisees, we should begin by saying that the sect apparently had noble beginnings, as the meaning of the word Pharisee can contextually be interpreted through its Hebrew root (pāraš #H6567) as meaning separatist. This suggests that the party was formed as a reactionary movement against the apostate racemixing which was happening in the early days of the Maccabees, and which reached a crescendo when John Hyrcanus circumcised the Edomites. This policy of Hyrcanus was never reversed, and it is sad to see that the Pharisees eventually lost all vigor of their separatist spirit and surrendered to converting aliens themselves. We can imagine that with genuine Israelites becomingly increasingly outnumbered in the mingled sea, any serious doctrine on race became fiercely opposed as socially outrageous.

By the time of Christ, genuine Israelites in Judaea were the minority, much how Englishmen in London or Frenchmen in Paris are today. Unlike the current situation in London. the bastards in 1st century Judaea would have mostly appeared White, and it was an absolute necessity to test the spirits through the examination of fruits. The Pharisees had little remaining racial consciousness, but to their credit they (unlike the agnostic Sadducees) rightly affirmed the endurance of the spirit, the role of fate, judgment, and the existence of messengers (angels), among other matters. One example of where Josephus gave a summary on the Pharisees and their doctrine is found in Book 18 of his Antiquities:

Josephus, Antiquities 18:12-17: 12 Now, for the Pharisees, they live lowly, and despise delicacies in diet [I certainly would have cited this in the commentary on Mark 2:18 if I at all remembered it]; and they follow the conduct of reason, and what that prescribes to them as good for them, they do; and they think they ought earnestly to strive to observe reason's dictates for practice . They also pay a respect to such as are in years; nor are they so bold as to oppose them in anything which they have introduced; 13 and, when they determine that all things are done by fate, they do not take away the freedom from men of acting as they think fit; since their notion is, that it has pleased God to make a temperament whereby what he wills is done, but so that the will of man can act virtuously or viciously. 14 They also believe that souls have an immortal rigor in them, and that under the earth there will be rewards or punishments, according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life; and the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison, but that the former shall have power to revive and live again; 15 on account of which doctrines, they are able greatly to persuade the body of the people; and whatever they do about divine worship, prayers, and sacrifices, they perform them according to their direction; insomuch that the cities give great attestations to them on account of their entire virtuous conduct, both in the actions of their lives and their discourses also.

This demonstrates how the Pharisees and Sadducees were in many ways polar opposites, and Luke writes of how Paul of Tarsus was able to exploit their greviances with one another during his trial before the Sanhedrin:

Acts 23:6-8 Then Paul perceiving that the one part are of the Sadducees but the other of the Pharisees cried out in the council, "Men, brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees! Concerning hope and resurrection of the dead am I judged!" And upon his saying this there came a discord among the Pharisees and Sadducees and the multitude was divided. For indeed the Sadducees say that there is not to be a resurrection, nor are there messengers nor a spirit, but Pharisees confess both things.

The Pharisees did well in believing these testimonies of Scripture, but stumbled hard in their legalistic interpretations of the law, which exchanged mercy for pretense and humility for self-righteousness. They were also ensnared in the quagmire of their vain traditions, which the Gospel calls the tradition of the elders, and the Pharisees sought to condemn the guiltless for not walking in accordance with those peculiar injunctions, which were themselves often set in opposition against the laws of God! These are the errors which Christ most often rebuked the Pharisees for in the Gospel; and He rebuked them sharply.

We have already seen in Mark, for example, how the Pharisees misconstrued the Sabbath, and Luke even implies that they set arbitrary limits on how far a man could walk on the holy day. These restrictions are found nowhere in the law and imposed heavy weights which Yahweh never intended for men to carry, for that reason Christ said concerning the Pharisees: “And they bind burdens heavy and hard to bear and lay them upon the shoulders of men, but they with their finger do not wish to move them.” (Acts 1:12, Matthew 23:4) The entire law hangs upon love for God and brethren, which is why Yahweh desires mercy over sacrifice, and yet the Pharisees thought themselves righteous for legalism even if it was at the expense of love and mercy! Christ rebuked them for such cold ignorance, saying also “But woe to you Pharisees! Because you give a tenth of the mint and rue and every herb, and you elude the judgment and the love of Yahweh. Now these things it is necessary to do and the others not to pass by.” (Hosea 6:6, Matthew 22:40, Luke 11:42)

With such ignorance and hypocrisy among those who sat on the seat of Moses, the commandment to love one another was evidently new to the ears of the apostles, even if it was commanded in Leviticus, since the Pharisees evidently never taught of its importance (John 13:34). Yet this pillar is vital, for it is love through obedience which makes the Kingdom of Yahweh manifest on the earth, and so Christ is also recorded as having said to the Pharisees in His seven woes “And woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut up the kingdom of the heavens before men: for you do not enter in, nor do you allow those entering in to enter!” (Matthew 23:13) 

The Pharisees were not teaching the children of Israel how to make manifest the Kingdom upon the earth. Thankfully such a desolation of ignorance was not without survivors, however, as there were Pharisees who understood the weightier importance of mercy over sacrifice, such as the scribe whose sensibility is alone recorded here in the gospel of Mark. Having spoken rightly on the importance of these things, Christ said to him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of Yahweh!" (Mark 12:34) If only our people obeyed the commandments of God and loved their kinsmen as themselves - then we would all enter through its doors. There is no reason to fret. Yahshua Christ will lead us into righteousness.

Another god-fearing man among the Pharisees was Nicodemus who loved Yahshua dearly, but because of the ignorance of his time even he (a leader of the Judaeans) ostensibly did not understand the racial truth of salvation. And so, John records how Nicodemus was confused when Christ explained that one must be born from above to see the Kingdom of Yahweh:

John 3:9-10 Nikodemos responded and said to Him: "How can these things be?" Yahshua responded and said to him: "You are a teacher of Israel, and you do not know these things?

It is not only evident here, but also in the breadth of the gospels, that the Pharisees had a very superficial understanding of Scripture, just like the so-called churches today, as the circumstances of the Gospel and our present age were always meant to mirror one another. And just as the ignorance of the Pharisees glorified Christ, so too then will the same magnification of His wisdom be accomplished in our present times.

The Pharisees would have no doubt acquired at least some eye-salve to alleviate their blindness, if they were not so drawn towards their useless traditions, and that is another way in which the Pharisees and churches can be established as prophetic equivalents. Again, the traditions of the elders were often in opposition against the commandments of Yahweh, and Christ rebuked the Pharisees for following those injunctions of men. Today, the traditions of the church fathers are often in strong opposition against the commandments of Yahweh, and Christians should rebuke the so-called churches for following them. There is nothing new under the sun - and we who have been mercifully called to the third ministry of Elijah stand in the same arena as our predecessor John the Baptist, who through Yahweh brought the people to repentance by wrestling them free from the doctrinal deceptions of their assembly halls.

One of the heavy burdens which the Pharisees dropped onto the backs of the weary was a vain tradition of washing up to the elbows before eating, along with the obsessive washing of plates and pots, and of course no such commandment is found in the easy yoke of God. Christ had some harsh words for their restrictive tradition, and in His rebuke He quoted the prophet Isaiah where it is written “And vainly do they worship Me, teaching for education the commandments of men.'" (Matthew 15:9, Isaiah 29:13) These words echo through the ages, even reaching to this present time as stern warnings for any Catholic or Protestant who cling to their traditions, and Paul of Tarsus obeying the resounding words found in Isaiah warned against injunctions of men in his epistle to Titus:

Titus 1:13-14 This testimony is true, for which cause you must censure them relentlessly, that they would be sound in the faith, not giving heed to myths of Judaism and injunctions of men turning themselves away from the truth.

The reference to “myths of Judaism” would no doubt be a reference to what is described as the traditions of the elders in the gospels. There is more we could say concerning the Pharisees and their traditions, but we will save it for the pertinent chapter of Mark, namely its seventh.

We pray that this is sufficient enough of a summary of the Pharisees and their doctrine for our purposes here; and most importantly, that it is enough to demonstrate how the Pharisees are parallel to the modern day so-called churches. The splitting image is important for what we would like to convey later in this particular commentary.

But what of the Herodians, and where is their reflection in this dark world?

The Herodians

It is a difficult endeavor to put a pin on this group concerning which secular history is silent. The Herodians (̔ρωδιανοί #2265) are mentioned only three to four times across two accounts in the New Testament: uniquely here at Mark 3:6, and then at the parallel accounts of Christ being tried concerning the tax at Matthew 22:16 and Mark 12:13, and then also in certain manuscripts of Mark 8:15.

The Greek word ρωδιανοί is a kind of Latinism, as it follows a Latinized naming convention, while conforming to Greek grammar. The suffix -ιανοί (-ianoi, plural) corresponds directly to the Latin -iani (plural of -ianus), which was commonly used to denote followers of a leader (e.g., Caesariani for followers of Caesar or Pompeianoi for followers of Pompey the Great). The Greek plural -ιανοί (-ianoi) replaces the Latin -iani to fit Greek declension rules. The language makes it evident then that these Herodians were supporters or followers of Herod Antipas, but whether or not there was any structure behind them is unknown. It has been conjectured that they were a party seeking to restore Herod Antipas from the diminished role of tetrarch to that of a client king like his deceased father, perhaps as a compromise towards total sovereignty for Judaea. The party could have also at least been a group of followers seeking to uphold or possibly extend the reach of Herod's rule, but they could have just as easily been a loose array of various partisans with no specific organization. It could be said that the latter appears more likely, since one would expect Josephus to have written of an organized party of Herodians if it existed, and yet there is no mention of ρωδιανοί in his works.

Some Bible dictionaries for Herodian will cite an account in Josephus at Antiquities 14.15.10, of Herod the Great's (Usurper’s) campaign against the Hasmonean Antigonus II Mattathias, and the account mentions those who are φρονοῦντες (see note below) with Herod, being drowned in a lake by discontent Galileans, but the context is concerning Herod the Usurper’s supporters during a military campaign, and it appears to me, that the group should not be interpreted as having any connection with the partisans of his son over sixty years later. Josephus used a related word, Herodeioi, to speak of those who were for Herod in that same military campaign at Wars 1.319.

(φρονοῦντες is to be mentally disposed towards or alligned. See φρονέω (#G5426), which Strong’s defines (in part) as to exercise the mind, that is, entertain or have a sentiment or opinion, by implication to be (mentally) disposed (more or less earnestly in a certain direction). It can naturally then be used then to refer to those who share the same political mindset or goals, and can therefore infer a party, and so Thayer notes this use where he writes “3. […] to seek one's interests or advantage; to be of one's party, side with him”] 

We might never know then if the Herodians of the Gospel were an organized party or a looser band of various supporters and officials of Herod Antipas, such as those whom Mark later describes (again uniquely) as “his noblemen and the commanders and the first men of Galilaia” at his birthday gathering (Mark 6:21). It is interesting, that even Origen seemed unsure concerning the Herodians, and wrote in his commentary on Matthew “For perhaps among the people at that time those who thought it necessary to pay the tribute were called Herodians by those who objected to doing it, who with a view to freedom advised against paying the tribute.” (Origen’s Commentary on Matthew (lib. 12-17) Book 17, chapter 28, line 26) The early church writers are sometimes an important historical witnesses for matters like these, but it is important to remember that their theology was very poor with strong pagan influences.

All we can say with confidence, is that the Herodians were supportive of Herod Antipas, and that would have by extension made them supporters of Rome, naturally resulting in them being keen to try Christ concerning the tax to Caesar later in the gospel. This chain of allegiance has led some to suggest that the Herodians were an organized faction of the pro-Roman Sadducees, which does not appear likely, since the Sadducees would have ostensibly been out of place here in Capernaum. I am compelled to lean towards the possibility that Herodian was a general term that could be labeled upon any partisan of the Herods, regardless of their sect, but it is impossible to prove anything.

With these parties being exposited on at length we can return to our commentary on this passage of Mark.

3:6 And the Pharisees departing immediately with the Herodians gave counsel against Him, how they may destroy Him.

The Pharisees are recorded here as having taken counsel with the Herodians on how to murder Christ, perhaps because the involvement of Herod Antipas was required as long as they were in Galilee.

The crowds which rejoiced in John the Baptist were great, but as we will see later in the following account, the multitudes following Christ were even greater, and they came from many different regions to see the great Teacher whom they heard of (Mark 3:7-12). This excitement would have certainly troubled the ears of Herod, as we see later in the gospel where he fears that John the Baptist was resurrected. It would not be difficult to convince a frightened Edomite devil to lunge with the sword by which he lives (Genesis 27:40), and later in Yahshua’s ministry, we read from Luke’s gospel “At that hour some Pharisees came forward saying to him "Depart, and go thence, because Herodas desires to slay you!" (Luke 13:31) Perhaps Herod made that later decision after having first counseled with his Herodians, though it is only conjecture.

There is an unholy alliance being made manifest here in the Pharisees and Herodians and their mutual pursuit of innocent blood. As we mentioned in the previous commentary, such a hate-driven and murderous response to the compassionate miracle in Capernaum confirms that this portion of the Pharisees were bastards, since “Each hating his brother is a murderer, and you know that any murderer does not have eternal life abiding in him.” (1 John 3:15) As for these Herodians who joined in the fervor of bloodlust, it is logical to assume that many of Herod’s “noblemen and the commanders and the first men of Galilaia” (Mark 6:21), and whatever other loyal followers he had, were Edomites like himself.

Both the Pharsees and Herodians were failed leaders who left the sheep famished, and now they were seeking to kill the Shepherd who had come to compassionately nourish His flock, thus demonstrating how little care they had for the sheep in the first place! To contrast the indifference and malevolence of those who came before Him with His care, Yahshua Christ was recorded by John as having given the parable of the Good Shepherd, and we will use its testimonies to better understand the political landscape of Judaea and Mystery Babylon:

John 10:1-18 Truly, truly I say to you, he not entering through the door into the pen of the sheep, but going up from another place, that man is a thief and a robber. [racial aliens who do not have an origin with Yahweh - the father of the sheep of Israel] But he entering through the door is the shepherd of the sheep. For him the doorman opens and the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and he leads them out. When all of his own go out, he goes before them and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. Yet they shall not follow another, but flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers. Yahshua spoke this parable to them, but they did not know what these things were which He spoke to them. Therefore Yahshua spoke again: "Truly, truly I say to you that I am the door of the sheep! [Yahshua affirms that He is the God who made the race of Israel and consequently even all of Adam] All as many as have come before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door! If one should enter by Me he shall be preserved and shall enter in and shall go out and he shall find pasture. The thief does not come except that he may steal and slaughter and destroy. [Is this not a fitting description of the Sadducees and Herodians?] I have come in order that they would have life and they would have abundance! I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life on behalf of the sheep! The hired hand, who also not being the shepherd, of whom the sheep are not his own, watches the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf seizes and scatters them, because he is a hired hand and there is no care in him concerning the sheep! [Those who care only for profit are sleeping dogs who have no cognizance to defend their flocks from bastards] I am the Good Shepherd and I know Mine and Mine know Me, just as the Father know Me and I know the Father, and I lay down My life on behalf of the sheep. And I have other sheep which are not from this pen [the lost sheep of Israel scattered across the mountains, such as the Zerah-Judahite Romans and Dorian Corinthians], and these it is necessary for Me to bring and they shall hear My voice, and they shall be one flock, one shepherd [as prophesied in Ezekiel 34]. For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life in order that I would receive it again. No one takes it from Me. Rather I lay it down by Myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to receive it again. This command I have received from My Father."

The “thieves and robbers” which came before Christ are the false shepherds who did not enter through the door of Yahweh, which means that their entrance (origin) in the world was not found in the Father who made Adam. Being bastards, their origin is corrupt, and their existence an offense, much like Cain for whom sin lied “at the door”; and Yahweh using such words explained to Cain that his inability to do well would be proof of that testimony (Genesis 4:7). Cain came from the door of the fallen angels’ corruption, and his descendants who jump the gate of the sheep-pen steal, kill, and destroy, just as he did.

As for the hired hand, he is identified not by his origin, but by his principles. A hired hand may be a stranger, but they can also be a sheep, distinguished by their lack of commitment to the flock rather than by their race. Even Paul of Tarsus illustrated that unrighteous teachers can be those of our own in his farewell to the assembly of Ephesus, distinguishing the wolves who “come in” (Acts 20:29), from the hired hands who rise up “from among you” (Acts 20:30).  Perhaps then, the Roman procurators could be interpreted as “the hired hand who also not being the shepherd, of whom the sheep are not his own, watches the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf seizes and scatters them, because he is a hired hand and there is no care in him concerning the sheep!” While the Romans were certainly Judahites, they were ignorant of their brotherhood with the rest of Israel, and their paganism did not afford them the wisdom necessary for discerning between sheep and wolves. As the rulers of Judaea, they blindly let the wolves into the pen when they installed the Edomite Herods in 40 BC, and they stood by as the sheep were thereafter torn up in the claws of those robbing and destroying Edomite wolves. Even Christ had called Herod Antipas a fox (Luke 13:32), and Canaan (as in Canaanite) was assuredly always destined to be prophetic wordplay with the Latin derived canine.

However, because the definition of the hired hand is not racial, this means that even the Herodians could be labeled as hirelings, even if they were largely also racially wolves. For example, in His parable of the tenants of the vineyard, Christ depicted wicked husbandmen being hired out to tend the vineyard, and who had no relation to the master who employed them, nor to his son, and they were even distinguished from his servants (Luke 20:9). These are the racial thorns who were prophesied to come up on the vineyard of Israel sometime after the Assyrian Deportations (Isaiah 5:1-7), and these thorns pricked the children of Israel severely. As we have discussed, Herod the Usurper seated other thorns / wolves like himself to be high priests, and we have already mentioned how the Sadducees gnawed at the bones of the helpless flock in order to fill their bellies.

It does not end there, because the Pharisees and high priests can be seen as hirelings as well, which is evident in the gospel of Matthew, where he writes after his account of the parable of the wicked tenants: “And hearing His parables the high priests and the Pharisees knew that He speaks concerning them.” (Matthew 21:45) The Pharisee hired hands let the wolves in, since they had no racial discernment! In fact, as we have seen, they vainly tried to “convert” racial wolves into racial sheep!

And so the Pharisees, Herodians, Sadducees: they were all hirelings from whom Yahshua Christ came to rescue His people, and despite the divergent ideologies and beliefs between them, all of their leaven was destructive to the flock in one way or another. Christ warned of the hidden danger of their teachings, when He told His apostles as it is recorded by Matthew, “Watch, and be on guard because of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees!" (Matthew 16:6); and then in Mark, "Look! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herodas!" (Mark 8:15). Notably, the 3rd-century papyri P45 renders Mark 8:15 as “the leaven of the Herodians.” When those two accounts of Matthew and Mark are harmonized, we can see that the leaven of all three parties is addressed, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians, and it should be manifest that they were all equally dangerous for the children of Israel.

It is evident in the prophets, and in the epistles of the apostles, that the foolish shepherds and hirelings would continue to afflict the flocks after Christ’s departure, and even into our present time, which is why our people are still fasting for the Bridegroom. Today we must be sober, because the threat of pernicious leaven is stronger than ever before, as every wind of teaching of the systematization of deception (Ephesians 4:14) has become perfected within the elaborate and deadly machine of Mystery Babylon. Through the widespread propaganda of this society’s false prophet system, the unholy alliance between the Pharisees and Herodians is now worse than it ever was in the past, which is a consequence of that which was prophesied of in the Revelation, where it says “For Yahweh has bestowed it into their hearts to do His will and to have one purpose, and to give their kingdom to the beast until the words of Yahweh shall be accomplished.” (Revelation 17:17) The Pharisaical hired hands among the Judaized churches have allowed wolves to creep into our Kingdom, and being ignorant of the curses of disobedience used by God to chastise our nations, they will even vote in favor of policies which exalt and exacerbate those curses. The Kingdom has certainly been handed over to the Jewish beast, and the Pharisees will not care enough to bat an eye if they are informed of it. In fact, they will usually celebrate it, and then nod right back to sleep. just like the ignorant sheepdogs which Scripture proclaims them to be. (Isaiah 56:10)

With Yahweh having long ago bestowed it into our hearts to hand over our kingdom (people and nations) to the tyrannical beast government, a system empowered by the same Edomite Dragon which murdered Christ, it is no surprise then that the leaven of the Pharisees and Edomite Herod has fully merged into a single foul loaf. Today, one can barely distinguish any difference anymore between the morality of the Pharisees (the so-called churches) and Herod (our occupied government), because the majority of the Judaized churches have long bent the knee to all of abominable precepts of jewish humanism. These precepts do not hang upon the righteous pillars of God, but rather off the grotesque stakes of the French Revolution, whose ideals of “liberty”, “fraternity”, and “egalitarianism” are hated by Christ, and for that reason He depicts them as unclean spirits like frogs in His Revelation (Revelation 16:13). The so-called churches do not derive their morality from the law of God, but from what culture deems to be politically correct!

Despite the opinion of God being precisely manifest in the Word of Truth, many Judaized Christians are still so madly passionate and in love with the abominations which He hates. And so after having stalwartly fought for the battles of feminism and diversity, there is if anything only a lukewarm regard left towards the purity of God’s law, and they will be happy to claim that it has been made obsolete in light of their more “modern” ideals, and from there they will often only stoop into antipathy.

The severity of deception is further manifest in how many Judaized Christians today are as much Herodians as they are Pharisees. There is barely any distinction any more. It cannot be counted how many misguided Christians have stepped beyond just idolizing the democratic systems, to fanatically and religiously worshiping public figures such as Trump or Musk, who are devils, and in being their partisans they take a share in their evil works (2 John 1:11). Of course, there is no political solution, and Christians should not have any hope for one anyways, because we are called to despise Mystery Babylon and to pray for its destruction (Revelation 18:20). With the knowledge that this society and its form will pass away, and then that a better one will be established upon this earth where righteousness dwells, it is absolutely unreasonable to desire that this system is prolonged any longer (1 Corinthians 7:31, 2 Peter 3:13). As for Christians who vote to perpetuate the form of this society, they are demonstrating that they are not at all repulsed by the order of the world in which they are living, and possess no desire to be freed from it. Their condition is similar to the people in Jeremiah’s own day, where it is written that “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” (Jeremiah 5:31)

Then, in loving this society and its form, and in worshiping jews more than they worship Jesus, many Pharisaical Christians may be compelled to persecute their brethren who speak out against the evils of society, much how Jeremiah and the other prophets were hated for exhorting others to repent. This works into the hands of the  wolves in government who will always wish nothing more than to see the ideals of God and the remnant of His people perished from off the earth, and so the Pharisaical Christians who live as Herodians unwittingly become temporary agents of the wicked causes of God’s enemies.

The Pharisees and Herodians took counsel on how to destroy Christ, and now many Judaized Christians and jewish devils become natural allies in the persecution of God-fearing Christians, labeling their zeal for the law as “hate-speech”, “racism”, or some other contrived evil which is deemed good by God. As it is written in Isaiah, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!  Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!” (Isaiah 5:20-21) Even the modern hate speech laws which tyrannize men were prophesied of in Isaiah, where it is written of those “That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.”(Isaiah 29:21)

Perhaps this video from 2018 is enlightening, where Trump is recorded as calling for the death penalty of the supposed crime of “anti-Semitism”, which is a thing of nought. Yahshua Christ was also persecuted for His anti-Semitism, and therefore the persecution of the Pharisees and Herodians against Him is a parable for the modern age.

With all of this being said, something which is most imperative to remember is this: while many of our Christian brethren have been deceived into following great evils, if they are willing to listen then we should still work to exhort them towards repentance. When the day comes that their eyes are opened to see, they will see that we were on their side all along in the unbreakable bond of true kindred love, and casting away the leaven of the Pharisees and Herodas, they will stand with us under the warmth of the same Son. This is one of our Christian hopes, even if it will take the fall of Babylon, and even further affliction after that, until it is accomplished by our God.

And even for those who do not repent, their shame of His words will be exposed by the piercing light of an eternal and unchanging God (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17, Hebrews 13:8, Mark 8:38). But unlike what the lies of the Pharisees teach them, they will then afterwards be carried in the mercy of Christ's righteousness along with the rest of us, for at that time to each there will be approval from Yahweh. (1 Corinthians 4:5)

Christ is the only Shepherd and Overseer of our souls, in the next episode of Mark we will see a wide selection of His sheep from four directions following after Him, for the wolves could never feed and nourish them, as He has already done so often throughout this gospel. Those four directions, we would interpret as a type for the four winds. In that episode we will also explore more historical matters important to understanding the Gospel.

Thank you for reading, and praise Yahweh, the God of Israel.