GioCana (Jochanan) Ben Zacchaï
GioCana is a sanhedrist from the class of scribes.
He owns properties in Galilee neighboring those of Doras, his relative, a sanhedrist like him. After the death of Ramah (Judea)tique of Doras, he buys from his son the lands cursed by Jesus and thus inherits his peasants.[1] He shows more humanity towards them: notably, he allows them to practice Worship. Because of this attitude, Jesus blesses his lands.[2] But the attitude of this old man (he must be 77 years old at the time of Jesus's death), small and plump, often merciless exploiter, is not dictated by favorable feelings toward Jesus. It stems from the fear inspired by the ravages of the curse that befell his neighbor.[3]
When GioCana meets Jesus at the Temple, he looks at him with curiosity, but his fearful neutrality progressively turns into hostility.[4] First triggered by reproaches of being an exploiter[5], then following the altercation that opposes him to Jesus: GioCana blamed him for breaking a fallen nest on the day of the Sabbath.[6] Jesus sternly warns him: today, he has no pity for a warbler and her young; tomorrow he will have no pity for a mother and her son.
His name
Jochanan, has the same root as Yohanân "the Eternal has shown Grace, has been favorable".
Where is he mentioned in the work?
EMV 190 EMV 191 EMV 198EMV 430 EMV 431 EMV 432 EMV 443 EMV 480 EMV 481
EMV 546 EMV 632
Learn more about this character
Extracts from the "Dictionary of the Characters of the Gospel Salton Maria Valtorta" (Mgr René Laurentin, François-Michel Debroise, Jean-François Lavère, Salvator Editions, 2012):Maria Valtorta spells his name phonetically, but it is Yokhanan ben Zakkaï. The relative moderation attributed to him is consistent with history. He was indeed a representative of the moderate Pharisees, having received the Torah from Hillel. He supported many controversies against the Sadducees.In their work "Worth of the assembly that pronounced the death sentence against Jesus Christ" (1877), Mgrs Augustin Lemann, 1836–1909, and Joseph Lemann, 1836–1915, present him thus:After the siege of Jerusalem, from which he escaped, he became a courtier of Titus and obtained from the Romans permission to open a school (beth midrash) in Jamnia, near Jaffa. It is known that he spent part of his life in Galilee.
The Talmud credits him with extraordinary longevity: 120 years. He died between +70 and +80 uttering this phrase: "I do not know where I am going."[7]
"When he drew his last breath, says the Mishnah, this cry of pain was heard: 'the death of Rabbi Jochanan ben Zachaï is the splendor of wisdom extinguished!' However, here are other pieces of information which are like the reverse of the medal: 'Rabbi Jochanan,' says the book Bereschit rabba, gave himself praise by saying: If the heavens were parchment, all the men of the Scribes, all the trees of the forests were quills, it would not suffice to transcribe all the Doctrine he had learned from the masters.' Moreover, one day when his Disciples asked him to what he attributed his extraordinary longevity, he boldly replied, always with the same self-deprecation: 'To my wisdom and my piety!'. Rabbi Jochanan became one of the lowest courtiers of Titus, the destroyer of his Homeland. But while he thus humiliated himself before human power, he hardened himself on the other hand against the warnings of God. For when, after the death of Jesus of Nazareth, sounds of battles were heard in the air, as the Talmud reports; when one day this cry of the Angels burst out in the Temple of Jerusalem: 'Let's get out of here, let's get out of here', and the great bronze door, so heavy to move that twenty men could barely roll it on its hinges, opened by itself with a crash, it was this same Rabbi who pronounced these now famous words: 'O Temple, oh Temple!, what moves you; and why do you trouble yourself?' But the emotion in him was only fleeting; he died proud and unbelieving."