Quote: "If Jesus had been acting consistently and seeking a trusted companion who could facilitate his necessary martyrdom, then all the mental and moral garbage about the Jewish frame-up of the Redeemer goes straight over the side." Christopher Hitchens in Slate.
Figure of Speech: enthymeme (EN-thih-meme), the argument packet.
The Gospel of Judas has finally come to light after hiding out in Egypt and in greedy art dealers’ vaults for a millennium and a half. An impressive feat of revisionist religion, it turns Judas into Jesus’ martyrdom enabler.
Christopher Hitchens, a columnist for Vanity Fair, makes it the premise in an enthymeme ("something in the mind"), the rhetorical version of Aristotle’s syllogism. If Hitchens’ logic were in the form of a syllogism, it would go like this:
Jesus had a helper facilitate his necessary martyrdom.
Someone who directs his own martyrdom can’t be a victim.
Therefore, the Jews didn’t victimize him.
The enthymeme leaves out the middle, well-duh part, which, Aristotle said, would tax the audience’s attention span.
Snappy Answer: "Enough with the blaming. Celebrate the rebirth, of Jesus or of spring."