Jesus the God

Post-Axial Thought

The Historical Jesus

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Painting of Mary and Child Jesus,
La vierge aux raisins by Pierre Mignard, 1640.

“If one wishes to understand the historical Jesus and early Christianity one must understand first century Judaism. During this historic era the Roman occupiers of the land were particularly oppressive and there was much opposition to them particularly in the Galilee.”
(Rabbi Moshe Reiss, PhD.)

Not much is known about the historical Jesus since nothing was written down by him or about him during his lifetime. It is believed that he was born around 4 BCE and died in 30 CE. He was a Jew, born probably in Nazareth in Galilee and he probably had brothers and sisters. According to scholars such as Rabbi Moshe Reiss, quoted above, it is very likely that “He had a typical Galilean Jewish education including studying the Hebrew Bible, the traditions of the people after the biblical period and he undoubtedly went to synagogue. One can safely assume his family as religious Jews kept the commandments; dietary laws, circumcision, tithing, laws of purity and the pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Jesus dressed like a Jew, prayed like a Jew, taught and argued in parables like a Jewish Rabbi and was crucified as were many first century Jewish radicals.”

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Map showing modern-day Nazareth in northern Israel

He was an itinerant teacher who attracted crowds and apparently performed miracles. By all accounts he was a charismatic teacher who spoke with an oral brilliance. He was in many ways both typical of his times, and yet extraordinary in his religious convictions and beliefs, in his scholarship of the Biblical literature, and in the fervency with which he lived what he taught.

We are told that he had a number of disputes with Jewish religious leaders, probably Shammaite Pharisees (see below), who disputed with him on the law and who, in cooperation with the priestly aristocracy, the Sadducees, handed him over to the Romans who had him crucified.

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Photo of the tomb of Shammai in the Meron river in Israel. Shammai was the founder of one of the two major Pharisaic schools. There were two schools: those of Hillel and Shammai.
The teachings of the school of Hillel were ultimately taken as authoritative.

Jesus appears on the scene at a time reminiscent of the tumultuous times of Axial Sages. The oppressive rule of the Roman Empire caused rebellion and a large number of political and sectarian groups called for different kinds of reform, with different ideas about the individual and their country’s future.

Prophets, Messianic Zealots, Hellenists, Romanists, Sadducees and others, all contributed to the unrest of the times. One of the most progressive groups was the Pharisees, who were repelled by violence and who emphasized that God was present in every thought and action. Atonement for one's sins could be attained through acts of kindness rather than animal sacrifice. Rabbi Hillel (c. 65 BCE - 20 CE), who came to Palestine from Babylonia, was perhaps the greatest of their number. As did the Axial sages before him, he advocated the importance of personal responsibility: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And when I am for myself, what am ‘I’? And if not now, when?”

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Photo of the entrance to the Tomb of Hillel the
Elder, as it was around 1900.

Similarities between the sayings of Hillel and those spoken by Jesus in the New Testament have been noted by scholars. Here are examples:

One of the famous Talmudic stories tells that the Pharisee Shammai – a fundamentalist and opposed to Hillel's views – was visited by a pagan who promised to convert to Judaism if the Rabbi could teach him everything that was in the Torah while he stood on one leg.

Shammai dismissed him angrily, but when the joker went to Hillel, Hillel replied: “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.”

The same idea is found spoken by Jesus in Matthew 7:12 when he says “do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

Hillel is quoted as saying, “Pass not judgment upon thy neighbor until thou hast put thyself in his place.” Which is again familiar to New Testament readers where Jesus says: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.” (Luke 6:37).

Hillel also said: “Whoever would make a name loses the name… whoever makes use of the crown perishes.” And Jesus said: “Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.” (Luke 7:33).

Hillel and his group believed in the Resurrection – for they believed that Elijah had ascended to Heaven – and were flexible in their interpretation of the Law. They accepted Gentile converts, taught that one should “love peace, seek peace, love mankind and thus lead them to the law.”

Shammai and his associates disagreed with them on this and on almost every aspect of the Law; so when Hillel died around 10 - 20 CE and the Shammaite Pharisees took control of the Temple, things changed.

“Hillel who died when Jesus was young … influenced strongly many facets of Jesus’ theological and ethical teachings. This does not imply that Jesus was a student or disciple of Hillel; Hillel’s views were well known and embodied as one of the more acceptable Jewish views of Halakha (Law) particularly among the populace…” (Rabbi Moshe Reiss, PhD. http://www.moshereiss.org/christianity/03_hillel/03_hillel.htm).

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Photo of partial l remains of the main building at Qumran, a plateau in the Judean Desert along the Dead Sea. Some modern scholars argue that the Essenes inhabited the settlement at Qumran.

One of the groups we know about was the Essenes, a philosophic and religious sect, so distraught with the way things were in Jerusalem that some left for the desert and set up a community in Qumran.

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Satellite image of the
Dead Sea area showing Qumran

We know about this community mostly from the Dead Sea Scrolls, a group of 930 documents dated from 250 BCE - 50 CE and found in the mid nineteenth century in caves near what is believed to be the community ruins.

According to Michael White, Professor of Classics and Director of the Religious Studies Program, University of Texas at Austin, it is a mistake to think that the Essenes believed in an imminent end of the world. “They used language like ‘the end’ or ‘the last things’ or ‘the last days’, but what they mean is the present evil age is coming to an end.” This was in line with Jewish eschatology of the time. Many believed that the end of Roman rule and the end of corruption was imminent and would bring with it a new kingdom, not necessarily accompanied by a Messianic figure.

“At Qumran, on the other hand, among the Dead Sea Scrolls we hear not of just one Messiah, but at least two,” continues Dr. White, “Some of their writings talk about a Messiah of David, who is a kind of kingly figure who will come to lead the war. But there is also a Messiah of Aaron, a priestly figure, who will come to restore the Temple at Jerusalem to its proper purity and worship of God.”

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Post-Axial Thought

The Historical Jesus

Pages 12

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Painting of John The Baptist. By
Tiziano Vecelli or “Titian” from 1542.

It has often been speculated that both John the Baptist and Jesus were at one time members of this Essene community. They were definitely figures of this period. Professor John Dominic Crossan gives a description of their different roles, which seem to reflect Professor White’s description of the two Messaiahs above:

“The difference I see between John the Baptist and Jesus is, to use some fancy academic language, that John is an apocalyptic eschatologist. An eschatologist is somebody who sees that the problem of the world is so radical that it’s going to take some kind of divine radical solution to solve it. That type, for example, is John. God is going to descend in some sort of a catastrophic event to solve the world. There is another type of eschatology. And that's what I think Jesus is talking [about]. I’m going to call it ethical eschatology. That is the demand that God is making on us, not us on God so much as God on us, to do something about the evil in the world. In an apocalypse, as it were, we are waiting for God. And in ethical eschatology, God is waiting for us. That’s, I think, what Jesus is talking about in the Kingdom of God. It’s a demand for us to do something in conjunction with God. It is the Kingdom of God. But it’s the Kingdom on earth of God.” (John Dominic Crossan).

“Who do men say that I am?”

In the gospel of Mark (8:27), Jesus asks: “Who do men say that I am?” At the time of writing this, we googled “Who Was Jesus?” and came up with 44,800,000 entries!

Originally, there were likely hundreds of accounts of Jesus by people who told and retold his stories, parables and sayings. There were probably also dozens of accounts written about him and his work. It is impossible now to arrive at an answer to this question to satisfy each of us: scholars, religious people of all denominations and seekers of all persuasions. We must all come to our own speculations or conclusions.

Matthew (5:17-18) stresses that Jesus was part of a continuous tradition of Jewish teachers that go back to the prophets, to Abraham, Moses, Isaiah and most recently before him, to Hillel.

“The Prophet did not necessarily foretell the future although some did. He was first and foremost a proclaimer of God's truth with a social message. … Prophets were men who by the nature of the profession placed upon them were men of truth. They were extremists and consequently they told the absolute truth. They brooked no excuse, no compromise; they thundered their passionate denunciations and their demand for absolute justice. All of this can be said about Jesus.” (Rabbi Moshe Reiss).

Eminent scholars such as A.N. Wilson in Jesus: A Life, and Geza Vermes in Jesus the Jew also firmly place Jesus in the Jewish prophetic tradition, as does David Flusser of the Jerusalem School for the Study of the Synoptic Gospels: “He represented a humanistic trend in Judaism that was then developing out of the liberal wing of the School of Hillel.”

The twentieth century humanitarian Albert Schweitzer, and other more contemporary scholars like Bart Ehrman, claim that Jesus can best be understood as a first century apocalyptic prophet, who fully expected the end of the world was at hand when God would come down and throw out existing corrupt institutions and impose a new order on the earth: the Kingdom of God.

In contrast, others claim that Jesus’ life and teaching were influenced by Buddhism, citing close parallels between early Buddhist texts, the “Q” materials and the extensive penetration of Indian culture and ideas into the Bible lands up to the time of Jesus. Scholars such as Burton Mack and Dominic Crossan conclude that Jesus is best described as a Jewish Cynic. He lived at a time when these philosophical teachers were active in the area, and the Greek-oriented city Sepphoris was not far from Nazareth. Like the Cynics, Jesus does seem to have been an itinerant teacher who questioned not only authority, but hypocrisy everywhere and anywhere.

Such parallels, though useful as an aid to understanding what these Teachers of Wisdom might have in common, in the specifics may be merely coincidental, since parallel traditions may emerge in different cultures without direct influence, just as they appear to have done in the Axial Age.

Still others, such as S.G.F. Brandon in Jesus and the Zealots (first published in 1967) picture Jesus as a politically aware activist vigorously working against the Palestinian “Establishment” which, of course, were the Roman occupying forces and Jerusalem’s collaborationist Jewish aristocracy. As a champion of the poor, says Brandon, Jesus went so far as to lead an abortive raid on the Temple treasury to dispossess its money-hungry directors. The raid, disguised in the Gospels as a one-man assault on the profane money changers, quickly led to Jesus’ denunciation by the high priests and then to his Roman trial.

Brandon claims that far from dying ignominiously as a Jew rejected by his nation, Jesus in effect died a patriot’s death, a rebel-martyr for his people. Jesus is represented as urging his hearers to repentance because only through this and the observance of the Torah would the Jewish people reach a state of moral and spiritual readiness for the coming of the kingdom of God. “How he conceived of his own role in this is not clear. An interminable discussion revolves around the meaning of the expression ‘Son of man’ and Jesus’ use of it, and no certain answer can be given to the question whether he considered himself to be the Messiah; that his followers so regarded him is, however, beyond serious doubt.”

Origin

Jesus was probably born sometime around 5 BC. According to Christian tradition, he was the son of the Virgin Mary and God through a virginal conception. Tradition holds that he was born in a stable in Bethlehem, and was attended at his birth by shepherds from the surrounding countryside, as well as three wise men. It is possible that he escaped the Massacre of the Innocents, and may have been the target; the early chronology of his life is unclear. He was raised in the Galilean city of Nazareth, in the Jewish religion, by his mother and stepfather, Joseph. He had as many as four siblings. As the stepson of an artisan or carpenter, he was trained by his stepfather as an artisan or carpenter from early adolescence.

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Little is known about Jesus' life between his early years and the years of his ministry. At some point in the late 20s CE he was baptised by John the Baptist, who was a distant cousin of Jesus. At the baptism, tradition holds that the skies opened and the voice of God issued forth, declaring Jesus as his Son, with whom he was pleased. After this, Jesus traveled to the desert, where he fasted for forty days and was tempted by the Devil three times. Each time he refused, and was tended to by angels.

After returning from the desert, he began his ministry. His ministry lasted between one and three years, during which time he toured Galilee spreading his message about the good news of the nearness of the kingdom of Heaven. His preaching was characterized by a use of aphorisms and parables, and spread the belief of loving God and one's neighbor, as well as other ethical and religious ideas. He was also a noted healer, though what exactly was meant by this description is unclear. Christian tradition suggests he was actually capable of miraculous healings, perhaps through some manner of laying on of the hands, while others have suggested he was merely learned in the way of herbs and medicines, or perhaps offered forgiveness of sins. Regardless, tradition holds that his reputation as a healer spread through the region, and people brought family members and friends who were afflicted with pain, paralysis, epilepsy and demonic possession, among other illnesses, to him for healing.

During this time he gathered Twelve Apostles around himself, Andrew, Bartholomew, James the Greater, James the Less, John, Judas Iscariot, Matthew, Peter, Phillip, Simon the Zealot, Thaddeus, and Thomas. He also had a number of other followers who travelled around the countryside with him, the most well-known among these probably being Mary Magdalene. During one of the Passover festivals during his Ministry, Jesus and his followers entered Jerusalem in a triumphal procession. There, Jesus caused a disturbance when he confronted the moneylenders who had set up shop in the temple grounds. On the Sabbath, he raised Lazarus from the dead, the final straw for the Pharisees, who began actively clamouring for his death. After this incident he celebrated Passover with his disciples, the Last Supper as it has become traditionally known, and established the tradition of the Eucharist, or possibly only washed their feet. After he revealed that one of his disciples would betray him and he would die, they travelled to the Garden of Gethsemane for prayer.

There, Judas Iscariot betrays Jesus with a kiss, and Jesus was arrested by temple guards, who brought him before the high priest Caiaphas. Meanwhile, the Apostles went into hiding, and a grief-stricken and remorseful Judas committed suicide by hanging. Jesus then stood trial before the Sanhedrin, an assembly of 23 Jewish judges, and was sent before Pontius Pilate, the Roman Prefect of Judaea, who was instructed by the priests to execute Jesus. Pilate hesitated, however, and offered the mob that had gathered a chance to free Jesus. They refused, instead requesting the release of Barrabas. He washed his hands of the matter and, according to one gospel, sent Jesus to Herod Antipas, who similarly found Jesus not guilty of any crime worthy of execution.

Jesus was then stripped and flogged, and had a crown of thorns place upon his head. He was crucified on Golgotha between two thieves, one of whom mocked him while the other requested forgiveness. Jesus then either pardoned those who were executing him, or recited Psalm 22, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me." All four gospels agree that he died sometime before the late afternoon. At the time of his death, some of the gospels report phenomena, such as the tearing of the temple parokhet, an earthquake and a darkening of the sky, though none of the phenomena is corroborated in all four gospels.

Three days after his crucifixion, Jesus was resurrected from the dead. An angel appeared outside of the tomb to Mary Magdalene and another woman, also named Mary, to announce that Jesus had risen, or possibly Jesus himself appeared to the women. Different accounts of what he did following his resurrection vary between gospels, but most include a visit to the remaining apostles, during which he urged them to spread his teaching and to acquire more followers. After his brief return to the mortal plane, Jesus then ascended to Heaven, either bodily or not.