Chronological Jesus

Temple Courts, Chapter 12

For Passover, Jesus went to Jerusalem. At the temple courts he made a whip of chords, and he drove the animal retailers from the courts. He overturned the money changers’ tables, and he scattered their coins.

Seems odd to me that the authorities did not immediately arrest Jesus.

I have not read The Jewish War by Flavius Josephus, but other people have told me that some translations include an incident like this.

Years ago, I worked at an Oil Field Performance Laboratory. Every year at the announcement of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, they celebrated Passover because they had been passed over.

John 2:13-25

Nicodemus, Chapter 13

Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish ruling council, went to see Jesus, who told him, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

I wonder if this might be the central idea of Christianity, but in my daughter’s church they offer sin and salvation as Christianity's central ideas. Maybe they mean the same thing.

John 3:1-21

John’s Testimony, Chapter 14

Jesus went to the Judean countryside. John’s disciples saw Jesus’ disciples ritually cleansing. John said, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them."

About God’s wrath: When God calls himself Allah, he has wrath, especially for Christians and Jews.

John 3:22-36

Samaritan Woman, Chapter 15

Jesus left Judea because the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining. He traveled through Samaria on his way to Galilee. He met a Samaritan woman (a Christian friend says this should be women), and he asked her for a drink of water.

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?”

Maybe Jews and Samaritans did not socialize. I don’t know why they would not, but I know that modern Samaritans associate with Jews. Like I said before, a barber shop, in which barbers cut my hair, had three barbers. a Chaldean, a Jew, and a Samaritan.

Jesus and the woman had a conversation about how the Jews and the Samaritans worship in different places. He said to her “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” He must have meant that people may worship anywhere. Location and race don’t matter.

John 4:1-26

John Imprisoned, Chapter 16

John, while testifying about Jesus, found time to complain about Herod, the tetrarch, ruler of Galilee, because of the evil things Herod had done. Herod returned the favor by locking John in prison.

Luke 3:19-20

Apocalypse Soon, Chapter 17

After Herod put John in prison, Jesus began to preach in Galilee, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” According to Albert Schweitzer in Quest for the Historical Jesus, Jesus didn’t define kingdom of heaven, and He didn’t say when it would arrive.

The church my daughter attends has a thing for Schweitzer.

Mark 1:14-15, Matthew 4:12-14

I want to ask about Jesus or God.

On another thread, a contributor, probably an atheist, said that God is imaginary. God exists only in the mind. Another contributor, who is a Christian, objected to that idea.

I want to ask why that is a bad idea. If God is a word or logos like in John 1, then God has something in common with grammar, logic, libido, geometry or any of a list of things that we normally consider as imaginary. They are real in our imagination. That seems like a good idea to me.

Heal in Galilee, Chapter 18

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in the Galilean synagogues, proclaiming the end times, healing every disease, and casting out demons. News about him spread from Galilee to Syria, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and the region across the Jordan.

Saying Jerusalem and Judea sounds odd, like saying Texas and Houston, but I have heard people say it.

Matthew 4:23-25

Fever, Chapter 19

A royal official had a son. The son had a fever. The official asked Jesus to help his son. The son survived with no mention of Pharisees.

From a pagan view, this sounds like the normal course of events.. Lots of people survive fever.

Albert Schweitzer’s book, Quest for the Historical Jesus, tells the history of theologians who tried to deal with the Jesus’ wonderful events as normal events.

John 4:43-54

Capernaum Demon, Chapter 20

On a Saturday, while teaching at a Synagogue, Jesus removed a spirit from a man, maybe like Max von Sydow in a movie, The Exorcist. Now days, I think exorcism happens less in Christianity and more often among pagans.

Mark 1:21-28, Luke 4:31-37

Pagan said:

I want to ask about Jesus or God.

On another thread, a contributor, probably an atheist, said that God is imaginary. God exists only in the mind. Another contributor, who is a Christian, objected to that idea.

I want to ask why that is a bad idea. If God is a word or logos like in John 1, then God has something in common with grammar, logic, libido, geometry or any of a list of things that we normally consider as imaginary. They are real in our imagination. That seems like a good idea to me.

Click to expand...

Another poster on another thread suggested the word, figment, for imaginary things like emotion, faith, God, grammar, knowledge, mathematics, or anything, which exists in the imagination.

On to Jerusalem, Chapter 21

Jesus cured Andrew’s mother-in-law’s fever. Then he cured some other people, and he drove out some demons, whom he instructed not to speak. That fulfilled something which Isaiah had predicted. Speaking of Isaiah, I wonder if Isaiah ever read the Form or Journal. Maybe he could have picked horses or stocks.

Jesus traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in synagogues and driving out demons. Then he preached in the synagogues of Judea, which, if I have not lost count, would make his second recorded trip to Judea as an adult.

Mark 1:29-39, Matthew 4:23-25, Luke 4:38-44

Heal Leprosy, Chapter 22

Jesus touched a man, and healed the man’s leprosy. He may have intended to irritate the Pharisees. It would have irritated the Pharisees because the law forbade (or for good) touching lepers.

Jesus told the man not to tell anyone, but the man told everyone,

Mark 1:40-45, Matthew 8:1-4, Luke 5:12-16

Paralyzed Man, Chapter 23

Jesus cured a paralyzed man. Two gospels add that Pharisees and teachers of the law came to listen,´possibly because Jesus had touched the leper, and the law forbade touching lepers.

They believed that Jesus had spoken irreverently.

Luke 5:17-25, Mark 2:1-12, Matthew 9:1-8

Centurion’s Servant, Chapter 24

A centurion, possibly a Roman official who held a position of authority in Galilee, asked Jesus to cure his servant. Jesus cured the servant.

Matthew 8:5-13, Luke 7:1-10

Levi, Tax Collector, Chapter 25

Levi, a tax collector, became a follower of Jesus. A Christian friend of mine says that Levi also called himself Matthew.

Levi held a banquet for a “large crowd of tax collectors.” Levi's status as a tax collector suggests his Greek or Roman origin, or as a Galilean, his quisling nature.

Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners.”

Jesus told them that he had not come to “call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. ”

This year in school, when my granddaughter learned about antisemitism, they gave her a list of reasons. The Jewish rule, about non-association with people from other cultures, offered one reason for antisemitism. Jesus must have wanted to change that rule. Or, I suppose, fulfill something.

People at my daughter’s church admire a theologian, Langdon Gilkey. During World War Two, the Japanese forces in China interned Gilkey along with other Europeans, both righteous and sinners, in an internment camp, sort of one big Levi’s Banquet.

Luke 13 5:27-32, Mark 2:13-17

Fasting on a Saturday, Chapter 26

On a Saturday, John’s disciples and the Pharisees fasted, but Jesus and his disciples did not fast. When some Pharisees asked Jesus for an explanation, he used a metaphor to explain why his disciples, and I assume all Christians, may eat when Pharisees, and possibly all Jews, may not eat. To a casual observer, one might conclude that Jesus simply changed the rule. Christians insist that Jesus did not change the rule, he fulfilled the rule. Sort of tomato to mah to.

Mark 2:18-22, Luke 5:33-39, Matthew 9:14-17

Pagan said:

John Imprisoned, Chapter 16

John, while testifying about Jesus, found time to complain about Herod, the tetrarch, ruler of Galilee, because of the evil things Herod had done. Herod returned the favor by locking John in prison.

Luke 3:19-20

Click to expand...

John in Prison, Chapter 16

John, while testifying about Jesus, found time to condemn Herod, the tetrarch, ruler of Galilee.
When Herod married his brother’s wife, Herodias, John told him, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” John’s complaint,greatly puzzled Herod even though he liked to listen to him.

Herodias nursed a grudge against John. She wanted to kill him, but she could not because Herod feared John and protected him. Herod knew John to be a righteous and holy man, but he issued orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison.

Mark 6:17-29, Luke 3:19-20

Lord of the Sabbath, Chapter 27

On a Saturday, Pharisees followed Jesus and his disciples through a grain field where they watched Jesus and his disciples eat some of the grain. The Pharisees said that on Saturdays, picking grain violated the law.

On another Saturday, they watched him heal a man. This made “... the Pharisees and the teachers of the law … furious, and [they] began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.”

In this event the Pharisees get angry. Previous events have not recorded anger. This story would improve if the faceless Pharisees could become a Pharisee with a name, like Moriarty or Macbeth,

Mark 2:23-28, Matthew 12:1-14, Luke 17 6:1-11

Saturday Healing, Chapter 28

On a Saturday, Jesus healed a man’s hand. Or the man’s hand healed as Jesus stood in the room. “Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.” So now we have a new group, the Herodians.

In antiquity, political opponents must have tried to assassinate each other, something like in modern Columbia where political assassination became common. One of Plato’s dialogues has an example of ancient political assassination. In the dialogue, Socrates told how his faction assigned him to assassinate a member of the opposition.

Mark 3:1-6