Jesus The Jew
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]There is one intrinsic question which anyone, whatever their religious persuasion, may be compelled to ask. Would a Jewish teacher who walked the byways of Galilee in the first century have endorsed the various Creeds and dogmas formulated in his name hundreds of years later? This question may appear to be a theological one but it is certainly possible to find the historical answer. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In order to do this it is necessary to go back to the period in which Christianity emerged and it is fundamental to understand how easy it was, in the Graeco Roman world, for a human being to be regarded as a god. Roman Emperors strived to cultivate a divine image, just as previous Hellenistic rulers had done before them. It was commonplace for artists and sculptors to be engaged in portraying the Emperor as Zeus/Jupiter, Herakles or Apollo and the Imperial images on legionary standards were objects of worship by the Roman army. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]When Tiberius nephew Germanicus died [19 CE] a cameo was made of the [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]young hero being received into the celestial pantheon, with the former Emperor Augustus among the gods. That such deification could be accorded even to living men is evident from the narrative concerning Paul and Barnabas, who after having healed a cripple at the town of Lystra in Asia Minor, were enthusiastically believed by the populace to be Hermes and Zeus descended to earth. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][Acts 14:8-18][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Jewish world, itself permeated with Hellenism, was not totally immune to such concepts. Josephus relates the story of Herod the Greats grandson, Herod Agrippa I, who in the decade that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, was himself imprisoned for suspected treachery against the Emperor Tiberius. On the first day of his captivity an owl was seen to alight on a branch above Agrippas head and an old German prisoner, noticing this, told him that it was a good omen. He would shortly be released and regain his royal status. However, the German also warned Agrippa that when he saw the bird again, his death would follow within five days. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Just as predicted Agrippa was released and in 37 CE was appointed king of Judaea, ruling over Herod the Greats former territories. At the height of his power in 44 CE he attended in sumptuous style the quadrennial Roman games at Caesarea, appearing in magnificent robes of silver, which sparkled in the sunlight. Sycophants around him cried out that he was a god not a man and Agrippa, highly flattered, failed to reprove them. It was a fatal mistake. Looking up he saw the owl flying towards him. Seized by violent stomach pains, he died five days later. Whether or not this is just a moralistic tale, it is a clear example of how readily pagans would acclaim a man as a god.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]From what is known of the historical background, is it possible that Jesus of Nazareth regarded himself as God? In the Gospel of Mark, the most consistent in conveying Jesus humanity, a man is represented as running up to Jesus and addressing him with the words Good master. Jesus response is a firm rebuke. Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone [Mark 10:18] Even in John, the Gospel most inclined to emphasise Jesus quasi- divine status, he is depicted as stating quite categorically, the Father is greater than I [John 14:28].[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]If Jesus had wanted to institute a formula for the religion he taught, there is one instance in Mark where he had the perfect opportunity to do so. A scribe is represented as asking him, which is the first of all the commandments? This was a chance for Jesus to impart one of his characteristic twists, bringing in something new, something regarding himself, if he actually believed that he was on an equal footing with God. Instead he unhesitatingly looked to his traditional Judaic beliefs.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]This is the first: listen Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. [Mark 12: 29-30][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Here was nothing about any call for faith in himself as a pre-existent cosmic saviour, nothing about any new religion based around himself or his name. Instead by choosing this precept, Jesus was affirming in the most emphatic way possible that the Jewish faith was the absolute foundation of his belief. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The quotation is not merely a passage from Deuteronomy [6:4-5] it is the great Shema Israel, the confession of faith which all practising Jews recite morning and evening every day of their lives. It is a confession believed to have been instituted by Moses in these terms: [Deuteronomy 11: 18-21][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Let these words of mine remain in your heart and in your soul; fasten them on your hand as a sign and on your forehead as a circlet. Teach them to your children and say over to them, whether at rest in your house or walking abroad, at your lying down and at your rising. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that you and your children may live long in the land that God swore to your fathers he would give them for as long as there is a sky above the earth.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]According to Mark, Jesus, without being asked for it, then volunteered a second commandment: you must love your neighbour as yourself. [Mark 12: 30] Christians sometimes like to argue that here Jesus was stressing a novel feature which he was introducing into the old religion. The feature by which the new faith of Christianity would set itself apart from the traditional ethos of Judaism. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Such an argument is, however, a profound misunderstanding of what the Jewish religion had been for centuries before Jesus and still continues to be today. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In stating you must love your neighbour as yourself, Jesus was saying nothing new. It is first to be found in Leviticus [19:18] one of the books attributed to Moses and occurs again in the Apocryphal or Deuterocanonical books of Ecclesiasticus and Tobit. Do to no-one what you would not want done to you [Tobit 4:15].[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]This concept was restated in the generation prior to Jesus by the great Rabbi Hillel.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]A Gentile, weary of attempting to understand the subtle complexities of Jewish doctrine, went to Hillel and asked to be taught the whole of the Torah while standing on one foot, [I.e. briefly]. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Hillel told him: Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow man. This is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary. Now go and study. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]It is impossible therefore to believe that the historical personage, Jesus of Nazareth could have had any knowledge of the elaborate non- Jewish theological speculations devised in his name and which still represent the way he is supposed to be understood by present day Christian devotees.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]If Jesus remained so fundamentally loyal to Judaism, how is he to be viewed today by the modern generation of Jews? One of the most interesting recent developments among Jewish writers, scholars and some Rabbis is the renewed historical interest in who Jesus was and whether he may have merely been a nabi/hasid of a particularly exceptional kind.[/FONT]