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apocalypse In the synoptic gospels, Jesus preaches that the LORD’s kingdom is about to establish itself in a massive, traumatic shake-up, after which Israel will be restored. They also quote him speaking about the kingdom being mysteriously present. Current scholarship is divided on what sense to make of Jesus’ preaching about the kingdom. A minority of prominent scholars hold that Jesus preached that the kingdom was already present and available to those who were willing to enter it, and that the coming apocalypse wasn’t part of his program. Most prominent scholars hold the simpler view that Jesus (like the ascetic Essenes, John the Baptist, the apostle Paul, and the synoptic evangelists) really thought that god’s new order was on its way and was just wrong. Paul’s epistles and the gospels make it clear that Jesus’ return, the parousia, was expected within the lifetimes of Jesus’ followers. Some of the later epistles in the New Testament deal with the disappointed expectations of Christians who’d been waiting in vain for Jesus’ return. When the kingdom didn’t show up, Christians started interpreting these statements based on the presumption that Jesus couldn’t possibly have been wrong. The plain fact that the gospel Jesus predicted an imminent apocalypse was set aside. “Kingdom come” was still on its way, but it wasn’t around the corner any more, and Christians took to believing that their imminent rewards would arrive when they died. As academics in the 1800s executed a relatively free investigation of the historical Jesus, even liberal theologians who’d given up on Jesus’ miracles could still hail the historical Jesus as a divine teacher par excellence. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, Latter-Day Saints, and other end-times sects revitalized Jesus’ apocalyptic message as applying to the present day, but would-be neutral historians continually interpreted Jesus each to his own liking, and never as an apocalyptic preacher. Albert Schweitzer changed all that in 1906 when he depicted the historical Jesus as having died disappointed that his apocalypse had never come. Once Schweitzer pointed it out, the gospel evidence was clear, and in line with Paul’s gospels, that Jesus expected the imminent and violent cataclysm. Obviously, Jesus had been wrong. Schweitzer went further, interpreting Jesus’ ethic to be a response to the imminent apocalypse and thus not valid, now that we know the apocalypse never came. This new analysis naturally proved a handy stick to use against Christian dogma. Christians had not been amused at the 19th century project of portraying Jesus as a historical figure, but Schweitzer’s charge that he was a loser was something new. In response, Christians disdained the historical Jesus project, one way or another. The Roman catholic church dug in its heels. Mother church claimed that the gospel Jesus was historical, while rejecting the historical interpretation of the rest of the Bible as well. For the liberal Christians, Rudolf Bultmann opened a different escape hatch in 1921, writing that Jesus is historically unknowable and a matter strictly of faith. Either way, Jesus could not be proven wrong. Either he was the son of the triune god, so he was right, or he was historically unknowable, so there was no way to pin those apocalyptic notions on him. Since 1970 or so, there’s been a new way to deal with Jesus’ apocalyptic proclamations. Prominent North American scholars have been describing the historical Jesus as calling for a personal and social change, not a divine apocalypse. Once again, liberal Christians, such as Marcus Borg, can get on board with the historical Jesus project. Jesus can once again be the wise teacher, not the failed doomsayer. The split between secular scholars who say Jesus anticipated an apocalypse and those who say he didn’t is the key fault line in contemporary Jesus scholarship. On the one hand, in the new testament, everybody and their brother is apocalyptic, including Jesus. On the other, the apocalyptic sayings attributed to Jesus in the gospels lack the startling imagery and paradoxical reversals that characterize the aphorisms and parables we accept as authentic. Even without the witness of the gospels one might well expect Jesus to have been apocalyptic. The Essenes were apocalyptic. John the washer anticipated an imminent divine intervention that would overturn the world order and re-establish Israel as a sovereign nation. Paul the Apostle was apocalyptic as well, preaching about a divine restructuring of the cosmos that was already underway. Apocalyptic imagery and expectations were commonplace. For Jesus not to have been apocalyptic, he would have to have been truly exceptional. He would have had to run counter to the common religious and social expectations of his day. At risk of being too Californian in my outlook, I come down on the side of Crossan, Funk, Borg, and the rest of the Jesus Seminar types. The aphorism “love your enemies” seems fundamental to Jesus’ message, and people who really do love their enemies don’t usually fantasize about their enemies suffering in fire and brimstone. Or if Jesus did say some of the apocalyptic phrases attributed to him, it was during an earlier phase of his development, when he was closer to John the washer. In this case, his apocalyptic statements don’t represent the later, original ministry that would so deeply influence the world. Even if Jesus really did preach the end of the world, he at least brought a new take to it from that preached by John the washer. John saw the apocalypse as the LORD’s imminent project. Jesus, however, repeatedly refers the kingdom of god as somehow already mysteriously present, if hidden. The kingdom of god, he said, is like a little mustard seed, a pinch of leaven hidden in flour, or a pearl hidden in a field. It is within you. Both the scholars who see Jesus as apocalyptic and those who don’t regard these statements as authentic.
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contents table of contents you're already looking at it introduction for the inquisitive reader biographical overview who he was and wasn't
afterlife not Jesus' concern animal sacrifice bloodless religion apocalypse did Jesus preach hellfire? baptism sin wash for Jesus and others beatitudes Jesus' words and others' words beloved disciple witness for the un-gospel bible scripture old and new bishop the unjesus body focus on the physical Buddha Jesus' close kin charity key Christian virtue and legacy of Jesus The Da Vinci Code secret (and false) messages divorce women's status dreams convenient literary device Elijah Jewish prophet with his own second coming equality ancient source of modern egalitarianism exorcist Jesus and demons failure reinterpreting Jesus as a failure faith from trust to blind belief father Jesus on titles of honor Francis of Assisi the most Christlike Christian Gandhi the 20th century's most Christly holy man Galilee Jesus' inauspicious homeland gentiles Jesus' inadvertent audience god how Jesus became god golden rule key to Jesus' success gospels competing accounts heaven from sky to spiritual home hell revenge fantasy humanism Jesus' legacy inerrant Christian treatment of scripture Thomas Jefferson ethics of Jesus Jewish guilt Christian libel John's gospel the un-gospel John the baptist, see John the washer John the washer Jesus' apocalyptic mentor Judaism libeled religion of Jesus kingdom of god what Jesus promised Lao Tzu poet of the cosmic way logos jesus as the word of god C. S. Lewis famous, flawed trilemma little drummer boy Luke beats Matthew logos Jesus as the divine word LORD Yahweh transitioning to the one god of all Luke's gospel the all-around best gospel Mark's gospel the gospel that lost its point Mary of Magdala women, visions, and sex massacre of the innocents bloodshed starts early Matthew's gospel best gospel for church reading Mormon, see Joseph Smith Moses Jewish lawgiver Muhammad a prophet who got it right mystery Orpheus and transubstantiation oppression origin of Jesus' compassion The Passion of the Christ Luke as buzzkill Paul revealer of the revealer private and public public Jesus and secret Christ relativism the secret power of the golden rule sacrifice Jesus' death and Christian sacrament Albert Schweitzer Jesus as a failure sheol dark pit of death show Jesus' deeds as put-ons slavery abolished by Jesus' efforts Joseph Smith flesh-and-blood Jesus Socrates secular Jesus son of god on close terms with the man upstairs soul, see body synoptics three gospels that agree temple center of Jewish religion trinity unifying and divisive doctrinre vision, see dreams Yahweh, see LORD Zoroaster Persian dualistic holy man
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