Jesus Mortal |
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biographical overview If you’re looking for my bottom line on Jesus, you’re at the right place. This section lays out Jesus’ life as historians describe it, more or less. The rest of the book is commentary. Start by reading this overview, and then read whatever other pages you want to read in any order.
About AD 30, Palestine had already long been fired by religious fervor, when along came Jesus, a Jewish charismatic prophet. Before starting his own ministry, Jesus was baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist, an apocalyptic preacher who led a one of many religious restoration movements from that era. Jesus came from the nowhere village of Nazareth and preached in the rural backwater of Galilee. With his closest disciples, he traveled the countryside as an itinerant holy man. On his own spiritual authority, he preached about a life of love, forgiveness, compassion, and all that feel-good stuff that he’s famous for. He cast out demons, whatever that means exactly. He did people good as a healer, within the scope of their expectations. Demons and miracles are fairy tales, but that doesn’t prevent faith healing from working when the practitioner and the patient believe in it. Experts disagree on whether Jesus carried on the fire-and-brimstone tradition that was so popular with the others around him, and I’m in the mainstream minority in thinking probably not. In any case, his vision of God’s coming kingdom was exceptional. He portrayed it as mysteriously present, as something that involved the active collaboration of individual human beings. One could enter it by faith. His preaching turned things on their head, exalting the lowly and defying social expectations in his honor-based society. He took the loving charity that Jews were to practice for each other, intensified it, and applied it to all. He based his preaching on the LORD’s covenant with his people and called on his listeners to live this covenant out in a new way. For disciples, he accepted only those who had given up their worldly lives to join him. Naturally enough, some people hated him. They accused him of sorcery and drunkenness. They berated him for fraternizing with sinners and women. But his ministry was popular, word of him spread, disciples gathered around him, and wealthy patrons (including women) bankrolled him. When Jesus took his ministry to Jerusalem for a Passover pilgrimage, he caused trouble at the Jews’ sacred Temple. He wound up suffering the same fate as John: being executed as a potential demagogue and trouble-maker. After his crucifixion, his enthusiastic followers wouldn’t let it end there. Some of them experienced Jesus resurrected, and others invented visitations of their own to get in on the action. Pretty soon, the murdered rabbi had become the resurrected Messiah. Jesus’ legacy was a devoted Jewish sect that hailed him as the Son of God. Within a few years, the apostle Paul entered the scene. He had a special Jesus vision of his own, and he preached the resurrected lord to the gentiles. In a move that made Christianity possible, Paul defined Jewish law as no longer binding. When the Temple fell in AD 70, Christianity effectively became an independent religion, ready or not. It’s fun to laugh at the crazy things some people have said about Jesus over the years; but, either because of or in spite of those things, Jesus’ original vision of open-handed care has helped propel Western civilization forward. While Jesus didn’t invent the humanistic ideal of social justice, he sure has done a lot for it in the long run. Our culture of greater equality and universal humanity goes back to him more than to any one other person. Given the amount of misinformation that’s been applied to Jesus’ biography almost as soon as he had died, it’s important to know not only who Jesus was but also who he wasn’t. He wasn’t born in Bethlehem, didn’t escape to Egypt, no star or three kings, etc. He didn’t claim to be born of a virgin or to be God. He didn’t even claim to be the only begotten Son of God, an incarnation of the divine Word of God (Logos), the apocalyptic Son of Man, the suffering servant, Immanuel, the Alpha and Omega, an angel, or the Anointed/Messiah/Christ. He didn’t found a new religion, nor did he spell out a new doctrine or found a new scripture. He didn’t oppose Jewish Law, and he didn’t usher in a new covenant. His enemies didn’t comprise a hypocritical, legalistic, and judgmental religious power structure. He didn’t teach Hindu philosophy or that we are spirit-beings whose true home is Heaven. He didn’t call Jews the sons of Satan, and he didn’t hide his message from them to let them be destroyed. He didn’t invent the parable or blow away the other parable tellers of the era. He didn’t champion freedom from the Jewish law, and the Jewish leaders didn’t have him killed for blasphemy. He didn’t perform amazing miracles that confirmed his identity as an eternal spirit made man. He healed people the way holy men sometimes do, but he didn’t walk on water. His legacy lives on to this day, but he didn’t come back from the dead.
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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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