Jesus Mortal |
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Galilee “Put your hand in the hand of the man from Galilee.” G. Maclellan
Jesus was from Nazareth in Galilee, and Christians have been trying to forget that from the start. They have long preferred to associate him with Jerusalem, the holy city. Galilee was the sticks, the boondocks. Its Jewish residents were known for their accents, for their mixed blood, and for their lack of ritual purity. A hundred years before Jesus was born, Galilee had been separated from Jerusalem, but it returned to the fold when the Maccabean dynasty conquered Samaria, Idumaea, and finally Galilee. Galilee lay north of Samaria, separated from Judea by the hostile Samaritans, far from the aristocratic Pharisees and from the priestly Sadducees. By Jesus’ time, Jews had been in cultural conflict with pagans around them and with pagan sympathizers among them. In Jesus’ day, Galilee’s Jewish population and culture were being squeezed out by the advance of Hellenic culture, brought by the Roman Empire. Jesus’ sympathy with the downtrodden doubtless relates to his experience as a Galilean from the unremarkable village of Nazareth. Among the peasants of Galilee, Jesus was a popular figure, renowned as a healer and a wise man. When he took his retinue and his message to Jerusalem, those in power had him killed. The first Christian writers didn’t think much of Galilee or Nazareth. Paul never knew Jesus and doesn’t refer much to his life in Galilee. What’s important for Paul is Jesus’ identity as the crucified and risen Son of God whose death makes the Jewish law unnecessary. Mark, the first gospel, reports Jesus’ ministry in Galilee in typical guileless manner. Matthew and Luke, however, each came up with his own story explaining how Jesus had been born in Bethlehem, the city near Jerusalem where King David was born. For Matthew, that’s where the holy family lived until they fled the massacre of the innocents. For Luke, Mary and Joseph were lowly sojourners in Bethlehem, forced to have their child born in a stable. By the time we get to the beloved disciple and the fourth gospel, Galilee is mostly forgotten. In the fourth gospel, Jesus spends most of his ministry where the action is: Jerusalem. There, according to the beloved disciple, he leads a ministry trumpeting his own divine identity, nothing like the preaching, parables, and exorcism that endeared him to the oppressed peasants of Galilee. Jesus’ disciples were Galileans as well, probably illiterate and unschooled. They may well have demonstrated the principle that the last shall be first, as low-class men in positions of divine favor. But Jesus’ illiterate disciples made an uneven transition to the written phase of the new religion. Defining Jesus and the meaning of his life and death fell to Paul and to the beloved disciple, both competent in written Greek and in Hellenic philosophy. Documenting his life in the gospels was the work of anonymous Greek-literate Christians. What we know about the Galilean disciples, such as Peter, James, and John, is what the literate non-Galileans have chosen to tell us. In some cases, such as Paul’s depiction of Simon Peter, it’s not pretty. Paul portrays Peter as an impediment to his mission to the gentiles. In the case of Acts, Peter gets favorable treatment, but only when Luke turns him into someone he wasn’t: an open-armed apostle to the gentiles, the one who had a miraculous vision and told Christians never to mind about those pesky kosher food laws.
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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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