Jesus Mortal |
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Oppression Why did Gandhi have such compassion for the oppressed? What about Martin Luther King, Jr? Dare we say Che Guevara? Certainly it was partly due to their personal experience of oppression. So it is with Jesus. The Sunday school answer to why Jesus cared for the downtrodden is because he’s god and god is love. The historical answer is that he and the people he cared personally about were downtrodden. They were oppressed as Jews whose homeland was being taken over. Land that had been given them by the LORD and passed down through a family was being foreclosed on and taken over by pagans in the cities, who ran them as absentee landlords. They could work as day laborers, but that meant working for the pagans. Jesus’ people were even on the outs as Galileans. The pure blood Judeans looked askance at their northern cousins and their country ways. The same story is writ large in the Hebrew bible. In the 8th century BC, the Yahweh of scripture kicked ass and takes names to the seventh generation. These are the J and E documents that would later be edited into the primary chunk of the Torah. But then the Assyrian empire kicks into high gear, and from that point on there’s war and rumors of war until the Jews wind up in Babylon. The response to these hard times? Before the Assyrians have even invaded, Yahweh starts sending his prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and a scad of minor prophets. Ezekiel specifically renounces the vengeful seven-generation curse that Yahweh promised in the Torah. After the time of the prophets, the Jews suffer further defeats and oppressions, giving us the books of Daniel and Maccabees. The loving, humane Judaism that Jesus was born into is partly the result of centuries of defeat, oppression, and martyrdom.
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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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