Jesus of Nazareth
Jesus of Nazareth, also known as Jesus Christ, was an early first-century Jewish prophet. Many of his followers believe that he was the son of God, or perhaps God incarnate. At the opposite extreme, some non-believers have asserted that Jesus never existed. In this article I will not attempt to draw any conclusions concerning either of those issues, beyond noting in passing that this writer would find it hard to understand how someone who never existed could have had such a profound influence on so many people.
The historical evidence concerning Jesus is thin. As far as we know, neither Jesus nor any of his immediate followers wrote anything, so all that we have is, at best, second hand. He is mentioned in two places in the writings of Josephus, and his preaching is quoted at length in the synoptic Gospels and in the Gospel of Thomas. Some authorities have speculated that the book of Mark was written by an eyewitness but there is no conclusive proof of that. The book of John contains a number of stories about Jesus and a substantial amount of dialog attributed to him, but it appears to have been written around the end of the first century and its reliability has been questioned.
Though we have nothing actually written by Jesus, he is quoted extensively in the synoptic Gospels and in Thomas. Thomas, which appears to come from an independent tradition, provides corroboration for much of the text in the Synoptics. More to the point, in the opinion of this writer, Jesus' style of preaching is so unusual that it is hard to believe it is not the work of a single being. If we are to judge by the synoptics and Thomas, Jesus preached primarily in parables. The use of parables elsewhere in the Bible and in para-biblical books is unusual, and earlier prophets whose words were recorded seem to have resorted to it only rarely. But Jesus made most of his major points in this way.
Before we look at the philosophy of Jesus as expressed in his words, we need to take a brief look at the world he lived in. Technology was changing very slowly in comparison with the world today. Productive capacity of the land was more or less fixed, wealth of a country depended heavily on food production, and the economy of the time looked very much like a zero sum game. In consequence, if one man was rich, others necessarily were poorer in consequence.
The political situation in Israel must also be considered. For centuries there had been a divide between the prophets and priests. This can be seen most clearly in the writings of the "minor prophets". The priests of the Temple were deeply concerned with forms and procedures, and assuring that God was appeased through offerings of the right sort at the right time. The prophets were far more concerned with the well-being of the common people, and with how well people behaved toward each other. This needs at least a couple quotes to support it. Someday.
The royal family -- the house of David -- had fallen from power when the southern kingdom went into exile. The traditional priests -- the Levites -- also disappeared at the time of the exile. By the time of Jesus, the Maccabees, with no apparent connection to the house of David or the traditional Levite priesthood, had risen to power as priest/kings. King Herod I, though subordinate to Rome, had married into the Maccabees and converted to Judaism, and so was as legitimate as any of the late-BC Jewish kings. He was, however, on the "royal/priestly" side of the divide between the later kings and the prophets, and Jesus, to judge both by his words and by the treatment he received, was on the side of the prophets.
When we turn to Jesus' philosophy we are on much firmer ground. His words, though often cast in parables, fit very well with the tradition of the later prophets. Based both on internal Biblical evidence and on the political situation at the time, there's no reason to doubt that Jesus was exactly as we see him portrayed: He preached love of God and love of fellow man, and he was certainly a pacifist. I've included a few brief quotes from Bible verses to show the general direction of Jesus's teaching.
- "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you" -- Luke 6:27-28
- "The second [commandment] is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" -- Mark 12:31
He also preached against wealth, and in favor of charity.
- "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor" -- Mark 10:21
- "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" -- Mark 10:25
- "Give to everyone who begs from you" -- Luke 6:30
And on one occasion Jesus apparently preached against using honorifics.
- "But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brethren. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven." -- Matthew 23:8-9
While one can argue about the strength the sentiments expressed in the
above, very brief quotes, one certainly can't find anything indicating
the slightest support for the opposite sentiments. Jesus never
said anything in support of war, of physical retribution, of
taking vengeance for offensive acts, nor of abusive or exploitive
behavior toward the poor, nor anyone else. Nor did he ever preach in
favor of any sort of elitist stratification of society. He was, as I
said, a pacifist, he strongly favored charity, and he took an egalitarian
view of people.
Strangely, in the centuries after Jesus, while his followers remained convinced of his divinity, they also apparently rejected his teaching. The Catholic church adopted the title of "father" for all priests, apparently in direct violation of the teaching of Jesus. The Crusades, encouraged by the Pope, were fought in Jesus' name. They were long, bloody, destructive wars with the goal of capturing land considered "holy" -- it is hard to imagine Jesus ever speaking in favor of such an action. Much later, the thirty years' war was fought in large part as a war between Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism -- it presents the absurd spectacle of people going to war over the question of the proper way to worship a pacifist.
In our own time we are faced with a fundamentalist Christian movement which supports preemptive wars of aggression, fought to make us safer by destroying our enemies before they make the first move. This may be a politically wise course, but it's very hard to see how it can be squared with the views expressed by Jesus, and it's hard to imagine how anyone could claim that Jesus would condone such action.
References
Background material for this article was drawn from various sources, including the Bible (various translations), the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha, Charlesworth's commentary on the Pseudepigrapha, the "Five Gospels" and the Historical Jesus Project, the Cambridge Companion to the Bible, the Merriam-Webster Biographical Dictionary, Josephus' Antiquities and Jewish War, and a large number of web sites, including but not limited to Steve Carlson's cluster analysis of the New Testament, the Wesleyans' excellent site, New Advent, the Synoptic Problem Home Page, the World Without Q, the Gospel Parallels site, and of course the very useful Bible Gateway site. When I get a chance I'll put in proper links here, organize this as a bibliography, and add some footnotes (unless some irate fundamentalist blanks the page before I get to it).
