My Idea of Jesus of Nazareth

I take the following as given:

• Jesus was totally human.
• Jesus was born a Jew, lived his life as a Jew, and died a Jew. He had nothing to do with Christianity. He was Jewish! The Jewish religious group Jesus started, Followers of the Way, was just one of over twenty Jewish denominations.
• Jesus spoke Aramaic, a language dating from the ninth century BCE. He probably understood a little Koine Greek (common vs. classical Greek) and Hebrew. The earliest manuscripts we have of the New Testament are in Koine Greek. When one language is translated to another, changes occur. When we translate the Bible into our native language, even more changes occur, all of which could affect what the New Testament says about what Jesus said and did.
• Jesus’s main message was about the current time. There is considerable confusion about whether Jesus was apocalyptic (advocating the end of the world and a second coming). When I started seminary, Jesus wasn’t apocalyptic, but he became so in the twenty-first century. For me, this has nothing to do with Jesus’s main message. For me, the kingdom is here and now and within us.
• The earliest written account of Jesus’s life appears in the Gospel of Mark, from around 70 CE. This leaves about forty years between the death of Jesus and the first written document, during which time the folklore about Jesus flourished.
• Only about 20 percent of the sayings attributed to Jesus in the Gospels are authentic. This is according to the Westar Institute, which in the 1990s had a study group known as The Jesus Seminar, consisting of over 200 scholars.
• To understand the Gospels in the New Testament, one must understand the Jewish concept of midrash (Biblical interpretation). Most Christians do a great disservice to Christianity when they interpret the Bible literally. Jewish writers did not write for literal interpretation but for midrashic interpretation.

This is my historical Jesus:

He was born in the region of Galilee in the small Jewish community of Nazareth, to Mary, an unwed teenager who was probably raped by a Roman soldier or a relative. The person named Joseph, husband and father, never existed; he was introduced into the narrative to try to save Jesus from being labeled an illegitimate child. I couldn’t care less!

Jesus was raised as all young Jewish children were, doing menial work, perhaps in his grandfather’s business, which could have been carpentry. He may have, for example, made farm implements, built furniture, constructed houses, or built summer homes for the wealthy.

My contention is that Jesus became a deeply religious young man who was curious about Judaism and the Scriptures and was not interested in carpentry. At some point he left to live in an ascetic community, either in the desert or near a large city. There he learned to read and write Hebrew and to interpret Scripture, because that’s all he did 24-7.

Later Jesus left the ascetic group, perhaps after he was twenty-five years old, and began his public ministry. Rumor has it that Jesus was not an attractive young man, but he had charisma that attracted his fellow Jews, most of whom were farmers, fishermen, merchants, and peasants.

I believe Jesus was married and that his wife was Mary of Magdala, a wealthy woman who is reputed to have financed Jesus’s ministry. Because birth control did not exist, it is likely that Jesus had children.

Jesus was highly suspicious of the Jewish leaders and made no bones about attacking them. At the time (26–37 CE), Pilate was the governor of the Roman province of Judea, appointed by Emperor Tiberius. The Jewish leaders didn’t like what Jesus was doing, and they banded together with Pontius Pilate to manufacture false charges of sedition against Jesus, that is, for his claiming himself a king.

Around 30–33 CE, Jesus was arrested, tried by a kangaroo court, and sentenced to death by crucifixion. This all transpired within twenty-four hours from the time when Jesus first came to Jerusalem to his arrest and death the next day.

According to Roman tradition, the body of Jesus, after his death, would have been left on the cross for predatory animals to eat during the night.

I find this to be the end of the historical Jesus. (The fictitious Jesus kept on living and doing out-of-this-world stuff that I don’t believe.) The resurrection stories are totally fictitious metaphors, albeit good ones.

Jesus’s primary message had nothing to do with his dying for our sins. Paul made that up. Jesus’s main message was about living life by practicing agape, unconditional love, for everyone, no matter where they are on their life’s journey.

This message has transformed my life because it tells me what I have to do every day, all day: love everyone unconditionally. See my latest book, How to Make Love (the Agape Kind) with Jesus, for details on how to do this.

Do you like my Jesus?

 

PeaceLoveJoyHopeKindness

Bil

Get my book at Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon!

P.S. People often ask me provocative questions about current events, both religious and secular. I have found that some of these questions are being asked universally. I’ll be periodically alternating regular articles with one of those questions and my answer. I invite you to send me your question to bilaulenbach@yahoo.com.

 

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