I love her insight on two very important facts to consider
if we wish to find the real Jesus/Yeshua:
The two facts in summary are:
1) Paul, the Gospels, Josephus and Tacitus all report that
Jesus died by crucifixion.
Therefore Rome held him responsible for sedition, for being
a rebel. This manner of death was especially reserved for those who tried to
rebel against Rome.
2) A very significant fact that is overlooked by almost
everyone is that he died alone; that is, his followers were not crucified with
him.
Josephus reports on many other messianic and prophetic
figures, both before and after Jesus who were considered guilty of sedition and
whom Rome crucified. In all these other cases, they crucified their followers
as well!
Why then did Pilate crucify only Jesus?
Prof. Paula Fredriksen argues that it was because Pilate
knew he was not really a rebel but that he wanted to make a public spectacle of
Jesus so as to deter others from following him.
For this to even be a deterrent the general Jewish public;
the sympathizers; the admirers, the opponents and enemies of Jesus must all
have had a good idea of what Jesus was saying.
Therefore, we can
reject the Protestant Jesus who apparently preached the superiority of
grace to works; the Jesus with a Marxist socialistic agenda; the notion that he
preached against the laws of purity and sacrifices that the Jewish people had
adhered to for centuries. We can even reject that Jesus brought some new
totally novel and unique message.
We need to see that Jesus was a Torah observant Jew in a very
Jewish context, who spoke to his people and that they by and large understood
his message.
The implications of
this simple truth are huge and worth much reflection.
Her article is
available here:
and more of her articles here: http://www.bu.edu/religion/faculty/bios/fredriksen/
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