JESUS THE MAN
Despite some discrepancies in the gospels and folklore that attached to later accounts, the historic Jesus is fairly well documented, although precise dates are not certain. He was probably born in 4BCE, shortly before Herod the Great died. His parents were Joseph and Mary (Miriam); Matthew and Luke affirm a virgin birth. The family came from N72reth but went to Bethlehem for Herod's census.
When Jesus was eight his family fled to Egypt to escape persecution by Herod Archelaus. In 7cE, say the Gospels, the 12-year-old Jesus amazed
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Above The Tree ofJesse,from a 13th-century psalter, demonstrates Ghristc lineage from Jesse,father of David, and hence his claim to messianic inheritance.
the Jerusalem Temple priests with his knowledge. After this he returned to N97reth to help his carpenter father. There then follow several missing years.Jesus' ministry began in around 26cE, after John the Baptist anointed him messiah in the River Jordan. Around that time Pontius Pilate became prefect ofJudea, and Caiaphas was appointed high priest in Jerusalem.
JESUS' GOSPEL
In autumn 26cE Jesus cleared the money changers out of the Temple in Jerusalem, and in summer 27cE four Galilean fishermen became his first followers. By winter 28cE he had 12 disciples; in the spring he preached his 'sermon on the mount', as found in
Matthew in which he laid down
the foundations of the new teaching ethic founded on the law of love in contrast to the old law of retribution. He also began conducting miracles. Soon the disciples were also spreading Jesus' gospel and performing healing.
Left Christ praying on the Mount of Olives as his disciples rest.From a painted panel, Hohenfurth Monastery, Bohemia, 1350.
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Jesus predicted his own death in 29CE. The next year he entered Jerusalem. Betrayed by his disciple Judas Iscariot during the Passover festival, Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, tried by the Sanhedrin, or Temple officials, for blasphemy, and sentenced by Pilate, seemingly for insurrection. He was then crucified at Golgotha.
ORIGINS AND INFLUENCES The Gospels famously condemn both Pharisees and Sadducees as hypocrites. On closer inspection, suggest some scholars,Jesus himself
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Above An early Christian painting of Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well, Roman catacombs, c.320BcE.
might have been a Pharisee, albeit a radical one. Certainly he was no Sadducee: he damned excessive wealth and corrupt Sadducean prac-tices.Jesus apparently resembled one Pharisaic strain, the hakhamim, or 'itinerant wise men'. Like them he was a populist rabbi, or teacher; he delivered lessons through parables, akin to rabbinic midrashim.Jesus never refuted the Torah's law and commandments in the Gospels. He did, though, stress that faith, love, hope and charity are in God's eyes superior to the legalism ascribed to by Pharisees.
Some scholars define Jesus as an Essene (see box), but he rejected their ascetic tendencies. His use of messianic imagery recalls the Zealots. But his message - 'turn the other cheek'- clashes with their militancy Jesus chided disciples who wanted to attack Rome; he paid the
Left Scrolls from this cave at Qumran have intrigued scholars ever since they were found in 1947.
Right Similar jars from Qumran held the Dead Sea Scrolls, whose Essene writings call to mind Jesus' teachings.
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Temple tax and said 'render unto
e, albeit a Caesar what is Caesar's'.Whether he
was no can be subsumed into a sect or not, excessive Jesus certainly drew on his Jewish
:ean prac- heritage. After his death a new reli‑
bled one gion emerged, one that both spread arnim, or Judaic principles and clashed with them he the parent faith.
teacher; igh para-hitn.Jesus law and Gospels. àith, love, rod's eyes cribed to
sus as an rejected His use calls the - 'turn vith their pies who paid the
Qumran ice they
ran held ?ssene
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Temple tax and said 'render unto
e, albeit a Caesar what is Caesar's'.Whether he
was no can be subsumed into a sect or not, excessive Jesus certainly drew on his Jewish
:ean prac- heritage. After his death a new reli‑
bled one gion emerged, one that both spread arnim, or Judaic principles and clashed with them he the parent faith.
teacher; igh para-hitn.Jesus law and Gospels. àith, love, rod's eyes cribed to
sus as an rejected His use calls the - 'turn vith their pies who paid the
Qumran ice they
ran held ?ssene
Image
Image
THE ESSENES
The Essenes emerged in the 2nd century BCE when anti-Hellenist Jews, furious that Maccabeans had usurped the high priesthood, left Jerusalem and lived monastically in the wilderness, seeing themselves as the 'True Israel'. Essenes lacerated the Pharisees in stronger terms than Jesus. The Dead Sea Scrolls contain one Essene psalm that promises salvation to 'the humble, oppressed in spirit and those who mourn', echoing Jesus' word. But while Essenes were reclusive and refused female company,Jesus preached to all.
At first the 'Jesus movement' was basically another Jewish sect. Gradually, though, the two separate religions emerged and by I50cE Judaism and Christianity were competing faiths, heading in different directions.
SISTER FAITHS DIVIDED
Three factors may explain this schism. First, St Paul's mission of spreading Christ's words to gentiles (non-Jews) accelerated the process of absorbing 'alien' Hellenistic customs into the faith. Core Christian texts were written in Greek and Latin, which further divorced the religion from its Hebrew, Aramaic and Jewish roots. Second, the notion of a resurrected Jesus and the developing doctrine of God's incarnation
Beloit, St Stephen's stoning to death in Jenisalem c.34cE typified the Jesus sect's tribulations. Painting by Francesco Bissolo, 1505.
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in human form tested Christianity's ties with Judaism to breaking point. Third, Jews considered that the Christian New Testament depicted Jews as enemies of God's will. Christian dogma spoke about their followers replacing Jews as the 'true elect of Israel'. And when the Roman empire adopted Christianity in the 4th century CE, the faith became a religion of power.This seems ironic, given Christ's stress on humility, modesty and the meek. By contrast, after the destruction of the Temple, Judaism seemed like a credo of the dispersed and dispossessed.
CRACKS APPEAR
lnitially.Jesus' mission seemed over when he died on the cross in 30CE. The Gospels, however, related that Jesus then reappeared to his disciples before being recalled to heaven. He had died in a bodily sense but was reborn to eternal life. Most Jews understood that a messiah should herald an age of universal peace, or at least expel the Romans from Judea. Christians replied that Christ planned a second coming and ultimate redemption.
The Gospels were completed around 90CE, long after Christ's death.Their passages speak of how the Temple shuddered when Christ was crucified. Christians interpreted this as predicting that the Temple would fall because ofJewish complicity in the Lord's death. However, because the texts were finalized after Jerusalem's destruction, some scholars suppose that these 'predictions' may have been added to 'prove' the superiority of Christianity.
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Above St Peter holding the keys to the Kingdom of Heave,:. Austria,, altarpiece panel by Friedrich Pacher, c. 1508.
JERUSALEM CHURCH
Members of the early Jerusalem Church considered themselves filly Jewish. Led by James (Jacob) - the first Christian bishop and reputedly the brother ofJesus - they prayed in the Temple, observed the Jewish Sabbath and obeyed Torah commandments. Certainly they differed (mm fellowjews in seeingJesus as the Messiah.Yet most stopped short of calling him the Son of God and questioned the doctrine of virgin birth.
While open to proselytes, the Jerusalem Church wanted gentiles to convert to Judaism before they could become Christian. Gradually, distinctive elements entered their practice. Initiates were baptized, as Christ was by John. The church became a community that shared possessions, heard reports from the apostles and stressed the virtues of love, repentance and charity. It also spread tidings of 'Christ's Way' and his return. Allied congregations in Galilee survived after a Sadducean priest killed James in 62CE.Yet the Roman sacking ofJerusalem in 70CE decimated the sect.
THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY
PAUL HELPED FORM CHRISTIANITY INTO A DISTINCT RELIGION. 'JEWISH CHRISTIANS' WITHERED AWAY AS GENTILES ACCEPTED THE NEW FAITH AND JEWS BAULKED AT GOSPEL ACCOUNTS OF CHRIST'S DIVINITY.
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THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY
CHRISTIANITY'S FOUNDERS, Some scholars regard Paul, not Jesus, as the real founder of Christianity. He was born Saul, a Pharisee from Tarsus in Cilicia, southern Turkey; a rabbi and tent-maker by trade, yet also a Roman citizen. Paul was about to persecute dissident Christ-believers in Damascus in 34cc when, he wrote, he was struck blind and saw Jesus in a revelation.
Paul preached Christian doctrines during 45-57cc, initially to Diaspora Jews in Antioch, Ephesus, Sardis, Iconium and Philadelphia (all in modeniTurkey) as well as in Jerusalem, Corinth, Rome and Alexandria.
He went a step further by promoting Christianity among gentiles. Hitherto, gentile males wishing to convert to Judaism would have to undergo circumcision. Paul argued that Christ's 'new covenant'- a term originally used by the prophet Jeremiah - entirely replaced the old Mosaic code. Christians no longer needed to obey Judaism's laws of kashrut, or 'kosher food', or observe Jewish festivals, or circumcise their male children. Gentiles would thus find conversion more attractive. Further, Paul said, one could only enter the Kingdom of Heaven through personal faith in Jesus as the messiah. Such views were anathema to normative Jews.
Born at Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee, Peter was one of the original 12 disciples. He changed his name from Simon to Peter, Greek for rock, as Jesus told him: 'Upon this rock I will build my church'. In time, Peter was hailed as the first bishop of Rome. The Jewish sage Gamaliel the Elder persuaded fellow Sanhedrin members to spare Peter's life when they threatened to execute him. Peter and Paul were partners in propagating the new faith, although Paul accused Peter of'Judaizing' the religion. Some say Paul resented Peter for knowing Jesus.
MARTYRS AND MINIM
Both Roman and Jewish authorities sporadically persecuted Christians. Many apostles were martyred, beginning with Stephen, stoned to death
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Above Carava2g:o c ilra,na tic dcp:ctk'?I of St Paid's conversion on the road to Damascus, 1601.
by a Jerusalem mob around 34cE at the behest of a pre-Paul Saul. Christian tradition relates that Emperor Nero blamed Christians for the great fire of Rome in 64cc and consequently had Peter crucified and Paul beheaded.
Jewish Christian sects called Ebionires, or the 'poor ones', and Nazirites survived for a while in Judea. In the mid-2nd century CE, however, Gamaliel II, son of Gamaliel, ruled that Christians of any ilk were ,ninh,n, or 'dissidents' who could no longer pray with other Jews.
It is known that Ebionites largely fled Judea for Pella, across the Jordan, when Judea revolted in 66cc. So some ascribe a political element to Gamaliel's charge. Put simply,Jewish Christians voluntarily dissociated themselves from the Jewish people. As Pauline Christians saw them as heretics, too, they quickly disappeared from history.
Left Jesus ivillijanies the Le.ss,from a 12th-century column capita!, Cathedral of St Lazare,Aunm, France.
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