Jesus

Jesus was a Jewish mystic and wisdom sage living in first–century Roman occupied Judea. Awake to YHVH in, with and as all reality, Jesus taught a Judaism of justice and compassion in line with his near contemporary Hillel the Elder (110 BCE-10 CE). Jesus was crucified by Rome to demonstrate that power trumps love. Sadly for them, his death didn’t take. Sadly for us neither did his message. The religion of Jesus is Judaism. The religion about Jesus is Christianity. I include questions about Jesus and Christianity here because so many people ask them of me.

Why did you Jews kill Jesus?

We didn’t. 

The Romans killed Jesus, and they did so because they saw in his capacity to draw large and potentially violent crowds a threat to Roman rule in Judea.

On the other hand, since Jesus was resurrected, does it really matter who killed him? After all, it didn’t stick.

Why did you Jews reject Jesus in favor of Barabbas?

We didn’t. 

To quote Mr. Monk, “Here’s what happened”:

Jesus enters Jerusalem at Passover time to the accolades of the Jews and fuels the Jews’ desire for freedom from the new Pharaoh, Rome. To keep the peace, both the High Priest and his Roman masters want Jesus dead. They arrest him and Rome plans to crucify him. 

When the Jewish masses who loved him on Sunday learn of this on Friday, they storm the prison and demanded his release. 

The Gospels make this clear: the Jews demand the release of Barabbas. Barabbas wasn’t another Jew imprisoned by Pilate, but Jesus himself. 

Barabbas is Aramaic for “Son of the Father,” Bar Abbas. In an early manuscript of Matthew’s Gospel we learn that Barabbas’ first name was Jesus. So they were calling for the release of Jesus Son of the Father. 

As Christians focused on converting Romans, they found it useful to downplay the fact that Rome killed Christ and used the Gentile’s lack of knowledge of Hebrew and Aramaic to make it appear that the Jews wanted to rescue a terrorist named Barabbas rather than admit the truth that they sought to save their beloved rabbi, Jesus Bar Abbas, Jesus Son of the Father.

Why were the Pharisees always testing Jesus?

Because this is what Jews do, and Jesus was one of us. 

Pharisees were the early rabbis. Rabbis learn through argument. When the Pharisees questioned Jesus they weren’t attacking him but honoring him. 

The Talmud is filled with such challenges and queries. Arguing about Torah in Judaism is a sign of familiarity and respect, not animosity and distain.

Was Jesus a real person?

It doesn’t matter. 

I am less interested in the Jesus of Nazareth than I am in the Jesus of Narrative. 

I don’t care if the Jesus of the Gospels is historically true. It is his teachings that matter to me, and if you could prove that Jesus was a figment of Mark’s imagination, I would be no less moved by those teachings. 

The same is true for Moses, Muhammad, and Buddha: the teachings that come to us in their names matters more to me than the historical accuracy of their lives.

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