Ethical Philosophy In Practice

Transcription

1 Ethical Philosophy In Practice Thinking Clearly in a World of Nonsense Because the bull shit gets so deep you have to spout wings to fly above it. Topic for Examination on December 12, 2016 Zealot The Times and Conditions of Jesus Life Summary We are all familiar with the blue-eyed, Germanic Jesus of the American Normal Rockwell tradition. My Sunday school teachers talked about a peaceful and loving minister from a good home and benign surroundings. However, Biblical scholar Reza Aslan studies the Jesus of history, not the worshiped Christ. The following pages relate a few of the social, economic and political conditions that historical evidence suggests. For anyone interested more in truth than faith, it looks very familiar. 1

2 Times Were Not So Good, People Were Not So Happy At the time Jesus lived, ancient Israel was ruled and literally owned by Rome. Most of people were rural farmers, living on subsistence and increasingly desperate poverty. The priestly class in Jerusalem mercilessly taxed the people, who them as traitors. Like General Petan in Vichy, France, the priestly class betrayed the nation, people and their God, for money. They were so hated that one High Priest had been assassinated in the Temple. Galilee Jerusalemites often referred to Galilee as a different nation. Much like Texas in today, it was no compliment. Galileans were considered rural, poor, uneducated, violent and rebellious. They lived on subsistence farming and had their own customs, even accents. Jesus first decade saw it ravaged by revolution and invasion. His second decade saw rapid urbanization and wealth inequality. They spoke Aramaic and not Greek (the lingua franca of the Roman Empire and educated folk) Ninety-seven percent of them were illiterate. It is unlikely that Jesus could read or write in Aramaic, much less Hebrew (the language of Yaweh.) Rome = the Temple = High Priest Roman military authorities employed the Temple priests to keep the population pacified. The priests came from rich families living in ostentatious hereditary wealth. Temple positions were purchased for hefty sums and yielded vast profits. But in the eyes all Jerusalemites, Rome and the Temple hierarchy were much the same. The High Priest was so much an employee of Roman authorities that even his ritual garb was owned by and kept in their custody. Temple rituals were for-profit enterprises 1. Endless animal sacrifices enriched the priesthood and the Holy of Holies was empty, the Ark of the Covenant had long since disappeared. 1 Only the guts of sacrificed animals were burnt on the altar as a sacrifice to god. The priests sold the hides and ate the meat. 2

3 The Social Order There were several priestly classes; all hated each other intensely, but managed to hate King Herod even more. They were the: 1. Sadducees wealthy landowning conservative priests accommodating to Rome 2. Pharisees lower and middle class rabbi s 3. Essenes a priestly movement which separated itself from the Temple. (21) They were a celibate, quasi-monastic order (37) The Economic Order Herod the Great had long conducted massive construction projects that provided jobs, but also required crushing taxes. When Herod died, the projects stopped. Ten of thousands of workers (ex-farmers driven from their land by debt foreclosures) 2 found themselves suddenly unemployed and starving in the cities. Revolution was in the air. Jesus Was Not Born in Bethlehem Jesus birth in Bethlehem 3 is only mentioned in one place, the Book of Luke, and was probably placed there for propaganda purposes (29). Old Testament prophesies predicted many flatly contradictory things about the coming Messiah. One was that he would be born in the City of David. Nazareth did not meet that description, Bethlehem did. So the author of Luke made up the whole Joseph and Mary go to Bethlehem for the Roman census story (which is factually incorrect) to have Jesus born in the city of David. Apparently, Bethlehem was considered part of Jerusalem. Jesus Family: Joseph, May Not Have Existed Very little was written about Joseph. Some of it implied bastardy so Joseph may not have even been known. He may have been a Roman soldier or Jewish revolution who raped Mary 4. Irrelevant to us, genetic ancestry was important to them. The Greek word for Jesus s occupation is translated in our Bible as carpenter, which to us means a skilled craftsman. But their actual word meant a poor, unskilled day laborer. Besides, most people in Galilee were too poor to own (38) furniture. 2 To bet the farm meant then what is has meant ever since and does today. The cash rich wealthy seek to lend money to the cash-poor land owners in order to foreclose upon it. Does the Luddite Revolt and Pikkety s natural concentration of wealth sound familiar? 3 instead of his home town of Nazareth 4 Revolutionaries following Judas the Galilean were ravaging the area at that time. 3

4 Laborers from Nazareth walked all day to the capital city of Sepphoris to find work. (38) There they would have seen how rich Hellenized Jews lived in splendor (walled homes, public baths, running water) while the people of Nazareth lived near starvation. 5 Jesus must have spent most of his adult life (before his ministry) in Safforis. (44) Although not mentioned, he was probably married, it was almost unthinkable for the 30 year old Jewish male not to have a wife. (37) Jesus would have known only the blood splattered god of the Old Testament. For example Joshua ordering the massacre of every man, woman, child and animal in the land in order to keep it exclusively for HIS PEOPLE. The Word We Know As Thieves Really Meant Rebels, Highwaymen, Bandits or Political Rabble Rousers Jesus was crucified between two others. Once again, my Bible translated the Greek word for those men as thieves, but a more accurate translation would be rebel or bandit or traitor. The Romans used the word to mean political rabble-rouser. Crucifixion was very common throughout the Roman world at the time because it was cheap, required little man power and served a huge propaganda tool to intimidate the populace. It was not unique to Jesus, dozens of people were crucified every day. Jewish dissenters were called King of the Jews. Their bodies were not taken down but left on the cross to be eaten by vultures. Miracle Workers, Exorcists, Faith Healers, Predictors of Future Events, Rain Makers, Raisers of the Dead, Bandits, Highwaymen, Rabble-Rousers, Revolutionaries and Gang Leaders Galilee was crawling with them all and they came together in every combination. Hebrew law forbad them all 6, but they were common. History records many of their names and specialties. Nothing Jesus did was original or unique except he didn t seem to charge money. Other miracle workers became very well-to-do. 5 Does Pikketty s Capital in the 21 st Century sound familiar? 6 Magic was forbidden unless it was performed by God (Moses turning the Nile into blood, parting the Red Sea, etc.), then it was a divine miracle. 4

5 There Were Lots Of Characters Claiming To Be The Messiah I was taught in Sunday school that claiming to be the Messiah would have been a rare and blasphemous crime. But no, hundreds were doing it every day. It was all the rage, just like our Great Awakenings. Wandering, penniless men claiming to be The Messiah or god himself were common. It was a stereotype; holy men, con-men, crazies, beggars, fortune tellers, etc. They were as common as monks in medieval Germany, 19 th Century Russia or India today. Dozens are known today by their actual names, physical appearances and ultimate fates; e.g., when and how they were killed. The Messiah ( King of the Jews ) Predicted in the Old Testament Had Only One Goal - The sole purpose of The Messiah was to return Israel to political independence (32) and obedience to their god. (28) That meant by definition, overthrowing the Roman government and High Priest system that served it. Therefore, to claim to be the Messiah or to call someone that, was to commit treason punishable by death. The label King of the Jews was a standard title given to men being crucified for complaining about the Roman and priestly government. An other-worldly messiah, one concerned about life after death, would have been unthinkable because belief in a dying and rising messiah simply did not exist in Judaism. (165) What Jesus Was Really Doing According to the author, Jesus was probably calling for a violent overthrow of the Roman/priestly power structure. He was doing what Ho Che Minh did in Vietnam in the 1930 s. Like Ho, he expected to be successful and become the new ruler. Having failed, he only laid down another stepping stone on the path to the Jewish revolt 40 years later. Jesus predicted the utter destruction of the temple (which did happen) but also that he would rise it up again in three days (which did not happen.) Evidence of this are indisputably carved into the Titus Arch in Rome (right) which depicts the destruction of the Temple. Because he utterly failed in his mission, Jesus followers redesigned the story to claim that Jesus goal was spiritual, not earthly; his kingdom would come later in heaven, not on literally earth in the immediate present. 5

6 Why Mark Blamed The Jews For The Crucifixion The first, oldest and believed to be the most accurate gospel was Mark. According to it, the Roman governor Pontius Pilate found Jesus innocent but was forced to put him to death by the Jewish mob. Based on surviving records of how business was conducted, such an episode is impossible to believe. Pilot was a hard-ass who detested the Jewish culture/society and was utterly unconcerned about it. He authorized tens of thousands of crucifixions and never worried about details, much less any individual case. It was the way current Israeli soldiers describe killing Palestinian civiliants, just mowing the grass. Roman general Titus destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 70 CE. The reason for that act (extreme by even their standards) was for the Emperor Vespasian (Titus father) to use as propaganda. Rome had just had a civil war and he wanted to demonstrate to the people that he and Rome were still invincible. In that propaganda campaign, the Jews were demonized and the author of Mark, then living in Rome, certainly did not want to be associated with them. Therefore, he retold the story so that Pontus Pilate was fair and compassionate while the Jews were responsible for Jesus death. Sparking two millennia of anti-semitism, it was a pretty bad move. How Stephen and Paul Invent Christianity Stephen was on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem when he became enamored by talk of someone who had risen from the grave. He then joined Jesus disciples and was soon stoned to death by a Jewish mob. As he was dying he looked upward and said that he saw Jesus on the right hand of God, in other words, Jesus had become a god. (This was a total blasphemy to Judaism s only one god principle.) That statement was the end of Jesus s philosophy and mission. From there on, Paul created the Church. Ironically, neither of the two most important people who founded Christianity had ever met Jesus. 6

7 I give the research by Zealot an A just because I like to learn more about reality than myth, although the study of mythology is about the reality of how myths work. But I digress. Sebastian Zebadiah Twit, March 8, 2016 December 11, 2016 What do you think? Later Reflections About the Author Reza Aslan His family moved from Iran to the U.S. during its revolution. They were officially Muslim, but not observant. As a teenager, Reza converted to Christianity and became an evangelical. He was so into it that he began studying its history, and quickly lost his faith. He now defines himself as a Muslim. The only reason I discovered his book is that Fox News tried to trash it. Fox implied that he is a critic of Jesus only because he is a Muslim. Being very articulate, he cut them off at the knees. Christian hate radio howls about it. I recommend it. The Word Zealot The word referred to a man who was highly religious and therefore nationalistic. Zealots often did not cut their hair, drink wine, have sex, etc. That should not be confused with the Zealot Party that took over Jerusalem in 66 C.E. New Information To This Reporter Some of this information was so new that I had to check it against other sources. For example the great influence of James (Jesus brother) in the early church and his bitter conflict 7 with Paul. Several small, vague and always ignored books at the end of the New Testament refer to it. I knew that Paul had basically invented the Christian church and only used Jesus as a flag to wave above, 7 Paul and first congregation s leader James the Just were in such conflict they had a fist fight. Many of the smaller gospels before Revelations suddenly make sence when you realized that it was Paul snipping at James. 7

8 but according to Aslan, Paul invented its philosophy/message out of whole cloth. Neither Jesus nor the first Christians would have recognized anything that Paul taught. There Was No Such Thing As History The use of history to reveal factual events was not even invented until millennia after the gospels 8. In Jesus times, written narratives were intended to communicate deep truths, not factual events (31). As hard as it is to believe that authors didn t intend to be literally believed, perhaps it was like how we watch movies. We don t believe that Hans Solo actually rescued Princess Leia, but it s a story is about heroism or romance or something, it s at least entertaining. How we decide today whether a story is factual or fictional is an interesting question. Masada (long after Jesus) A group called the Zealot Party started the Jewish Revolt in 66 CE. They occupied the Temple but were overthrown by a group called the Sicarii who were themselves expelled and massacred. The surviving Sicarii moved to Masada and awaited events. 9. Finally the Romans came and prepared to slaughter them. The Sicarii killed themselves and were lost to Hebrew history. The reason for that was that the diaspora Jews reorganized themselves into separate congregations led by rabbis. They considered the idea of a nation to be dangerous. Only in the 20 th century did someone read Josephus Antiquities and the new nation of Israel adopted it as patriotic propaganda. A Quick Review of Events in That Era Jerusalem and the first temple were destroyed by Babylon and the people taken into exile in 586 BCE. When the Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great, conquered Babylon in 539 BCE, it allowed the Jews to return home and even funded the recon- 8 Voltaire is largely credited with inventing factual history of peoples. Prior to that history was about monarchs and empires and principally for propaganda purposes. 9 for seven years 8

9 struction of their temple. Centuries later, Roman general Pompeii Magnus (the Great) conquered Judea and placed Herod the Great 10 on the throne. Upon becoming king of Judea, Herod oppressed and abused the people with heavy taxation. After his death, the whole countryside rose up in violent protest against him and Rome/Greek ways, gods, etc. In putting down this revolt, Roman General Titus destroyed Jerusalem, the Second Temple and most of its inhabitants. (We know that from the writings of Josephus who also tells us about the existence of Masada, which he escaped by guile.) We can also see physical evidence of it depicted on the Titus Arch in Rome and remnants of the temple are still visible in Jerusalem. Titus was the son of Emperor Vespasian and also later became the Roman emperor himself. Chronology of Events Rome (Pompeii) conquers Judea 63 B.C.E. - Before Common Era Julius Caesar crosses Rubicon 49 B.C.C. Julius Caesar assassinated 44 B.C.E. Herod (the Great) arrives in Jerusalem 37 B.C.E. (p. 20) Herod the Great assumed kingship of Judea 30 B.C.E. (p. 20) Herod the Great dies 4 B.C.E. Judas the Galilean (revolutionary) ravages Galilee 4 B.C.E. (p. 42) Jesus Christ born 4 BCE 6 C.E. (p. 33) Emporer Augustus (Octavian) invades 6 C.E. (p. 24) Syrian governor Quirinius calls for a census 6 C.E. Emporer Augustus (Octavian) dies 14 C.E. Pontius Pilot arrives in Jerusalem 26 C.E. (p. 46) Jesus ministry C.E. Jesus Crucified 30 C.E. Q document 11 compiled 50 C.E. Jewish revolt drives Romans out 66 C.E. 10 (Herod had been raised in the Roman court and adopted Roman/Greek ways.) 11 The Q document was the original complilation, now lost, of the early writings about Jesus. 9

10 Vespasian and Titus had subdued all of Galilee 67 C.E. Titus destroys Jerusalem and the Second 12 Temple 70 C.E. Book of Mark is written 70 C.E. Masada falls to Romans, Jewish Revolt ends 73 C.E. Book of John is written C.E. 12 The first temple was destroyed by the Babylonias in, They built the second temple with the help of Cyrus the Great after he conquered Babylon. 10