ra: The Christians, too, felt the need to distance

THEMSELVES FROM THE REVOLUTIONARY ZEAL THAT HAD LED TO THE SACKING OF YERUSHALAYIM, NOT ONLY BECAUSE IT ALLOWED THE EARLY CHURCH TO WARD OFF THE WRATH OF A DEEPLY VENGEFUL ROME, BUT ALSO BECAUSE, WITH THE JEWISH RELIGION HAVING BECOME PARIAH, THE ROMANS HAD BECOME THE PRIMARY TARGET OF THE CHURCH'S EVANGELISM?

Thus began the long PROCESS of transforming Yesh from a revolutionary Jewish "nationalist" into a peaceful spiritual leader with no interest at all in any 'earthly' matter! Because Thàt wàs & Jesus also the Romans CÓULD accept, and in fact dìd accept three centuries later when the Roman emperor Flavius Theodosius {395¥} made the itinerant Jewish preacher's movement THE official religion of THE STATE, & what we now recognize as orthodox Christianity was born!?

Reza Aslan attempts to reclaim, as much as possible, the Yehoshua of history, or THE YESHUA BEFORE CHRISTIANITY: the politically conscious Jewish revolutionary who, 2000 years (20 ages/2 millennia) ago, walked across the Galilean countryside, gathering followers for a messianic movement "with the goal of establishing the Kingdom of G d" but whose mission failed when, after a provocative entry into YERUSHALAYIM and a brazen attack on the Temple, he was (also) arrested & executed by Rome for this crime of sedition! It is also about how, in the aftermath of Yeshu's failure to establish "G d's reign on earth", his followers reinterpreted not only Yeshu's mission & identity, but also the very nature & definition of the Jewish messiah!?!

There are those who consider sùch an endeavor to be a waste of time, believing the Yesh of history to be irrevocably lost ànd incapable of recovery? Lòng gòne ÁRE the heady days of "the quest for the historical Jesus," when scholars proclaimed that modern scientific tools ànd his-torical research would allow us to ùncòver Yehoshua's TRUE IDENTITY!?! THE REAL YESH no longer màtters, these scholars argue: we shóuld focus instéad òn THE ónly Jesus that ìs accessible to us: Yehoshua THE CHRÌST!

Granted, writing a biography of Yesh of 'Beth Lechem' or Nazareth ìs nòt líke writing a biography of Napoleon Bonaparte! Our task is somewhat akin to putting together a massive puzzle with only a few of the pieces at hand; one hàs nó chòice bùt to fìll ìn the rèst of this puzzle básed òn thé bèst, móst educated guess òf what the completed image 'should' lóók like?

Rudolf Bultmann liked to say that the quest for the historical YESH ìs ultimately an ìntèrnal quest! Scholars tend to see the Yesh THÉY WÀNT to see: too often they see THEMSELVES - their own reflection - in the 'fan-tastic' image of Yesh THÉY have constructed!?

Anyway, Mòr finds himself fascinated by this subject as much as walking here & there in all those years since '45: in the Netherlands ànd all those places that followed in those 'footsteps' in Italy, Israel, Iran, India & Japan ...
31 okt 2015 - bewerkt op 02 nov 2015 - meld ongepast verhaal
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