ra27 Now that the Feast of Tabernacles has arrived

Yeshua's family urge him to travel with them to Yudaea to celebrate the joyous harvest festival together, & to reveal himself to these masses? "Come," they say. "Show yourself to the world!" Yesh refuses. "You go," he tells them. "I am not going to this festival. It is not yet my time!" Yeshu's family leave him behind & head off to Judaea together.

Yet, unbeknownst to them, Yesh decides to follow them down to Judaea after all, if for no other reason than to secretly roam through the assembled crowd & hear what people are saying about him?! "He is a good man," someone whispers. "No, he is leading the people astray," says another. Sometime later, after Yesh has revealed himself to the crowd, a few begin to make guesses about his (real, hidden) identity. "Surely, he is a prophet!"

And then someone finally says it. Everyone is clearly thinking it; how could they nòt be, what with Yesh standing tall amid the crowd declaring, "Let he who thirsts come to me and drink?" How are they to understand sùch heretical words? Who else would dáre sáy sùch a thing openly & withìn earshot of the scribes & the teachers of the law, many of whom, we are told, would like nothing more than to silence & arrest this irksome preacher?

"This man is the messiah!"

This is no sìmple declaration. It ìs, in fàct, an àct of treason. In first-century Palestine, simply saying the words "Thìs ìs thé messiah," aloud & in pùblic, can be a criminal offense, punishable by crucifixion! True, the Jews of Jesus's time hàd somewhat conflicting views about the role & function of the messiah, fed by a score of messianic traditions & popular folktales that were floating all around the Holy Land! Some believed the messiah would be a restorative figure who would return the Jews to their previous position of power & glory?!

Others viewed the messiah in much more apocalyptic ways & utopian terms, as someone who would annihilate the present world & now start building a new, more just world upon its ruins. There were those who sought the messiah would be a king, & those who thought a messiah would be a priest!? The Essenes apparently awaited (at least) two separate messiahs - one kingly, the other priestly - though most of the Jews liked to think of THE messiah as possessing a ideal combination of bóth traits ...
22 nov 2015 - bewerkt op 24 nov 2015 - meld ongepast verhaal
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