Jesus of Nazareth lived in a time of political turmoil. Between the
lines of the Gospels, which are our main source of information about
him, this comes through loud and clear. But it is never brought to the
surface. The last thing that the writers of the Gospels wanted was to
drag in politics. They wanted to extract Jesus from his real historical
situation and put across a universal message, which could apply to
anybody. Above all, they did not want to tie Jesus in with the fate of
the Jewish people who, at the time of writing, had just been crushed by
the Roman legions after a bitter resistance war.
However, the actual situation in which Jesus lived is plain enough. In
63 BC Palestine was conquered by a Roman army, led by Pompey, and made
part of the Roman province of Syria. Pompey, accompanied by his military
staff, strode into the Holy of Holies of the Jerusalem Temple, which had
been defended by its priests after the reigning king had opened the
gates of the city to the invaders. From that moment on, until the final
showdown 133 years later in 70 AD, the history of Palestine is mainly a
history of Jewish resistance to Roman rule. It was a hopeless resistance
which took place during a time which fundamentally was one of Roman
expansion. Jesus of Nazareth lived right in the middle of this period
and, despite his well-known attachment to the other-worldly, he could
hardly have been blind to what was going on.
https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/was-christ-a-collaborator?pc=1309
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