"Unaware?" Louis, I think Jesus's ministry was wholly in resistance to the occupation of his homeland by the Romans, and their transformation of his religion, as witness his trial and execution for rebellion. Jesus grew up very close to Roman construction areas, and his father was, as a carpenter, likely put to work on the construction. The great bulk of the Jews, as peasants, hated the Roman occupation largely because they rejected the claim by the Romans that its Emperors were gods to be worshipped. They also hated the theft (under the guise of nonrepayment of horrendous debts secured by those lands) of peasant land by high-ranking Jewish collaborators and elites. Jesus was all about restoring their ancient land to the families which had owned it for generations, and Jesus's ministry was a thoroughgoing protest (or as the Romans saw it, rebellion) against these high-handed Roman (and Jewish-elite-collaborationist) activities. Jesus's supposed "well-known attachment to the other-worldly" is an invention, probably by his followers anxious to keep his story as alive as they could given that he was a prominent rebel and anti-collaborationist. Jesus, like all observant Jews, believed in and strongly relied upon JHVH, but he was by no means "other-worldly" and was the opposite of "unaware." Our division of religion off from politics would not have been recognized by Jesus or his followers or his Roman persecutors, but is a modern trope.
> On December 25, 2020 at 8:53 AM Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: > > 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 > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#4859): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/4859 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/79219649/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
