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Jesus'
Ministry
John's mission
During the early manhood of Jesus , a rumour began to spread
that John and drifted away from the Essene society and was living alone in the
wilderness.
"He dressed himself in the simple garment of
camel's hair with a leather girdle round his waist. He ate only locust and wild
homey" (Mathew 3: 4 )
He began to preach to masses directly and did not insist on the long period of
apprenticeship which was necessary for a person who desired full membership in
the Essene brotherhood. He was thus a public movement. He called on everyone of
God would soon he established.
In connection with this, it is of interest to read in the history written by Josephus of another hermit whose disciple this historian was. Josephus had spent three years in the desert as a ascetic. During this time he was under the guidance of a hermit called Bannus who clothed himself with what grew on trees, ate only such food as grew wild and disciplined himself to chastity by constant cold baths. Thus, it is obvious that John s following the tradition common to hermits.
The wilderness had been the place of refuge for David and
other Prophets before him. It was a place where Jews could be free from the
domination of their foreign rulers and the influence of false gods. In the
wilderness , there was no aspiration to the favours of the pagan rulers. In this
atmosphere , there could only be dependance on the Creator and worship of
Him alone. It was the cradle of monotheism . The desert wilderness removed any
false sense of security, and a man learned to rely on Reality alone :
" In the barrenness of the wilderness , all
other support falls and one is laid bare to the One God, the power ,the Constant
Source of all life, and the Root of all security" (The
wilderness Revolt, Bishop Pike, p 101)
Thus , the struggle in the wilderness had two aspects. Primarily,
it took place within the hearts of men who had to do battle with themselves if
they were to live in manner pleasing to their Lord. Secondly,
as we have already seen , the choice of this course of action inevitably resulted
in conflict with those who wished to
live otherwise. The first struggle was a question of faith in Jehovah, and
of spiritual gain , irrespective of whether the second battle was won or
lost.
The clarion call of John began to attract a large crowd,
He had ceased to observe one important stipulation in the Essene code of conduct
:
" to disclose none of the secrets of the sect
to others even though tortured to death" (The Dead Sea Scrolls , Edmund
Wilson)
The failure to follow this rule made it all the easier for the Romans infiltrate
the movement with spies. John, with his prophetic vision, saw through their
guise, and called them "Vipers"
(Mathew 3: 7). Jesus his younger cousin , joined the movement and
was probably one of the first to be baptised. It is likely that Barnabas , who
was his constant companion , was baptised with Jesus , and also his other
companion , Mathias .
John knew the "vipers" were going to succeed before he could start the fight and , therefore, the baptism of Jesus gave him great satisfaction inasmuch as he was sure that his movement would not end with his life. As was foreseen by John, King Herod beheaded him and his mantle fell upon the shoulders of Jesus.
Jesus was now thirty years old. His mission lasted for not more than three years, He realised that his period of preparation was over. The significant part of his life had begun. In order to appreciate the full significance of this time, we ill have to see Jesus against the background of history., and in particular , the history of Jews. This will further clarify the picture which has already begun to emerge, that the existence of the Essene community, the activities of John, and finally , the conflict between Jesus and the Romans , were all a part of one pattern which repeats itself again and again throughout the history of the Jews. In every case , what finally moved the Jews to revolt against their foreign invaders was the attempt of these rulers to make them associate partners with their Lord. Their belief in the Divine Unity , and that there is no object of worship other than Him, was categoric.
As rulers, the Jews displayed an utter lack of statesmanship ,though they flourished in political slavery. At the dawn of history, we find Jews intriguing against their own king because he did everything which "was evil in the sight of the Lord (11 Kings 13: 11) Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took Jerusalem. The temple was left intact ,but the treasure, both from the temple and the royal palace, was left under the new ruler and the Jews lost no time in rebelling against the Babylonian overlord . This prompted another attack in which the temple and the city were destroyed.
The wheel of fortune took another turn, and the Persians, under Cyrus, conquered Babylon. The Jews once again intrigued for the benefit of the invaders. Cyrus immediately realised the danger of having such a large population of aliens in Babylon, and asked them to leave and go back to Jerusalem. They were also permitted to rebuild the temple.
The cavalcade moving towards Jerusalem was composed of 42,360 Jews. In addition , they carried with them, 7,337 servants and women. This included 200 singing men and singing girls. This caravan was carried on 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels ,and 6,720 asses. (Ezra 2: 64 - 69)
This in addition to the animals which carried the treasure they had amassed.
On reaching Jerusalem, they began to plan the reconstruction of the Temple , and for this purpose, they collected 61,000drams of gold and 5,000pounds of silver. This was in addition to the treasure they had brought with them from Babylon which was thirty horses laden with gold , and one thousand carrying silver. In addition , there were 5,400 gold and silver vessels to be placed in the temple. (Ezra 1:9-11)
The captives who returned to Jerusalem had grown both in number and wealth.
As rulers of Jerusalem , the Jews did not enjoy peace for a long time .the conquest of Alexander the Great, before he dies in 325 B.C., had reached India. His generals divided up his empire between them after his death. Ptolemy began to rule Egypt with his capitol in Alexandria. And kingdom of Seleucus was divided into two parts -Antioch became the capitol of the Northern Kingdom and Babylon was the centre of the remainder of Alexander's empire. The ptolemic and Seleucian rulers were locked in constant feud and , in one of their earlier encounters Jerusalem fell into the hands of the Egyptian Greeks. the new rulers were not happy with the large concentration of Jew in Israel ; so a large number were forcibly transported to Egypt. This resulted in what was to become the largest colony out of Israel. Here they came into close contact with Greek civilization and the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Greek. To the Ptolemaic rulers, Israel was a far-off colony and the Jews , after they had paid the annual tribute, were very much left to themselves.
In 198 B.C. , the Seleucian rulers took over Jerusalem from the Ptolemaic rulers. For them, Jerusalem was very much nearer at hand. So they took a much greater interest in the affairs of the people of Jerusalem than did the earlier rulers. The process of Hellenisation , which had occurred gradually and at a natural pace under the Ptolemaic rule, was accelerated by the new rulers in deliberate attempt to assimilate the Jews in into their way of life. This forced cultural conformity reached its extreme expression during the reign of Antiochus Epeplianus. He made the mistake of installing a statue of Zeus in the temple of Solomon . This outraged the Jews and they revolted under Judah Maccabees. The hammer was their emblem of revolt. The Greeks were pushed out of Jerusalem. The Victorious Jews found the temple ruins, the sanctuary desolate . the altar profaned and the temple gate burnt. They rebuilt the temple according to the Torah. The new rulers were so popular that they became both the high priests of the temple and the king of Israel. With the concentration of power in the same hands , the rulers became very strict in the observation of the law, and the people began to pine for the benevolent administration of foreign rulers. Finding dissatisfaction against their rule. the Maccabees became more haughty and arrogant. The Jews once again began to intrigue against their rulers, and this played no small part in ushering in the Roman rule over Jerusalem.
About the time Jesus was born, the Romans repeated the mistake of the earlier rulers. They erected a large golden eagle over the main gate of the temple. This infuriated the Jews and resulted in a series of revolts against the Romans. Two descendants of the Maccabees were the first to unfurl the banner of revolt. Their aim was to destroy the eagle. To the Romans, it was not only an act of sedition , but also an insult to their religion . So, after much bloodshed, the revolt was crushed. The two leaders were caught and burnt alive. Shortly afterwards, the Romans had to face another rebellion. The fight went against the Jews and two thousand rebels were crucified.
Though defeated, tempers were still running very high when in 6 A.D. the Emperor Augustus ordered a census of the Jews in order to facilitate the levying of the taxes . To pay taxes to the deified emperor was against the teaching of the Torah. The Jews recognised only one king : Jehovah. A disturbance followed. The more moderate elements realised that the conflict would result in the complete massacre of the Jews and they counselled compromise and agreed to pay the taxes, to save the people from committing senseless suicide .The leaders who purchased peace this price were not popular, and were regarded as traitors to the Jewish nation.
The practical and social situation at the time of Jesus's birth., together with the events leading up to the death of John have already been mentioned, and we have now reached a point were the entire resistance movement was concentrated around the divinity inspired figure of Jesus.
Before doing anything else, Jesus had to undergo forty days
living and praying in the wilderness. He was now thirty years old. Under Jewish
law, this was the age when a man was freed from the domination of his father .
Unlike John , he did not openly teach, when he preached to the multitudes, that
they should take a stand against the Roman rulers. Discreet preparations needed
to be made The previous attempts had ended in disaster and the recent death of
John was fresh in the mind of Jesus. With foresight the prudence, he began to
prepare and organise the Jews. He baptised no one. This would have unnecessarily
attracted too much attention from the Romans, and would have been a dangerous practise
, as he could not have prevented the "vipers"
from infiltrating the resistance movement. He appointed twelve disciples , a
traditional number of representing the twelve tribes of Israel. They
further enlisted seventy patriots to serve under their command. The Pharisees
had always kept Am Al Arez , the able-bodied
Jews who lived in the villages, at arms length. Jesus took them under his wing.
These peasants, many of whom were of the Essence community, became the
zealous followers of Jesus, and were ready to lay down their lives for his cause.
They were known as Zealots. According to the Bible
at least six of the twelve disciples are known to have been Zealots. Jesus, who
had come to reaffirm and not reject teaching of Moses, issued the Old
Testament appeal:
" Whosoever is zealous for the Law and maintains the
Covenant ,let him come forth after me" (Maccabees 2 :27 - 31)
A large number began to enlist, but they were kept underground, and their
training was carried out in the wilderness. They were also called Bar
Yonim , which means " sons of the
wilderness". From among these, those who had learned to use the
dagger were known as Sicarii (dagger man). A
further hand picked group of men formed a kind of bodyguard, and they were
known as Bar Jesus or sons of Jesus. A
number of persons known as Bar Jesus are mentioned in historical sources,
but a certain of mystery surrounds these men , and not much is known about
them. This is understandable. They belonged to the closest circle of
Jesus's followers, and their identities had to be hidden from the eyes of the
Roman spies.
Jesus gave the command to his followers:"
But now he that hath a purse, let him take it and likewise his scrip; and he
that hath no sword, let him sell his garments and buy one" (Luke 22: 36)
And the number of his followers , inspired also by his miracles, grew .
The net result of all these preparations was that Pilate's successor, Sossianus
Hierocles (quoted by the Church father, Lactanius) , says, off handedly,that
Jesus was the leader of a band of highway robbers numbering nine hundred men. A medieval
Hebrew copy of a lost version of work by Josephus also reports that Jesus had
between 2,000-4,000 armed followers with him .( The Death of Jesus , Joel
Carmichael , p141)
Jesus took great care not to deviate from the teaching
of the Essene, which is known by the fact that "
the rites and precepts of the Gospels and the Epistles are to be found on every
page of the literature of the sect " (The Dead Sea Scrolls, Edmund
Wilson, p 94)
During his mission, however ,Jesus did not disclose the totality of his
teaching to most of his followers. The whole truth was known to very few :
"I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now, Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come m he will guide you into all truth, but he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear , that shall he speak" (John 16 : 12 -14)
He was not seeking worldly power, either as ruler of the country, or within the closed hierarchy of the Scribes and Pharisees. However , his popularity with common people and the large number of his following cause the Romans and those priest who supported them to fear that this was his intention. It was this apparent threat to their position of power which prompted them to try to dispose of him.
Jesus mission was solely to establish worship of the Creator in the manner in which the Creator had ordained. He and his followers were prepared to fight anyone who tried to prevent them from living as their Lord wished them to .
The first fighting took place with the Jews loyal to the Romans. It was led by Bar Jesus Barabbas, and it completely demoralised this group of Jews, as their leader was killed in the encounter. Bar Jesus Barabbas was arrested.
The next objective was the temple itself. The Romans had a strong force near at hand, since it was the time of the annual festival and the feast of the Passover was approaching. The Romans who at that time of year were always ready for minor disturbances, were even more alert than usual. In addition , there were the temple police who guarded the sacred place. The entrance made by the Jesus was so well-planned that the Roman soldiers were taken completely by surprise, and Jesus took over the control of ht temple. This encounter is known as the 'cleansing of the temple' . John's Gospel describes the event in these words :
"In the temple (Jesus) found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money -changers at their business. And making a whip of cord, he drove them all , with the sheep and oxen , out of the temple ,and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and over-turned their tables" (John 2: 14 -15)
Commenting on the words, 'the whip of cord', Carmichael
says that
"They unmistakably imply violence and equally unmistakably represent a sort
of minimal toning-down of what actually must have been a massive undertaking. If
we simply imagine the size of the temple, the tens of thousands of
pilgrims thronging into and through it, the numerous attendants, the police
force, the Romans soldiers, as well as the normal reaction of the ox-drivers
themselves, to say nothing of the money -changers, we see that it must
have taken much more than mere surprise to have accomplished it at all. The
scene behind this fragmentary recollection in the fourth Gospel must have been
vastly different . The chronicler has softened it by 'spiritualising ' it out of
all reality . (The Death of Jesus, Joel Carmichael, p 139 )
One of the lessons of every freedom fighter has been that the local police have their sympathies with the patriots and not with the army of occupation. This could have been a contributing factor in the complete collapse of the defence of the Temple.
The Romans had suffered a local setback, but their power was not crushed. They called for reinforcements, and fresh troops began to move towards Jerusalem. The defence of the gate of Jerusalem lasted for a few days ; but, ultimately , the Roman army proved too strong for the patriots , and all the followers of Jesus melted away. Even the disciples ran away, leaving Jesus with very few men around him. Jesus went underground , and the Romans began to intensive search to find him.
The "arrest", the "trial" ,and the "crucifixion" are hedged around with so many contradictions and mis-statements, that it is extremely difficult to untangle and penetrate through them in order to arrive at what actually happened. We find that the Romans government succeeded in utilising the services of the small minority of Jews who had a vested interest in the continuation of the Roman rule over Jerusalem.
Judas Iscariot, a disciple of Jesus, was won over on the promise of receiving thirty pieces of silver , if , through his help, Jesus was arrested. In order to avoid any further trouble, it was decided to make the attempt at night. On reaching the place where Jesus had gone with a few of his followers, Judas was told to kiss Jesus, so that the foreign Romans soldiers could identify him . The plan miscarried. when the soldiers materialised from darkness , a tumult ensued. The two Jews were mixed up in the dark., and the soldiers mistakenly arrested Judas instead of Jesus. Thus, the latter made good his escape. Qur'an says :
" ...yet they did not slay him. nor crucified him ,only a likeness of that was shown of them " (Holy Qur'an 4: 155)
When the prisoner was brought before Pilate, the Roman Magistrate, the dramatic turn of events satisfied everyone. The majority of the Jews were happy for, due to a miracle, the traitor was standing in the dock instead of Jesus. The pro Roman Jews were happy, for, with the death of Judas, the proof of their guilt would be destroyed. Furthermore, because Jesus would be legally dead, he would not be able to come out into the open to give them trouble.
The part played by Pontius Pilate, the Roman Magistrate, is
hard to determine. His indecisiveness, as described in the Bible, his partiality
towards the Jewish leaders, together with his good will towards Jesus,
make a story hard to believe. This could be the result of an attempt by the
writers of the Gospel to twist the facts in order to throw the responsibility of
the crucifixion. on the whole Jewish nation and so to exonerate the Romans
completely from their part in Jesus's supposed death" (The Jesus Scroll, D
. Joyce , p126)
The only way an official account of Jesus's life could survive would be
by describing it in a manner which was not offensive to the foreign
rulers, and by either omitting , disguising , or even changing those
details which would be displeasing to those in authority.
Another explanation is provided by a strong tradition that Pilate was "got at" with a sizable bribe amounting to the equivalent of £ 30,000. If what is described in the Gospels is true, then it is obvious that Pilate did have a vested interest in the drama enacted that day in Jerusalem.
Finally , there is another significant fact. In the calendars of the Saints of the Coptic Church, both in Egypt and in Ethiopia, Pilate and his wife appear as " saints" . This could be possible only if we accept that Pilate, knowing full well that his soldiers had made a wrong arrest, knowingly condemned Judas in place of Jesus, and allowed the latter to escape.
In the account given by Barnabas, we are told that at the time of the arrest, Judas was transformed by the Creator so that even his mother and his closest followers believed him to be Jesus. It was not until Jesus appeared to them, after his supposed death, that they were informed of what had really happened. This would explain why there is such confusion surrounding the events which took place at this time, and why some accounts, written by people who were not present at those events, support the mistaken belief that it was Jesus who was crucified.
Not everyone is in complete agreement as to whether it was
Jesus's would- be betrayer who was the one crucified.
The Cerinthians and
later the Basilidians, who were among the first Christians,
denied that Jesus was crucified , but believed that it was Simon of
Cyrene who was crucufied instead.
Cerinthus, a contemporary
of Peter , Paul and John, also denied the resurrection of Jesus.
The Carpocratians, another early Christian
sect, believed that it was not Jesus who was crucified, but
one of his followers who very closely resembled him.
Plotinus, who lived in the fourth century, tells us
that he had read a book called The journies
of the Apostles which related the acts of Peter, John, Andrew ,
Thomas and Paul . Among other things, it stated that Jesus was not crucified,
but another in his place, and therefore, he laughed at those who believed that
they had crucified him. (The Nazarenes , John Toland ,p 18 )
Thus, although it is known that Jesus was not crucified, sources either differ
or are not specific as to who was crucified in his place. Some find
it hard to believe anything :
When one reflects that the catalogue of outrage ascribed to the Roman soldiery, repeat almost verbatim certain passages of the Old Testament ..... one begins to suspect that the entire episode is a sheer invention .(The Life of Jesus , Carveri)
There is no other known historical record of what happened of Jesus after the 'crucifixion' other than in the Gospel of Barnabas and the Qur'an. These both describe the event which is generally known as the 'ascension' in the four accepted Gospels, in which Jesus was taken away from this world.
(ICRA)