Was Jesus a revolutionary

Answer 1

Put yourself in the place of Herod: you are an Edomite (one of the traditional enemies of Israel who also hate you as a person), who for years has plotted, lied, schemed, intrigued, murdered, and done anything to be made king over Israel . Then along come these men from Persia who say they are looking for the person who was born to be king, and that is corroborated by the religious leaders:-

Mat 2:1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,

Mat 2:2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

Mat 2:3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

Mat 2:4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.

Mat 2:5 And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet,

Mat 2:6 And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.

Mat 2:13 ... the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, ... for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.

Mat 2:14 When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt:...

Mat 2:16 Then Herod ... was exceeding wroth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under...

Mat 2:19 But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt,

Mat 2:20 Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's life.

Mat 2:21 And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.

Mat 2:22 But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee:

Jesus was a cousin of the fiery anti-establishment prophet John the Baptist (Matt 3

Jesus healed anybody who came to Him, and huge crowds followed Him:-

Mat 4:23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

Mat 4:24 And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people ... and he healed them.

Mat 4:25 And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.

Jesus taught with authority, which the scribes didn't:-

Mat 7:28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:

Mat 7:29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

He proved He could do things they couldn't do, and proved He was God:-

Mat 9:2 And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.

Mat 9:3 And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth.

Mat 9:4 And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?

Mat 9:5 For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?

Mat 9:6 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.

Mat 9:7 And he arose, and departed to his house.

Mat 9:8 But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.

(This implies that the Scribes and Pharisees did notmarvel and glorify God!)

They couldn't catch Him out in any argument, His teaching against them was clear, and it offended them:-

Mat 15:1 Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Mat 15:7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,

Mat 15:12 Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?

His teaching was revolutionary - it upset the establishment and He made them look fools in public, He went to people they were afraid to touch (eg lepers), and actually spoke to and healed Gentiles, of all people.

The scribes and Pharisees hated his parables, which always seemed to put them in the wrong:-

Mat 21:45 And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them.

Mat 21:46 But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.

After losing all arguments/debates with Him, they were frightened to ask any more questions:-

Mat 22:15 Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk.

Mat 22:23 The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,

Mat 22:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

Mat 22:34 But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.

Mat 22:35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,

Mat 22:41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,

Mat 22:46 And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.

He called the religious leaders (the Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadduccees), hypocrites. The hated and detested Roman conquerers permitted these men to keep their power and authority so long as they kept their people in line. ( A modern parallel would be with the occupying German conquerers of France using French collaborators to rule their own people, who hated them [and killed many when their German protectors left.] ) Along comes this young Rabbi who tells the crowd that they are hypocrites, blind, serpents, and vipers: not exactly tactful - they would have hated Him for it - but the crowd would have lapped it up:-

Mat 23:1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,

Mat 23:2 Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:

Mat 23:3 ... but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

Mat 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ....

Mat 23:14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ....

Mat 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ....

Mat 23:16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, ...

Mat 23:17 Ye fools and blind:...

Mat 23:19 Ye fools and blind: ...

Mat 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ...

Mat 23:24 Ye blind guides, ...

Mat 23:25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ...

Mat 23:26 Thou blind Pharisee, ...

Mat 23:27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ...

Mat 23:29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ...

Mat 23:33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, ...

The rulers plotted to kill Jesus, and you don't do this unless you are a threat to the establishment that cannot be dealt with any other way:-

Mat 26:3 Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas,

Mat 26:4 And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him.

Mat 27:1 When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death:

Mat 27:17 Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ? Mat 27:18 For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.

The establishment tried to prevent His followers of this sect with revolutionary beliefs spreading their message and getting more adherents:-

Act 4:1 And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them,

Act 4:2 Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

Jesus proved His revolutionary doctrines and beliefs through His own resurrection from the dead . A revolution is basically where old ideas are replaced by new. In the same way, the establishment refuses to believe that they are often the cause of revolutions in the first place, and deals with revolutionaries by killing them and their followers.

In summary, Jesus had greatly upset the ruling caste, cost them a lot of money and custom, made people think, upset the status-quo, pleased the masses, stressed their hypocrisy, beat their arguments, and most of all He was always right, so He had to go. Active planning on how to set Him up and kill Him had already started a year before His arrest.

-Jesus was betrayed by one of his friends,

-arrested at night,

-tried behind closed doors at night in a kangaroo court,

-framed

-false witnesses couldn't even agree on their version of events

-original charges dropped and new ones made on the spot (ie if we can't get you on one thing , then we'll get you on another)

-Chief priests and scribes declared there was no need of proof or witnesses because He was guilty anyway.

-Rent-a-mob of people stirred-up by chief priests and scribes and shouting they wanted Him dead.

-Pilate (Governor who had to permit death sentences and have his troops carry them out ) said Jesus was not guilty of anything,

-Chief priests and scribes said they would report Pilate to his superiors and get him sacked if he didn't declare Jesus guilty [and they would have too - it was not an idle threat]

-Jesus declared guilty

-He had already been beaten repeatedly through the whole process; He was now flayed alive and beaten to a pulp, and executed in the most excruciating and degrading manner possible.

Go to

http://forums.christiansunite.com/index.php?topic=11108.msg226385 and see the article "What did Jesus suffer for our sins?"

Caesar's representative Pontius Pilate himself found Jesus was not a threat to Caesar ie that He was not a revolutionary aiming to overthrow Roman rule:-

Luk 23:1 And the whole multitude of them arose, and led him unto Pilate.

Luk 23:2 And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a King.

Luk 23:3 And Pilate asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he answered him and said, Thou sayest it.

Luk 23:4 Then said Pilate to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man.

Jesus was a revolutionary in the sense that He introduced new ideas, new thoughts and ways of doing things, and upset the establishment. In that sense He was most definitely a revolutionary, and had to die. Ghandi was a non-violent revolutionary, and he was assassinated. Martin Luther King was another non-violent revolutionary, and he too was assassinated. Ask yourself how many advocates of non-violent revolution have been 'neutralized' , and then ask yourself if Jesus was a revolutionary.

Answer 2

A:Biblical scholars say that little of what the gospels say that Jesus taught seems to have been revolutionary for the time. In fact, many of his most famous commands, such as "Love thy neighbour", come from the Hebrew scriptures.Many of his teachings seem to have been consistent with those of the Pharisees.

In the Gospel of Mark, the first to be written and perhaps therefore the most accurate, Jesus never calls himself the son of God or even the Messiah, and is even at pains to tell people and demons not to say this to others.