Bible Topics

The more I think about John Baptist and his cousin, Jesus, the more intrigued I am. JB had gone off to the east side of the Jordan to live and think. People started to come to him so he did an "Amos" job on them. He stressed how miserably they were living their ideals as the people of Yahweh. When they saw he tackled everyone, even Herod and Herodias, they thought he might be this warlike Messiah they had come to expect.

Then the cousin, Jesus, shows up. He is just as convinced of his ideas but he is more the Isaiah type. He is forceful and can become vehement as he did in the Temple on one occasion. But in general, his ideas and message are more the harmony that has to be developed by true community or sharing.

These two cousins brought one age of the world to an end and introduced the new one. Jesus says this is the final stage because we have to establish the "telos," the fulfillment of all things into perfect harmony.

I have thought often these last few days about the Baptism of Jesus as recounted in John. Jesus came up from the water and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove rested above him and a voice said, "This is my beloved son in whom I am completely pleased."

What John is uniting by the dove is the Flood Story and the Jesus story. The flood story says that the whole world was flooded because of sin and corruption. The dove is the symbol of a second and final new beginning in a man filled with the Breath of Yahweh. He is the new Adam establishing harmony, community and sharing. If we can realize this harmony and sharing we can change the world.

I want to write a comparison of the picture of Christ as presented by the four different communities. I will avoid the destructive practice of harmonizing the Gospels. This destroys the originals and gives us some unreal pictures.

Mark is presenting the Christ that Peter preached in Rome. Luke is presenting the picture as he deduced it from the work of Paul and Barnabas. Matthew is giving the Christ that he personally knew. John is telling us what Christ meant to him from the time he was a 13 or 14 year old boy to the end of a long life in the midst of the Roman persecutions. John, the Boanerges, the Son of Thunder, is still my favorite picture.

The world into which Christ was born and lived was domineered by the Roman war machine and the Greek philosophy as adapted and curtailed by the tyranny of Caesars and their world full of slaves.

This Rome left us the huge stone monuments of the Coliseum, the Pantheon, the Circus Maximus, the Palace of the Caesars and the Roman road system. Palestine was a key area of this road system for a land route to Egypt and the Middle East. Pilate and the other civil rulers were puppets of Rome. The Jews were constantly talking of the Messiah who was due any day and would re-establish the temporal supremacy of the Chosen People.

In this setting JB and Christ taught the true notion of King and Kingship. They and the message were totally rejected.

The more I read of Paul, the more I see how theology was deprived of Christian ideals when Paul was the primary source used.

For the most part, Paul's letters are an answer he gave to some problem in a specific community where he worked. Luke edited all the letters but had a hard time dressing them up. The good part about Paul is that Luke wrote his Gospel and Acts to give a positive and full picture.

As a medical doctor, Luke was interested in "soteria" and "Soter" — Greek for "health" and "health-giver." Luke saw the message of Christ as the source of health in every sense of the word. His primary point is that this "health" is offered to everyone, everywhere, for all times. The "poor" are in no way excluded as they were in the Greek and Roman world because they were looked upon as a sub-human group. The dignity and importance of women were to be upheld.

As I work on "Jesus Christ in the 21st Century" I keep recalling the circumstances of the 1st century. Rome itself was a city of magnificent buildings and architecture. I recall walking through the entire palace of the Caesars and looking out over the Circus Maximus on one end and the Coliseum on the other. The Roman elite did not need TV, radio or fast foods. They needed no air conditioning. They had all their entertainment live. They had banquets that went on for weeks. They had slaves with fans to keep the air moving.

The Jews of that time were thinking constantly of a Messiah who would conquer Rome and give all this luxury to them. Over 100 Messiahs arose in the time of Christ. As Gamaliel said, "Each was quickly exposed as a fake." Then Christ comes with a whole new way to change the world by "sharing out of sincere love." The Romans laughed and the leaders of the Jews hated and wanted to kill.

I woke up during the night and immediately started to think about "Jesus Christ in the 21st Century." The idea is intriguing and has unlimited possibilities. The "open secret" of his plan is true concern for all the people with whom you live and interact.

The Gospels present four aspects of this "sharing." Mark takes Peter's idea of "apologia." You must always understand the reason for your actions. Luke says it as "soteria" or health of others in the full sense of the word. Matthew says it is "Basileia" or the happiness established by everyone being a "king." John says it is all "aesthesia" or sonship. The brotherhood of mankind is to manifest the fatherhood of God. These are the key notions that were understood and lived for a while. Then the structure blotted them out by ritualism.

I have done more thinking about Christ and his message the past few days than I have ever done before. He was really a terrific man. He saw clearly what was the cause or basis for all the vicious rivalry and antagonism in the story of mankind. He was so convinced of his ideas that he taught them publicly for at least a year. By that time he had the whole of authority roused against him. Jesus was willing to die to prove his sincerity. He worked some miracles in his time but he said the real miracle would be the harmony in the lives of the people who followed his ideas.

I have the key ideas from the Gospels about Christ and his mission and ideals summed up from Mark, Matthew and Luke. I'll do John today. Then I can finish "Jesus Christ in 21st Century."

The key to the whole picture is the word "Qehalah" in Aramaic or "Ekklesia" in Greek. Both of these words are translated into Latin and English as "church" and referred to the structured society or building, set apart from the people and other buildings. The intent of Christ and the understanding of the first Christians was a group of people who lived their ideas and ideals in daily life and infiltrated society like leaven in dough. Their influence would gradually redeem or rebuild the society of their times according to the ideals of Christ.

Women were not put down or ignored in the society of the OT. Eve is clearly a companion of Adam, equal in every way. He is Adam of "clay," she is called Eve of "life." The punishment for their failure is not "work and childbirth." These were the "blessings." Adam and Eve were to work together in the care of the garden and their great blessing was to bear children together.

After they failed, the blessings remained but difficulty was attached to childbirth. The wives of the patriarchs were extremely powerful — Sarah, Rebecca and Rachel.

The loss of respect and second place for women starts with David and Solomon. But when the people were at the bottom of the barrel, some women saved the day. Thus we have Ruth, Deborah, Judith, and Esther. When Mary is presented in the Gospels, she is the one on whom the whole work of Salvation depends in her "consent." She is the Queen-Mother in Matthew. She is the "woman," the new Eve, at the side of the new Adam in John. Mary is given a position of leadership in a special deposition from the cross in John.

Through the centuries women have been outstanding in all their work in teaching and care of the sick.

To get a good summary view of the message of Christ and his ideas and ideals, I use Paul to show how he carried the ideas to the pagan world. He is the clearest evidence that the "Eucharist" was the pot-luck supper they had when they assembled. His problem was that some of the people tended to get drunk.

Then we have the qualities of human love in I Corinthians. This is early editing added by St. Luke.

The world into which the first Christians walked with the message of Christ was just as selfish, sinful and inhuman as ours is today. The major difference today is the speed with which we can communicate with any part of the world.

I realize how little real credit we have given Joseph, Jesus's dad. We are told he was a "technician" — that is a man skilled in his trade. He probably worked in wood and would have taught Jesus as he worked and Jesus played in his shop.

I like the 4 key words I have for the 4 Gospels. Mark takes on Peter's term "apologia." This means a clear understanding and conviction that lead to action in every aspect of life.

Luke develops everything as "soteria" which means "health" in every sense of the word: physical, spiritual, mental, individual and community. His editing of the qualities of love in 1 Corinthians 13 is a development of this basic idea.

Matthew is concerned only with "Basileia" which means "kinging" as in the game of checkers. The term stresses the power for good in all people who develop "community" or "sharing" in the full sense of the word.

John stresses "huisthesia," the power to become a true "child of the father" if you have a sincere love that is expressed in "service" of all people in your life.

With a message so basic, all evil would be overcome. However, it is constant work.