The Branch

In the first century there was a movement in Galilee and Judea led by Judas of Galilee in 6 AD. After Judas was killed by the Romans, his followers were driven underground and became know as the Zealots.

In modern times and the search for the historical Jesus the evidence is pointing more and more to the Jesus movement being a branch of the Zealots who sought the independence of Israel from Rome through less violent means, i.e., God would restore the kingdom to Israel by destroying the Romans himself.

In other words, the Romans didn't hunt down and crucify Christians because of their religious beliefs but because they were Zealots.

Being the curious sort, I typed "Jesus was a Zealot" in my Google search and found some very interesting articles and books on the subject. Here is one at the top of my list.

Maybe that article will spur someone else to look further into it and maybe, just maybe check out what the Emperor Julian (Julian the Apostate) had to say about the church created by Constantine and Eusebius.

4 comments:

  1. Interesting piece, but it was more likely Jesus was a pharisee considered a "rabbi" than a zealot. The article highlights the true nature of Pilate, and one that the new testament writers sought to change. The Jesus movement was a sect within Judaism. There may well have been followers of Jesus that had zealot tendancies. That is possible, but had Jesus been a zealot, He would have fought the Romans, than than die on the cross.

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  2. ....says the Messianic Jew.

    Jesus is whoever and whatever the True Believer wants him/it to be, and this is how it has been, since approximately the 2nd century.

    Men create gods.

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  3. Jesus, if he actually existed as a man, probably was a pharisee rabbi. Most Zealots were pharisees because none of the Sadducees or the Herodians (Roman sympathizers) were Zealots.

    Judas of Galilee and a pharisee rabbi named Zadok were the founders of the Zealots.

    The multitudes were going to make Jesus the king at his entry into Jerusalem riding on a ass's colt but he retreated. It wasn't because he didn't expect to be crowned a King but because of the timing. He was waiting for God to fulfill Zechariah when God would make him the king.

    He didn't realize his mistake until it was too late.

    He didn't realize OT prophecy wasn't being fulfilled in him but that he was purposely fulfilling what he thought were prophecies concerning himself by himself.

    Christendom is the result of misinterpretation of OT writings by the Zealots - who just happened to believe about the same new interpretation of OT writings as the followers of Jesus did.

    Jesus, or whoever he was, just had a slight twist in the Zealot doctrine. The Zealots meant to take the kingdom by force, Jesus meant to take the kingdom after God destroyed the Romans.

    The "apostles" still expected the same thing and the two witnesses in Revelation are the same two as in Zech. 4.

    The prophecy failed and is now impossible for it to ever be fulfilled because the things that the prophecy spoke of no longer exist.

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  4. PH, I think that Jesus was an invention of the 2nd century. In the gospel of Peter, "the lord" was left nameless. Of course the gospel of Peter didn't make it into the canon and it was never meant for anyone to ever see it. A monk had it buried with himself or else we would never have seen it.

    The interesting thing about the gospel of Peter is that the authorities are seeking Peter and the others as "malefactors" (another word for the Zealots) and planning to burn the temple. The lord in the story was crucified between two malefactors.

    More and more it is looking as if the Jesus cult was nothing more than a branch of the Zealots founded by Judas of Galilee in AD6.

    That was probably the reason why the Roman authorities were hunting them down.

    It's all been glossed over though and Jesus has been made to look non-violent. Some things still remain in the stories though, like
    Luk 19:27 - But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.

    Also Jesus' refusal to pay the tribute in Matt. 27:24-26 because the tribute makes the children (of Israel) into slaves to the Romans, which is Judas of Galilee's Zealot doctrine.

    Christians have always been a violent bunch, setting fire to Rome and burning down the library at Alexandria etc. I have no doubt that the gospel of Peter was telling the truth about them planning to burn the temple. And, maybe they did do it, because Titus didn't want the temple destroyed and had given orders to not destroy the temple.

    Who knows? Josephus didn't know who was responsible and he's the only witness to it that we have.

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