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lavendersparkleI'm being a bit inspired by the blog On Being Both as I've just started reading through it over the last few days. I have quite different approaches to the author to Judaism and interfaith marriage. I hope she doesn't take these posts as attacks, it's more that her posts have inspired me to articulate some of my views on the things she writes about.
As I mentioned in my previous posts, I dislike the way that interfaith dialogue often relies upon manufacturing superficial levels of agreement and papering over differences. One of the ways that this happens in relation to Jesus. The general party line is to describe him as a wise teacher and good man, if you're a non-Christian (Muslims have this easy because he's a prophet to them).
I thought about this when I read the post:
But go and ask ten of your Christian-born friends if they believe that Jesus is their personal savior. If you’re reading this blog, I’m going to make an educated guess that most of you born or raised Christian think of Jesus as a role model, an important historical figure, a revolutionary rabbi, an inexplicable mystery, or even an inspiring myth. Or as the son of God, in the sense that we are all sons and daughters of God. All of which works for me just fine.
Actually the first thing which struck me in the post was the idea of Christians not really believing that Jesus is their personal saviour. Alec dislikes the term 'personal saviour' because it's the kind of term used by people who seem to think that Jesus is their boyfriend. However, Alec, and almost everyone I know who describes themselves as Christian, would say that they thought Jesus was the Messiah and G@d incarnate. I didn't think that that was such an unusual view for Christians married to non-Jews to have.
So what do I think about Jesus? I don't really know what to think. I think it's a good bet that he existed. It would be odd for such a large sect to grow so quickly based upon the teaching of someone who was entirely fictional. I don't think that he was G@d or the Messiah. As a child I read the prophesies of Isaiah and came to the conclusion that the Messiah promised in them had not yet come. The problem with coming to any further conclusions is that all that we have to go on are the writings of the builders of a religious sect, written decades after he died. Trying to work out what Jesus was like based upon the Gospels is like trying to work out what Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson was like based upon the writings of Messianic Lubervitchers. It's not going to be a balanced historical picture. So maybe he was a good teacher or a wise rabbi who was just a bit misunderstood by some of his followers. On the other hand, he could equally have been a charlatan or a lunatic. There's no way of knowing. There's no way of knowing how much the Gospels even bear any resemblance to what he actually said or did.*
The thing which really annoys me is the reason for the adoption of the 'Jesus was a wise teacher' approach, which is basically to avoid pogroms. I object to having to adopt positions to placate the religious privilege of others and to avoid the threat of physical violence. That's not a paranoid view, it's the reality of over a thousand years of Jewish-Christian relations. For centuries Jews kept their less complimentary views on Jesus hidden from Christians in Hebrew religious texts. When European Christians became aware of these texts it led to book burnings, blood libels, host desecration allegations and massacres. No wonder today most Jews aren't even aware of the Talmudic passages which describe Jesus in Hell in a pit of boiling excrement and it's only mentioned in antisemitic websites and academic papers.
I am a stubborn, stiff necked person. I can't bear to be blackmailed or threatened. I can't bring myself to tell you sweet nothings about your Messiah, whilst I feel that there's a gun to my head. Talk of Jesus the role model makes me think of accounts of his actions in the Gospels which I find morally objectionable. Talk of Jesus the important historical figure makes me think of the thousands of my co-religionists killed in his name. Talk of Jesus the revolutionary rabbi makes me think of the German feminist Christian theologian who equated Judaism with patriarchy and Fascism. Talk of Jesus the inspiring myth makes me think of how often I bang against people who don't even realise the extent to which their views are dependent upon a Christian world view.
I'm not as angry and bitter all that sounds. I have lots of Christian friends and relatives and, of course, a Christian husband, and we can all get along and love each other whilst acknowledging that we believe different things. I love my husband, who has dedicated his life to Jesus, so much. Even more amazingly he loves me, even though I don't accept his Messiah and even though it means that he can't avoid confronting the ways in which his religion has created the antisemitism which now endangers his wife and future children. I think that it's more worthwhile to stare into these ravines together, rather than try to paper over the cracks.
*For example, I'm rather suspicious about whether Jesus was born in Bethlehem. There doesn't seem to be any other historical documents backing up the census and mass movement of people which is supposed to have resulted. On the other hand there are prophesies that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem, which are a bit awkward if your Messiah is Jesus of Nazareth. It all seems a bit too much like a convenient plot devise to get Jesus born in the right place.
As I mentioned in my previous posts, I dislike the way that interfaith dialogue often relies upon manufacturing superficial levels of agreement and papering over differences. One of the ways that this happens in relation to Jesus. The general party line is to describe him as a wise teacher and good man, if you're a non-Christian (Muslims have this easy because he's a prophet to them).
I thought about this when I read the post:
But go and ask ten of your Christian-born friends if they believe that Jesus is their personal savior. If you’re reading this blog, I’m going to make an educated guess that most of you born or raised Christian think of Jesus as a role model, an important historical figure, a revolutionary rabbi, an inexplicable mystery, or even an inspiring myth. Or as the son of God, in the sense that we are all sons and daughters of God. All of which works for me just fine.
Actually the first thing which struck me in the post was the idea of Christians not really believing that Jesus is their personal saviour. Alec dislikes the term 'personal saviour' because it's the kind of term used by people who seem to think that Jesus is their boyfriend. However, Alec, and almost everyone I know who describes themselves as Christian, would say that they thought Jesus was the Messiah and G@d incarnate. I didn't think that that was such an unusual view for Christians married to non-Jews to have.
So what do I think about Jesus? I don't really know what to think. I think it's a good bet that he existed. It would be odd for such a large sect to grow so quickly based upon the teaching of someone who was entirely fictional. I don't think that he was G@d or the Messiah. As a child I read the prophesies of Isaiah and came to the conclusion that the Messiah promised in them had not yet come. The problem with coming to any further conclusions is that all that we have to go on are the writings of the builders of a religious sect, written decades after he died. Trying to work out what Jesus was like based upon the Gospels is like trying to work out what Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson was like based upon the writings of Messianic Lubervitchers. It's not going to be a balanced historical picture. So maybe he was a good teacher or a wise rabbi who was just a bit misunderstood by some of his followers. On the other hand, he could equally have been a charlatan or a lunatic. There's no way of knowing. There's no way of knowing how much the Gospels even bear any resemblance to what he actually said or did.*
The thing which really annoys me is the reason for the adoption of the 'Jesus was a wise teacher' approach, which is basically to avoid pogroms. I object to having to adopt positions to placate the religious privilege of others and to avoid the threat of physical violence. That's not a paranoid view, it's the reality of over a thousand years of Jewish-Christian relations. For centuries Jews kept their less complimentary views on Jesus hidden from Christians in Hebrew religious texts. When European Christians became aware of these texts it led to book burnings, blood libels, host desecration allegations and massacres. No wonder today most Jews aren't even aware of the Talmudic passages which describe Jesus in Hell in a pit of boiling excrement and it's only mentioned in antisemitic websites and academic papers.
I am a stubborn, stiff necked person. I can't bear to be blackmailed or threatened. I can't bring myself to tell you sweet nothings about your Messiah, whilst I feel that there's a gun to my head. Talk of Jesus the role model makes me think of accounts of his actions in the Gospels which I find morally objectionable. Talk of Jesus the important historical figure makes me think of the thousands of my co-religionists killed in his name. Talk of Jesus the revolutionary rabbi makes me think of the German feminist Christian theologian who equated Judaism with patriarchy and Fascism. Talk of Jesus the inspiring myth makes me think of how often I bang against people who don't even realise the extent to which their views are dependent upon a Christian world view.
I'm not as angry and bitter all that sounds. I have lots of Christian friends and relatives and, of course, a Christian husband, and we can all get along and love each other whilst acknowledging that we believe different things. I love my husband, who has dedicated his life to Jesus, so much. Even more amazingly he loves me, even though I don't accept his Messiah and even though it means that he can't avoid confronting the ways in which his religion has created the antisemitism which now endangers his wife and future children. I think that it's more worthwhile to stare into these ravines together, rather than try to paper over the cracks.
*For example, I'm rather suspicious about whether Jesus was born in Bethlehem. There doesn't seem to be any other historical documents backing up the census and mass movement of people which is supposed to have resulted. On the other hand there are prophesies that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem, which are a bit awkward if your Messiah is Jesus of Nazareth. It all seems a bit too much like a convenient plot devise to get Jesus born in the right place.