Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00167)

--- In theos-talk@y..., "Steve Stubbs" <stevestubbs@y...> wrote:
> 
> It is rather likely that the historical character thought he would 
in 
> fact become king of the Jews and that he expected a miracle to 
bring 
> this about so he would not have to violate his pacifist principles. 

I don't know that any statement about Jesus is more likely than any 
other, outside the small body of generally agreed upon propositions: 
he had some kind of relationship to John the Baptizer but also some 
difference from his teachings, and such. But in her latest book 
scholar Paula Fredericksen makes a closely argued case that what 
happened at the Temple that day was neither a deliberate provocation 
by a political dissident, nor an unprovoked persecution of an 
entirely nonpolitical teacher. Rather, she says, Jesus was not 
political in the sense of claiming any earthly sovereignty, but once 
the public started to acclaim him that day the political element in 
their Messianic expectations led to him being called King of the Jews-
- and that immediately targeted him as a troublemaker to be gotten 
rid of. That is, he was the inadvertent catalyst for a political 
demonstration and that got him executed.

One more theory for the pile,

Paul