Jesus Before Christianity (Part 2 - Significance of Jesus' Identification with John the Baptist)

In the first chapter of Jesus Before Christianity, Nolan paints a word picture of the world we live in today and of the world that Jesus was born into; he proposes that the times we live in now bear similarities to the days of Jesus, although what we face is on a much larger scale. Both then and now there is an awareness and sense that the world is on the brink of disaster, headed toward a hell on earth.

The following is a summary statement by Nolan about the world we live in:"...What we are up against is not people but the impersonal forces of a system which has its own momentum and its own dynamics...We have built up an all-inclusive political and economic system based upon certain assumptions and values and now we are beginning to realize that this system is not only counter-productive - it has brought us to the brink of disaster - but it has also become our master. Nobody seems to be able to change it or control it. The most frightening discovery of all is that there is nobody at the helm and that the impersonal machine that we have so carefully designed will drag us along inexorably to our destruction." The author's concern is that we look at how Jesus was in His difficult world in order to understand how we must be with Him in our world.

In chapter two the author shows why it was significant that Jesus identified with John the Baptist rather than with any of the Jewish religious groups that existed in His day: the Zealots (open rebels against Rome), Pharisees (moralistic group whose interest was in reforming Israel), Sadducees (chief priests/ruling upper class who collaborated with the Romans endeavoring to maintain the status quo), the Essenes (who believed they were the only faithful remnant of Israel and separated themselves from society in response to the belief that the end of the world was near), scribes and scholars (most of whom were Pharisees but not priests), and apocalyptic writers (anonymous seers/visionaries who believed that the secrets of God's plans for humanity and the end of the world had been revealed to them).

Nolan says the following about John the Baptist and Jesus:
"In the midst of all these religio-political movements and speculations there was one man who stood out as a sign of contradiction. John the Baptist was different precisely because he was a prophet...a prophet of doom and destruction...There had been no prophet in Israel for a very long  time. The spirit of prophecy had been quenched. God was silent...This silence was broken by the voice of John the Baptist in the wilderness...God's fiery judgment upon Israel would be executed, according to John, by a human being. John spoke of him as 'the one who is to come'...

"John the Baptist was the only person in that society who impressed Jesus...the very fact of his baptism by John is conclusive proof of his acceptance of John's basic prophecy: Israel was heading for an unprecedented catastrophe. And in choosing to believe this prophecy, Jesus immediately shows himself to be in basic disagreement with all those who reject John and his baptism: the Zealots, Pharisees, Essenes, Sadducees, scribes and apocalyptic writers. None of these groups would have been willing to believe a prophet who...prophesied against all Israel...Jesus (himself) repeated this prophecy again and again throughout his life...

"There can be no doubt that Jesus did prophesy the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans...The very thought of it made Jesus weep (Lk. 19:41)...But what was he to do about it?"

The following chapters deal with what Jesus did about it in practice.

Jesus Before Christianity (Part 1 - Jesus Belongs to All Humanity)

As stated in my previous post (If You Read Only One Book About Jesus This Year...), I will be doing a series of posts with quotes from the book, Jesus Before Christianity, by Albert Nolan. I will of necessity be able to only give "teasers"; some of the quotes will be controversial to some readers and won't be fully understandable without reading the full text, but perhaps it may whet the appetite for more.

Nolan says the following in speaking about this book in particular:

"...Nothing about Jesus will be presupposed or assumed. The reader is invited to take a serious and honest look at a man who lived in first-century Palestine and to try to see him through the eyes of his contemporaries. My interest is in the man as he was before he became the object of Christian faith...

"...the book was (not) written for the apologetic purpose of defending the Christian faith. No attempt has been made to save Jesus or the Christian faith. Jesus does not need me or anyone else to save him...If our search for the truth leads us to faith in Jesus, then it will not be because we have tried to save this faith at all costs, but because we have discovered it as the only way in which we can be 'saved' or liberated..."

The following is a quote from the opening chapter:

"Jesus cannot be fully identified with that great religious phenomenon of the Western world known as Christianity. He was much more than the founder of one of the world's great religions. He stands above Christianity as the judge of all it has done in his name. Nor can historical Christianity claim him as its exclusive possession. Jesus belongs to all humanity."

If You Read Only One Book about Jesus This Year...

The greatest joy of my retirement years has been pursuing knowing God in Jesus. While this has been a primary pursuit for most of my life, in the five years since I retired, I've had the opportunity to step away from the confines of "Christendom" and discover a wide and boundless ocean of love and goodness in God as manifested in Christ Jesus beyond that which I had ever known before.

I continue to be awestruck by this Person, Jesus of Nazareth, in ever-increasing measure! It's like opening a door into the wonder of such a person only to find another door to walk through into more of His beauty, and that door opening into another door...and on and on.

A couple of years ago I read Jesus Before Christianity by Albert Nolan and was really blessed at the time. Recently over the holidays, I picked it up again and my heart has almost exploded with wonder over Jesus once again as I've had another veil removed from my eyes related to Him by reading bits and pieces of this book.

One of the recommendations on the back of the book says, "If you are going to read only one book on Jesus this year, this is the one."

In the next little while, I'll share bits and pieces from the book but I highly recommend you read it all...