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.