Rabbi Jesus: The Jewish Life and Teachings That Inspired Christianity by Bruce Chilton

Author:Bruce Chilton [Chilton, Bruce]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780385505444
Google: 8NKreclXD6QC
Amazon: B000FC1K4I
Barnesnoble: B000FC1K4I
Goodreads: 10867666
Publisher: Random House Inc.
Published: 2002-05-14T05:00:00+00:00

Jesus’ sojourn in Bethsaida came to end after one of his most famous (and misunderstood) healings. Jesus is called upon to cure a centurion’s servant, who is gravely ill, “ready to die” according to Luke (Luke 7:1–10 and Matthew 8:5–13). The incident conveys Jesus’ distinctive confidence that faith will restore humanity to the relationship man had with God in the garden of Eden.

The centurion, an officer in charge of eighty infantry, commanded a garrison in Capernaum or nearby. Although a Jew or proselyte (that is, a convert to Judaism) might conceivably have served in such a position, the centurion’s exchange with Jesus hinges on his identity as a non-Jew, one of the many sympathizers with Judaism called “God-fearers” in antiquity who admired Israel’s God and his ethics, although they could not accept circumcision. The centurion did not approach Jesus himself; a delegation of Jewish elders pleaded his case, on the grounds that he “loves our ancestry, and himself constructed the synagogue for us” in Capernaum (Luke 7:5).4

The centurion had sent delegates because Antipas was actively seeking Jesus; had any soldier personally encountered Jesus, he would have been obliged to arrest him. The centurion understood that Jesus limited his activity to the people of Israel, those demarcated by circumcision. He sought to contact Jesus through emissaries, relying on the spoken word instead of approaching him directly (Matthew 8:8–9; Luke 7:6–8).

Lord, I am not worthy so that you should enter under my roof. But only say by a word, and my servant will be cured. Because I also am a person under authority, having soldiers under myself, and I say to this one, Proceed, and he proceeds, and to another, Come, and he comes, and to my slave, Do this, and he does.

The centurion said, in effect, that Jesus’ control over unclean spirits mirrored his own authority over his troops; his confidence in Jesus prompted Jesus to summon divine compassion on his behalf, and his servant was healed. The centurion’s faith was precisely the response to prophetic signs that Jesus had been demanding from his own disciples, which is why he said, “Not even in Israel have I found such faith” (Luke 7:9). If he can believe, why not you? He taunted them, as he had in the boat on the way to Bethsaida. “Why are you timid? Do you not yet have faith?” The pressure Jesus was willing to exert on his closest followers must sometimes have been unbearable. They buckled under the weight of his persistent challenge to them to see as he saw.

In sharp contrast to the way Christian scholarship typically portrays Jesus, the story also shows that he was wary of direct contact with Gentiles. Jesus’ program was for his fellow Jews; only a delegation of Jewish elders from the centurion captures his sympathy. The episode provided every opportunity for Jesus to transgress the boundary between the circumcised and the uncircumcised—yet that is precisely what he does not do. Indeed, Jesus commended the centurion’s awareness of the limitation of feasible contact between them.

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