What on Earth Happened? ...In Brief by Christopher Lloyd

Author:Christopher Lloyd
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Hewer Text UK Ltd
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2009-10-01T16:00:00+00:00

Jesus, the subversive Jewish carpenter’s son

In the midst of this hurricane of indulgence, exploitation and violence there was a miraculous moment of calm. As if it were the eye of the imperial storm, almost exactly halfway through Rome’s dominance of the Mediterranean world, a son was born to a Jewish carpenter and his wife in a place called Bethlehem, a town situated just south of Jerusalem. His name was Jesus.

Like the Buddha some 500 years before, Jesus was an enlightened charismatic who made a virtue out of poverty and lectured on the benefits of non-violence. His message was simple. Be peaceful. Love your neighbour as yourself. If someone strikes you on one cheek do not hit back but offer them the other. Do not worship false idols such as money or material possessions and, above all, be humble – for one day the meek will inherit the earth.

Jesus’s followers saw him perform miracles and came to regard him as the earthly incarnation of God as prophesied by Isaiah and others in the Jewish Torah. One of the most deeply held Jewish beliefs was that at the time of the covenants between God, Abraham and Moses the Israelites were identified as God’s chosen people. Yet here was a man whose followers claimed he was King of the Jews and who offered the prospect of eternal salvation to anyone and everyone who believed in him, regardless of their colour, race or creed!

Jesus was given over to the Roman governor of the province of Judaea, Pontius Pilate, as a heretic, and despite Pilate’s misgivings was condemned to die on a cross like a common criminal. His body mysteriously disappeared three days after being placed in a tomb and his disciples began to see visions of him. They wrote about these miraculous events, which they called the Resurrection, and believed it was their divine mission to spread the good news about the son of God coming down to earth and dying on a cross so that everyone who believed in him might have everlasting life. They set about establishing a religion in his name.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.