The People of the Book

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

We concluded Thy Kingdom Come: A New Paradigm To Repair The Breach with the

following words of Jeffrey J. Butz:

 

(p.184) But Christendom's political triumph over Rome was also its Achilles'

heel--for the Church quickly succumbed to the trappings of power and wealth that

Jesus and James had so firmly stood against, for which they had boldly

criticized the Temple authorities, and for which they both were crushed. It is a

lesson still to be learned that anytime religion becomes entwined with politics,

both religion and politics are inevitably corrupted. The great wisdom of the

founding fathers of the United States is seen nowhere more than in their

erection of a sturdy wall of separation between church and state, something that

Jesus would surely endorse, considering his command to " [r]ender unto Caesar

that which is Caesar's, and unto God that which is God's " (Mark 12:17). In fact,

it was this teaching of Jesus that laid the basis for the Western conception of

the separation of the secular and the religious, a concept unheard of in major

religions other than Christianity. Another factor in this development was, of

course, early Christianity's reaction to being a persecuted minority under the

Roman government.

 

The Brother of Jesus (And the Lost Teachings of Christianity) Chapter 10, pg.

184.

 

Here now is The People of the Book.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

 

 

The People of the Book

 

(p.184) The lasting wisdom of both James and Paul lies in their inclusive

outlook, in their vision of Jesus as the Messiah of both Jew and Gentile. But

for the past two thousand years, Paul has dominated James, which has led to many

abuses within the Church, none more grievous than those towards Jews and, to

only a slightly smaller extent, toward Muslims. As the Church gained political

power, it became both more thoroughly Gentile and more thoroughly Paulinist, and

what remained of its Jewish roots slowly died off, much to the world's

detriment. Christianity's treatment of the Jews over the last two thousand years

is nothing less than an inexcusable case of " parental abuse " from their

children.

 

Today, a balance desperately needs to be restored. (p.185) Today, not only

the church, but our world desperately needs to recover James, and, in the

process, recover the historical Jesus--a Jesus who would want nothing more than

for all the children of Abraham--Jew, Christian, and Muslim--to live together in

peace as one family in the Kingdom of God.

 

If we can reclaim James from the limbo to which he has been too long

relegated, it may yet be possible to fulfill the ancient eschatological

expectations of not only Jews and Christians, but of Muslims as well. Jerusalem

is today a common spiritual center for the three great religions and cultures

that sprang forth from Abraham--the " people of the Book, " as the Qur'an calls

them. Today, Jews, Christians, and Muslims all look to Abraham as their

spiritual and ancestral " father " and consider themselves his heirs. Where the

three branches of Abraham's family differ is in their expectations of how the

Kingdom of God will be consummated.

 

For Christians, the Kingdom will be consummated with the return of Jesus. It

was the expectation of James and the apostles that Jesus would return to the

site of the Temple, and that is why James remained so closely attached to

Jerusalem and to the Temple. Many Jews today, as well as many Christians, hope

to one day see the Temple rebuilt on its original site. In most fundamentalist

Christian eschatologies this is the last necessary step that will usher in the

return of Christ. The Temple Mount is, however, now occupied by the Dome of the

Rock, one of the holiest sites for Muslims--a mosque that commemorates

Muhammad's famous Night Journey to Heaven. Perhaps it is more than mere

coincidence, perhaps it is even divinely ordained, that the Temple Mount in

Jerusalem is the place where Jews, Christians, and Muslims find their heritages

and their lives inextricably bound together.

 

After almost two millennia of hatred and bloodshed, many people today feel

that the three great Western religions--and the political powers that are their

heirs--will never be able to achieve any lasting peace. In light of such recent

atrocities as 9/11 and the war with Iraq, and the escalating tensions between

Israelis and Palestinians, many would agree that if the people of the Book ever

needed a messiah, it is now.

 

Perhaps it is no accident that James the Just, after almost two thousand

years of total obscurity, suddenly gained international prominence not long

after September 11, 2001. (p.186) While the inscription on the purported James

ossuary that led to so much media hoopla-- " James, son of Joseph, brother of

Jesus " --may yet be proven a forgery,* James himself is not only the real brother

of Jesus and his successor to the " throne " of Jerusalem, but he--who was called

the " Brother of God " --just may be the one figure who can today bring peace to

the Middle East and reunite the divided family of Abraham. In James there is a

potential bridge over severely troubled water, a bridge to a common

understanding of the root source of the theological estrangement of the people

of the Book: Jesus.

 

Note:

 

* As of this writing, this remains a hotly debated question. See recent issues

of 'Biblical Archaeology Review' for updates on the latest tests

 

http://www.thenazareneway.com/ossuary_of_james.htm

 

 

The Wall of Estrangement

 

(p.186) As abundant evidence has shown us, after Jesus' crucifixion his family

and disciples continued to worship together in the Temple in Jerusalem,

manifesting no difference from their fellow Jews except in their belief that

Jesus was the Davidic Messiah. Unfortunately for these harmonious beginnings,

Pauline Christianity increasingly adopted an understanding of Jesus that Judaism

could not ultimately bear: the Hellenistic theological belief that Jesus was

literally God incarnate in human flesh. As the doctrine of the incarnation

became ever more central to Gentile Catholic Christianity, an impassible

theological wall arose between Jews and Christians.

 

The doctrine of the incarnation is also the great wall that separates Muslims

and Christians. Most Christians today are completely unaware that Muslims highly

revere Jesus and honor his teachings (they even believe in the virgin birth),

but like their Jewish cousins, the strict monotheism of Islam could never accept

the key Christian dogmas of the incarnation and the Holy Trinity. It is

therefore potentially significant for interreligious dialogue today that one of

the firm conclusions modern research into James has revealed is that neither

Jesus' family, nor the apostles, nor his Jewish disciples, believed that Jesus

was literally God. They believed that Jesus was the Davidic Messiah, " adopted "

by God as his " son " at his baptism by John, but still a human being. That the

earliest Christian doctrine was in no way incompatible with Jewish doctrine is

evidenced above all by the fact that the Jews in Jerusalem continued to accept

Jesus' followers as fellow Jews; in fact, they saw them as being particularly

rigorous and pious Jews.

 

It is more than intriguing that the Muslim understanding of Jesus is very

much in conformity with the first Christian orthodoxy--the original Jewish

Christian understanding of Jesus. (p.187) As already noted, this is no

coincidence, for in his extensive travels prior to receiving his first

revelation from Allah, Muhammad had numerous contacts with various

seventh-century Jewish Christian sects in the northwestern perimeter of the

Arabian Peninsula. It would seem that their views on Jesus strongly influenced

Muhammad's understanding of Jesus.

 

If Jewish Christianity had prevailed over Pauline Christianity, history would

likely have been written quite differently. It is quite likely that such

atrocities as the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Holocaust would never have

transpired. If the Jewish Christian understanding of Jesus had prevailed, Jews

and Christians might never have parted ways, and Islam would never have become

Christianity's perceived enemy. To this day, it is the refusal of Jews and

Muslims to accept the full divinity of Jesus that makes them " pagans " and

" heathens " in the eyes of many Christians.

 

The Brother of Jesus (And the Lost Teachings of Christianity)

Chapter 10, pg. 184-187

Jeffrey J. Butz

Inner Traditions - Rochester, Vermont

ISBN 1-59477-043-3