You keep saying there’s evidence, but I don’t see any. At all. You said Josephus said this was the case, but Josephus was talking about a man supposedly from Galilee–not the entire province.
Judas of Galilee was a violent revolutionary, so he was closer to what Jews thought the Messiah would be. But his rebellion came in 6AD, and was in Judea. So the only likely connection to Jesus is that Jesus might have heard of him, and concluded that violent uprisings against Rome were a waste of time. Rome would always win. Only with God’s help could Rome be defeated. And God obviously doesn’t support violent uprisings, because they never work.
Let me put it this way: You roll into Jerusalem on the national holiday of Liberation (passover) with your posse and let the throngs of Pilgrims greet you as the Messiah and you go spend time in place like the Mount of Olives, well, the Romans have seen this play before. And they don’t like the Third Act.
They didn’t read the reviews. They didn’t even know the show was in town. And it’s so obviously some two-bit roadshow. Not until the Temple Critics chimed in did they take any notice.
The troupe is tiny. Not even armed until (maybe) after they got there, and with just two swords–see, what you’re missing is that Jesus actually was theatrical. He was putting on a show. The finale of which was that he’d be crucified, and the Son of Man would bring down the curtain.
And why didn’t they go after the other members of the cast? All of whom lived quite a long time afterwards? If it had been a violent uprising, they’d put a price on everyone’s head. they could never come back to Jerusalem for an encore.
It was a misunderstanding. Bad PR. This is what happens when you do tryouts in a big city. It was too avant-garde. And Pilate was a Philistine. Okay, not literally, but in that same general tradition. 😉
You slept through Act One where thousands show up and get fed. Or came to hear the Monologues. Or pushed and shoved to get close to him so he had to get in a boat to get away. You missed his involvement with John, who has his own extremely popular play to great notices in the trade mags and in Joseph, who says he was executed because he was getting too popular and the authorities feared he could lead a rebellion. And then Jesus shows up in Jerusalem and the whole city goes nuts for him. He launches a dramatic and lets call it violent attack near the Temple precincts. The one thing the Gospels are clear about is that he is extremely popular. Its just right there in the script. And the problem is that This play is just a revival of one that has been performed for the previous 40 years, but you know, kept getting Banned in Boston. They keep tweaking it hoping to get it past the censors, but the censors are not buying it.
The cast, you will note, attempts additional revivals and get hunted down one by one.
Yeah, that was all out in the provinces, the sticks, the boonies. The Straw Hat Circuit. It played in Peoria. Except it almost certainly didn’t play as well as the barkers said it did. You know how they like to talk up the run, and it’s not like they had to provide gate receipts, since there were no receipts. Or gates. Or seats.
No, I think you’re just dancing in the dark here.
And the cast had a good long run. With some replacements, but that always happens in repertory.
let’s see what one reviewer had to say:
“His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee”
‘So he went out into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee”
“He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere”
“The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death” (He’s still in Galilee)
“The scribes, who had come up from Jerusalem said…”
The crowd is pressing, its 5000 people, its 4000 people,
This is all Mark. Now, if you want say Jesus was little known, then I want a source. Because that is not the claim of Gospel writers, nor Paul, nor Acts. Jesus is ALWAYs popular – as befits a candidate Messiah – and as Josephus indicates that Messiah claimants always are. The only time “the Jews” turn against Jesus its always a “crowd” of indeterminate size under the control of the Roman appointed chief priests and Sanhedrian. The natural anti-semitism of the Gospels always makes a big deal of this – “The Jews” demanding his execution. But the actual text is always clear who these Jews are – they are always connected to Roman power.
It is clearly recorded the uprising took place in Judea. And having looked at the Josephus quote, I don’t see any reference to Galileans in general.
Also, there is quite a lot of suspicion that Luke was talking about a different Judas in that quote. Again, lots of people had that name. Including one of Jesus’ brothers. Go crazy, man. 😀
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
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