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Friday 27 November 2009

Jesus was not a Zealot, nor an encourager of those who lived by the sword. Nor was he happy when his own disciples took them up (see the episode in the Garden of Gethsemane with Peter and the high priest’s slave). Jesus was indeed the prince of peace who road into Jerusalem not on a war charger, but on a donkey (see the prophecy of Zechariah). Neither Jesus nor his disciples objected to paying their taxes or the tribute money, indeed there are repeated stories of Jesus’ dining with tax collectors and recruiting them to be disciples. If anything, Jesus saw Caesar and other such rulers as an irrelevance, which could not stop or aid the coming of the eschatological Dominion of God on earth. Indeed, Jesus is reported to have said that Pilate would have had no authority over Jesus if God had not granted it to him. Human rulers and human kingdoms were not Jesus’ main concern. Bringing salvation to one and all, was, a salvation which certainly had social and political dimensions and implications, but one of them was not setting up a pattern of opposition to Romanization in Galilee. Ben Witherington

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