“Jesus – A Life in Class Conflict”by J. Crossley & R.J. Myles, 2023
This
is a historical-materialist study of the Jesus movement in ancient Judea and
Galilee. It closely looks at writings about the material conditions
of that time, in a land ruled by Rome and dominated by a local elite, both
subsisting on taxes, tribute, slavery and corveé labor. The authors
contend, following the work of English historian Eric Hobsbawn, that Jesus was
an artisan and leader of a movement against both Rome and the local Temple
Pharisees, based on the grievances of the Jewish peasantry. The
struggle was cloaked in moralism, magic and ‘end times’ verbiage, as was common
at the time, but the real issues were economic and political. The
authors call it ‘revolutionary millenarianism.’
Their
work involves at least 28 sources, principally the 4 Gospels, the Synoptic
tradition and the work of historians like Josephus. They are acutely aware of
the historical weaknesses and contradictions in the Bible, along with the
theological motivations of its various authors, none of whom were writing until
long after Jesus’ execution. They make reasonable, grounded points, discard
others and propose possible theories when they are not sure. The
authors carefully note when the Gospels insert later things into the
past. In 66-73 CE there was a violent mass rebellion against Rome by
the Israelites, and it is logical that Jesus and other prophets laid the
groundwork. In 70 CE Jerusalem was surrounded and the Temple
destroyed by the Roman legions. 2 other rebellions followed. It was
only later in the early 300s that Emperor Constantine adopted Christianity as
the religion of Rome – turning Christianity into an ideology of the ruling
class.
If
you want to understand what was going on at the time, this book is far more
level-headed than the magical nonsense dished out in a Bible-study class at
your typical church. I myself have not read the Bible in toto, and I
suspect many others have not done so either, so it’s an excellent historical
introduction. It might also make the Christian socialists happy – all 8 of
you. Yet you will have to discard the idealist and moralistic
baggage that you carry. It also might make the Maoists happy – after
all, this was a peasant movement.
The
authors contradict various bourgeois historians that paint Judean social
conditions as pleasant; or picture Jesus’ followers as passive ‘believers,’ or
think that the movement was led by ‘middle-class’ fisherman. There
was no real middle-class at this time – the fisherman were not much different
than local farmer living off subsistence crops. They point out that several
mega-building projects, so beloved of those same historians, might have
displaced residents, involved forced labor, increased taxes and were resented
as bad attempts at ‘modernization.’ Freeway, corporate, mining, oil
and stadium projects in our own day play the same role.
Organized & Organizer
The
authors picture the disciples as ‘The Twelve’ - a ‘central
committee’ of the movement. They relate their artisanal and
rural class backgrounds, with several fisherman, Jesus a carpenter, one a
former tax-collector, and several women who had access to
money. They came from small rural villages like Nazareth. The
movement was not fully male-centric, as you can see, with Mary Magdalene most
prominent, but the authors discount it as feminist. God was always a
‘Father,’ for instance, and there were strict prohibitions against
divorce. There were 12 tribes of Israel so ‘12’ was a magic
number. The leading members were depicted in the Da Vinci
painting The Last Supper. Jesus actually aimed many of his sermons
at the rich, telling them they should share their wealth or give it up, leading
to repentance. The authors call this a 'mission to the rich,' sort of
like Millionaires for Taxation. This allowed him to gain money to fund the
movement from either guilt or threats. Left-wing groups with
sugar-daddies might be familiar with this phenomenon.
The
authors go on to claim this was a ‘vanguard party’ with the
goal of a ‘dictatorship of the peasantry,’ but led by new moral kings,
really a moral theocracy. Jesus was the leader of this party, a
religious organizer if you will. ‘Vanguard party’ and
“dictatorship of the peasantry’ is borrowed from 19th and 20th century
Marxism and historically seems out of place, though it’s pretty
clever. The movement’s millenarianism, in which God comes down to
‘smite the wicked’ and overturn society, is absent from any Marxist concept of
revolution. Replacing one set of kings with another is against
socialism too. Indeed, the authority of God, miracles, healing and
exorcism gave this group credibility, not just their class hostility to the
monied elites, the line of Herod or the Roman praetorians.
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The
present Evangelical prosperity gospelites or the wealthy Catholic, Anglican and
Mormon churches will not be happy remembering the Biblical quotes from Jesus
about camels and needles, God and Mammon, how the last shall be first or
sending the rich away empty. The fate of the poverty-stricken Lazarus in Heaven
and the ordinary wealthy man in Hades are the divine rewards imagined by this
movement. The Lazarus story explicitly rejects wealth itself…not behavior.
The authors refute the idea that this class hostility was just the complaint of
‘out elites’ – scribes who resented their subservient role -
as these ideas were also held by ‘crowds,’ ‘multitudes,’ 'mobs' and 'hundreds'
of followers in rural areas. The authors pay special attention to the
power of crowds.
Wandering, Pacifism, Non-Jews
A
curious question is why Jesus, at the age of about 30, would quit his trade as
a carpenter and begin to wander from village to village. He
certainly had no land though he spoke Aramaic and was literate. Most
historians claim it was ‘voluntary,’ a life-style choice so to
speak. Yet why would former farmers and fishermen abandon their work
and families to become virtually homeless as wandering cadre? The
authors cannot say definitely, but there might have been economic forces at
work that made it the only option left – as it is for many migrants on our own
borders. To this day religious street people accept donations as one way of
surviving. Even homeless people scrawl “God Bless” on their
cardboard.
The
authors refute the idea that Jesus was a pacifist. The movement’s
use of non-violence was a strictly practical tactic, saving violent retribution
and judgment for the end times. The Book of Revelation ending
the New Testament tells you all you need to know about their
‘pacifism.’ The Jesus movement embraced the actions of prior ‘manly’
Jewish martyrs – the Maccabees, John the Baptist and the rebels executed by
Herod the Great. So it is no great surprise when
Jesus was also martyred.
The
authors point to the movement’s strict adherence to Jewish tradition and law on
subjects like circumcision, honoring the Sabbath, pork, purity laws and Jewish
holy days so as to gain the confidence of conservative peasants. For
instance divorce was heavily sanctioned by Jesus, perhaps to keep peasant
families whole, as children and wives where essential workers on most plots of
land. Child labor is still economically useful to small businessmen
on farms and in small shops, as are intact families, both providing free labor
for the business. Hence the social conservatism.
Note
that all of this rhetoric was aimed at Jews, not non-Jews like Gentiles,
Samaritans, Romans and the like. Non-Jews only became important as
the movement spread out of Palestine's urban centers and began recruiting
others.
Passover
Jesus’
trip to Jerusalem for Passover is a crucial event in the
Gospels. Passover itself is full of political meaning against
slavery and oppression – sort of the U.S. 4th of July or
Juneteenth; November 7 in the former USSR or the date of the storming of the
Bastille in France. Jerusalem was packed with Jews arriving from the
villages. Roman legionnaires stood guard at the Temple; volatile and
unruly crowds filled the streets. The Jesus group was in and around
the city as revolutionary millenarians, led by a leader pursuing imminent liberation. It’s
not quite Lenin at the Finland Station but you see the setting.
The
key, plausible event that got Jesus arrested and executed was his entry into
the Temple itself, where he supposedly overturned the money-changers tables and
chased away traders using it as a commercial site, saying it had become a ‘den
of bandits.’ The authors suggest that it was quite possible that
Jesus’s disciples and followers also participated in shutting down the
commercial activities in the Temple. At Jesus’ trial before Pilate there is a
mention of an ‘insurrection’ that week involving Barabbas. At any
rate, this was performative politics, but behind it was a general and
historical dislike of the corruption, wealth-seeking, idolatry and cruelty of
the Temple priests and behind them, the local Jewish elite and their Roman
allies.
Jesus
was later quietly arrested at Gethsemane with the help of a traitor in his own
organization, Judas. He was then quickly tried by the High Priest
and then Pilate, and condemned to be crucified between two insurrectionists –
the actual Greek translation according to the authors. The authors consider
Jesus was executed as a ‘deranged insurrectionist’ too. The
Romans supposedly hung an insulting ethno-racialist notation ‘King of the
Jews’ above his head. Crucifixion was the normal Roman
method used to punish the lower classes, slaves and foreigners with the most
excruciating and shameful death.
Being
buried in a ‘rock cut’ tomb was only for the rich – normally a condemned
criminal would be thrown into a pit grave or left for feral dogs. It is
possible that his followers retrieved his body. The story that a
powerful and observant Jew, Joseph of Arimathea, asked Pilate if he could take
the body to his own crypt is analyzed by the authors, who say it is
possible. At any rate, there is no reliable source as to what
happened after Jesus’ crucifixion – the claims are all over the map. The
authors cite visions of Jesus after his death, which became a
central element in the Jesus myth.
The
Jesus class struggle revolution failed. No apocalypse appeared from on
high. The 2nd Coming is still in abeyance and will be forever.
Jesus didn't even denounce slavery, so his emancipatory activity only went so
far. This is the real story from the authors point of view.
P.S.
- Christian conservatives are now rejecting Jesus as 'too woke.' How they
are going to retain the moniker 'Christian' is beyond me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1alx8lLGwrc
Prior blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box,
upper left, to investigate our 16 year archive, using these terms: “Marx
on Religion,” “Nonverts,” “Rise of the Nones,” “Libertarian
Atheism and Liberal Religionism,” “Jude the Obscure” (Hardy); “Spiritual Snake
Oil” "The Dark Side of Christian History," “The Great
Evil” (Nunpa); “Godless – 150 Years of Unbelief” and “Astrology – (both by
Bufe); American Theocracy” (Phillips); “Religulous” (Maher); “Go
Tell It On The Mountain” (Baldwin); “The Da Vinci Code” (Brown); “To Serve God
and Walmart,” “Marx and Human Nature,” "The Jesus Comics."
And I bought it at May Day Books!
Red Frog / December 25, 2024 (A reprise of something published in June, 2023)
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