Originally posted by Hypatia_Alexandria
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The Jewish people understood their own theology quite well.
Later Pauline theology.
We know what the Kingdom of God would have meant to first century Jews living under foreign domination and we know why anyone claiming, or being acclaimed as, the Messiah was regarded by the Roman authorities as potential trouble.
You seem to either not know or forget that there had been other Messianic movements originating in the countryside in that region and nor were some of these movements in the early years of the first century easily subdued. At least one, led by Athronges, a shepherd, took quite some time for either the Roman or Herodian troops to eventually suppress it.
Neither was that the only messianic movement occurring in the years surrounding the approximate dates for Jesus’ birth. In the late first century BCE and early first century CE there were several mass movements of Jewish peasants who came from villages or towns such as Emmaus, Bethlehem, and Sepphoris. These people rallied to the leadership of charismatic figures who were viewed as “anointed kings of the Jews”. These popular uprisings occurred in all three provincial areas of Jewish settlement in Palestine (i.e. Galilee, Perea, and Judaea).
Sepphoris, a few miles north of Nazareth, had been burned in 4 BCE and its inhabitants sold into slavery; while Emmaus, which is one of the locations for the resurrection appearances according to Luke, had likewise been destroyed by the Romans for another mass uprising, barely a generation later. [See: R.A. Horsley & J.S. Hanson Bandits, Prophets, and Messiahs: Popular Movements in the Time of Jesus ]
Later Pauline theology.
We know what the Kingdom of God would have meant to first century Jews living under foreign domination and we know why anyone claiming, or being acclaimed as, the Messiah was regarded by the Roman authorities as potential trouble.
You seem to either not know or forget that there had been other Messianic movements originating in the countryside in that region and nor were some of these movements in the early years of the first century easily subdued. At least one, led by Athronges, a shepherd, took quite some time for either the Roman or Herodian troops to eventually suppress it.
Neither was that the only messianic movement occurring in the years surrounding the approximate dates for Jesus’ birth. In the late first century BCE and early first century CE there were several mass movements of Jewish peasants who came from villages or towns such as Emmaus, Bethlehem, and Sepphoris. These people rallied to the leadership of charismatic figures who were viewed as “anointed kings of the Jews”. These popular uprisings occurred in all three provincial areas of Jewish settlement in Palestine (i.e. Galilee, Perea, and Judaea).
Sepphoris, a few miles north of Nazareth, had been burned in 4 BCE and its inhabitants sold into slavery; while Emmaus, which is one of the locations for the resurrection appearances according to Luke, had likewise been destroyed by the Romans for another mass uprising, barely a generation later. [See: R.A. Horsley & J.S. Hanson Bandits, Prophets, and Messiahs: Popular Movements in the Time of Jesus ]
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