You Tube Theology

"Most striking in all this is the diversity of modern Jesus scholars...this means that a Christian agenda can no longer set the questions, let alone the outcomes. Perhaps the most important development in modern Jesus studies is the fact that the Jewishness of Jesus is now central...it sees him as very much part of the first-century Jewish world...Second Temple Judaism is now seen to have been extremely complex and diverse; no longer can scholars imagine a normative, monolithic Judaism against which Jesus stood out. The question now is not so much 'Was Jesus a Jew?', but what kind of a Jew was Jesus? An Essene, a Pharisee, a nationalist, a prophet?"

Professor Helen Bond, Christian Origins Head of the School of Divinity

Did the original intentions of the Historical Jesus die with him? Does it matter and should it matter to modern believers? Is the theological narrative the gospel writers formed so important in its impact to the point that the historical Jesus intentions/actions are insignificant and secondary to the current believers theological goals/needs? The Biblical texts are a rolling process where the writers and readers of the text have a part in the formation and meaning. Those who claim orthodoxy cannot escape that they too are part of this rolling process and may also have difficulty wrestling with the original context concerning Yeshua of Nazareth/Galilee.

"And they all forsook him, and fled."
Gospel of Mark

The Misunderstood Jew | Misunderstood History and Prophecy
The American Jesus vs The Gospel Jesus vs The Historical Jesus
A complex puzzle

"Trying to find the actual Jesus... the lines connecting the original figure to the developed legends cannot be traced with mathematical accuracy; the intervention of unknown factors has to be allowed for. Consequently, results may never claim more than probability."
Historian Morton Smith

"Hope is not always history, and neither is hyperbole. In this case, as so often before and after, horror is history."
John Dominic Crossan

John Dominic Crossan : Why did two populist movements, the Baptism movement of John and the Kingdom movement of Jesus, occur in the territories of Herod Antipas in the 20s of that first common-era century? Why then? Why there?

The revelation of Flesh and Blood

The original diversity of late second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity meets the bottleneck of the great clashes between the Jewish rebellions and the Roman Empire. Out of the Anvil and the Hammer will emerge a new religion and a new Judaism forged from this dynamic explosive mix of civilizations.

The two most important figures in finding the Historical Jesus that act as book ends to Jesus are arguably John the Baptist and James the Brother of Jesus. The way the new testament writings grudgingly admits their influence and at the same time theologically chips away at their authority and importance as they must reinterpret the events to suit the sacred theological narrative of the emerging organized hierarchical church...the reworking of the narrative of the later gospel writers to tame the gospel of Mark and even earlier inconvenient memories of John's influence.

Jesus and Judah
The gospel writers typological narratives after the Jewish revolt | Judah of Sicarri and Barabbas the rebel (assassins, rebels, bandits, thieves) Jesus in his last days is surrounded by this contrast including those crucified with him.
Ideal types simplify a complex reality
The gospel writers have the crowd choose the ideal rebel type (Barabbas) contrasting their internationalist gentile interpretation of Yeshua. The crowd chooses the rebellion and the betrayer is sicarri. The influential target audience of the gospel writers are primarily government administrators (tax collectors) and soldiers (including roman centurions).

The reworking of John's influence and the reworking of Jame's influence also speaks volumes.

A voice cries: “In the desert prepare the Way of Yahweh; Make straight in the Arava a highway for our God (Isa 40:3).

They shall separate from the session of perverse men to go to the wilderness, there to prepare the way of truth, 14 as it is written, “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God”

Both the group that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls and the John the Baptist/Jesus movement looked upon this verse as their basic “Call” to prepare the Way for the end of the age–which they believed was shortly to unfold.

There is something about the desert when it comes to prophetic and revolutionary voices.

The pen of Paul and the sword of Rome were too much for the original Messianic movement of John, Jesus, and James to be left unscathed in its original form.

"I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Messiah and him crucified."
The Apostle Paul

James Brother of Jesus
"Paul used Jesus. James knew Jesus. Worship or Follow?"

Yeshua and Yaakov | Jewish Martyrs