04/01/2020
When the Assyrians brought a large mixed Assyrian and Babylonian population to settle in Samaria and Northern Israel 700 years elapsed.
The Jewish population does not forget their enemies. To the Jews these Galileans were not the descendants of their people returning from exile. They were gentiles, ancient Assyrian enemies and the Jews would not tolerate a prophet from that region.
These gentiles spoke Aramaic, worshiped the Assyrian Gods and practiced their own customs. These gentiles were viewed as "others". They accepted the god of Israel as their chief God, because he was the God of the land.
The settlers were called Galileans (foreigners) by the Jews of the south (I Kings 17:33).
Jews despised the Galileans and regarded them as the descendants of the ones that conquered them and destroyed their country. In (Ezra 4:2) the Jews referred to the Galileans as "adversaries".
The Jews were prideful people. The Galileans believed more in repentance than traditional ancestry and radical pride. There is evidence to the ancestry of Jesus, but Jesus only relied on his ancestry when converting Jews.
Conversion was done using debates back then. If you won a debate with a Jew the Jew would be converted.
It was very difficult for the Jews to understand these gentiles. The Jews were a literal tribe where as the Galileans were prone to metaphors. Misunderstandings happened frequently between the two groups. Was Jesus the son of man, the son of God or both? Did Jesus threaten to destroy the temple and build it within three days, or was he talking about himself being that temple? The Jews thought that they knew the answer, but they were wrong.
This is why it is so important to accept people into our churches that are viewed as "others" by society. This is why it is so important to get to know someone before we pass judgement based on what we might believe of them, or their societies. What we think we understand about Jesus, about the bible, and about god is never enough to pass judgement on someone else.
Bar-Nasha; the son of man, mankind, humanity, a man, human being, an ordinary person.
Was Jesus the son of man? Only in the sense that a peasant was called a son of man. Jesus lived and died a peasant. He made sure that people viewed him in that way throughout the bible.
Kings would never ride upon an ass. Asses were viewed as symbols of disgrace and humiliation. When someone was punished for their heretical views he was placed on an ass and paraded through the town. Jesus did not want to be seen as a king.
Jesus could heal the sick and raise the dead, but did not want to be seen as a healer. In ancient eastern cultures spitting was an insult, but holy men were allowed to spit on a wound. The belief was that when a holy man spit on the wound he was rebuking the disease and the evil which caused it. If Jesus wanted to be seen as a healer he wouldnt have taken the afflicted aside and done it in secret. He wouldn't have told the people that he healed to tell no one. A healer fast in order to receive the power of God for the work of healing the sick. Jesus didn't need to fast because he was the power of God Jesus was a healer, but did not want to be seen as one.
Being a holy man Jesus often did the things that holy men did. In ancient Israel trees are the property of the one whom planted it. When the identity of the real owner was lost the tree became public property. When Jesus cursed the tree that bore no fruit he was fulfilling the customs of a holy man. Cursing is an oriental custom and holy men have continued to curse or bless vineyards even today.
Do you see how Jesus didn't really have a pot to p**s in. The deck was stacked against him before he was even born. Jesus spoke Northern Aramaic, the dialect spoken by the Assyrians. He used the same dialect spoken after the fall of the Assyrian Empire used by the Babylonians and Persian conquers. He spoke the language of the Jewish Enemies!
Southern or Chaldean Aramaic was spoken by the Jews of Judea who's forefathers were carried captive into Babylon. Jesus did not speak this dialect.
Western Aramaic, known as Aramean was the dialect of the Syrian Kingdom as far back as the days of Abraham. This dialect was displaced by northern Aramaic after the conquest of Syria by the Assyrians (722 B.C.). Jesus did not speak this dialect.
How could the Jews view Jesus as anything but a foreigner? Johoiachin, the last known king of the Davinic Dynasty was carried away, a captive of the Chaldeans 500 years before Jesus was ever born (2 Kings 25:27).
Jesus did not want to be seen as a king. He did not want to be seen as a healer, and he never claimed to be a prophet, so who and what was he?
