His public life
John had
preached the baptism of repentance in the wilderness of Judea. In those days Jesus came
from Nazareth of Galilee and received baptism from John at the Jordan river.
He remained there in the wilderness for many more days, This was the older tradition. Later preachers and thinkers asked what had Jesus done or experienced during this period? Mark related the answer in one sentence. He was tempted by Satan and was with the wild beasts. The angles brought him food much as the Old Testament had related of Elijah the prophet. Luke and Mathew elaborate the temptation in detail and let Jesus fast forty days and forty nights as Moses did on Sinai. (Mathew 4:1-12, Luke 4:1-14. Remember the gospels were written in different periods and within such periods the oral traditions were subjected so many renovations)
The events associated with the lives of the great men like the prophets of the past, for instance, got introduced into the life of Jesus. The genealogy intended to show Jesus as the son of David has been extended by Mathew back to Abraham ostensibly to indicate Jesus as the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham.
Being possessed with an ideal vision of a divine fatherhood and hence human brotherhood, .he set out to preach upon the imprisonment of John the Baptist. Much of his teachings were based on the rabbinical writings both ancient and contemporary. He introduced a new form of homely metaphors and parables.
He was a man of noble features who lived among the tense and excited Jews (There were under the Roman subjugation, remember). But he always walked on the Jewish faith and hopes. His words, ‘you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt lost its savor wherewith one shall salt? You are the light of the world. Your light shall shine before men, ’are all certainly addressed to the Jews and not to the disciples as it is later commented.
Jesus always tried to explain the and clarify the Jewish Holy Scriptures. From all these one should reasonably conclude that he had no idea of forming a new
religion at all. He was born a Jew. He lived and died a Jew.
Yes, the gospels of Mathew and Luke contain a great condemnation of the Pharisees and the Scribes. Retribution is proclaimed on their generation. (Mathew 23:25, Luke 11:50) The gospel of Luke is against Judaism.. It is addressed to the pagans who are already converted and to those who wish to get converted. The Jews ‘were hard of heart and hence rejected by the new sect, Christians.
The reason for this could have been the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem. One idea was now projected into the past. The temple of Jerusalem was the abode of Yahweh. Hence, if it was destroyed, it was simply because God had passed judgment over the Jewish people who had refused to believe the ‘ new messiah.’ This rejection must have had come from the messiah himself as he is according to the new sect, god himself. He must have had spoken against the new generation of Jews too. And you see gospelist condemning the religion Jesus was born and lived with.
At the most Jesus Christ was a social reformer an he perhaps wanted to reform the Jewish religion. As he was well-versed in the scriptures he entered into discourse with the Jewish scholars. He was annoyed at the strict observance of the laws to the minutest details. The Pharisees and the scribes were publicly criticized by him for their Hippocratic ways. He labeled them ‘white washed tombs and sons of serpents.’ They got agitated and sought to kill him.
Jesus had a winning personality. His eloquence and noble character attracted many. A lot of them hailed him as a prophet. He was kind, sympathetic and magnanimous. He broadcasted a message of love. Above all he practiced what he
preached. This remarkable character commanded respect and love. For a few years he preached wandering from place to place until the elite of the Jewish community managed to get him arrested and crucified. .