You know whats weird? I grew up involved with the church and until just now I never knew why he was actually crucified other than the generic "for our sins " nonsense.
Historical context isn’t commonly taught alongside the bible, it makes it very hard to blindly apply ancient moral lessons to modern society. My favorite example is the story of Onan, often preached as anti-masturbation. Within the legal setting of the time it’s actually about greed: Onan would inherit his brother’s property since he had no heir. Commanded to produce a son with his brother’s widow, he opted to “spill his seed on the ground” rather than forfeit the inheritance.
But preaching against greed is often unpopular, especially with the Prosperity Gospel, and it was a “close enough” cherry to pick for the Puritan movement.
All that to say: yes, most people have no idea about the background behind anything in the bible.
The “blasphemy” was actually treason and sedition. That’s why the Romans executed him instead of the Jewish clergy.
Though it is worth noting at the time that denying the Emperor was a god was all three, blasphemy, treason, and sedition, and it was also something the Jewish faith demanded they do, but all the Jewish leaders at the time broke that religious law to keep their positions and general state of not being crucified.
The blasphemy-only retelling, and implying it was blasphemy against the Jewish religion, is Roman Catholic revisionism to deflect blame from, you know, the Roman state after they became the dominant religion and gained its support.
The “blasphemy” was actually treason and sedition. That’s why the Romans executed him instead of the Jewish clergy.
That and the Roman’s didn’t like non-Roman’s doing executions. They didn’t care about mystics running around doing all sorts of weird things. But they did care about all the bodies being left lying around. (It was untidy.)
There were a lot of Jewish mystics cropping up at the time, Jesus was just one cult of many- though his cult actually survived long enough to become a religion.
You know whats weird? I grew up involved with the church and until just now I never knew why he was actually crucified other than the generic "for our sins " nonsense.
Historical context isn’t commonly taught alongside the bible, it makes it very hard to blindly apply ancient moral lessons to modern society. My favorite example is the story of Onan, often preached as anti-masturbation. Within the legal setting of the time it’s actually about greed: Onan would inherit his brother’s property since he had no heir. Commanded to produce a son with his brother’s widow, he opted to “spill his seed on the ground” rather than forfeit the inheritance.
But preaching against greed is often unpopular, especially with the Prosperity Gospel, and it was a “close enough” cherry to pick for the Puritan movement.
All that to say: yes, most people have no idea about the background behind anything in the bible.
What cracks me up about that whole story is that it wouldn’t have been a problem if god didn’t off Err for being a total asshole.
Which. How big of an asshole do you have to be to get god to personally spite you, in particular?
The “blasphemy” was actually treason and sedition. That’s why the Romans executed him instead of the Jewish clergy.
Though it is worth noting at the time that denying the Emperor was a god was all three, blasphemy, treason, and sedition, and it was also something the Jewish faith demanded they do, but all the Jewish leaders at the time broke that religious law to keep their positions and general state of not being crucified.
The blasphemy-only retelling, and implying it was blasphemy against the Jewish religion, is Roman Catholic revisionism to deflect blame from, you know, the Roman state after they became the dominant religion and gained its support.
That and the Roman’s didn’t like non-Roman’s doing executions. They didn’t care about mystics running around doing all sorts of weird things. But they did care about all the bodies being left lying around. (It was untidy.)
There were a lot of Jewish mystics cropping up at the time, Jesus was just one cult of many- though his cult actually survived long enough to become a religion.