The Puzzle of Christianity

Is chosen by His master skill

And placed in the web with care.

He only knows its beauty,

And guides the shuttles which hold

The threads so unattractive,

As well as the threads of gold.

Not till each loom is silent,

And the shuttles cease to fly,

Shall God reveal the pattern

And explain the reason why

The dark threads were as needful

In the weaver’s skilful hand

As the threads of gold and silver

For the pattern which He planned.

History is not a mere series of events; still less is it simply based on decisions made by human beings. For Jews, God’s hand lies behind the whole of human history and it was God who took the fledgling people of Israel into Egypt. Once there, the group of families settled and grew prosperous, only to find with the emergence of a new ruler that they were seen as immigrants and resented. Their numbers increased, but they were made into slaves and their lot was a miserable and unhappy one. Still the Scriptures record God as being with them and that they maintained their faith, hoping against all expectation for deliverance. This eventually comes with the extraordinary story of Moses, a Jew but raised as an Egyptian. God is recorded as taking this outsider and using him as an instrument to lead the people of Israel back to the land promised to their forefather Abraham.

This is another theme constantly recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures – that God does not favour and choose the strong and powerful but often works through those who are seen as weak and who are outsiders to power structures. God does not depend on human strength and ingenuity nor does God value people on the same basis as human beings. Moses was an unlikely outsider and had to stand against the might of the Egyptian ruler, the Pharaoh, but with God on his side was able to free the people of Israel. They fled from oppression in Egypt and, in later times, persecuted Christians remembered God’s hand working to save the people of Israel. Christians were to come to see themselves as ‘the new Israel’ and, therefore, stories of deliverance and salvation in the Hebrew Scriptures became related to Christian concerns.

Figure 2: This painting by Nicolas Poussin, The Adoration of the Golden Calf (1634), is an imaginative re-creation of the god in the image of a golden calf created by the people of Israel when they felt abandoned in the Sinai desert (Exodus 32:1–4).

Although the people of Israel successfully left Egypt, protected by the direct action of God, their lack of faith is not disguised in the Scriptures. They wandered for many years in the harsh environment of the Sinai desert and many felt initially that it would have been better to remain as slaves. God appeared to have become an absent God. Having lived in Egypt, they were used to the Egyptian gods that were visible, so they made an idol – a golden calf. This seemed much more real and immediate than the remote God who appeared to have deserted them and left them to be wandering nomads. In other words, they lost faith; they did not realise that God’s timescale was not theirs. The Hebrew Scriptures are frank in recognising the continuing disobedience of the people of Israel, but always God remains faithful. So it proved in this story, and after many years of hardship and wandering in the desert, as their numbers increased still further, they were eventually led back to the place they considered home, the land they believed to have been promised them by God through God’s promise to Abraham.

It was on the way out of Egypt that God is recorded as giving the people of Israel the Ten Commandments which are the cornerstone of Jewish law, although this law is amplified by many other commands given by God over the centuries. They eventually arrived back in Palestine, only to find it peacefully settled with strong and powerful cities, and their presence was resented and opposed; the locals certainly did not recognise any rights of this strange and alien people. However, the people of Israel had been through great hardship and they maintained their unity, moulding themselves into a formidable fighting force and conquering, in a series of wars, much of the land that was to become Israel.

The new land of Israel was divided between twelve tribes, representing the twelve sons of Jacob. They were surrounded by neighbours who wished to destroy them and the identity of the people of Israel was under constant threat. Only in loyalty to God, they believed, could their identity be safeguarded, and the Hebrew stories contain myriad accounts of men and women and the whole nation being preserved by God in times of crisis when all hope seems to be at an end. Indeed, the preservation of hope and trust when all the evidence runs in the opposite direction is another feature of the Hebrew Scriptures.

There is no single piece of territory that can be described as ancient Israel – the borders were fluid and changed over time. When the people of Israel came out of Egypt they described this as an Exodus and Jews saw themselves as ‘coming home’ to their forefather’s land. During this time they were led by a series of great leaders or Judges (one of them was a woman, Deborah; see Judges 4:4–5:31). The tribes of Israel retained their own identity, living in different areas and, initially, they avoided the cities. Yet the Judges could call them together in time of war to unite against a perceived military threat.

The prophets have a vital role to play in understanding Jewish history. They were often lonely and isolated figures, harsh and unyielding. However, they continually spoke up in the name of God, standing for justice and goodness in the face of power and corruption. Above all, they stood for the necessity for God to have a central place in the life of the Jewish state and for high moral standards as well as concern for those who were weak and vulnerable. The prophets did not speak on their own authority. The Word of God came to them and they were, effectively, the mouthpieces of God, sometimes speaking with reluctance because they often faced death or persecution from those in power. However, the reality of God’s Word to them was so great that it was almost impossible to resist. The prophets, however, could also be wrong; the story of Jonah is the story of an insular prophet, obsessed with the rightness of the people of Israel and the wrongness of everyone else and convinced that God favoured only Israel. The whole book is a wonderful story to make it very clear that, whilst God is the God of Israel, God is also the God of the whole world and that good and righteous people are to be found beyond Israel’s borders. Jonah is forced to recognise this, for him, uncomfortable truth. Never, except in the early days, did the people of Israel see their God as one amongst a number of local gods. They were convinced that the whole created order depended on God alone and that all other gods were merely human creations with no significance or power at all.

Initially the people of Israel were wanderers. Abraham and his descendants would have been like modern Bedouin and, even when they came with their extended families into Palestine after leaving Egypt, they were essentially a tribal and pastoral people. Settling into cities came later. There was suspicion not only of a king but of any central capital and even of a temple. Their God was an invisible God, the Lord of the whole earth, and no human-made building could contain God. What was more, the Ten Commandments had specifically forbidden any representation to be made of God so no statues or other idols were made. The people of Israel could not even utter the name of God and one of the Ten Commandments specifically condemned taking the name of God in vain. The result was that the nearest thing to a temple was a travelling ‘ark’ or tent which was seen as the symbol of holiness and the dwelling place of God on earth.

In these years it was felt that only God could be the Lord and Master of Israel. Religiously, therefore, the idea of having a king was treated with scepticism. However, political and military expediency made the choosing of a king necessary. Three great kings unified and, in the case of two of them, extended the national borders: first Saul, then David (the greatest king of all, who was also a musician and a poet and who ruled over the kingdom of Israel at the time of its broadest extent) and finally Solomon. It was during David’s reign, many modern biblical scholars argue, that the story of Abraham was written down. The boundaries of David’s kingdom coincide closely with the land promised by God to Abraham, but it was only for a very short period that Israel actually controlled these territories.

David was at one time held to be the author of many of the psalms which have been recited or sung in Christian churches down the centuries. One of the most significant directly attributed to David was Psalm 23:

The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters,

he refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right paths

for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk

through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

Surely your goodness and love will follow me

all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD

for ever.

(Psalm 23:1–6)

This psalm, with its message of trust in God no matter what the outward circumstances might be, represents a wonderful statement about Jewish and Christian faith in the righteousness, power, goodness and mercy of God in spite of all difficulties. However, what God required in return was obedience to God’s laws and, above all, acting justly. The prophet Amos was later to express this well when, speaking on behalf of God, he said:

I hate, I despise your religious festivals;

your assemblies are a stench to me.

Even though you bring me burnt offerings

and grain offerings,

I will not accept them.

Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,

I will have no regard for them.

Away with the noise of your songs!

I will not listen to the music of your harps.

But let justice roll on like a river,

righteousness like a never-failing stream!

(Amos 5:21–24)

Failure to act justly or to obey God’s commands were seen as breaches of the covenant relationship with God and, when these happened, the people of Israel saw disasters, oppression and persecution as a direct result.

The choice of a king was not considered a matter of expediency nor did the most powerful necessarily come to power. The decision was God’s and the choice often unlikely and improbable beginning with the first king, Saul, chosen by Samuel, one of God’s prophets, to whom the Word of God had come. Saul was in many ways a good king but he grew increasingly self-centred and no longer placed God and God’s commands at the centre of the life of the nation. He became increasingly jealous of a young boy, David, who slew in individual combat one of the most powerful champions of a neighbouring tribe with whom the people of Israel were at war – Goliath. David developed into a brave and fearless soldier and was the closest friend Saul’s son, Jonathan. He was good looking, young, a fine musician and ordinary people looked to him in admiration. Saul’s anger grew and eventually open enmity broke out between King Saul and David, by now one of his strongest generals. David had to flee for his life. Eventually Saul died by the intervention of God and David took over. This whole saga is recounted in the Hebrew Scriptures in very human terms, but God’s hand lies behind the whole of history and King David was to become the greatest of all the kings of Israel.

When he was young, David was a mere shepherd boy with no lineage or power base, and yet it was he who was chosen by God to succeed Saul. It is important to understand that Israel did not see themselves as simply another state who happened to worship God. God was at the centre of their whole life and self-understanding. The debate over whether or not to have a king, and even which king to choose, was always couched in theological terms. David did not feel that he was worthy to build a temple for God and this task fell to Solomon, David’s son. Solomon was revered for his wisdom and wealth but lost some of his father David’s kingdom, and from then on the State of Israel began to contract, splitting into two to form a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom. All the time, the Scriptures see God’s hand behind these developments and God, through the prophets who spoke in God’s name, directing the people and maintaining unity in the face of constant outside threats.

King Solomon had many wives and many of these were not Israelites; the problem was not multiple wives but that these wives brought with them worship of foreign gods. This practice continued and increased after Solomon’s death and, under King Ahab, the worship of the God of Israel almost disappeared or, at the least, was under grave threat. There were few genuine prophets left, but there was Elijah, one of the greatest of all the prophets. King Ahab had married a foreign wife, Jezebel, who had extended the worship of foreign gods into Israel. There were over 400 priests of this new god, Baal, and the God of Israel was increasingly ignored.

Elijah had to flee for his life because the priests of the other gods wanted to destroy him. God eventually came to Elijah and told him to stand on the mountainside. First a great wind came that tore at the mountains – but the Lord was not in the wind. Then came an enormous earthquake – but the Lord was not in the earthquake. Then came a great fire – but the Lord was not in the fire. Finally, there was a still small voice asking Elijah, ‘What are you doing here?’ Alone, hungry, and isolated, Elijah felt that everything was hopeless. He replied:

I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.

(1 Kings 19:14)

Effectively the people of Israel had abandoned their God and Elijah was hiding in fear of being murdered. All hope seemed to have vanished, as is often the case in the long history of the people of Israel. God told Elijah to anoint two new kings, whom God names, and a new era begins. This is a pattern that runs throughout Israel’s history. Israel ignores God and seems to abandon worship and obedience entirely, but a small remnant remains faithful and rekindles once more worship and praise of the one true God.

Elijah issued a challenge to the priests of Jezebel’s god: Elijah and they would each take a bull and make an altar. Then the priests of Jezebel’s god were to call down fire from heaven by calling on their god. This they did, dancing round the sacrifice all day and cutting themselves whilst praying – but nothing happened. Elijah mocked them, saying, ‘Shout louder! … Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or travelling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened’ (1 Kings 18:27), but still there was no response. Finally, Elijah came forward to the altar he had built. He had water poured over his sacrifice and then called to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Fire descended from heaven and the sacrifice was consumed. Elijah had all the priests of the foreign god put to death. Jezebel was furious and vowed to kill Elijah. However, it was Jezebel who died and her body was fed to the dogs. The worship of one God was reintroduced across Israel.

After the death of Solomon there were a series of ineffective kings and Israel, now divided into two kingdoms, gradually became weaker and weaker. Warfare with neighbouring tribes or countries, as well as warfare between different leaders, was almost constant and the people of Israel saw themselves depending on their God for their protection. The weakness of Israel compared to the increasingly powerful neighbours that surrounded them was to culminate in possibly the most catastrophic event in Israel’s history – the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. Jeremiah was another one of the greatest prophets in Israel’s history. He called the people of Israel back to loyalty to God and to placing God at the centre of their lives, but the people did not listen. Like many of the prophets, he was ignored and scorned and felt his own life under threat. God’s Word, however, was commanding. He had to prophesy in front of the king, and the prophecy was uncomfortable, speaking truth to power is always likely to lead to opposition! He foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, the enslavement of the people of Israel and the death of the king. Not surprisingly, hardly anyone believed him. Jeremiah had no doubt that the prophecy would come true but he also had hope for the future. He bought a field to show his confidence that, one day, the people of Israel would be able to return after the destruction that he had foretold as imminent.

The Hebrew Scriptures see the Babylonians as agents of God punishing the people of Israel for their wickedness. The Israelites lost everything. Their identity was founded on three things: Temple, King and Land. All these were destroyed: the King was killed, the Temple was pulled down and the leading figures among the people of Israel were taken off into captivity. It should have been the end of the Israelites: one more little nation vanquished by a regional power and disappearing from the pages of history. That they did not do so was due to their faith in God and also the memory of their previous exile in Egypt. They maintained their identity in Babylon by seeing themselves as being in exile from their homeland. They showed loyalty and service to the Babylonian state but insisted on maintaining their religious identity, not intermarrying and above all maintaining their faith that God would deliver them and bring them back to their homeland. What was even more important was that they came to a startling new understanding of their relationship with God; being faithful to God did not depend on having a temple, or a king, or occupying a particular piece of land. It depended, rather, on inner loyalty to the covenant established between God and the people of Israel. They would not eat pork or work on the Sabbath (the seventh day of the week in the Jewish calendar, which God had commanded as a rest day); they would circumcise their male children; and they would obey the Torah (the first five books of what Christians regard as the Hebrew Scriptures). Above all they would not worship other gods, and the Hebrew Scriptures tell stories of the incredible bravery of people going to hideous deaths rather than break God’s commands. The startling and new idea that it was loyalty to the covenant with God, and to God’s commands, that was of central importance rather than worship in a particular building eventually made it possible for Jewish communities to flourish in any society, maintaining their identity and religious practices and yet otherwise being loyal to the state.

Eventually, after many years in Babylon, the Israelites were allowed to return and immediately started building the walls around Jerusalem and also rebuilding the Temple. In spite of their realisation whilst in Babylon that land and Temple were not essential, these ideas were, and are, deeply rooted in the Jewish psyche and returning to their homeland was a powerful symbol. In the centuries that followed, the armies of a number of empires swept over the small land of Palestine, and Israel did not regain full independence although still the dream remained. The conquering armies tried many ways to stamp out and destroy Jewish practices, identity and worship but none of them succeeded. Jewish armies were raised and destroyed and the inexorable forces of the mightiest armies of the world crushed whatever military power Israel managed to assemble. In the process tens of thousands of young men from Israel died convinced that they were fighting for their God and that God would deliver them. All these empires had conquered, destroyed and absorbed many local peoples but the identity of the people of Israel remained intact. The latest empire to control Palestine was that of Rome and it was, therefore, under the control of the Roman imperial power when Jesus was growing up.

In the time of Jesus there were Zealots who dreamed of freedom from Rome and establishing a new, independent kingdom of Israel. They looked back to the great glory days of King David and believed that God would be on their side in an attempt to drive out the Roman occupying power. It was a foolish dream but similar foolish dreams had come to fruition before and many Jews, either secretly or not, thought back to the old days. They resented the presence of the Romans as a heathen occupying power and thought that a great leader might emerge, a new Messiah, a ‘son of David’ (their greatest king and military leader) or saviour of the people who would be a mighty warrior and would lead the people of Israel to independence in their own country.

Jesus, then, grew up with all these folk memories, with knowledge of the history of Israel, within a society confident in its superiority as a people chosen by God but also oppressed and powerless on the periphery of a great empire. It may seem strange to start a book on understanding Christianity with so much attention to the history of the Jewish people, but Jesus was a Jew and all Jesus’ initial followers were Jews. The Hebrew Scriptures and the story of ‘salvation history’ – God working God’s purposes out throughout the history of the Jewish people, culminating in the incarnation of Jesus – are central to any real understanding of the nature of Christianity. Jesus is held to be the hinge of history, the fulcrum point on which world history turns, since Christians believe that it is in Jesus that God fully reveals God’s self to human beings, it is in Jesus that all people are opened to the love and forgiveness of God, and it is in Jesus that God becomes incarnate and comes to earth in human form.

THREE

The Life of Jesus

Recounting the ‘Life of Jesus’ is far from straightforward and takes us to the heart of the difficulty in trying to give an account of ‘What is Christianity?’ today. There are four Gospels in the Christian New Testament (the word ‘gospel’ means good news). They are named Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and for more than 1,500 years Christians believed that these were the names of the authors of the different Gospels. Today, as we shall discover, this is seen to be highly problematic.

The Gospels include various accounts; there are accounts of Jesus’ birth; a few stories of events immediately following His birth; records of His ministry and death; and one description of an event when He would have been about twelve years old. However, Christians are divided as to the status to give to these narratives. Some would insist that they are literally true (even though there are differences between them) and others would see them as conveying central truths about Jesus but also making significant theological points, whilst still others maintain that there is very little that we can know for certain about Jesus’ life. There is a wide diversity of views.