Paper #5: The Criminal Christ
The Criminal Christ
If the human Christ existed - and this is a very big “if” - he is described with little acumen and very briefly in the biblical texts. Most of the religious/theological analyses of Christ are figments of faith and belief (a loving man, a good man, a blessed man), not the biblically described man. The accounts of his life that are provided, as a child, and then as an adult, are pitted with accounts of criminal acts that are often accepted as those of a religious activist and the imaginary son of God. There is little analysis of his acts as those of a criminal - a criminal whose disobedient, arrogant childhood actions suggested that he would be an uncontrollable liar, cheat, thief, and killer. His life as a criminal should not be surprising because his parent’s brief appearance and his mother’s relationship with her son must have adversely affected the boy Christ and his adult actions.
We begin with the birth of Christ and the events surrounding it (Matt. Ch. 1, v’s 18-25; Lu. Ch 1, v’s 26-33). The rumor spread by Christ’s parents, so that they could avoid the wrath of a very religious community, resulted in the acceptance of the pregnancy as an act of God; God, through the holy spirit, is said to have impregnated Mary. The biblical stories surrounding the pregnancy are contradictory; Mary was impregnated by God and Joseph was then told of the act by an angel. In effect she was raped. Impregnating a woman without her prior agreement (or even knowledge in this case) is a clear definition of rape (Matthew’s account) or she was told by an angel first and then impregnated (Luke’s account). However, If she was not raped by God, then she is guilty of adultery and in those days the punishment for this act was death by stoning. Obviously the more acceptable of the two situations is that Mary and Joseph committed adultery and they escaped stoning by spinning the tale of the virgin birth in a very superstitious community that was waiting, with great expectations, for the arrival of the Messiah. Therefore, either way, Christ’s birth was part of a criminal act and he was a bastard (Jo. Ch. 8, v. 41).
Historically, and especially in the days of the Roman rule of Judea, a bastard was considered the “black sheep of the family”. The expectations of their behavior as they grew up was said to be turbid, to say the least, and although the local superstitious community accepted the strange story of Mary’s impregnation and Christ’s birth, it is probable that the more educated Jews and Romans did not accept it and would have considered the boy a bastard, viewing him as an outcast (Jo. Ch. 7, v’s 3-5: rejected by his brothers; Ma. Ch. 3, v. 21: rejection by the rest of his family). This is the way his behavior is described when, as a young man trying to preach to the rich, he was rejected and described as a social outcast and outlaw (Lu. Ch. 22, v 37).
His rejection by the rich class and priests as a troublemaker forced Christ to seek out the poor and uneducated (most of them were illiterate) to believe his wild assertions and anti-social behavior. He also rejected the rich and, growing out of his hatred of his early rejection, eventually asserted, threateningly, that all the rich would have an extremely difficult time getting into heaven (Matt. Ch. 19, v’s 23-24). Christ’s childhood behavior provides a good reason to understand why fifteen years of his life was ignored. He was rebellious and dishonest from early in his life; his thoughtlessness led to severe anguish for Mary, particularly, (when he purposely stayed behind at the temple when his parents left to go home and he did not tell them what he was doing,) (Lu. Ch. 2, v’s 41-51), and predicted through this behavior his later arrogance when he rejected her and put her down in front of his friends (Ma. Ch. 3, v’s 33-35).
We know nothing of Christ’s behavior for the fifteen years prior to his appearance with John the Baptist (Matt. Ch. 3, v’s 1-17), his baptism and conversion to John’s extended beliefs and sect. But his behavior as a teenager and a young man (following his early visits to the Temple and his parent’s probable strong Jewish beliefs) must have been dictated by these beliefs and his parent’s discussions of them. During Christ’s life there were, literally, hundreds of religious sects and cults. Anger at the rumored corruption of the Sanhedrin and Roman oppression must have been transmitted to the child and projected by him as things to oppose. Also, if Christ was human as is stated in the Bible, parts of his growth and behavior are predictable - his rudeness and impatience with his parents would have been exacerbated by his teenage hormones, as would his sex drive. Two things must also be studied in connection with Christ’s unwritten behavior. First, we must look at the life of a typical Jewish child and his community life, and second, by analogy, and as an accepted part of “God’s plan” it is interesting to consider the childhood and early adult life of an early Saint - Augustine.
The Jewish community in which Christ grew up was very poor, mostly illiterate, and often starving. The suppression of the Jews, the demand for taxes in cash and kind, violence without cause or warning, and public punishment for the most trivial of crimes, caused tremendous tensions in this society. These awful conditions would have prepared and encouraged the young boy to rebel and he was, therefore, ripe for conversion to become an activist in one of the cults. It appears that Jesus, himself, was unaware of his presumed status as the son of God, or if he was he is not shown to understand it - his words to his parents when they returned to find him in the temple, “I was about my father’s business”, are words which could have been spoken by anyone; the word “father” was used to describe God - the Jewish God. One of the other anomalies of the young man’s life is why, if his parents and others in the community, believed that Christ was literally the “son of God” he was trained as a carpenter when he could have spent most of his time learning from the temple priests to become a Rabbi or a holy man?
The analogy of Augustine (see, “The Confessions of St. Augustine,” translated by Rex Warner from the original autobiography, Books 1-9, but especially Books 2-4) should be studied more carefully, for, although Augustine lived well after Christ’s presumed death, his behavior as a young man must be indicative of many young men of this early period. Augustine was not always a Christian. His early life was a time of debauchery and boozing with friends, and it can be said with some accuracy that his acts included dishonesty and petty theft. It was only after his early life that he was converted. Christ’s behavior as a teenager and young man, even on the periphery of teenage behavior, must have been similar. One of miracles - turning water into wine - clearly shown that he drank alcohol and enjoyed it, and his association with a whore suggest that he was involved with both of the behaviors associated with wine and women.
If we take these described situations as indicative of Christ’s early life as a typical teenager and man, we can understand why the fifteen years of his early life are excluded from the Bible. We can also understand that it was probable that he “sowed his wild oats” early in his life and, therefore, chose to become a religious activist and zealot later in his life. It also provides more reasons for his criminal behavior as a man.
Christ’s criminal behavior revolved around several things: his supposed “miracles”, his attitude towards those people in his society who were considered wealthy, his use of threats of violence to promote religiosity, and his need for an early death.
Two of Christ’s actions are good examples of his criminal “miracles”: his drowning of a herd - 2000 of them - of swine (Mar. Ch. 5, v’s 11-13), and his overturning of the money lender’s tables at the temple on Passover (Lu. Ch. 20, v’s 45-46). Considering the poverty-stricken society that Christ lived in, the ownership of a large group of food animals for eating and selling was considered part of a man’s wealth. The drowning of the pigs was criminal and thoughtless because it destroyed someone’s livelihood and the fear it instilled is clear when the men who were feeding the pigs ran away in terror. This wanton carelessness regarding other people’s belongings and income is also shown in Christ’s destruction (for no reason at all except for a miserable need to show his “control”) of the fig tree (figs were part of the staple diet of most people in those days,) and his childish and destructive irritation at the fact he was hungry and it was not the season for the fruit (Matt. Ch. 21, v’s 18-20; Mar. Ch. 11, v 21). Christ encouraged his disciples to commit crimes, too. The donkey that he rode into Jerusalem was stolen by them (Matt. Ch. 21, v’s 2-3). The overturning of the money-lender’s tables was equally criminal (and the act for which he was imprisoned); however corrupt these money lenders were, on high holy days they provided a recognized and essential function at the temple and had been doing so for as long as the temple existed. The criminal act, therefore was a combination of several things - the active disruption of the Passover and temple celebrations (an act of religious desecration), inciting a riot, the careless disruption and loss of income for people considered acceptable and needed, if despised, and an act of violence.
Christ’s incitement of others to violence takes a number of forms: he threatened people, he proposed actions which would lead to violence, he participated in violence, he conjured up images of violent rejection by God (and by implication, by himself as the son of God), he offered a vibrant and violent description of satan’s intervention and hell, and he described the destruction of the world. (Matt. Ch. 10, v 34; Ma 21, Ch 21, v 333; Jo. Ch.10, v 18; Ma. Ch. 8, v. 22; Lu. Ch. 14, v. 26 are some examples.)
However, and worst of all, considering the definition of the deadly “sins”, were the actions of Christ surrounding his death. First, Christ knew that the overturning of the money lenders’ tables was considered a criminal act, and that, if he was caught, he would be imprisoned and/or executed. Second, we know from the biblical account that Christ actively sought his own death (Matt. Ch. 16, v 21; Ch. 20, v’s 17-19; Ch. 26, v 2). His careless and criminal act, his announcements at the last Seder of his probable death, and his capture and imprisonment by the authorities all suggest both a planning for his death, and, because of his very public behavior, a conscious set of progressive actions which would lead to that death. Finally, Christ’s final act in this process, underlines the fact that he was very definitely a criminal. Before we look at this final act, we must, once again, look at the society in which Christ lived, more especially their behavior over Passover.
Christ and his twelve or fifteen followers entered Jerusalem by one of its main gates. He was riding on a donkey, a common type of transport for the poor at this time. He, and the thousands of worshippers entering Jerusalem at this time walked over palm leaves thrown on the entrance roads to Jerusalem to keep down the terrible dust that the huge crowd stirred up. The descriptions of this entrance in the Bible is purposely exaggerated and inaccurate suggesting that the son of God entered Jerusalem in triumph with a huge crowd of followers, and palm fronds thrown at his feet; from what we know about religious practices on high holy days in Jerusalem there is no doubt that the palm fronds were always cut and put down on the dusty roads. The described actions of Christ before this event simply do not lend credibility to the description of a huge band of followers. If this had been so, the Romans governing Judea, who feared that news of dissonance would reach Rome (and who together with the entire population of Judea, according to the Bible, knew about Christ), would have sent soldiers to force them out of Jerusalem. But this did not happen.
The Roman occupation of Judea is an important part of the discrediting of several biblical assertions. For example, there was supposed to be a tax census instituted by the Romans that is supposed to have forced Mary and Joseph to return to their home of birth - this is why they were on the road. In fact there was no census, and they were probably escaping from irate neighbors who would have accused them of adultery and demanded their stoning. At the time of the Passover the Romans were very nervous in case there were riots in the city which was very overcrowded and religiously excited. At the time of Passover, although the Romans patrolled the city, they purposely abdicated responsibility for any violence and gave the control of Jerusalem to the Jewish authorities, holding them responsible for any unrest. The Romans did one other thing at this time; they crucified a small number of imprisoned criminals, placing them on the main road to Jerusalem as a warning to the Jews entering the city. Interestingly, crucifixions were not on crosses, but on a single, straight upright pole - the cross became the symbol of Christianity, erroneously, after about 400 A.D. when it first appeared on coins of the period.
On the night of Christ’s capture (Matt. Ch. 26, v’s 47-57), he and his disciples went to the Mount of Olives to pray. Christ and his terrified disciples knew that the Jewish authorities were looking for them since the overturn of the money lenders’ tables. Judas had gone at the end of the seder to find the authorities to tell them where Jesus was going because he had been offered money to lead them to him - the kind of money that a poor person could not refuse. Christ knew that Judas had been offered the money (Matt. Ch. 26, v’s 14-16) and had told his disciples at the Seder that Judas would betray him. The facts surrounding Judas’ led to the murder of which Christ can be accused: after Judas “betrayed” Christ he committed suicide by hanging himself. Since Christ knew, beforehand, that Judas would tell the authorities about him for money, and made no effort to stop him, Christ is associated directly with Judas’ death and was at least partially responsible for it. In our terms today, this would be, at the least, manslaughter.
The authorities arrived at the Mount of Olives to arrest Jesus and most of the disciples ran away. It is important to go to the place where Christ is purported to have been captured because it is interesting to see how easy it would have been for him to run away, too, leaving the authorities behind in the dark, and escaping to live another day, but he did not. Instead, he told Peter to put up his sword, and went meekly with the authorities, expecting, indeed, wanting to die. Today this act would be called “death by cop”. This is a term used by the police to describe a suicide by running into police gunfire, or threatening the police so that they fire. It is an accepted and defined form of suicide.
Jesus’ choice to be captured was an act of suicide, another criminal act - he had committed his final crime causing a disturbance in a city where riots could have followed; he was captured and imprisoned before the Romans had crucified criminals to discourage unrest in the city, and he knew he would be killed for committing the unpardonable act of inciting a riot jeopardizing future Passover celebrations at the temple and angering the Romans. The crucifixion was a simple and common act of the execution of three criminals found guilty of their crimes.
Christ is a peculiar god figure and the continued belief in him is equally peculiar. There is little doubt that he was a violent charlatan, liar, thief and murderer. He also committed suicide. He lived in a corrupt and violent society in poverty and a need for a day-to-day struggle for survival. When he had taken on the cloak of “the son of God” the violence continued and increased. His activist position annoyed the rich, particularly those who lived around the sea of Galilee, and his preaching to his followers about their expected participation in the spreading of Christ’s “teachings” was also a threat to the Jewish authorities.
Christianity, as we know it, only saw its final form in 325 (at the first Council of Niceae, under the aegis of the Roman Emperor, Constantine), years after Christ’s supposed death and later in that century. From 375 onwards, under Rome’s emperor’s baton - the final group, which became the Catholic and Orthodox churches, was provided with buildings for their worship and they worked to finalize the Bible. Before this the gospels were written individually and then distributed as advertisements for unbelievers to join the various sects and cults. They were written and rewritten by dozens of scribes, altered, with parts left out and parts added - this continuous process of development and merger of different copies of the same story have produced wonderful mythical stories by authors whom we do not know (the names on the Gospels are for identification only).
The contradictory texts of the Gospels make it difficult to sort out fact from fiction, exaggeration from lies. But on closer inspection, and with a lot left out (apparently purposely) the picture of Christ is not that of a loving, benign, holy, deeply religious man with deep courage to face the hardships of the time and the positive responses to his activist work. He was an arrogant, violent criminal who both participated in violence and encouraged it. Christ as a child was without a future, born of a lie as a bastard, a loner berated by his childhood associates and others in this overcrowded, violent and starving society, and rejected by his family, where he started his listed criminality by hiding in the temple without telling his parents, thus leading to their return to Jerusalem after finding him missing to find the little brat badmouthing them without a care for their concern.
As he grew up and because of the conditions in his society and the discussions and teaching of his parents, the street preaching of various sect members and cultists, and the suppression of the society by Rome, he became a troubled, violent teenager who grew up an arrogant anti-social criminal looking for any way to undermine the social structures, laws and rules that bound him to Judaism (which he saw as corrupt and the religion of the rich, whom he despised) and to the culture which served him so badly.
An early activist promoting violence and finding kindred spirits in people like John the Baptist, he surrounded himself with ignorant, poor and unreasoning followers in his own little cult. His preaching alarmed the local authorities who saw him as an extension of John the Baptist, who, by then, had been executed for his social deviation. The claim that he was the son of God, considered a blasphemous threat to the Jewish infrastructure and their expectation of the Messiah, exacerbated Christ’s position and at this point the entire local society was against him (he was a thief - stealing people’s livelihood, he promoted violence, he lied, he belittled the Jewish religion, he consorted with whores and thieves, he threatened the rich, and in the end he was a murderer and a suicide).
While he excused his behavior as “God’s work and teachings”, the anger and suspicion at his anti-social behavior including wild threats and violence and criminal acts (in fact it is surprising that he was not arrested earlier as a common criminal, but the Romans were careless about crimes committed by Jews against Jews and probably considered him a simple nuisance, where they knew about him at all). It was as clear to him as it was to those who aspired to support him that he could not go on like this in a society that despised him and feared his preached violence against them - in the end he knew he would be arrested and executed. It did not take a god to understand that in this violent, superstitious society he had gone too far. As the criminal he was, he was eventually executed with two other criminals as a warning to others.
Ironically, it was through threatened violence by Constantine and the wide implementation of that threat that the religious sect that became the Catholic and Orthodox churches gained the upper hand and then promoted their beliefs through the violence of centuries of war, of violent governance, of government intervention, of the execution of other types of religious leaders, of public threat of violence, and of conversion by threat, torture and example killings.
Christ’s criminality was espoused by his followers, used to expand and maintain control, and used to become the wealthy owners of huge repositories of money and property that Christ despised and that often drove him to threats of violence himself. The criminal Christ’s teachings built an empire of criminals - success beyond his wildest dreams.
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