Tenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

This project reintegrates the history of Jesus as recorded in Matthew 10:34 and Luke 22:36 from a historical perspective to shed light on what I consider to be a missing part of the history of Jesus, the revolutionary aspect of his mission. To assess the revolutionary tendency of Jesus that is now lost to history, I will dig deeper into the inner meanings of two passages from the Scripture - Matthew 10:34 and Luke 22:36 - to examine what they say about him. Exploring Jesus from a historical perspective demands a deeper historical analysis of the individuals affected by his Mission. The passages that form the core of this essay are historically relevant to our understanding of who Jesus was, but most historians and theologians tend to ignore it as they emphasize his nonviolent mission. The factors that led Jesus to instruct his disciples to sell their cloaks and buy a dagger need to be contextualized in the history of Roman domination of Palestine. This essay will therefore examine ancient Roman and Judean history before and long after his death. Certainly, the historical Jesus was not an overtly violent man; there is no historical evidence suggesting he was involved in violent acts. Yet, his influence was pervasive and threatening the Romans and the Pharisees, political puppets of the Romans. I revisit the history of Jesus through a socio-political lens and to examine this history in the context of the conditions of Jews under Roman rule.