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Jesus In Context

Many years ago I was in Chicago doing research on Yeshua, the Jewish Jesus, with a friend. We were in a university library in downtown Chicago when the professor we were visiting with called out, “Hey Yeshua!” I quickly turned in the direction she was looking and saw a young man wave at her. But, for a split second, my brain was expecting to see another Yeshua – and that was a very weird experience. For years the only Yeshua in my mind was Jesus -- and I really wasn’t expecting to see him that day in Chicago.

The professor laughed when she realized what was going on. She reminded me that Yeshua was still a very popular Jewish name, just like it was 2000 years ago in Galilee and Judea. There were lots of people named Yeshua in Jesus’s world. But when many Christians picture those places in that time period, they picture only one. So how did people view him back then?

Jesus didn’t live in a “holy force field” that separated him from the rest of mankind. In his world in 6 BCE to 27 CE, no one viewed him as “the second person of the Trinity” or the “Creator of the Universe.” The Doctrine of the Trinity would not be created until 451 CE – over 400 years later – and that was in different place with a different culture.

For many years I believed everyone viewed him like we did at my local Baptist church. It didn’t offer courses on church history or the culture of Jesus and neither did the local public schools. Every preacher I knew was only interested in defending his doctrines and beliefs – and had no interest in letting outsiders or church members examine, question or challenge them. So, what else could we think in an environment surrounded by people who all held the same beliefs and knew better than questioning church authorities?


There are four factors that you must be aware of when you read about Jesus in your Bible -- if you want to accurately understand his life and teachings. By familiarizing yourself with them, you will recognize the challenges people faced that heard him speak 2,000 years ago -- when their brains tried to figure out which box to him in, just like my brain did in Chicago!


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