Historical significance of the Jesus revolution

The Philosophical Impact of Jesus Christ
(lifted from an email by Ken Freeland)

The Old Testament books are themselves a hodgepodge of many, sometimes very contradictory, beliefs and opinions (not to mention problematic histories). But essentially there is one contradiction that especially concerns Christians: The Old Testament god is of course vindictive, jealous and extraordinarily violent - an all-punishing kind of god. His "chosen people" are steeped in what must be termed exophobia, fear and hatred for all that is different from their own belief system. In the course of time, however, a second tradition springs up alongside of it, which is called the "prophetic" tradition. While this is also a mixed bag, in the fullness of time it develops a kind of cohesion around principles of social justice, equality before God's law, and preaches a causal relationship between the virtue of the Israelite citizenry, and the ultimate success of the state. The ancient belief was that military success was given by Yahweh, and that social welfare followed as a consequence. The prophetic tradition increasingly argued the opposite: that it is precisely the level of social justice manifest by the people that determines the social integrity and therefore ultimate success of the state, the outward manifestation of the people. Still, these two tendencies subsisted side by side in the Judaic tradition, and the social justice mandate itself was limited in its application to the traditional tribe - one's fellow Hebrews. Now Jesus does certainly assert that he, like the John the Baptist before him, stands in succession to the prophetic tradition, but unlike all of the earlier prophets (from some of whom he freely borrows), he is NOT willing to tolerate the opposing school of thought. It is in this light that we best understand his often misunderstood statement that he came "not to bring peace but a sword." These two traditions, in his view, are incompatible, and one must clearly separate them and choose between them, even though this will lead to serious social division. And so he maximizes the social justice ethic of the later prophetic tradition to the point where it alone has ethical value (and in fact a universal, not merely tribal, ethical value) so that exophobia is categorically and explicitly rejected, and exophilia takes its place. The agape of Christianity is exactly that: universal love. All mankind are included in its sweep, and there is no ground left for the old exophobia. Jesus warns that those who continue the old tradition (and he knows many will) must face calamity in the inevitable clash with stronger outsiders, such as the then-dominant Roman empire. And this comes to pass, exactly as Jesus has prophetically predicted, in 70 AD.