>
> On Aug 8, 2009, at 5:01 PM, Jeffrey Fisher wrote:
>
>>
>> and the [Israelite] king was the son of god. is my point.
>>
>
> So what is then the difference between Jesus and David, Rehoboam, Athaliah,
> Josiah et. al. (other than that they were real royalty and he was a failed
> pretender to the Davidic throne)? What makes him "bigger" than a Solomon?
>
>
i think we're miscommunicating, and this is probably because i'm not being
clear.
my point, i thought, is a small one: that the gospels in general, but certainly mark and to a large extent john (the two lacking a genealogy, btw), have it that jesus is actually *not* the son of god/king/messiah in this traditional sense, but that everyone misunderstands him as claiming to be king in this traditional sense. this misunderstanding is arguably *the* central theme of mark. i admit i find this theme probably more fascinating than most.
paul doesn't use the misunderstanding trope anywhere that i can think of off the top of my head, but he also certainly does understand jesus as being son of god not merely "according to the flesh from david" but also "according to the spirit."
i'm not claiming that jesus was divine in any sense at all. or that he was a king. i am only saying that people early in the tradition, and quite possibly jesus himself, understood jesus to be more or other than a davidic king. certainly the way mark plays the theme lends itself to the idea that "mark" made this part up after the fact. but i have to say that in my own work on the gospels i've often wondered if jesus didn't think something more of himself, too.
in the end, i think that's all i was really saying here: that maybe jesus *was* that crazy. maybe he really *did* believe it. the opportunistic followers trope has a certain appeal (and is played brilliantly in "the life of brian," for example), but i'm not sure it's that much more compelling a historical analysis of what jesus himself actually thought.
not that anyone else is interested at this point . . .
>
>
> Shane Mage
>
> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
>> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
>> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>>
>> Herakleitos of Ephesos
>>
>
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