I propose a reading of the New Testament that I’ve not seen prior. Tis an interpretation that might be liable to knock one’s socks off or compel one to wish me burned at the stake, and perhaps the possibility of the latter reaction is why I write anonymously.
The tale of the Bible from its opening pages is a tale of humanity beginning to come to terms with the imposition of being human. Many examples can be highlighted of this grappling. I find that the contest between the known and unknown evolves throughout the Books. There’s the role of man and woman; the weight of the knowledge of good and evil; the absurd disparity in how one is seen by God and the envy/vengefulness such disparities can give rise to; then up through righteous disobedience; breaking out of slavery; and being a righteous man and king. Endless moral impositions and value judgements can be drawn from the Bible.
I do not claim to hold all biblical edicts nor do I suppose the book tells a full story of humanity, but there’s nothing else quite like it in existence.
Now, a recurring emergence in the Bible, both Old & New Testament, is that of the Prophet. He’s building an Ark cause God said to, he’s receiving laws from God atop a mountain, he’s becoming a King, he’s doing his thing.
A key aspect to the prophet’s tale is the tragedy that befalls him or his people. And this happens because, like from the start, he’s figuring out his humanity. He’s trying stuff. In part what makes him a prophet to begin with is his intuition towards change and the unforeseen. The issue with being inclined towards the new is that it can be perilous; this and that it tends to rub people, and perhaps God, the wrong way. “Be normal Be chill!”
Ok so what is this big special interpretation of one of, if not the, most known and commented on stories in all of human history?
Well, let me tell you. Jesus’s life as far as I see fits perfectly into the long line of prophets that preceded him. His was an ultimately tragic tale. He spoke new truths, dared in new ways, and was eventually forsaken and suffered a terrible fate.
Now, in order to allow for even the possibility of this interpretation you have to be fairly secure with dismissing the whole “rose from the dead” part of the story. I feel ok to do this. In fact, I might say adding this appendix to his life’s story was as sinister as putting him up on that cross to begin with.
We’re such infants, such spiritual babies that we can’t accept that such a man could be so pure and still be man. We can’t concede in our hearts that such a blameless beautiful life could end so horribly, so unnecessarily, so meaninglessly.
But it did.
J.W. 