Yeshua’s Kin-dom of Heaven, Chapter 2

[Luke 3:1-2] 1 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilatus (Pilate) being governor of Yehuda (Judea), and Herod being tetrarch of the Galil (Galilee), 2 in the high priesthood of Hannan (Annas) and Kayfa (Caiaphas), the word of Adonai came to Yohanan (John), the son of Zeharyahu (Zacharias), in the wilderness.

[Mk1:4-5,9] 4 Yohanan came immersing in the wilderness and proclaiming the immersion of repentance for forgiveness of sins. 5 All the country of Yehuda and all those of Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) went out to him. They were immersed by him in the Yarden (Jordan) River, confessing their sins. 9 In those days, Yeshua came from Natzerat  (Nazareth) of the Galil, and was immersed by Yohanan in the Yarden.

[GHeb2:1-3xCS] 1 And it came to pass that when Yeshua had come up out of the water, the Holy Spirit Shekhinah descended upon him and rested on him and said to him: 2 “My son, in all the prophets was I waiting for you that you should come and I might rest in you. 3 For you are my rest; you are my first-begotten Human Child, the prophet of my Kin-dom.” .”

[Mk1:12-13] 12 Immediately Shekinah drove him out into the wilderness. 13 He was there in the wilderness forty days tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels were serving him. [GHeb3xCS]  After his time in the desert Yeshua said, “Even so did my Mother, the Holy Spirit, take me by one of my hairs and carry me away on to Har Tavor (Mount Tabor).” There he was refreshed and restored from his fast.

[Mk1:14-15] 14 Now after Yohanan was taken into custody, Yeshua came into the Galil, proclaiming the Good News of Heaven’s Kin-dom, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and Heaven’s Kin-dom is at hand! Repent and trust in the Good News.

[✡Is61:1-3; Lk4:18-19]

1 ‘The Spirit of God is on me;

because Shekhinah has anointed me to preach good news to the humble.

She has sent me to bind up the broken hearted,

to proclaim liberty to the captives,

and release to those who are bound;

2 to proclaim the year of Adonai’s favor,

and the day of vengeance of our Shekhinah;

to comfort all who mourn;

3 to provide for those who mourn in Tziyon (Zion),

to give to them a garland for ashes,

the oil of joy for mourning,

the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;

that they may be called trees of righteousness,

the planting of Adonai,

that he may be glorified.’”

[Mk1:16-18xCS; Lk8:2-3] 16 Passing along through the town of Magdala, on the Lake of Galil, he saw Miryam of Magdala (Mary Magdalene) at the fish market she owned, talking to Yohannah (Joanna), the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household, while their servants attended to their business. 17 And Yeshua said to them, “Come after me and I will make you into managers of Heaven’s Kin-dom.” 18 And at once they left their business and followed him.

 

[Mk1:16-20] 16 Passing along by the sea of the Galil, he saw Shimon (Simon) and Andreas (Andrew), the brother of Shimon, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 Yeshua said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you into fishers for people.” 18 Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

19 Going on a little further from there, he saw Yaakov (James), the son of Zavdai (Zebedee), and Yohanan, his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets. 20 Immediately he called them, and they left their father, Zavdai, in the boat with the hired servants and went after him.

[Mk1:16-18xCS; Mk15:40; Mt27:56] 16 As he was leaving through the outskirts of the town of Magdala, on the Lake of Galil, he saw Shlomit (Salome), the wife of Zavdai and mother of Yaakov and Yohanan, doing wash with her house keeper. 17 Yeshua said to her, “Come after me and I will make you into a homemaker of Heaven’s Kin-dom.” 18 And at once she left the care of her home to her housekeeper and followed him.

   

[Mk1:21-23,25-45xCS]  21 They went into Kfar Nahum (Capernaum), and, immediately on the Shabbat (Sabbath) day, he entered into the synagogue and taught. 22 They were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as having authority and not as the scribes. 23 Immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out.

25 Yeshua rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet and come out of him!”

26 The unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.

27 They were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching?  For with authority he commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him!” 28 The report of him went out immediately everywhere into all the region of the Galil and its surrounding area.

29 Immediately, when they had come out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Shimon and Andreas, with Miryam of Magdala and Yohannah. 30 Now Shimon’s wife’s mother lay sick with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. 31 He came and took her by the hand and raised her up.  The fever left her, and she served them.

32 At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were possessed by demons. 33 All the city was gathered together at the door. 34 He healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons.

35 Early in the morning, while it was still dark, he rose up and went out and departed into a deserted place and prayed there. 36 Simon and those who were with him followed after him, 37 and they found him and told him, “Everyone is looking for you.”

38 He said to them, “Let’s go elsewhere into the next towns that I may preach there also, because I came out for this reason.” 39 He went into their synagogues throughout all the Galil, preaching and casting out demons.

40 A leper came to him, begging him, kneeling down to him, and saying to him, “If you want to, you can make me clean.”

41 Being moved with compassion, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I want to. Be made clean.”  42 When he had said this, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was made clean. 43 Yeshua strictly warned him and immediately sent him out 44 and said to him, “See you say nothing to anybody, but go show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing the things which Moshe commanded, for a testimony to them.”

45 But he went out and began to proclaim it much and to spread about the matter, so that Yeshua could no more openly enter into a city, but was outside in desert places, and they came to him from everywhere.

Introduction Part 3: The Kin-dom of Heaven; A Womanist Gospel

Kin-dom versus Kingdom

The Kin-dom of Heaven will be used instead of the Kingdom of Heaven.  The original Hebrew phrase “Malkuth haShamayim” has traditionally been translated as "the Kingdom of Heaven". "Shamayim" definitely means Heaven and was used by the Jews to mean God without having to use a direct reference to God, which they avoided whenever possible.  Kingdom does not quite capture the Hebrew meaning of “Malkuth” and certainly doesn’t capture what Yeshua was preaching.  Malkuth and Kin-dom have a more active sense of God's reign breaking into human history bringing about the biblical justice preached by the prophets for the liberation of the poor and oppressed, and creating a beloved community for all. Additionally, to quote Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz*,

 “We use kin-dom instead of kingdom because the latter is obviously a sexist word that presumes that God is male; and we do not use reign, because it is elitist. Kin-dom makes it clear that when the fullness of God becomes a reality, we will all be sisters and brothers—kin to each other.” This also fits quite well with what I think is a better concept of the Trinity than can be found in the scriptures, namely that of a Divine Family--Father God and Mother Spirit and Incarnate Child--which I will explain in a later post.

*[From “Solidarity:Love of Neighbor in the 1980s," in Lift Every Voice: Constructing Christian Theologies from the Underside, edited by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite and Mary Potter Engel (San Francisco: Harper, 1990), 31-40, 303-305.]

A Womanist Gospel

The important but relatively neglected role of women in general and Miryam of Magdala specifically in Yeshua's ministry will be emphasized. Yeshua’s ministry was radically womanist just by the fact that he taught women, he had them as permanent students, and he travelled with non-related women.  This is lost on us today.  Women were ranked below men and just above chattel in Yeshua’s world.  They weren’t even considered reliable witnesses.  That’s why, even though Miryam of Magdala and the other women were the first witnesses of the resurrection, the traditional formula that Paul sights in 1 Corinthians 15.3-5 says “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.”   Ironically, Yeshua's women followers were his financial backers!   Luke 8.2-3 "With him were ... certain women ... Mary Magdalene ... Joanna, the wife of Chuzas, Herod’s steward; Susanna; and many others; who served him from their possessions."   So I will use inclusive language, highlight the role of women in the gospel by placing them in passages the men disciples usually appeared in, and even make some mild embellishments (exactly like Matthew and Luke did with the text of Mark). Miryam of Magdala was the only woman designated by a surname in all four gospels and therefore certainly had special prominence in the ministry of Yeshua and the early church. Therefore, I will highlight her role as supported by the canonical gospels and by the special witness offered in the extracanonical gospels of Thomas, Miryam of Magdala, and Phillip that is not in conflict with the nature of her portrayal in the canonical texts.

Introduction Part 1: How dare I? and Why I am writing an updated Gospel.

Greetings Dear Reader,

Thank you for taking the time to read this modern revision of a gospel of Jesus the Nazarene.  I hope you will return feedback about what you truly think of it.  Below are several issues I think need to be mentioned for you to understand this gospel. Thank you.

How dare I?  Well, because the original gospel writers did same the same thing.  They collected oral and written sayings and stories and wrote narrative gospels that addressed concerns of their communities.  I embarked on this endeavor by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as encountered in my wife, my home Eucharist group, prayer, meditation, and New Testament study.  I am writing this for the following reasons:

• To make the story of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection more accessible to post-modern people, given their world view.
• To highlight the human Jesus of the earthly ministry against the God-Man presented in the canonical gospels (especially in John).
• To highlight that Jesus was a Jew.  This will entail using Hebrew/Aramaic proper names and terms for God.
• To redefine the traditional Kingdom of God/Heaven in inclusive concepts and terminology.
• To assert the role of women in Jesus' ministry and the early Church.  This role was certainly not represented well in the gospels because of the patriarchal prejudice held by those in Jesus' day and in the second or third generation Christians who wrote the gospels.
• To set the record straight, that the Pharisees were not “the bad guys" and why they were portrayed that way.
• To set the record straight, that the Sadducees were “the bad guys," who had Jesus killed and why they were not picked on as much as the Pharisees.
• To set the record straight, that Pontius Pilate was a brutal governor, portrayed as reluctant to kill Jesus because early Christians did not want to anger Rome.

The original gospels projected a post-Easter resurrected Christ onto the human Jesus of the earthly ministry.
This made sense for their time, trying to prove Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, in a pagan world with many God-Men myths.  Today however, for many post-modern people it presents problems. We can without argument assume Jesus was human, but to assume that he was self-aware of his Father’s entire plan or, more difficult yet, that he had the awareness of God, interferes with us hearing Jesus’ real message—the good news of the kingdom of heaven.  My guiding principles for discerning scriptures are found in the preeminent New Testament scholar, Günther Bornkamm’s book Jesus of Nazareth (1960) written for layperson and scripture scholar alike.  I highly recommend it; you can buy it for less than $10 at Abebooks.com.

So, to try and “draw back the veil” on that more human Jesus, who was certainly a prophet and Rabbi of the kingdom of heaven, I will make several changes to the gospel texts without changing the nature of the message Jesus is delivering about the kingdom of heaven.  Yeshua was about the kingdom of heaven, not about himself!  After the resurrection the first followers see that he “embodies” the message of the kingdom, and that is why he becomes the primary focus.  But to quote Günther Bornkamm*, “the Messianic character of his being is contained in his words and deeds and in the unmediatedness of his historic appearance.”  So we don’t need to constantly point out what his ultimate identity becomes after the resurrection.  Therefore, I will delete passages that indicate that he knew he was the Messiah, the Christ, Son of Man, Son of God, or I AM.  Statements that he knows he will be resurrected on the third day will be deleted.  Does he see himself as special?  Yes.  A prophet and Rabbi?  Yes. Annointed by the Holy Spirit?  Yes.  Does he anticipate his death?  Yes.  Does he trust in God’s vindication by resurrection?  Yes, but in the larger context of Jewish expectation that the just servant will be resurrected.  Does he think the Holy Spirit is his Mother and the heavenly God is his Father? Yes, but he sees all people as children of the Holy Spirit Mother* and heavenly Father.  And NONE of these things is the same as him thinking himself to be the Messiah who will lead Israel to political power again, Son of Man who judges the world at the end of ages, Savior of the world, THE Son of God, and certainly not God made flesh!

*Note: You'll understand the Holy Spirit Mother part in a few posts. I don't know if his fellow Jews all saw it this way or not.

More introduction to come in the next several posts. And I want to thank my wife, Annette, for her feedback and editing.