Jesus was……a ZIONIST!
-“WHAT??!”
-”Yes, you heard that right– J.C. was a ZIONIST!”
-“Are you joking? Prove it!”
It’s easy if you want facts, not fake news. First, some background and basic info: Yeshua (Jesus’ given name in Hebrew) was the son of Miriam and Yosef and was born in King David’s hometown of Beit Lechem (Bethlehem), a town close to Yerushalayim (Jerusalem), in the Roman-ruled province of Judea. At the time of his birth, Herod the Great ruled Judea as king (though he was under the overlordship of the Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus).
Yeshua grew up in Natzeret (Nazareth) in the region called the Galilee; he learned the Jewish prayers in Hebrew, celebrated the Jewish holy days like Passover and Rosh HaShana, spoke the everyday language of Aramaic, studied Torah in Jerusalem. One of his teachers was a famous rabbi named Yehoshua ben Perachaya. Like many of his peers, he became a “rabbi” (meaning teacher); he also became a healer and something of a prophet as he wandered about, developing a small but devoted following.
Yeshua lived at a pivotal time when, on the one hand, Herod had recently rebuilt and made magnificent the holy Jewish Temple (which was open to all sincere God-seekers, not just Jews), and on the other hand, Jewish relations were very strained with Roman rule and its culture (paganistic, idolatrous, indulgent, and demanding in terms of taxation and police rule). Rebellion often simmered beneath the surface, and Rome used a heavy hand to stifle it. The state would often crucify on wooden crosses publicly Jews who were political suspects– the total number of such executions has been estimated to have been in the tens of thousands! (Side note: crucifixion was a lengthy, sadistic torture. Driving large nails into one’s heels and hands is excruciating, and the Romans, like the Nazis of the 20th century or the jihadi Moslems of Hamas and ISIS, delighted in such sadism.)
Yeshua, like many of his fellow Jews, was not happy with the Temple’s Sadducee priesthood “establishment,” nor with the strictness associated with the Pharisees nor with the non-religious supporters of Herod. His approach was totally “kosher”, but more like the rural, holistic Essenes, as we have learned from the Dead Sea Scrolls. But he was a-political, taking his well-known view of rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s (tax money, in the form of coins with the idolatrous face of the emperor) and to God the things that are God’s (our neshamas, our souls).
Indeed, Yeshua’s interests became increasingly other-worldly, especially as the political atmosphere became darker and more tense. His focus was on the eschatological themes of Sof Hayamim (the End of Days), Geula (Redemption) and Meshichut (the coming of the Messiah, of the lineage of David).
Like many others, Jesus got caught up in the whirlwind of the times, which meant periodic repression by the Roman authorities. Yeshua was falsely charged as a dangerous radical, mockingly referred to as King of the Jews, and sentenced to death by cruel crucifixion. And thus he was executed… but not destroyed, as Christianity grew, like a twig, then a new branch, from its Jewish tree and its deep roots in Judea.
But all that is another story. Suffice to say here, simply and sadly, Yesha was born, raised, and died as a Yehudi, a Jew, in Judea.
-”Okay, Jesus was a Jew, no question. But Zionism– how was Jesus a Zionist? You said he was– how so?”
So, let’s define Zionism. It’s not that complicated. On one level, the word Tziyon (Zion) is a traditional Jewish synonym for Jerusalem. It is first mentioned in the Torah in connection with a local hill called Mount Zion, but it subsequently carried the connotation of the unique character of the entire city, special because Jerusalem became the geographic center and capital of Biblical Israel and the 12 tribes, and because it was the locus of the first Temple, erected by King Solomon, son of David (almost 1000 years before the birth of Yeshua).
Over the years (centuries!) the term Tzyion expanded to also mean Eretz Yisrael, the holy Land of Israel, which God bequeathed ( expressed numerous times in the Bible) as an everlasting inheritance to the Jewish descendants of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs Abraham Isaac Jacob Sarah Rebecca Leah and Rachel. This was Yeshua’s inheritance, too. This was the teaching he learned, the environment he grew up in, and the very air he breathed. In modern times, non-Jews have also used the word positively, symbolizing enlightenment and goodwill towards mankind. It’s only recently that enemies of Israel and Jew-haters have twisted time-honored definitions and now scream that Zionism is foreign, repressive, racist, a colonialist project that must be obliterated. God forbid.
These are the basic facts. To say or think that Jesus was not a Jew and also not a Zionist is not only absurd, it’s a deliberate lie. True, there have been opponents, atheists, and heretics who have tried to excise Zion/Jerusalem/Israel from the Jewish faith– notably the early Reform movement in 19th century Germany and very recently, several anti-Zionist, so-called Jewish organizations in America which have allied themselves with the despicable Hamas supporters.
But Jesus? Jesus was 100% on the pro-Zionist side. If he were alive today, he’d be fighting for Israel (like his spiritual brothers the Essenes, who actually and physically fought the Roman overlords in the famous Jewish wars of the first century), or he would be actively preaching and demonstrating on Israel’s behalf, against the evil of anti-Zionism and the sadists of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Indeed, to many Christians and to their Jewish friends, this aspect of Jesus is truly alive today. And let us say Amen.
Pinchas Baram, Ph.D. in History, made aliyah from Brookline, Mass. more than 20 years ago and lives in Katzrin, the Golan. He was a high school and college teacher (Univ. of Mass., Lowell, etc.). His book, The Department of State and the Middle East 1917-1945, won a major award from the American Historical Society. For 10 years he was the executive director of the New England Zionist Federation and Zionist House/Israel Cultural Center in Boston (once thriving entities which no longer exist). He is also an experienced holistic health practitioner, has run the Boston Marathon, and is part of the Dati Leumi movement in Israel.
Pionchas has a B.A. from Brown, an M.A. from Harvard, a Ph.D. fromBoston University. He can be reached at pjbaram36@gmail.com
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