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| Palestine at the time of Jesus. |
-Brian Mendonca
In the Good Friday service today the first reading is taken from Isaiah 52:13 -53:12. It prefigures the Gospel reading of the passion of Jesus from John 18:1-19:42. Sandwiched between the two is the second reading from Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9.
However one pauses when one considers that the prophet Isaiah lived 500 years before Jesus Christ (6 BCE - 30 CE).
The writer of Second Isaiah (fl. 589- 540 BCE) was witness to the taking of the Jews into captivity to Babylon in 587 BCE, and the sack of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE.
When Isaiah 52 speaks about the suffering servant - the last of the four 'Songs of the Servant' - he is aware of hardships the Jews were going through (symbolized here by the servant). But the suffering has a redemptive power. 'After the anguish he has suffered he will see the light and be content.' (Is. 53: 11)
Isaiah 52 may also be a prophecy about Jesus. Jesus fits into this narrative as the sacrificial lamb later. For his kingdom is not of this world. Through his suffering and death he will redeem the world. In a sense Isaiah 52-53 from the Old Testament frames the Gospel of John 18-19 in the New Testament and contextualizes it within the ambit of the history and destiny of the Jewish people.
In the essay 'The Four Hundred Silent Years' light is thrown on a rather intriguing fact. The author argues that between the Old Testament and the New - a gap of 400 years exists which biblical history has not really plumbed.
After the readings from the prophet Malachi at the end of the Old Testament, we are catapulted into the New Testament with the reign of the Romans and the appearance of Jesus. The old order has changed by then and the axis of power has shifted from the East to the West.
The regents in Israel were in fact 'outsiders' keeping the peace for Rome, of which Israel was just one part of the Roman empire (27 BCE - 476 CE).
'For Rome, Palestine was important, not in itself but because it lay between Syria and Egypt, two of Rome's most valuable possessions. Rome had legions in both countries but not in Palestine. Roman imperial policy required that Palestine be loyal and peaceful so that it did not undermine Rome's larger interests. That end was achieved for a long time by permitting Herod to remain king of Judea (37-4 BCE) and allowing him a free hand in governing his kingdom, as long as the requirements of stability and loyalty were met.'*
The Jews resented being ruled by non-Jews. They looked forward to a time when they would have a leader from among them.
But Jesus was not the military leader they were looking for.
Jesus challenges the Roman authority by preaching that he is a descendent of Moses and that he is the Messiah, they have been waiting for. For an already restive populace who had gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, a spark was enough to ignite mayhem.
A jittery Caiphas, the high priest, and Pilate know that it was in the interests of Rome to silence Jesus. Jesus's open challenge that he would destroy the temple of Jerusalem and rebuild it in three days, would mean that the Romans would be hounded out of their plum territory by Jesus and his rebels, and they would have to retreat to Rome.
So Jesus had to die. He was spurned by his own people as effete, and the authorities as a radical. Nevertheless he forged a new religion of Christianity which we adhere to till this day.
Hebrews 4-5 from the New Testament establishes the lineage of Christ as a high priest who was just like us, yet without sin, The necessity of Christ's suffering is outlined in the lines 'Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.' (Heb. 5:8-9)
Hebrews is believed to have been written between 65-95 BCE - soon after the death of Jesus. Comprising 13 chapters, it seeks to establish the teleology of Jesus as the head of the new church. Janus-faced it looks back at instances of faith in the Old Testament from Abel and Abraham, through Isaac and Rahab (Heb. 11) and urges fidelity to the new religion. (Heb. 10)
Placing the readings from Isaiah 52-53, John 18-19, and Hebrews 4-5 side by side on Good Friday attempts to bridge the lost years of biblical history. They encapsulate the prophecy, the passion and the practice of the key tenets of Christianity. They suggest that God will never abandon his people and Jesus came to earth to fulfil his destiny as the savior.
In the vast narrative of the Bible there is always scope for a metatextual reading of key events of salvific history.
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Pic source: thebiblejourney.org. The Four Hundred Silent Years (2002) by Ray C. Stedman. *'Jesus' Encyclopedia Britannica. Updated 9/4/23.
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