I am Dr. Theophilus Buttocks - a fellow of the Old Divinity School Cambridge. (My students secretly call me as 'Old Buttocks') - which I don't care, as it is a term of affection.) And I do have a rather large posterior.
People write to me from time to time (yes, people still use pen and paper) - and I share the Radiance of my expertise.
Here is an example from today's mail - which I get frequently – Is Jesus Jewish?
Well, we don't really know.
He was given the good Jewish name Joshua at Birth - (named after a famous Jewish general in the Old Testament). He was from a Jewish village. But there was once speculation that his mother had an affair with a Roman soldier - so he could be Half Italian.
He was brought up Jewish, learned to read the Torah, learned Carpentry from his father, Joseph. He ran away to a religious commune and meditated in the desert. The family was upset at these 'Hippie type actions . One passage in the Gospels said they thought he was mentally ill.
He hung around with anti - Roman fanatics - like John the Baptist and both eventually paid a price.
There were thousands of men named Joshua in Israel, as it was a popular boys name. So, it took the Romans a while to find him.
He was circumcised (all male Jews were) - and the Church for years had a special religious holiday celebrating his Circumcision.
But the Church stopped that in the 1950's as it was sort of a Lurid holiday. Holding foreskins up to the Congregation really would not go down well today.
Joshua of Nazareth died a Jew - was buried in a Jewish tomb -but suddenly turned Christian at the end.
Maybe Early Christians slipped some Christian passages into the Gospels.
It is very suspicious Him being Jewish and suddenly basically saying - 'I changed my mind - Let's have a new Religion and leave the Jews out of it'.
The Christians in Rome won all the religious battles and Joshua of Nazareth became Christian. End of story.
(Another time - I will talk about the Israelis coming down out of the hills of Canaan and bloodily taking over the neighboring towns - and being some of the earliest Religious Terrorists we know about.)
