The Bad Jesus: The Ethics of New Testament Ethics by Hector Avalos (2015)

Summary: In “The Bad JesusJesus Ἰησοῦ Χριστῷ: Doubts and controversies are always with him. Whether he existed at all or not? Whether Paul was correct or Muhammad about Jesus? If Paul was a student of Gamaliel then why he had heard nothing about Jesus from him? Why Aramaic culture of Jesus was not preserved? Why there were no dates in apostolic letters? But writing Date in letters was a standard practice then. What was the original language of the epistles? Possibly Constantine would have known these. He died due to asphyxiation.: The Ethics of New TestamentNew Testament Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη (He Kaine Diatheke). The phrase 'New Testament' (NT) never appeared in the Gospels or Acts, or Epistles. The phrase was put on the Book cover after 400 CE. Hebrew brit (בְּרִית) in Jeremiah (Jewish Bible) states that Elohim would reconsider the case of Israel. It is not Covenant (Will of a dead man). As a living god, Elohim always agrees with his living community. There is no question of rejecting and accepting a new agreement like a trading company. The relationship of Elohim with Israel is permanent. Israel is his eternal Son (Torah). Ethics,” Hector Avalos, a professor of Religious Studies at Iowa State University, challenges the traditional view of Jesus as morally perfect. He argues that Jesus should be examined through a historicalHistorical Old or ancient facts, which could be verified, are recorded after following a system. 'In the beginning was God' is a faith statement, not a historical Fact. Itihas (iti-ha-asa) in Sanskrit means it was there or as it existed, which is part of Smriti Parampara, verified facts, and Puranas are a collection of old stories of the vedic nation, which can not be verified, but they are with the people and recorded in books without verification. lens rather than revered as a divine figure. Avalos highlights instances in the New Testament where Jesus’ actions and teachings diverge from modern ethical norms, such as violence, treatment of women, imperialism, poverty, and the environment. He contends that Jesus, like other ancient figures, reflected the ethics of his timeTime χρόνος. Judicial: Where any expression of it occurs in any Rules, or any judgment, order or direction, and whenever the doing or not doing of anything at a certain time of the day or night or during a certain part of the day or night has an effect in law, that time is, unless it is otherwise specifically stated, held to be standard time as used in a particular country or state. (In Physics, time and Space never exist actually-“quantum entanglement”) यमः , पुं, (यमयति नियमयति जीवानां फलाफलमिति । यम् + अच् । विश्वे च कलयत्येव यः सर्व्वायुश्च सन्ततम् । अतीव दुर्निवार्य्यञ्च तं कालं प्रणमाम्यहम् ॥यमैश्च नियमैश्चैव यः करोत्यात्मसंयमम् । स चादृष्ट्वा तु मां याति परं ब्रह्म सनातनम् ॥ and culture, which may be viewed as harmful by today’s standards.

The Bad Jesus: The Ethics of New Testament Ethics

Publisher: Sheffield Phoenix Press
Genre: ReligionReligion ‘The word ( θρησκεία) -Re Legion (Latin)- A group or Collection or a brigade, is a social-cultural construction and substantially doesn’t exist. Catholic religion (संघवाद) is different from the Protestant religion (संघवाद). Dharma is not Religion (धार्मिक संगठन). "Religion" occurs 5 times in 5 verses in the KJV. Hindu Religion means in the indian language is हिंदू धार्मिक संगठन. Deen in Islam.
ISBN: 9781909697799, 9781909697799
Pages: 476

The Bad Jesus, Love, and the Parochialism of New Testament Ethics
Hector Avalos, Professor of Religious Studies, Iowa State University

“Indeed, if one reads almost any treatise on ChristianChristian A person who believes that Jesus died to remission his/her sin/debt. The People of Antioch were called for the first time as 'Christians', in or around 300 CE. ethics written by academic biblical scholars, one finds something extremely peculiar: Jesus never does anything wrong. This oddity even flies in the face of Jesus’ own reply to the man asking about how to secure eternal life: “And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but GodGod People in most cultures believe in the existence of supernatural beings and other supernatural concepts. God is attributed to both anthropomorphic properties (“listens to prayers”) and non-anthropomorphic properties (“knows everything”). Conceptualizing God is associated with willingness to get the COVID-19 vaccine or Vaccine hesitancy. Pope requested people not to practice “Jesus is my vaccine”. For the Jewish, family (Avestan universal) god became national God: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,”(ex 3:15). See Ishwar. alone’” (Mk 10:18). The Gospels record others judging Jesus as immoral: “the Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!”’(Mt. 11:19)”.

“So how is it that most current academic biblical scholars still do not consider anything that Jesus does as wrong or evil? The answer, of course, is that most biblical scholars, whether in secularRegular Regulated by Christian law and practices, the opposite meaning of Secular. A regulated government accepts Vaticanism, the control under the papal monarchy. A secular government is free from papal intervention. academia or in seminaries, still see Jesus as divine, and not as a humanHuman Ο άνθρωπος (Humanum> Homo sapiens) मानव:. We have failed to consider the minimum need to be a 'human'. For Christians, human beings are sinful creatures, who need some saviour. For Evolution biology a man is still evolving, for what, we don´t know. For Buddhist Nagarjuna, the realisation of having a human body is a mere mental illusion. We are not ready to accept that a human is a computer made of meat. For a slave master, a human person is another animal, his sons and daughters are his personal property. being with faults. Their ChristologyChristology Christology or Συνοδική Χριστολογία (Synodical Christology) is the result of seven consensus-building (οικουμενικός) measures on the mysterious Incarnation of Christ in human form and on the substance of Christ within the scheme of Trinity. is high enough to exempt Jesus from any evil sentiments or ethical malpractice. The feminist scholar Mary Daly argues, as I do, that, a great deal of Christian doctrine has been docetic, that is, it has not seriously accepted the factFact Something तथ्य (In-formation) that truly exists or happens or some-thing that has actual existence. Circumstances: a fact or event that makes a situation the way it is. Indian Evidence Act: It means and includes— (i) anything, state of things, or relation of things, capable of being perceived by the senses; (ii) any mental condition of which any person is conscious. “facts in issue” means and includes any fact from which, either by itself or in connection with other facts, the existence, non-existence, nature or extent of any right, liability or disability, asserted or denied in any suit or proceeding, necessarily follows. that Jesus was a limited human being”.

Most New Testament scholars are affiliated with religious institutions and are part of what I have called an ecclesial-academic complex that has no counterpart in any other areas of the humanities. For example, most, if not all, scholars of GreekGreek Oldest Greek (750 BCE Dipylon inscription) Alphabet A α alpha B β beta Γ γ gamma Δ δ delta E ε epsilon Z ζ zeta H η eta Θ θ theta I ι iota K κ kappa Λ λ lamda M μ mu N v nu Ξ ξ xi O o omikron Π π pi P p rho Σ σ ς sigma Τ τ tau Y υ upsilon Φ φ phi X x chi Ψ ψ psi Ω ω omega ♦ Homer (800 B.C.E) Hesiod (700 B.C.E), Aesop (6th-century B.C.E), Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.E) Euclid (ca. 300 B.C.E), Epicurus ( 341-270 B.C.E), (Strabo 64 B.C.E.-23 C.E) Epictetus (55-105 C.E), Josephus (37-100 C.E) ♦ Septuagint (LXX 2nd Century BCE) > New Testament (Καινή Διαθήκη). Greek vocabulary > Greek grammar > Learn Greek in 30 hours. religion are not a part of some Greek religious movement or organization. Despite biases that always exist in the study of the classics, it is fair to say that few have any personal stake in whether Zeus or Tiberius was good or bad because those entities don’t constitute any sort of authority for their actions. That is not the case with Jesus, who is still viewed as the paradigmatic authority for most Christian scholars. Such New Testament ethicists are still studying Jesus through the confessional lenses of Nicea or Chalcedon rather than through a historical approach that we would use with other human beings.

Contents

Introduction
Basic Elements of the ArgumentArguments It is not quarreling. It can be divided into Deductive, inductive, and conductive > Functional includes include: “because”, “since”, “for”, and “as”; typical conclusion indicators include “therefore”, “thus”, “hence”, and “so”. पंच अवयव तर्कः प्रतिज्ञा हेतू उदाहरणम् निगमनम् अवयवाः > premises to conclusion or conclusion to premises to Proof something. Proof is a derivation of a conclusion from premises through a valid argument.

The Unloving Jesus: What’s New Is Old
Loving the Enemy in the Ancient Near East
Love Can Entail Violence
The Golden Rule: Love as Tactical
The Parochialism of New Testament Ethics

The Hateful Jesus: Luke 14.26
Jesus Commands Hate
Expressing Preference
Hate as a MotiveMotive Intending to collect money he started to motivate the people to donate to him. Intention comes first then motive to take the course. Motive is action > Reason, Root, Rationale, Purpose, Excuse. Section 4 BSA (Admission/Confession of Motive-S 22 BSA) for DivorceDivorce The lawful thing Allah hates most is divorce. (Abu Dawud)
The Statistics of Hate and Love
The Semantic LogicLogic What is logic > Glossary of Indian Logic (Sanskrit)-तर्क शब्दावली > Logical Reasoning - Set One of Love and Hate

The Violent Jesus
Matthew 10.34-37: Jesus’ Violent Purpose
Matthew 5.38-42: Don’t Victimize Me, Please
Matthew. 26.48-56: Non-Interference with Planned Violence
John 2.15: Whipping up Pacifism
Acts 9: Jesus Assaults Saul

The Suicidal Jesus: The Violent Atonement
Jesus as a Willing Sacrificial Victim
Mark 10.45: Self-Sacrifice as a Ransom
Sacrifice as Service: Transformation or Denial?
2 Corinthians 5.18: Anselm Unrefuted
René Girard: Sacrificing ApologeticsApology Whether solemn or formal or public or private, expressing soulful regret for known/unknown mistake, error, lowering the prestige or insult, given in written form or orally. Christian apologists (apologetics) defend the Christian faith and its validity. > after the Gospel no need of research."--Tertullian, Prescription of Heretics.

The Imperialist Jesus: We’re All God’s Slaves
Rethinking ‘Anti-Imperialism’
Selective Anti-Imperialism
The Benign Rhetoric of Imperialism
ChristChrist Not before 250 CE, Jesus was attached to this Title (Gospel of Thomas). Lamentations 4:20 > The breath of our nostrils, the Christ (Mašíaḥ) of Yahweh, was captured in their pits, of whom we had said, “Under his shadow, we shall live among the nations.” Greek Septuagint (OT), χριστός derived from χρίω (anointed one). Jews never accepted Jesus as the Messiah. His violent death was interpreted as a curse by Yahweh. For Hindus, Christian claims are absurd. Performing Dharma leads to Liberation. For Muslims, Jesus never died on the Cross. He who confesses that Jesus is Christ is Christian. Confessing Muhammad is the Last Prophet earned the name of Mohammedan. . as Emperor
The Kingdom of God as an Empire

The Anti-JewishJew “Being Jewish” is very important and not forgetting the Holocaust is religion over Halakha. Israeli Jews are divided into Haredi (Orthodox), Dati (reformed), Masorti (Conservative/traditional) or Hiloni (secular), nonetheless, their ethnoreligious identity was possibly originated in ancient Egypt and modified in Babylone. In their Synagogue, they read the Torah and pray for the coming of the Messiah, who would build global 'Israel', through which the Divine and Human would meet forever. Jesus: Socio-Rhetorical Criticism as Apologetics
Abuse Me, Please: Luke T. Johnson’s Apologetics
When is Anti-Judaism, not Anti-Judaism?
When Did Christian Anti-Judaism Begin?

The Uneconomic Jesus as Enemy of the Poor
Jesus as Radical Egalitarian
The Fragrance of Poverty
Sermon on the Mount of Debts and MeritsMerits Strict legal rights of the parties; a decision “on the merits” is one that reaches the right(s) of a party as distinguished from a disposition of the case on a ground not reaching the rights raised in the action; for example, in a criminal case double jeopardy does not apply if charges are nolle prossed before trial commences, and in a civil action res judicata does not apply if a previous action was dismissed on a preliminary motion raising a technicality such as improper service of process.

The Misogynistic Jesus: Christian Feminism as Male Ancestor Worship
Mark 7//Matthew 15: The Misogynistic Jesus
Mark 10//Matthew 19: Divorcing Equality
The Womanless Twelve ApostlesApostles Ἀποστόλων- Messenger. 12 male leaders appointed by Jesus in NT (στέλνοντας ανθρώπους σε απόσταση). In Jesus' scheme, Judas fulfilled Jesus' wish. Peter on the contrary denied Jesus`s identity! Apostles, were not Prophets, they were simply village idiots of Juda and Summaria, without the capacity of reading or writing. The capacity given directly by Jesus in the gospel to them can be compared with the capacity given to them in 'Acts' which were different. Idiots suddenly become Pandits. Most of the Indian Bishops do not know how to read Greek Bible. NT teachers in Indian Seminaris read only one or two passages from Greek!
The Last Supper: Guess Who’s Not Coming to Dinner
The Egalitarian Golden Age under Jesus

The Anti-Disabled Jesus: Less than Fully Human
Disability Studies
John 5 and 9: Redeeming Jesus
The Ethics of Punctuation
Paralyzed by Sin

The Magically Anti-Medical Jesus
Miracles, Not Magic?
The Naturalistic Jesus
Psychosomatic Ethics

The Eco-Hostile Jesus
Mark 5: Animal Rights and Deviled Ham
Luke 22 and Matthew 8: Sacrificing Animal Rights
Matthew 21: Figuratively SpeakingSpeech 400 million years ago, the larynx was developed and allowed for communication with other animals. 60 million years ago, human beings talked about Dynosure or like animals in India. The vocal tract was in place to support modern human discourse as early as 300,000 years ago in the Indian subcontinent.
Mark 13: Eschatological Eco-Destruction

The Anti-Biblical Jesus: Missed Interpretations
Mel and Jesus: The Hypocrisy of New Testament Ethics
Mark 2:23-28: Jesus as Biblically Illiterate
Matthew 19: Jesus Adds his Own Twist on Divorce
Isaiah 6:9-10: Integrating Extrabiblical Materials

Conclusion
The Ethics of New Testament Ethics

“New Testament ethics is still affected by a Christian bias that relies on denigrating and diminishing the ethical accomplishments of other Near Eastern cultures to bolster the reputed founder of ChristianityChristianity Basic features: the incarnation of the Word becomes a man in a definite person and his sacrifice on the cross for the redemption of sinful mankind. Whether the theology, organisation, or reading materials, everything formed in Alexandria (read Philo) in or around 80 CE. The term Christian was not used before the first quarter of the 2nd Century (Antioch/Antakya). It was the outcome of three Jewish-Roman wars, namely, 'The Great Revolt' (66-70 CE), the 'Kitos War'( 115-117 CE), and 'Bar Kochba Revolt' of 132-135 CE. After the Bar Kochba revolt, It became a distinct sect from Judaism. In 30 BCE Greek became the language of Alexandria. NT was written in this language and the passion of the Christ was first performed here. The legacy of Clement (159-215 CE) and Origen ((185-254 CE) was to be noted.. Otherwise, the field of New Testament ethics usually ignores the advances of other Near Eastern cultures in order to render Jesus as an innovator on ethics. In The Bad Jesus, I offer many detailed examples of Jesus’ practices and teachings, as portrayed in the Gospels, that would be antithetical to modern ethical norms on violence, the treatment of women, imperialism, poverty, the environment, and human equality. Far from being a paragon for modern ethics, Jesus was another ancient figure who was a reflection of the ethics of the biblical authors and their cultures. Many of those ethical precepts could be viewed as harmful or negative today if anyone other than Jesus held them”.

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