It's curious

 

I'm reading a book my #1 son gifted me for Father's Day. It's titled "Walking the Bible"; the author is Bruce Feiler, a Jewish guy who wanted to trace our history from Abraham.

It's a fascinating read.

But one thing disturbs me.

Not just in Mr. Feiler's work but in other Jewish writers' efforts as well.

He frequently makes reference to "Jesus Christ."

There is some historical evidence that a personality named the Hebrew equivalent of "Jesus" existed, but my problem is "... Christ."

Christ is Greek for messiah, and as every Jew - and Moslem - knows, Jesus hardly proved to be the messiah. The whole idea of a messiah who would save us from punishment in the hereafter is foreign to the earliest Jewish messianic concept.

Why isn't Jesus called "Jesus THE Christ" - it would seem that his family name (a novelty introduced by Napoleon Bonaparte) is "Christ."

I'm no authority on the addenda to the Bible added by Jesus' followers, so I won't offer with any certainty that Jesus ever claimed to be more than just another Jew.

I DO know that another Jew, Paul - nee' Saul - promoted Jesus into a deity; Saul became the world's greatest PR person.

Quick, totally unrelated and irrelevant question: If Saul/Paul can create a worldwide religion around a man, why can't modern Israel create some decent PR in the face of Islamic attacks? We're consistently too little, too late.

Mr. Feiler of course is hardly the only Jew to fall into the trap of laziness or herd mentality that automatically appends "christ" to Jesus. Far too many Jewish scriveners do it without thinking - both about what it means religiously and what it means in so far as Paul's followers have done to Jews over the centuries.

I suppose I could say I'm on a "crusade" to make Jewish authors aware of this literary faux pas, but "crusade" is another word that needs to be banished from a Jewish writer's vocabulary except as reference to one more historical event that cost Jewish lives.

I might find "Jesus the Christian's Christ" less offensive coming from a Jewish writer. (I don't object to one of Jesus' followers writing "Jesus Christ" albeit even for them grammatically it should be "Jesus THE christ.")

Yohanon Glenn
Yohanon.Glenn at gmail dot com
COMMENTS ARE WELCOME but MUST be in Hebrew or English