Reza Aslan argues that historical Jesus is best understood as a poor, revolutionary Jew who really wanted brutal Roman occupiers (and their Jewish collaborators) the fuck out of Israel. Aslan says “Jesus was a Jew preaching Judaism to other Jews. His was a Jewish mission, one concerned exclusively with the fate of his fellow Jews.”
Aslan argues that when Jesus referred to the Kingdom of God he wanted to usher in, he was referring to a Jewish Israel free of Roman rule
I haven’t read Reza Aslan’s book, but it sounds like it’s in the same vein as Michael Hudson’s work situation Jesus in the historical context of Bronze Age concepts about economic justice.
Hudson argues that the jubilee—the official erasure of debts and freeing of slaves—was the foundational pillar of Brone Age economies in the near East. The Iron Age Israelites continued this tradition by encoding it as a religious obligation on all Jews, the 50-year jubilee cycle.
Jesus, he argued, was revolting to restore this tradition that had been suppressed by the Romans and their local allies. The “year of the lord” he wanted to restore was the jubilee year. And, for that, the Romans crucified him.
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