Nadene Goldfoot

A street in Bethlehem

Jesus, Greek for the Hebrew name of Joshua, was, as his biographers stated, a Jew, son of Joseph and Mary of Bethlehem. He's not mentioned in any Jewish resources, only by his biographers who were the Gospel writers of the New Testament.

Bethlehem was a little off-beat village back in the turn of the centuries, the time when BC became AD or as we Jews say when it turned from BCE to CE. This is when the numbers of years went from 10 to 1 and then switched to numbers from 1 to 10. It's because historians presumed that Jesus was born at this time, and that he died, as our Jewish historian wrote, in 29 CE. Christian historians say differently. AD 36 is used as the date of the crucifixion. Thus, scholars generally agree that Jesus was crucified between AD 30 and AD 36. Bethlehem is still a little off-beat town today, having been taken over by the Arabs of Bethlehem, mostly Christians, at least originally. I contend that Bethlehem of the day of Jesus, had become a Hellenized town of Jews. Here's how:

The Temple Mount during the Hellenistic and Hasmonean periods (332-37 BCE) Helenized implies that they were turning away from Jewish practices and beliefs and turning towards the Greek influences of philosophy and religion and politics.

In the late 330s BCE, Alexander the Great of the Greeks had invaded the Middle East (including the area which is now Israel), during his campaigns against the Achaemenid Empire. They came, conquered and started putting their idols in the Temple and forcing people to worship them, but Judah, the Maccabee, fought against them. Thus we have our Chanukah story, a part of history. Judah's sons became a dynasty of rulers after they forced the Greeks out. So from the 330's to 329, 328, etc, to 1, Jews were being affected by Greek influence even though they were no longer rulers.

The Emperor Alexander meeting the Grand Priest Jaddus. Painting by Jacopo Amigoni (c. 1675-1752), Issoudun, Musée de l’Hospice Saint-Roch. He brought with him his Greek culture.
Josephus wrote for Emperor Vespasian of Rome( 69-79) Nero had sent him to subdue the Judean rebellion so by 68 he had conquered the Galilee, Transjordan and the Judean Coast . In 69 he became emperor.
Josephus, Jewish General who was Hellenized and captured by the Romans, "asked" to write the Jewish History for an audience of Romans, records in Ant.11.325–339 a visit to the Temple by Alexander the Great-King of Macedonia (356-323 BCE) after his capture of Gaza in 332 BCE. Here, the Jewish historian has him sacrificing in the Temple under the guidance of the High Priest.

Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, said to be handsome and mesmerizing -- beloved by Jews and Macedonians.  It was he who influenced Hellenization. Historians have been exploring possible parallels between the traditions surrounding Alexander the Great in Jewish eschatological thought and the mythology of Jesus. North Macedonia is situated in Southeastern Europe, bordering Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south, Serbia and Kosovo to the north, and Albania to the west
Although this may be mere legend, the story points to the perpetuation of the Temple services following their revival after the return from exile in Babylon. After the death of Alexander, Judea was governed by the Ptolemies of Egypt, who were tolerant of Jewish religious practice.  Ptolemy I Soter was a Macedonian Greek general, historian and successor of Alexander the Great who went on to found the Ptolemaic Empire centered on Egypt and led by the Ptolemaic dynasty from 305 BCE – 30 BCE.
Simon Thassi established the dynasty in 141 BCE, two decades after his brother Judas Maccabeus (יהודה המכבי Yehudah HaMakabi) had defeated the Seleucid army during the Maccabean Revolt of 167 to 141 BCE. According to 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, and the first book of The Jewish War by historian Flavius Josephus (37 CE–c. 100)  Simon Thassi the Hasmonean High Priest of Judaea. The second & last surviving son of Mattathias of Modein aided & consolidated the gains of his younger brothers. After rallying dispirited Jews to defeat the Syrian general who had killed Jonathan, he persuaded Demetrius II to exempt Jews from taxation or tribute. The Hasmonean dynasty was a ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during classical antiquity, from c. 140 BCE to 37 BCE.
Between c. 140 and c. 116 BCE the dynasty ruled Judea semi-autonomously in the Seleucid Empire, and from roughly 110 BCE, with the empire disintegrating, Judea gained further autonomy and expanded into the neighboring regions of Perea, Samaria, Idumea, Galilee, and Iturea.
The Hasmonean rulers took the Greek title basileus ("king" or "emperor") (They showed this sign of becoming Hellenized-by using the language-basileus, for this). Forces of the Roman Republic conquered the Hasmonean kingdom in 63 BCE and made it into a client state; Herod the Great displaced the last reigning Hasmonean client-ruler in 37 BCE.Herod died in 4 BCE. New Testament names him as the cause of the Massacre of the Innocents, a copy-cat story of the pharaoh of Egypt's doing causing Moses to be hidden in the bullrushes. The Massacre (or Slaughter) of the Innocents is an incident in the nativity narrative of the Gospel of Matthew (2:16–18) in which Herod the Great, king of Judea, orders the execution of all male children who are two years old and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem. Herod had a bad reputation, and this is figured to just be a story; no evidence.
Following the Greeks were the Romans.  Roman general Pompey conquered Jerusalem and its surroundings by 63 BCE. The Romans deposed the ruling Hasmonean dynasty of Judaea (in power from c. 140 BCE) and the Roman Senate declared Herod the Great "King of the Jews" in c. 40 BCE. Judea proper, Samaria and Idumea became the Roman province of Iudaea (Judah) in 6 CE. The Romans also brought their religion which was a carbon copy of the Greek religion differing only with Roman names for the various gods instead of the Greek ones. Of course they also tried to force-feed the Jews with their religion, and what this caused was a lot of mixed up Jews running for the hills to live together in male-dominated kibbutzim-style quarters trying to figure it all out. Their grandparents and parents had been hit with Greek and Roman religious beliefs and they were the result. Their work has been discovered and named, The Dead Sea Scrolls in a part of Jordan's cave system.
Mary was Jesus's mother; a typical Jewish mother but already Hellenized. She thought the world of this son who was so bright (same for Jewish mothers today). The highest position for a Jew was to be a rabbi, and he studied in Bethlehem evidently, He was not accepted in the important rabbinical circles, like at the Sanhedrin, though, because he was from a school on the level of Portland State, not like Yale or Harvard which were the Jerusalem schools. There was much his education had not impressed upon him with the whys and therefores or discussion on the debating sides. But for Bethlehem, he was fine. He would make a visit three times a year to Jerusalem and attend the Temple Services, and listen to the lectures then. Here's where being born in Jerusalem gave one the upper edge; they didn't have dorms in those days for schools and Jesus, as he preferred to be called, had no relatives there to stay with. Being only the gospels tell us about him, I'm using some of my own suppositions.
Now as I've said, there is no bio from Jewish authors. We have to rely on the Gospel writers who wrote in Greek and were from the following generations. They received their research from 2nd hand research. But I'm relying on known historic facts of the history of Israel and Judah about the country.
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were the Gospel writers, all born in different years, after the fact..They refer to Jesus as Jesus Christ. Evidently they were not trying to reach a Jewish audience or they would have written in Hebrew, but they didn't and most likely couldn't. They were not Jewish. However, they had heard about the Jews expecting the Messiah. It was a main concern during the Hellenistic days of Greek and Roman attacks and people dying.
Κοριτσάκι, σήκω--Greek for Little girl, get up.   Like the rest of the New Testament, the four gospels were written in Greek.
Christ comes from the Greek word χριστός (chrīstós), meaning "anointed one". The word is derived from the Greek verb χρίω (chrī́ō), meaning "to anoint." In the Greek Septuagint, χριστός was a semantic loan used to translate the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (Mašíaḥ, messiah), meaning "[one who is] anointed".So they are in Greek saying that Jesus was the Messiah.
The Gospel of Mark probably dates from c. AD 66–70, Matthew and Luke around AD 85–90, and John AD 90–110. Despite the traditional ascriptions, all four are anonymous and most scholars agree that none were written by eyewitnesses. (I count 25 years as a generation).  Three of the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—are quite similar to each other when compared to the fourth Gospel, John. They tell the story of Jesus in similar ways, frequently including the same stories and sayings and often using the same words.

That’s why these first three are known as the “synoptic” Gospels—because they offer a “shared view” of Jesus’ life (Greek, sun = “together” + opsis “seeing”). They are so similar that scholars have long tried to figure out why. This is known as “the synoptic problem.”Isn't it possible that the first writing acted as a resource for the 2nd and so on? These hand-written copies would have been passed around to known people who were involved or at least interested.

Let me put that in order:

1. Mark (66-70 CE) Greek--3 generations from the event; Mark the Evangelist, also known as John Mark or Saint Mark, is the person who is traditionally ascribed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark. Modern Bible scholars have concluded that the Gospel of Mark was written by an anonymous author rather than by Mark. However, people began to associate Mark’s boldness to that of a Lion after he delivered the Gospel message of Saint John the Baptist, which he received from Jesus and conveyed the same to Mark in the voice of the Lion in the wilderness. Mark was the primary witness of many miracles that took place at the time of Jesus Christ. He also mentioned a few in his Gospel. He was also the founder of the first Christian school in Egypt. He continued serving humanity until his death after he was tortured and imprisoned around 68 AD. Just thought you would like to know that the names Mark and Marcus have both Hebrew and Greek origins. Marcus is written this way in Greek:ΜάρκοςMarcus is written this way in Hebrew:מרקוס. Hebrew is read from right to left. Greek is read from left to right; the opposite of Hebrew.

2. Matthew (85-90 CE) Greek, written a good 15 years after Mark; Matthew the Evangelist, St. Matthew the Apostle, or Levi, (flourished 1st century ce, Palestine; Western feast day September 21, Eastern feast day November 16), one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ and the traditional author of the first Synoptic Gospel (the ).Early Christian Theologian Origen (c. 184 – c. 253) indicates that the first Gospel was written by Matthew, and that his Gospel was composed in Hebrew near Jerusalem for Hebrew Christians and translated into Greek. The Hebrew original was kept at the Library of Caesarea. Sometime in the late fourth or early fifth century the Nazarene Community transcribed a copy for Jerome which he used in his work. Matthew's Gospel was called the Gospel according to the Hebrews or sometimes the Gospel of the Apostles and it was once believed that it was the original to the Greek Matthew found in the Bible. However, this has been challenged by modern biblical scholars such as Bart D. Ehrman and James R. Edwards. See also the two-source hypothesis. Most modern scholars hold that the Gospel of Matthew was written anonymously, and not by Matthew. The author is not named within the text, and scholars have proposed that the superscription "according to Matthew" was added sometime in the second century. Tells story of Massacre of Innocents-boys 2 yrs and younger killed by Herod I. In view of the lack of independent confirmation that the event ever occurred, many scholars consider it folklore inspired by Herod's reputation.

3. Luke (85-90 CE) Greek, written after Mark and Matthew, born in Turkey, died in Thebes, Greece. the most literary of the New Testament writers. Information about his life is scanty. Tradition based on references in the Pauline Letters has regarded him as a physician and a Gentile. He probably accompanied Paul on several missionary journeys. He is a patron saint of physicians and artists.

4. John (90-110 CE) Greek-the most anti-Semitic , the politics of the Romans are influencing his writing, Romans have been to Judah by now. John’s is the only one of the four not considered among the Synoptic Gospels (i.e., those presenting a common view). Although the Gospel is ostensibly written by St. John the Apostle, “the beloved disciple” of Jesus, there has been considerable discussion of the actual identity of the author.

Let's look at the Christian Arabs who have taken over Bethlehem. A man's DNA is traced back in time over 1,000 years and is called the Y (for male) haplogroup of DNA.

" Hasabneh: To prove this hypothesis, I had to test the largest clan in Bethlehem, the Hasbun clan, to which belong as well the Hitti, Shreim, and Masriyeh families. Originally from the Hasban Valley, located on the border of the territories Moab and Ammon (modern-day Jordan), they are said to have migrated to Bethlehem in the seventeenth century via Petra, ancient Idumaea–Nabataea (southern Jordan). In the Bible, Hasban is referred to as Heshbon, a Canaanite name meaning “little thinker.” This Heshbon also came from the lineage of Hur, whose descendants settled in Palestine along with the Amorite wave that invaded Jordan around 1350 BC, shortly before the arrival of the Israelites from Egypt into Moab and Ammon around 1200 BC. I tested the Hasbun family and found that they carry the same Y-DNA genes as the Khumsan and Farahiyeh families, which proves that they are of similar Hurrian origin, stemming from the Jebusites of the Jerusalem area who in the thirteenth century BC were led by the Amorite King Sihon.

It's interesting to know that the Arabs living in Bethlehem are evidently a line of native Arabs, because Abdullah of Jordan had brought in people with him from Arabia, today's Saudi Arabia.

It is said that Jesus never said he was "G-d." His biographers wrote that his 12 disciples said this. This is the big thing between Judaism and Christianity. First, we have no evidence that he existed to any extent. The Gospel writers wrote after the fact, as I am doing now, and were not known to be Jews. They were writing out of the country in foreign places. They were writing in Greek. A pseudonym is a fictitious name taken by a writer in place of their real name. The term "pseudonym" is a Greek word that literally means "false name." It's thought that a couple of them were writing under pseudonyms. A pseudonym is a fictitious name taken by a writer in place of their real name. The term "pseudonym" is a Greek word that literally means "false name." Our own language of English is full of Greek terms.

Egypt was ripe for a Roman take-over. Remember the history of Caesar and Cleopatra. In late 48 BCE, Julius Caesar arrived in Alexandria, Egypt. He was pursuing his opponent, the statesman , with whom he was engaged in a brutal civil war. Upon Caesar's arrival, the young Egyptian king Ptolemy XIII presented Caesar with Pompey's severed head.

In 315, Constantine issued a law intended to stop those in the “dangerous sect” of Judaism (the Jews) from persecuting relatives or friends who converted to Christianity. It was also intended to discourage Christians from converting to the “abominable sect,” meaning the Jewish religion. Many Romans had converted to Judaism.

In 313 AD, the Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, which accepted Christianity: 10 years later, it had become the official religion of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican state of ancient Rome. It included territory around the Mediterranean in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia, and was ruled by emperors. The adoption of Christianity as the state church in 380 and the fall of the Western Roman Empire conventionally marks the end of classical antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages.

(Laws of Constantine the Great, October 18, 315: Concerning Jews, Heaven-Worshippers, and Samaritans)-Anti-Semitism's start.

From Constantine's rule of law against the Jews in 315 to publishing the New Testament only took 78 years.

The earliest known complete list of the 27 books is found in a letter written by Athanasius, a 4th-century bishop of Alexandria, dated to 367 AD. The 27-book New Testament was first formally canonized during the councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397) in North Africa.

The Jews were as much impressed from the time of Alexander the Great and Greek thinking as they were with the Romans, maybe more so. It all helped to bring much Hellenization to their culture.

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_Jesus#:~:text=Both%20methods%20result%20in%20AD,AD%2030%20and%20AD%2036.

Tanakh, Stone Edition

The Complete Bible used in Lewis & Clark College 1958

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeks_in_Israel#:~:text=In%20the%20late%20330s%20BCE,campaigns%20against%20the%20Achaemenid%20Empire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_the_Roman_Empire#:~:text=Roman%20general%20Pompey%20conquered%20Jerusalem,of%20Iudaea%20in%206%20CE.

https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/whos-on-first-matthew-mark-or-luke

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel#:~:text=Like%20the%20rest%20of%20the,none%20were%20written%20by%20eyewitnesses.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gospel-According-to-John

https://tfhc.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/252218/nt-bahai-fact-sheet.pdf

https://thisweekinpalestine.com/rooted-in-the-holy-land/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_the_Innocents#:~:text=In%20view%20of%20the%20lack,folklore%20inspired%20by%20Herod's%20reputation.