Roots

Fascinating evening at church yesterday, led by a bilingual Israeli tour guide, who usually leads study tours for Christians around Israel. She focussed on the person of Jesus as a real human being in a real historical context. It was certainly eye-opening, and made you re-think preconceived ideas - e.g., it would appear that it's highly unlikely historically speaking that Jesus was more than 5ft2" in height. Hardly crucial to salvation admittedly, but it highlighted for me at least some of the stereoptypical images of Jesus that linger in our subconscious. And if that's true for his appearance, how much more true is it likely to be for our understanding of his teachng and mission. Again, there were plenty of examples where, historically, the way our English New Testament has been translated has effectively "de-Judaised" it (not sure if that's a word but you know what I mean). She was careful not to suggest that was all deliberate and anti-Semitic, though some may have been; more worrying is the effect of all this. You end up with a vague, spiritualised Jesus rather than a real man who lived a real life in a real context. And chances are then you end up with a vague, spiritualised faith as well.