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This article is for every shade of opinion about the man of the week; mythical figure; dreadlock Rastafarian; Nazarite; Nazarene; Son of Man; son of God.
“Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth”, authored by Reza Aslan, is considered controversial.
Aslan gives facts about the events surrounding the Passion Week (Holy Week), sourcing from Josephus, and other true and proper evidences of Biblical knowledge.
He then places everything in context so that the reader can see a justification for why Jesus could not have escaped the events of Good Friday.
Aslan leads arguments to show that Zealotry and insurrections were common in the days of Jesus.
Just as in Ghana political vigilantism, squalor, bribery and corruption are not peculiar to the administration of President Akufo-Addo.
Aslan posits, the singular act of Jesus in the Temple during what we now commemorate as Passion Week or Holy Week, led to the conspiracy between the priests, the Jewish rulers and the Roman governors to crucify him.
The question is: If Jesus was in Ghana today, will he not enter that Jombolijo House, seize the Floor and embarrass the Honourables?
And then enter their Committee Rooms, seize all those value-for-money audits and tear those papers into pieces?
Does a value-for-money audit have any considerations for the disease burden arising from choked open gutters?
But make no mistake; Jesus was not an anarchist.
Many scholars including Azlan are agreed on this. Not all the Zealots were anarchists, even if Jesus could be considered a Zealot.
In the case of Jesus, he had overturned the tables of the money changers (BanKSters with fake accounting and audit reports), released the pigeons and other animals sold for rituals (the priests had lost meat) and hence the taxes to Caesar (the political class) – which come from both the money changers and priests via Temple tax – had suffered during the Passover.
For that “he ought to die”; don’t mess with the establishment!
The Passover was the peak season when Jews and non-Jews alike from all over the world visited Jerusalem to perform rituals leading to atonement with God.
They needed foreign exchange and animals for ritual sacrifices in the Temple, and the Roman authorities and tax collectors got busy counting the Denarii.
But Jesus’s cousin was Johane Baptiisil?; they were from a family of priests – the tribe of Levi.
If Levi is a variant of Louis, then they were royals! How can the sons of colonels and generals cause insurrection against the very institution – the aspirational class – they had been trained to emulate.
And from all accounts, their parents were well behaved and respected.
Clearly the corrupted system was to blame.
Fortunately, post the Holy Week events, a certain Gamaliel, one of the Pharisees, when some of Jesus’ disciples had been arrested for similar offences, and were awaiting trial, argued successfully before the Sanhedrin – his own people – to release the disciples, or if you will, the new Zealots.
Was there a way for Jesus, the Zealots or any other person(s) to use the laid down procedure to reform the system?
Was there a way to change the Catholic church other than the model of Reformation chosen by Martin Luther, a professor, theologian and hence an insider of the Holy Roman Catholic Church?
Was it remotely possible that if one paid a tithe of 10 per cent, the priests, in league with the tax collectors and Roman soldiers, could sneak a peep into one’s earnings and inform the authorities?
What we know of the disgraceful Ghanaian priestly cabal of today is that they look for high net worth individuals and organise a special Passover where they collect USD500, $1000 and other gradations of dollar-denominated Indulgences while granting special graces much like during the pre-Reformation era.
When you have been absolved from your sins committed in the Ghana banking scandal by the priests, upon making a good “atonement offering” to the envy of your colleagues, which lawyer or law enforcement officer can dare prefer charges against you?
Imagine, a man returning from the Temple at Jerusalem and the Roman soldiers laying their hands on him!!! Even the Roman soldiers feared public opinion exhibited with sneering glances from colonial subjects.
How much less Ghana’s security forces in a free democratic society with kleptomaniac demigods in charge of everything, with the clergy engaged in the high profile lucrative Lobbying and Advocacy PR industry!!!
Were the establishment following the rules of serious deportment within the Temple and without?
Did the Bank of Ghana, other regulators and office bearers follow the INTEGRITY RULES in giving out BILLIONS of our Cedis/DOLLARS to BanKsters who shared these borrowed monies among themselves and their “rented bean counters” and press who fawn over the leadership?
My mentor, when he has read, heard or seen the Ghanaian establishment at play will often remark, “You know for sure that NOTHING GOOD is going to happen anywhere until SOMETHING DRASTIC occurs….and then of course everyone will act surprised”.
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