Jesus vs. The State
Much has been written about inconsistencies and contradictions in the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments. And there have been many scholarly attempts to untangle the most authoritative historical accounts from those that were invented to serve the political objectives of evangelists. But I doubt any of them begin with the hypothesis that Jesus was an anti-theist who foresaw the terrible consequences of combining the philosophy of Jewish monotheism with the power of Rome. I think he was indifferent to Holy Law and the creator God that legitimized them. And I think he was also indifferent to Rome's ambitions of Empire which collected duties and took slaves but otherwise left local cultures intact. Both were attempts at social engineering that most individuals were free to accept or disregard. But a Rome under a single God was a dangerous collusion of power which could, through its necessarily-enforced campaigns of re-education and indoctrination, reduce humanity to the status ...