Books Jesus Read

8

Books Jesus Read

Many readers know that the Jews of Jesus’ day looked forward to a militaristic Messiah. However, reading the books of Maccabees with their portrayal of Judas Maccabeus as the deliverer of oppressed Israel offers us a glimpse into what precisely they anticipated. Moreover, the stories of the Jewish martyrs told by 2 Maccabees “would have allowed [Jesus] to anticipate his death as a result of his confronting the Jerusalem authorities,” and indeed, “provided [Jesus] with the precedent for viewing his own death as an offering of covenant loyalty to God that would positively affect God’s relationship with the people as a whole or with his disciples in particular.” 20 DeSilva also sheds light on the Sermon on the Mount by drawing upon the Apocryphal books of Tobit and Sirach, contrasting Jesus’ radical teaching with the tradition of the Pharisees. The Apocrypha thus provides essential historical and literary background for the New Testament. The Contemporary Relevance of the Apocrypha Events documented by the Apocrypha bear striking relevance to contemporary events. A single example must suffice here, in the Chinese Communist Party’s oppression of its Uighur Muslim citizens by their imprisonment and so-called “reorientation.” Contrary to China’s grand tradition of embracing its diverse citizenry, the current Communist Party, under Xi Jinping, has banned the faith and traditions of Islam, imprisoning its leaders and outlawing the sale or possession of the Koran. Their aim is the forced assimilation of Uighurs to the Han

20 Ibid ., 173.