Jesus: A Very Short Introduction

by Richard Bauckham

About a century after the death of Jesus, Rabbi Aqiva (Akiba) also suffered death at the hands of the Roman government, though the circumstances are obscure. What was remembered was that, under torture, he continued to recite the Shema, the Jewish confession of faith in the one and only God of Israel, until he died. He was one of the leading teachers of the early rabbinic movement. His interpretations of Torah were remembered and transmitted by his disciples. Had Jesus been no more than a teacher of Torah, he might have been remembered in the same way. His disciples would have honoured his memory and passed on his teaching. But Jesus was far from merely a teacher of Torah. He claimed God’s authority to enact the arrival of God’s kingdom. His disciples thought he was the Messiah, and he didn’t deny being something of the sort. After his death, the disciples became much more confident that he really was the Messiah, because God had vindicated him, raised him from death and exalted him to sit on the divine throne in heaven. A remarkably new religious movement arose, first within Judaism, then of wider scope, that was based around the confidence that Jesus was the Messiah and was alive and active in the lives of those who followed him.