Baroque_Dude said:
The discordant point here, is that I believe that their motives were compatible but you see them somewhat oposed at some spots, right? |
Shouldn't their motives be the same? Jesus (King of the Jews) wants to liberate Israel and rebuild the Kingdom of God while Paul is concerned with spreading Christianity while making peace with the Roman authority.
For me, its obvious that Paul's stance of Roman appeasement (render to Caesar what is Caesar's) is a response to Christian persecution, and Paul wants Christianity to grow and be practiced freely under the Roman Empire. Jesus didnt take a stance of appeasement, and was executed by the Romans for his opposition to the Empire.
Interesting enough, when the Romans adopted Christianity they ran into the problem of killing their own god. They fixed the problem though, by making the Jews responsible for his death while painting the Romans in a positive light, Pontius Pilot not wanting to execute Jesus, Pontius Pilots mother converting to Christianity (Catholic dogma not in Bible), and Roman soldiers who conducted the execution realizing their error and converting to Christianity. Also, Romans usually only conducted crucifixions for political enemies of the Empire, not thieves and murders that Jesus and the others crucified at that time were accused of. Crucifixion was used as an example to others what happens to those who oppose Rome, such as Jesus and Spartacus (army).
