Ed Tenhor
Dr. Tenhor’s first two books, That Rabbi from Nazareth and That Messiah from Qumran, the one on the humanity of Christ and the other on divinity of Christ, now have been combined with some additional Essene chapters to be called A New Life of Christ. Some of the most helpful chapters of each book are in this one volume telling about both the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith. Tenhor takes a look at what the real Jesus was like, who he really was, and how and why the Church has confessed Jesus as divine. He explains how the divinity confession took place through enormous struggles in the early centuries of the Church. He shows how doctrines developed through complex interpretations by various different parties of thought. He introduces the theologians of the first three centuries of the Church, both good and bad.
Ed has you meet the Ebyonites, Docetists, Marcionites, Dynamic and Modalistic Monarchians, Sabellianist Patripassionists, Apollinarians, Monothelitists, Monophysites, and many more interpreters from the early centuries, producing a new apologetic volume for a local church study group, or for personal reading.
Though this Life of Christ volume does not have all the extensive first person introductions to twenty centuries of theologians as the second volume on divinity, it does include five new chapters on the Essenes, the large Jewish tradition of Dead Sea Scroll fame, showing their possible relationship with Jesus and the early Christians. There is the astounding suggestion that the 3000 new converts in Acts 2 and the 5000 new converts in Acts 4 were primarily Essenes who had congregations all over the area of South West Jerusalem, right where the upper room is said to have been located. The Essene converts then discarded their name “Essene,” retaining their other names, “People of the Way” and “the elect.” This then may explain why this large Jewish Essene tradition in the time of Jesus, the one that held all things in common and shared what they had, is not mentioned anywhere in the New Testament by name.
Ed suggests that this book would be ideal for a three month Jesus class in a local church, or even a whole year study. It could attract those interested in finding out more about Jesus. The book is provocative and unconventional. It provides some depth of study for those with inquiring minds. Reading and studying the book is a way of meeting the Jesus of history and of faith. It is a way of catching a glimpse of the reality of God present in that life. Exercise and expand your mind, learn some church history, understand something about theology, and grow in your faith. Add this book to your church library and to your own personal library.
Tenhor completed his doctoral studies, DMin, at New York Theological Seminary, New York City. He received his BA at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey, his MA at Wagner College, Staten Island, New York, and his BD at New Brunswick Theological Seminary, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Tenhor was a director of a methadone clinic/drug abuse program in Detroit, Michigan, directed three homeless housing programs in Brooklyn, New York, and has served inner city churches in Jersey City, New Jersey, Detroit, Michigan, and Brooklyn, New York. He started a new church development apartment complex ministry in New York City and served there for many years while also involved in low income housing. He presently is trying to spend more than ten minutes fishing out on Barnegat Bay, more than ten minutes sharing in house work at home, and more than ten minutes of leisure in his retirement.
The Peasant Style of Jesus
“Is he not the carpenter’s son?”
“…The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
Luke 9: 58
Rabbi Jesus and his followers had a clear and fascinating identification with the poor. They had little of a revolutionary romanticism toward the poor, as if the peasants were some kind of ideal, perfect class to be the ones to change the world, but they did see them as those with the greatest need and also the focus, as can be seen in the Hebrew Bible, of the prophets before them. These travelers had very little money themselves and so could easily identify with the poor. Judas was the treasurer of the group who carried some money so that necessities could be purchased should there be no invitation to a home that evening, but essentially they were a peasant band of prophet and followers.
There are three different Greek words for “poor” and eleven Hebrew words for “poor.” These words could mean “weak,” “impoverished,” “humble,” or “oppressed,” with the word “poverty” having even more meanings. The word “poor” in the gospels means people who have nothing, those who do not have a change of clothes. The “poor”, by the way, seem from Jesus’ perspective to already have the Way of God, the dominion or reign of God. In fact, these poor are blessed or happy because they already have the Way.
The rich, on the other hand, will never quite be able to see or feel what it means to have the Way of God. This idea that one is especially happy or blessed if he or she is poor is a hidden concept, hidden from the world. It is a concept believed by certain sects in Jesus’ day, including the Essenes. Thus, there were those who deliberately chose poverty as a way of life. The poor who traveled with Jesus were already living in the blessedness of God’s Way, which seems to be expressed, at least in part, by having few possessions. Jesus probably knew a great deal about the Essene sect near the Dead Sea and their messianic banquets, the festive common meal of bread and wine as suggested in the Dead Sea Scrolls. It has been said earlier that Jesus may have been influenced by some exposure in his earlier years to various influences, to John the Baptist and that movement, to Cynic/Stoic philosophers and their followers, to Samaritan magicians, to healers, exorcists, perhaps to some itinerant rabbis, but also quite possibly to the Dead Sea Scroll sect, already established during his life. This probable Essene sect was never very far away and had a reputation as a rather powerful group. That sect was not poor as a group itself, but the individuals in that group did not own anything themselves. The group owned the possessions. When one joined a movement like that, one would sell all that he or she had and give it to the community. When Jesus said to the rich young ruler, “Go and sell what you have and give it to the poor,” it may have meant the poor members of the community. It may also have meant the rich young man’s life was caught up in possessions, and to find life, he must choose a life of few possessions.
Beggars can be rather subversive people and homeless people can be annoying to the power structure. The poor can annoy mayors and presidents. In this way, Jesus, traveling around much like a Cynic philosopher, had a way of looking, living, dressing, eating, relating much the same as the Cynics, both annoying the conventional of the day. The difference was that Jesus worked the rural areas while the Cynics worked the cities. Jesus had a social vision, while the Cynics were very individualistic. 1 Cynics begged for their meager food, Jesus visited homes, celebrated festive messianic banquets and healed, in return for the food provision. Both groups were kind of a counter-culture style of movement.
