Helen Bond

He goes to Jerusalem.

Some of these followers are coming with him.

He's getting new followers.

Some of them are already in Jerusalem.

So I think this is where it starts to get dangerous.

Once he's got a body of people following him in this really cramped and difficult time where everybody's waiting for something to happen.

Well, I think the difficulty is, and it's really good that you mentioned this, what we call a religious leader is...

wasn't really a thing in the first century.

So we think of Jesus as a religious leader.

But in the ancient world, religion and politics were so completely intertwined that you can't just say Jesus is a religious leader.

He's also a political leader.

So, you know, to say that God is going to come and establish God's kingdom on earth, that's a political statement.

That's saying that God is going to come.

He's

especially the emperor, because the emperor claims to be king, but we all know that God is king.

And it's a political statement.

And quite a dangerous one.

Exactly.

A really dangerous one.

And of course, the Roman Empire too is based on Roman gods.