Jesus of Nazareth was the son of a carpenter. He never traveled further than 150 miles from his home in his adult life. So how did the movement he founded come to dominate the world, bringing in billions of followers? On this episode, we explore his life, his impact, and how he was able to build such a powerful movement. ----- Sponsors: Speechify - Go to speechify.com/ben to get 15% off Speechify Premium Gains In Bulk - Go to gainsinbulk.com/pages/ben and use code Ben for $20 and a free shaker. HTTOTW Premium - Get all episodes, end notes, mini-episodes, and more at takeoverpod.supercast.com ----- Sources: The New Testament In Its World by NT Wright Jesus: A Biography from a Believer by Paul Johnson The New Testament - The King James Version
Chapter 1: What is the significance of Jesus's life?
I'm going to show you how great I am. I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, I'd like to take this chance to apologize to absolutely nobody.
Hello, and welcome to How to Take Over the World. This is Ben Wilson. Happy Easter, everyone. I'm working on a brand new episode, and it's just about ready to go. And I was going to put it out today, but I felt a little weird releasing it on Easter, on a day when Christians all over the world are celebrating Jesus.
So instead, what I'm doing is I'm taking the premium version of the Jesus episode that I put out last year, and I'm releasing it to everyone, to free subscribers as well. Again, this is not just an episode for believers or for Christians, but hopefully has some special resonance for people who are thinking about him and about his resurrection today.
And so I hope, you know, that you all have a happy and great Easter and maybe this adds a little bit to it. And even if you're not a Christian or particularly religious, I think Easter is a great time to reflect on rebirth and renewal. It's spring, the sun is shining, life is returning. It's a good time to feel alive and consider how we can change and improve going forward.
So I'll be back with all new content next week, but until then, please enjoy this re-release about Jesus of Nazareth. But first, a word from our sponsor, Gains in Bulk. Creatine is the best and most tested supplement in the world. Countless studies have showed its positive effects on muscle growth, yes, but also recovery, endurance, and cognitive performance.
That's why it's the only supplement that I take every single day. And Gains has the best creatine. Their instantized creatine fully dissolves in water. It's fully water-soluble, making it more bioavailable, so you get more benefit without the bloating and water retention that other creatine can cause.
I really think this is the rare case of a supplement truly being differentiated and better than the competition. I can't recommend it highly enough. So check it out at gainsinbulk.com and use code Ben for 20% off. Hello, and welcome to How to Take Over the World. This is Ben Wilson. Today we are talking about Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth is the most influential person of all time.
I feel pretty safe saying that. There are 2.2 billion Christians in the world currently, representing about a third of the world's population. Okay, so you have a third of the world who are making their lives about following this man.
And if you count Muslims as well, because Muslims think of Jesus as a prophet, they don't regard him as the son of God as Christians do, but they do think of him as a prophet, then that's over 50% of the world, nearly 60% of the world that follows Jesus and his teachings in some way, shape, or form.
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Chapter 2: How did Jesus's upbringing influence his teachings?
rebuilding and enlarging the temple in Jerusalem, and building public baths, aqueducts, and what we would call shopping centers in half a dozen cities, as well as a ring of powerful fortresses, he was a benefactor of the Jews on a colossal scale. But he was not popular among them.
Only half Jewish by birth and wholly Greek in his cultural tastes, he was regarded as heretical by the Jewish religious authorities for sponsoring Greek-style games, theaters, and music. He also had numerous wives and concubines, some of them Gentiles, and sired many children.
Suspicious and cruel, he slaughtered over 40 of his wives, children, and close relatives, often in circumstances of peculiar atrocity, for conspiracies, real or imaginary, against his rule in person. As his reign drew to a close, the last year of his life was the year of Jesus' birth, his suspicions increased, and an atmosphere of paranoia prevailed at his court.
Okay, so again, the Romans, Herod, yes, they're creating this very prosperous, culturally rich, entertaining world, but it's threatening to religious authorities. It's threatening to traditional ways of life. N.T. Wright says that the Hellenistic setting formed a perpetual cultural and religious threat to the Jews, every bit as powerful as any political danger.
Okay, so I think you can make a pretty good comparison between then and now. I think Judaism at the turn of the millennium was in a similar place that Christianity is in right now. It's sort of obviously in decline and in need of reform. But the question is, what direction will that reform take? There are the rainbow flag denominations trying to make Christianity now more liberal.
And then you have the rise of consciously reactionary Christian movements as well. So the question at the time of Jesus is, does Judaism adapt or resist? Herod and the Sadducees, okay, that's the religious movement that sort of validated his rule. They represented those who wanted to adapt, okay, to become more Greek.
For those who wanted to resist, the Pharisees was the religious group that represented them, and the Messiah is their great hope. A great man who will come and sweep away Roman rule and set up an independent Jewish religious kingdom and usher in a golden age of righteousness and freedom. Okay, so you have all these movements that are preparing for the Messiah and Israel's restoration.
And the Pharisees are the biggest one. They want to prepare the people, make them more holy in preparation for the coming of this Messiah. They think, okay, the reason that the Messiah hasn't come to free us yet and that we're still subjected by the Romans is because we're not righteous enough.
So they're very intense about helping people observe the minutia of every Mosaic law to assure that everyone is in constant compliance with religious rules and protocols. So this is where rabbinic Judaism actually comes from. Judaism before this time period was a little less hardcore about their rules, but the Pharisees are kind of the ones who changed that.
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Chapter 3: What role did John the Baptist play in Jesus's ministry?
And then Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor. And thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had many possessions. Okay, so Jesus has this demand that you must be willing to sacrifice everything to be his follower.
I think this is most memorably expressed in the following passage, quote, And there went great multitudes with Jesus, and he turned and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Okay, wow, what a teaching.
You know, obviously he doesn't literally want you to just like hate these people for no reason, but he's saying, compared to the power of my teachings and what I'm offering you, these people have to be nothing to you.
You have to be willing to set aside even your own wife, your mother, your father, your children, your brothers and sisters, everything to come and follow me if you want to be my disciple. Okay, so I think that is one thing that is missing from those who want to portray Jesus as a peace-loving hippie is his radicalism. In another passage, he says, I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me. And again, we're kind of used to this stuff, so much so that it might strike us as unremarkable. But imagine Caesar or Napoleon saying this. I am the way and the truth and the life. You have to hate everyone else in your life and come and follow me. I think you would recognize it.
for like the radical message that is i am the way come follow me and um and so yes it's radical i don't necessarily mean that as a bad thing though like he believes what he's saying so much that he's willing to ask this of people demand it of them and so i think if you want to start a movement that's going to be successful You know, don't try and be Jesus if you're not Jesus.
That's not what I'm saying. But what I am saying is that maybe you don't have to demand that much of a sacrifice that Jesus did, but you have to be willing to believe in what you're telling people so much that you are willing to demand sacrifices of them. And what you offer has to be so compelling that people are willing to make those types of sacrifices.
Well, Jesus is getting big enough now that he begins to attract the attention and the jealousy and disapproval of the Pharisees. I think this is competitive jealousy more than anything. They are both concerned about his unorthodox teaching and threatened by his popularity. It's interesting that there are relatively few examples of him arguing with the Sadducees.
Again, remember the Sadducees are kind of the upper and upper middle class. These are the people who want to justify the rule of Herod and his dynasty who want to say like, actually, things are going pretty good. We're getting wealthy. There's a lot of trade. We have a temple like stuff is good. But the Pharisees are more like Jesus. They say the Messiah is coming. We need to be better.
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Chapter 4: What were the key messages in the Sermon on the Mount?
Chapter 5: How did Jesus's lifestyle attract followers?
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But now Herod, the king, executes him. He's beheaded. There's a whole story there. He's convinced to do it by a dancing girl who is also his stepdaughter. Anyway, this is a huge blow for Jesus. Remember, this is So not only a man who he followed and kind of looked to, but was also his cousin. So he's obviously very grief stricken and he goes out into a desert place to be alone.
But this crowd of people finds him and they follow him out into the wilderness. Of course, the problem is now all these people are following, but he's in the middle of the desert. So how do you feed all these people? You're away from the towns and cities where food could be bought.
So after Jesus has healed the sick who have come to see him, he takes what little food they have, five loaves of bread and two fishes, and he blesses it and puts it into baskets and tells the disciples to go feed it to the people. And miraculously, the loaves and fishes keep replenishing and 5,000 people are fed from these few loaves and fishes.
It is after this incident that Jesus walks on water in the midst of a storm, causes Peter to walk on water for a brief period of time as well. And then he performs the same feeding miracle again, except this time he feeds 4,000 people with seven loaves and a few fishes. Okay, this marks the beginning of Jesus' preparation for the end.
He now begins to speak more openly to his disciples of who he is. He asks them who people say he is. And then he asks them who they, his disciples, think he is. And his foremost apostle, sort of number two, Simon Peter, answers, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus acknowledges that he's correct.
And this is actually the first time that he has acknowledged in the Gospels that he is the Messiah. Jesus in these last days tends to spend more time teaching his disciples rather than large crowds. It's as if he's trying to prepare them to be able to carry on the work in his absence, knowing that he will soon die.
Along with his followers, Jesus travels from Galilee to Jerusalem, and he's received in Jerusalem at first with rapturous acclaim. It is a triumphant entry into the city. People spread their garments before him so that his mule doesn't have to tread on the ground, and they put palm fronds on the path before him, which was a celebratory thing.
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Chapter 6: What radical demands did Jesus make of his disciples?
It could have gone either way. The actual cause of death for those being crucified is varied. Some would die from loss of blood. More often they died from exposure, starvation, and suffocation.
So once the person is no longer able to support their weight on the nails in their feet, they have to hang awkwardly in a position that doesn't allow their lungs to expand and they're no longer able to breathe properly. And so they suffocate and they can't breathe anymore and they die that way. It's not a good way to go.
Once he's put up on the cross, Jesus has seven sayings, seven things that he famously says before he dies. First, he says, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Speaking of his executioners. And then next, he's actually next to two criminals who were also crucified on the same day, one of whom derides Jesus. But the other comes to his defense.
And Jesus says to the latter criminal, today you will be with me in paradise. And then Jesus says to his mother, who was there watching him die, Woman, behold your son, as he points to John, thereby giving John the responsibility to watch over his family after he is dead. He then despairs and cries out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Subsequently, the effects of the torture and execution begin to kick in. Jesus then says, I thirst, after which he is given a disgusting mixture of vinegar and gall, which he rejects. And then his final two sayings are, It is finished, and Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. The Romans didn't want to offend Jewish sensibilities by leaving the bodies up on the Sabbath day.
So for the two criminals next to Jesus, they break their legs to speed up their deaths. But when they come to Jesus, he's already dead, presumably because he was tortured more than the other criminals prior to his crucifixion. And so they pierce his side with a spear just to be sure that he's actually dead.
And when they do pierce his side, blood and water comes out, which is something that happens after someone's been dead for a little bit. The water separates from the blood. After that, two wealthy followers of Jesus by the names of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus then take his body, take it off the cross and dress it and give him a proper burial in a well-appointed tomb.
Now, obviously, up to this point, any single point in the life of Jesus can be challenged. Any of you who don't believe in Jesus are obviously not going to believe in any of the miracles discussed. But the preceding account still probably forms a pretty coherent narrative of what Jesus's life was like.
But this is the part where the believers obviously have to part with the nonbelievers, because what happens next is Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. So this is not his mother, but a third Mary come to the tomb and they find the stone that guarded the entrance rolled away. and they run into an angel who tells them, fear not, for I know that you seek Jesus, which was crucified.
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Chapter 7: How did Jesus use parables to convey his teachings?
Chapter 8: What was the reaction of the Pharisees to Jesus's teachings?
And I think that helped people understand what a computer was much more than if he had just told you. It makes people much more productive in whatever they want to do. So use stories, metaphors, parables to get your points across, and you'll do so much more powerfully. Okay, number four, show, don't tell.
His healings, miracles, and his example were more important than just his straight teachings were. That's why the four gospels give an account of his life and not just of his teachings. And I think that's true. The way that you live out the things that you teach is much more important than what you teach in a sort of abstract sense.
And then the fifth thing, and this kind of goes into every point that was before, but you is, is belief. You have to believe in something so strongly to the point that you're willing to die for it. That absolute conviction and belief. There was plenty of chances for Jesus not to die. And if he had done that, then there would not be 3 billion Christians in the world.
And it wouldn't have started this whole movement. And so if you're someone who is looking to start a movement, Just don't try and fake it. You really have to commit to those things that you really do believe in. Otherwise, you're just not going to have the legs of something like Christianity or of the many other movements that people really do believe in sincerely and are willing to die for.
Okay, my end notes. So I should mention my religious background, I guess. So I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That's people typically know us as Mormons. So I'm kind of in an interesting position here because no one likes us. Atheists think we're ridiculous. Christians don't accept us as Christians.
If you want to know more about what this religion is, you can go listen to the Brigham Young episodes where I explain a little bit about the start of our religion. But everyone thinks I'm a heretic, which is why I just tried to stick to what is in the gospel. I don't think I said anything controversial in terms of my interpretation of the gospels.
I'm sure someone's going to yell at me for this episode. A lot of people will probably yell at me. Of course, you just can't talk about Jesus without incurring strong emotions.
But hopefully, you know, my status as an outsider kind of affords me an opportunity to look at things a little more objectively than someone who is a mainstream Christian or a mainstream atheist who's critical of the biblical account. Okay, so some other things to talk about. One thing I've been mentioning a lot in recent episodes is that charisma comes from the eyes, from the gaze.
So from great leaders, people always talk about the way they stare and the way they gaze. And so I found this really interesting passage from Paul Johnson, quote, on the other hand, we know certain things about his visual personality, which struck eyewitnesses. And so we're recorded in the gospels. Jesus was very observant.
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