By Anil Netto
History as we know it is often written from the perspective of the powerful. The victors of wars and political struggles almost always re-write history or at least present it from their perspective.

Rarely do we read about history from the perspective of peasants and villagers. We know a lot about kings and political leaders, generals and prominent personalities such as scientists and inventors. These dominate our history books.

One person who has tried to present an alternative history of the United States from the ground up is political scientist Howard Zinn whose book A People’s History of the United States portrays the experience of women, blacks, native Americans, workers and other neglected groups

When it comes to the history of the Roman Empire in the first century, it is no different. The official accounts of mainstream “official” history hardly made much reference to Jesus at all. He was written about as a local leader on the margins of Empire who performed some incredible feats that won over a loyal band of followers who grew to become a nuisance — the nuisance eventually reaching Rome, the seat of Empire.

Missing from official accounts was the impact Jesus had on local hamlets and villages and peasants and fishermen. These rural peasant voices, like those of many similar communities throughout history, were largely omitted from official history.

And yet, something happened in the case of Palestine at the time of Jesus — which resulted in a whole range of literature emerging, some of them accepted into the official canon of Scripture and others left out.

Remarkably, so much has been written about this one man in the early first century — much more than any of his peers. Contrast that with the official historical records of his time, written by the powerful, which have little to say about Jesus.

While those who are not Christians may dispute the resurrection or other aspects of Jesus’ life and his teachings, few of them can really explain how a carpenter or peasant artisan could go on to have so much written about him — when he himself did not leave any written documents behind and much of his teachings were passed down through oral traditions for the first two decades after his life. After all, the earliest writings about his life emerged in the work of Paul in the fifties AD.



There continues to be much debate whether Jesus preached an apocalyptic eschatology — urging his followers to prepare for the end of the world - or sapiential eschatology, which calls on his followers to transform the world and bring about his kingdom, or a mix of the two.

What is clear though is the “Lord’s Prayer”, especially the line which reads “thy kingdom come as it is in heaven” as well as the numerous gospel references to building the kingdom on Earth. This radical message was largely preached to peasants and villagers and the destitute. The followers of Jesus used titles that were traditionally ascribed to Caesar to describe Jesus — son of God and saviour — surely, a direct threat to Roman imperial theology.

Of course, then as now, the rich and powerful, who already enjoyed the benefits of earthly wealth, had little time for transforming the world. Maybe the message of Jesus was an inconvenient truth, which they found unpalatable: “How blessed are you who are poor: the kingdom of God is yours. 21 Blessed are you who are hungry now: you shall have your fill. Blessed are you who are weeping now: you shall laugh.” (Luke 6: 20-21)

Just like today, why would the wealthy want to transform the world when they are reaping the benefits of injustice, corruption and unequal wealth distribution? Why would they want to see the world from the perspective of Jesus, who immersed himself in the lives of downtrodden villagers and social outcasts, many of whom were considered “sinners” or ritually unclean in the eyes of the religious leaders of his time.

God’s message, via Jesus, of a more just and egalitarian kingdom was foolishness — and a threat — to them. This was a Jesus, who not only overturned the money-changers’ tables in the Temple but who preached a messages calling for an upside-down world to be put the right way up, where the last shall be first and the first, last.

It is little wonder then that official history, from the perspective of the powerful and elite, had little time for the message of Jesus.