The Historical Jesus Issue and How It Gets Reflected in Fiction

     Both Ngugi's _Matigari_ and Argueta's _One Day of Life_ present
"revolutionary" rewritings of the Jesus story. It's useful to
understand something about this tradition, which is very old.

     Even the Bible concedes that Jesus was _believed_ by the Romans
who executed him to be some kind of revolutionary. "Jesus" is Greek
for "Joshua", who was the most famous Jewish warrior of the Old
Testament -- a strange name for a "prince of peace." And "King of the
Jews" -- the mocking sign the Romans are said to have put up over the
cross when Jesus/Joshua was crucified, certainly means the Romans
_believed_ he was setting himself up as a king - that is, that he was
challenging the Roman Emperor.

     Many historians of the ancient world have come to the conclusion,
based upon the evidence of the New Testament and of other ancient
works that survive, that Jesus was in fact some kind of revolutionary,
and that it was Paul -- later called Saint Paul -- who invented the
idea of the "otherworldly" "son of God."

     One of the most prominent of these historians today is Hyam
Maccoby (he is British). His book _Revolution in Judaea_ outlines his
theory, which differs a little from the theories of other historians
but is basically similar to many of them. 

     I was going to scan and put on the web for you one chapter of
Maccoby's book. But 
here 
is a site which summarizes, more or less accurately, Maccoby's book. 

     Your assignment is to read this summary carefully. Then, look
once again at _One Day of Life_. Write 300 words about the parallels
with the story of Jesus in the New Testament. How does Argueta change
it? What are the parallels, and what are the differences?

	Please email to me, and to your group.


	'James the Just'??

     Finally: who was "James the Just"? Remember that Chepe /Joseph
and Lupe / Mary's child was "Justino". What relationship did "James
the Just" have to Jesus?

	Hint: If you are having trouble, do one or more of the following:

		* look in a reference work such as _The Catholic 
Encyclopedia", or any Biblical Encyclopedia;

		* on the Web, go to  
Altavista , a powerful Web search 'engine'; type in the words "James 
the Just" (include the quotation marks around these words -- that makes 
them one phrase), and see what comes up. 

	When looking at a page, use whatever 'search' command your browser 
has. On NetScape, it is control-F; on Lynx, it is the '/' key. Search for 
"James the Just" (without the quotation marks, this time). Save what you 
find.

	Finally, compare what you find with
  
this page , which is from a collection of stories about Catholic 
'saints' in October. 

	Once you discover who "James the Just" was, come prepared to 
discuss what this has to do with _One Day of Life_.