Was Jesus a Zionist? I ask this question because I’ve noticed some so-called “Christians”, online, make that claim as the debate goes forward concerning Israel and the genocide it’s government is perpetuating against the Muslim population in Gaza and the West Bank. I notice a lot of people claiming to be”Stand with Israel” in some way or the other but commitment with a keyboard is different than with a rifle.

Some Christians, however, are standing with a malicious government because, as they believe (Or have been taught? I can’t say for sure.) that loyality to Israel is something Jesus would want them to be and that, yes, Jesus was a Zionist himself. In fact, some apologists talk about Jesus being killed by the Romans because he incited the Jewish population against Rome. But either these people haven’t read their Bible, or they’ve just believed whatever they’ve been taught.

The truth is that Jesus, in the New TEstament, never speaks about Jewish independence. Sure, there’s a couple of instances (Matthew 23:37, Luke 19:41-44) where Jesus is sorrowful over Jerusalem, but he never expresses any indication of political independence. /The passage I’ve heard quoted most is from Acts 1:6-8 where Jesus answers the question put to him by his disciples if he would restore the kingdom to Israel (this is post resurrection) and he mysteriously states it’s not for anyone to know.

So there’s nothing directly biblical that can be pointed to that should give any impression that Jesus was in fact a Zionist. Of course, utilizing the Hebrew scriptures as proof of Jesus’ messiahship (is that a word?), as Christians have done since the beginning, anyone can cobble together some verses here and there and come up with a story. Paul, the “apostle”, as he designated himself, has a lot to say about the second coming, in Romans and 1 and 2 Thessalonians for example, but he is the only one who seems to know anything about this. The person Jesus himself called his “rock”, Peter, upon whom the church itself was established, dosesn’t appear to have the same expectations as Paul, who never met the living Jesus and claimed his “gospel” was dictated to him personally, by the ghost(?) of Jesus (okay, okay, visions).

When someone claims that Jesus was in act a Zionist, ask them to point out any passage in the New Testament where Jesus states he is a Zioist (he wouldn’t use that exact language, since it really didn’t arise until the late 19th century). Of course, they won’t be able to point to anything directly. But we don’t actually know what the man Jesus thought on this subject s it’s never mentioned in the canon, or even the apocrypha(I think!). Even if he was some sort of Zionist in his time, would that be in the Bible? Think about the purpose of that text. The early church wouldn’t have lasted very long if it told people to revolt against authority, would it?