Jesus

Jesus, also called Yeshua, Yesu, Issa ibn Miriam, is the central figure of Christianity and a prophet in the Islamic religion. He is revered in part for alliance with the poor classes as manifested by various activities such as feeding the masses, healing the sick , rebelling against higher authorities in the Trial of Jesus , and promoting the cause of women.

Biography
The historical Jesus is often studied as opposed to his role as a cosmic Christ as delineated in Johannine Christianity. The Gospel of Mark is regarded by serious scholars as older than all of the other canonical gospels and it contains much less religionist embellishment. Many scholars have attempted to extract from the historical record a dynamic, even revolutionary advocate, indeed prophet, appealing to revolutionary masses since during the first century of the common era there was considerable revolutionary turmoil directed against the Roman colonialist occupation force.

Early life
The young Jesus took apprentice as a carpenter but amazed his preceptors with the depth of his knowledge of the Bible as it then existed. He once ran off and his mother had to go looking for him, perhaps signifying an affinity both for youth rebellion and also liberation of women from conservative standards of child-rearing. When he came of age, he became a fiery preacher against the corrupt practices of temple sacrifice in which poor farmers were forced to buy cows because their own skinny cattle were deemed inadequate for God. Money changers were intricately involved with the practice which was highly oppressive to the poor, who had to leave their pastures, travel to Jerusalem and pay up often their life savings for a sacrifice which lined the pockets of the priest caste. Some authors have characterized the biblical story of driving the money changers from the temple as a paramilitary operation, viewed as a "terrorist" attack such as the tactics of John Brown the abolitionist or the storming of the Bastille.

Accomplished ministry
Jesus attracted thousands of followers. His inner cadre consisted of twelve disciples. These include the controversial, and widely derogated Judas, who has in recent scholarship largely been exonerated. Nevertheless, the name Judas is almost synonymous with informant, spy, double agent or traitor in that he is said to have pointed Jesus out to arresting authorities.

Jesus was hunted by a coalition which included the Sanhedrin or religious authorities, to whom he posted a direct rivalry, the Roman governors, to who he posted a revolutionary risk, and others. He and his disciples are believed to have practiced a form of primitive socialism practicing to each according to their need, from each according to their ability.

Martyrdom
Jesus was betrayed, according to surviving accounts, by Judas and later by Simon Peter. He was handed over to the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate with a strong demand for capital punishment issued by the religious authorities. It has however been speculated that the biblical account falsifies the actual event blaming the Jewish authorities so that evangelization of the Roman empire would be easier. The reasoning is that it is the Roman authority which crucified and had the legal power to so order, and thus it is unlikely that the biblical account is accurate.

Related to revolutionary movements
Jesus was a central figure in the thought of various Christian revolutionary movements particularly the Anabaptist Peasant Revolt led by Thomas Munzer. Frequently "chiliastic" or revolutionary movements focused on the Book of Revelation with its predictions of apocalypse. It should be noted that counter-revolutionary trends also utilize that book, often to justify wars of conquest such as the Crusader invasion of the Holy Land, or, nowadays, Zionist incursions into the West Bank. Such movements are called millenarian in that they often focus on a supposed thousand year reign of Jesus.

Twentieth century
Christian Democrat parties in Europe and many formations in US civil society attempt to merge Christian social influence with reformist agendas, and in some cases the Kingdom of God has been compared to socialism, communism, or the withering away of the state. On the other hand, many socialist writers have criticized Christianity for promising a "pie in the sky" which encourages the proletariat and other oppressed classes to defer reform and revolution.

Karl Kautsky, who attracted negative attention from Lenin as a revisionist, was nevertheless a widely respected reformist socialist for most of his career and penned a full length study of Christianity. His inspiration was the writing of Ludwig Feuerbach who also inspired theLeft Hegelian movement and the 1844 Manuscripts of the young Marx.

A decidedly more revolutionary and Leninist writer, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, characterized himself as opposite of Jesus in that Che advocated the use of violence in self defense and in furtherance of legitimate revolutionary objectives.

Liberation theology uses Christian categories to elaborate revolutionary doctrine, primarily in Latin American revolutionary praxis.