BiAS 7 – The Bible and Politics in Africa
festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. While various explana-
tions have been offered to reconcile Jesus’ statement to his brothers with
his later action, for example, that (1) the use of the present tense does
not exclude later action of a different kind (It does not say anything
about the future); (2) Jesus is really denying his brothers’ request to
perform signs. He will go up to the feast, but not in their way, openly
and that (3) Jesus did not travel up to Jerusalem with the other pilgrims
to the feast, an act which would have been conspicuously public, and
would have drawn undue attention to himself but rather chose to travel
to Jerusalem by himself, privately,^32 what is apparently clear is that Jesus
misinformed his brothers and indirectly possibly those also who had
sent them. As proof that Jesus’ opponents often relied also on spies to
trap him we hear in the Gospel of Matthew that the Pharisees [...] went
out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples to
him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, we know you are a
man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with
the truth. You aren’t swayed by men, because you pay no attention to
who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes
to Caesar or not?” [...] (Mt 22:15-22). In the Gospel of Luke these people
who were sent are openly characterised as spies (Lk 20:19-26) and know-
ing their duplicity, Jesus outwitted them. Within the Jesus movement
itself, Judas Iscariot could actually have played the role of a double agent.
Yet another incident which shows that Jesus kept his enemies guessing
who he was is when the Jews gathered around him and asked, “How
long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us
plainly?” (Jn 10:24). While ordinary people, as noted by Dunlop, would
like to be open about their words and actions, a spy cannot afford that.^33
In Jesus’ case, what kept the Jews in a state of guessing, as averred by
Bob Utley, is that first, Jesus taught in parables, figurative language, and
ambiguous dualistic statements and so the Jews wanted him to express
himself clearly. It is not that the use of parables was new and surprising
to his hearers but it was because it was not easily understood without an
explanation. Even his disciples too at times did not understand what he
was saying hence the resort to ask him in private what he meant (Lk 8:4-
10).
(^32) W. Hall Harris III, Exegetical Commentary on John 7, http://bible.org/seriespage/
exegetical-commentary-john-18 (accessed 25/07/11).
(^33) Cf. Dunlop, This Business of Spying, 231.