Who is Yeshua? Yeshua Ha-Nozri and the Master Image of Yeshua Ha-Nozri

Yeshua Ha-Nozri

YESHUA HA-NOTSRI is the central character of M.A. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita” (1928-1940). The image of Jesus Christ appears on the first pages of the novel in a conversation between two interlocutors on the Patriarch's Ponds, one of whom, the young poet Ivan Bezdomny, composed an anti-religious poem, but failed to cope with the task. He turned out to have Jesus completely alive, but he had to prove that he did not exist at all, “that all the stories about him are simple inventions, the most ordinary myth.” This image-myth in Bulgakov’s novel is contrasted with the wandering philosopher Yeshua Ha-Nozri, as he appears in two chapters of the “ancient” plot: first in the second - during interrogation by the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate - and then in the sixteenth chapter, depicting the execution of a righteous man crucified on the cross . Bulgakov gives the name of Jesus in a Judaized form. A probable source was the book of the English theologian F.W. Farrar “The Life of Jesus Christ” (1874, Russian translation - 1885), where the writer could read: “Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Yeshua, which means “his salvation is Jehovah,” from Oshea or Hoshea is salvation.” It was also explained there that “ha-noceri” means Nazarene, literally from Nazareth. The image of Jesus Christ, as depicted in the novel, contains many deviations from the canonical gospels. Bulgakov's wandering philosopher is a man of twenty-seven (and not thirty-three), a Syrian (and not a Jew). He knows nothing about his parents, he has no relatives or followers who accepted his teachings. “I am alone in the world,” says I. about himself. The only person who showed interest in his sermons is the tax collector Levi Matvey, who follows him with parchment and continuously writes, but he “writes it down incorrectly,” everything is mixed up, and one may “fear that this confusion will continue for a very long time.” Finally, Judas from Kiriath, who betrayed I., is not his disciple, but a casual acquaintance, with whom a dangerous conversation began about state power. The image of I. has absorbed different traditions of depicting Jesus Christ that have developed in scientific and fiction literature, but is not tied to any one strictly defined one. The influence of the historical school, which found its most consistent expression in E. Renan’s book “The Life of Jesus” (1863), is obvious. However, in Bulgakov such a “consistency”, expressed in the “cleansing” of the gospel story from everything fabulous and fantastic from the standpoint of Renan’s “positive science”, is absent. There is no opposition in the novel between Jesus and Christ, the son of man and the son of God (in the spirit of the book by A. Barbusse “Jesus against Christ”, published in Russian translation in 1928 and, presumably, known to the writer). During interrogation by Pilate and then, during the execution, I. may not realize that he is the messiah, but he is (becomes) one. From him an ambassador comes to Woland with a decision on the fate of the Master and Margarita. He is the highest authority in the hierarchy of light, just as Woland is the supreme ruler of the world of shadows. As a character objectified in the narrative, I. is shown on the last day of his earthly journey, in the guise of a righteous man, a bearer of the ethical imperative of good, convinced that “there are no evil people in the world,” a thinker in whose view “all power is violence against people “and therefore there is no place for it in the “kingdom of truth and justice”, where a person must sooner or later move. The time when the novel was created falls at the height of political processes, the victims of which were those who committed “thought crimes” (Orwell’s term), while criminals were declared “socially related elements.” In this temporal context, the story of the condemnation of the “thought-criminal” I. to execution (and the release of the murderer Barrabvan) acquired an allusive meaning. I. is destroyed by the cowardly state machine, but it is not the root cause of his death, which is predetermined by a misanthropic ideology posing as a religion.

Lit. see the article “Master”.

All characteristics in alphabetical order:

1. Bulgakov’s best work.
2. The deep intention of the writer.
3. Complex image of Yeshua Ha-Nozri.
4. The cause of the hero's death.
5. Heartlessness and indifference of people.
6. Agreement between light and darkness.

According to literary scholars and M. A. Bulgakov himself, “The Master and Margarita” is his final work. Dying from a serious illness, the writer told his wife: “Maybe this is right... What could I write after “The Master”?” And in fact, this work is so multifaceted that the reader cannot immediately figure out which genre it belongs to. This is a fantastic, adventurous, satirical, and most of all philosophical novel.

Experts define the novel as a menippea, where a deep semantic load is hidden under the mask of laughter. In any case, “The Master and Margarita” harmoniously reunites such opposing principles as philosophy and science fiction, tragedy and farce, fantasy and realism. Another feature of the novel is the shift in spatial, temporal and psychological characteristics. This is the so-called double novel, or a novel within a novel. Two seemingly completely different stories pass before the viewer’s eyes, echoing each other. The action of the first takes place in modern years in Moscow, and the second takes the reader to ancient Yershalaim. However, Bulgakov went even further: it is difficult to believe that these two stories were written by the same author. Moscow incidents are described in vivid language. There is a lot of comedy, fantasy, and devilry here. Here and there the author's familiar chatter with the reader develops into outright gossip. The narrative is based on a certain understatement, incompleteness, which generally calls into question the veracity of this part of the work. When it comes to the events in Yershalaim, the artistic style changes dramatically. The story sounds strictly and solemnly, as if this is not a work of art, but chapters from the Gospel: “In a white cloak with a bloody lining, and with a shuffling gait, in the early morning of the fourteenth day of the spring month of Nisan, the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, came out into the covered colonnade between the two wings of the palace of Herod the Great. .." Both parts, according to the writer’s plan, should show the reader the state of morality over the past two thousand years.

Yeshua Ha-Nozri came to this world at the beginning of the Christian era, preaching his teaching about goodness. However, his contemporaries were unable to understand and accept this truth. Yeshua was sentenced to the shameful death penalty - crucifixion on a stake. From the point of view of religious leaders, the image of this person does not fit into any Christian canons. Moreover, the novel itself has been recognized as the “gospel of Satan.” However, Bulgakov's character is an image that includes religious, historical, ethical, philosophical, psychological and other features. That is why it is so difficult to analyze. Of course, Bulgakov, as an educated person, knew the Gospel very well, but he did not intend to write another example of spiritual literature. His work is deeply artistic. Therefore, the writer deliberately distorts the facts. Yeshua Ha-Nozri is translated as the savior from Nazareth, while Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

Bulgakov's hero is “a man of twenty-seven years old”; the Son of God was thirty-three years old. Yeshua has only one disciple, Matthew Levi, while Jesus has 12 apostles. Judas in The Master and Margarita was killed by order of Pontius Pilate; in the Gospel he hanged himself. With such inconsistencies, the author wants to once again emphasize that Yeshua in the work, first of all, is a person who managed to find psychological and moral support in himself and be faithful to it until the end of his life. Paying attention to the appearance of his hero, he shows readers that spiritual beauty is much higher than external attractiveness: “... he was dressed in an old and torn blue chiton. His head was covered with a white bandage with a strap around his forehead, and his hands were tied behind his back. The man had a large bruise under his left eye and an abrasion with dried blood in the corner of his mouth.” This man was not divinely imperturbable. He, like ordinary people, was subject to fear of Mark the Rat-Slayer or Pontius Pilate: “The one brought in looked at the procurator with anxious curiosity.” Yeshua was unaware of his divine origin, acting like an ordinary person.

The hero tries to atone for his guilt by trying to convince the priest to release this particular prisoner in honor of the holiday. When his idea fails, he orders the servants to stop tormenting the hanged man and personally orders the death of Judas. The tragedy of the story about Yeshua Ha-Nozri lies in the fact that his teaching was not in demand. People at that time were not ready to accept his truth. The main character is even afraid that his words will be misunderstood: “...this confusion will continue for a very long time.” Yeshua, who did not renounce his teachings, is a symbol of humanity and perseverance. His tragedy, but in the modern world, is repeated by the Master. Yeshua's death is quite predictable. The tragedy of the situation is further emphasized by the author with the help of a thunderstorm, which completes the plot line of modern history: “Darkness. Coming from the Mediterranean Sea, it covered the city hated by the procurator... An abyss fell from the sky. Yershalaim, a great city, disappeared, as if it did not exist in the world... Everything was devoured by darkness...”

With the death of the main character, the entire city plunged into darkness. At the same time, the moral state of the residents inhabiting the city left much to be desired. Yeshua is sentenced to “hanging on a stake,” which entails a long, painful execution. Among the townspeople there are many who want to admire this torture. Behind the cart with prisoners, executioners and soldiers “were about two thousand curious people who were not afraid of the hellish heat and wanted to be present at the interesting spectacle. These curious ones... have now been joined by curious pilgrims.” Approximately the same thing happens two thousand years later, when people strive to get to Woland’s scandalous performance in the Variety Show. From the behavior of modern people, Satan concludes that human nature does not change: “...they are people like people. They love money, but this has always been the case... humanity loves money, no matter what it is made of, whether leather, paper, bronze or gold... Well, they are frivolous... well, and mercy sometimes knocks on their hearts.”

Throughout the entire novel, the author, on the one hand, seems to draw a clear boundary between the spheres of influence of Yeshua and Woland, however, on the other hand, the unity of their opposites is clearly visible. However, despite the fact that in many situations Satan appears more significant than Yeshua, these rulers of light and darkness are quite equal. This is precisely the key to balance and harmony in this world, since the absence of one would make the presence of the other meaningless.

The peace that is awarded to the Master is a kind of agreement between two great powers. Moreover, Yeshua and Woland are driven to this decision by ordinary human love. Thus, Bulgakov still considers this wonderful feeling as the highest value.

Master. In the early edition of the novel, when the image was not yet clear to M. Bulgakov himself, the title character was called Faust. This name was conditional, caused by an analogy with the hero of Goethe’s tragedy, and only gradually the concept of the image of Margarita’s companion, the Master, became clearer.

The Master is a tragic hero, largely repeating the path of Yeshua in the modern chapters of the novel. The thirteenth (!) chapter of the novel, where the Master first appears before the reader, is called “The Appearance of the Hero”:

Ivan [Bezdomny. - V.K.] lowered his legs from the bed and peered. From the balcony, a shaved, dark-haired man with a sharp nose, anxious eyes and a tuft of hair hanging over his forehead, about thirty-eight years old, cautiously looked into the room... Then Ivan saw that the newcomer was dressed in sick clothes. He was wearing underwear, shoes on his bare feet, and a brown robe was thrown over his shoulders.

— Are you a writer? - the poet asked with interest.

“I am a master,” he became stern and took out of his robe pocket a completely greasy black cap with the letter “M” embroidered on it in yellow silk. He put on this cap and showed himself to Ivan both in profile and front to prove that he was a master.

Like Yeshua, the Master came into the world with his truth: this is the truth about those events that happened in ancient times. M. Bulgakov seems to be experimenting: what would happen if the God-man came to the world again in our days? What would his earthly fate be? An artistic study of the moral state of modern humanity does not allow M. Bulgakov to be optimistic: the fate of Yeshua would have remained the same. Confirmation of this is the fate of the Master’s novel about the God-Man.

The master, like Yeshua in his time, also found himself in a conflictual, dramatic situation: power and the dominant ideology actively oppose his truth - the novel. And the Master also goes through his tragic path in the novel.

In the name of his hero - Master 1 - M. Bulgakov emphasizes the main thing for him - the ability to create, the ability to be a professional in his writing and not betray his talent. Master means creator, creator, demiurge, artist, and not a craftsman 2. Bulgakov's hero is a Master, and this brings him closer to the Creator - the creator, the artist-architect, the author of the expedient and harmonious structure of the world.

But the Master, unlike Yeshua, turns out to be untenable as a tragic hero: he lacks that spiritual, moral strength that Yeshua showed both during the interrogation of Pilate and at his hour of death. The very title of the chapter (“The Appearance of the Hero”) contains tragic irony (and not just high tragedy), since the hero appears in a hospital gown as a patient in a psychiatric hospital, and he himself announces to Ivan Bezdomny about his madness.

Woland says about the Master: "He got a good finish". The tormented Master renounces his novel, his truth: “I no longer have any dreams and I don’t have any inspiration either... Nothing around me interests me except her [Margarita. - V.K.]... I was broken, I’m bored, and I want to go to the basement... I hate it, this novel... I I've suffered too much because of him."

The Master, like Yeshua, has his own antagonist in the novel - this is M.A. Berlioz, editor of a thick Moscow magazine, chairman of MASSOLIT, spiritual shepherd of the writing and reading flock. For Yeshua in the ancient chapters of the novel, the antagonist is Joseph Caiaphas, “the acting president of the Sanhedrin, the high priest of the Jews.” Caiaphas acts on behalf of the Jewish clergy as the spiritual shepherd of the people.

Each of the main characters - both Yeshua and the Master - has his own traitor, the incentive for which is material gain: Judas of Kiriath received his 30 tetradrachms; Aloisy Mogarych - Master's apartment in the basement.

Read also other articles on the work of M.A. Bulgakov and the analysis of the novel "The Master and Margarita":

3.1. Image of Yeshua Ha-Nozri. Comparison with the Gospel Jesus Christ
3.2. Ethical issues of Christian teaching and the image of Christ in the novel
3.4. Yeshua Ha-Nozri and the Master

The image of Yeshua Ha-Notsri in the novel by M. A. Bulgakov. According to literary scholars and M. A. Bulgakov himself, “The Master and Margarita” is his final work. Dying from a serious illness, the writer told his wife: “Maybe this is right... What could I write after “The Master”?” And in fact, this work is so multifaceted that the reader cannot immediately figure out which genre it belongs to. This is a fantastic, adventurous, satirical, and most of all philosophical novel.

The action of the first takes place in modern years in Moscow, and the second takes the reader to ancient Yershalaim. However, Bulgakov went even further: it is difficult to believe that these two stories were written by the same author. Moscow incidents are described in vivid language. There is a lot of comedy, fantasy, and devilry here. Here and there the author's familiar chatter with the reader develops into outright gossip. The narrative is based on a certain understatement, incompleteness, which generally calls into question the veracity of this part of the work. When it comes to the events in Yershalaim, the artistic style changes dramatically. The story sounds strictly and solemnly, as if this is not a work of art, but chapters from the Gospel: “In a white cloak with a bloody lining, and with a shuffling gait, in the early morning of the fourteenth day of the spring month of Nisan, the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, came out into the covered colonnade between the two wings of the palace of Herod the Great... " Both parts, according to the writer’s plan, should show the reader the state of morality over the past two thousand years.

Despite the fact that the novel pays special attention to the human qualities of the protagonist, his divine origin is not forgotten. At the end of the work, it is Yeshua who personifies that higher power that instructs Woland to reward the master with peace. At the same time, the author did not perceive his character as a prototype of Christ. Yeshua concentrates in himself the image of the moral law, which enters into a tragic confrontation with legal law. The main character came into this world with a moral truth - every person is kind. This is the truth of the entire novel. And with her help, Bulgakov seeks to once again prove to people that God exists. The relationship between Yeshua and Pontius Pilate occupies a special place in the novel. It is to him that the wanderer says: “All power is violence over people... the time will come when there will be no power either of Caesar or any other power. Man will move into the kingdom of truth and justice, where no power will be needed at all.” Feeling some truth in the words of his prisoner, Pontius Pilate cannot let him go, for fear of harming his career. Under pressure from circumstances, he signs Yeshua’s death warrant and greatly regrets it. The hero tries to atone for his guilt by trying to convince the priest to release this particular prisoner in honor of the holiday. When his idea fails, he orders the servants to stop tormenting the hanged man and personally orders the death of Judas. The tragedy of the story about Yeshua Ha-Nozri lies in the fact that his teaching was not in demand. People at that time were not ready to accept his truth. The main character is even afraid that his words will be misunderstood: “... this confusion will continue for a very long time.” Yeshuya, who did not renounce his teachings, is a symbol of humanity and perseverance. His tragedy, but in the modern world, is repeated by the Master. Yeshua's death is quite predictable. The tragedy of the situation is further emphasized by the author with the help of a thunderstorm, which completes the plot line of modern history: “Darkness. Coming from the Mediterranean Sea, it covered the city hated by the procurator... An abyss fell from the sky. Yershalaim, a great city, disappeared, as if it did not exist in the world... Everything was devoured by darkness...”

Throughout the entire novel, the author, on the one hand, seems to draw a clear boundary between the spheres of influence of Yeshua and Woland, however, on the other hand, the unity of their opposites is clearly visible. However, although in many situations Satan appears more significant than Yeshua, these rulers of light and darkness are quite equal. This is precisely the key to balance and harmony in this world, since the absence of one would make the presence of the other meaningless.

The peace that is awarded to the Master is a kind of agreement between two great powers. Moreover, Yeshua and Woland are driven to this decision by ordinary human love. Thus, as the highest value of Bulgako

“The Master and Margarita” is the last work of Mikhail Bulgakov. This is what not only writers say, but also he himself. Dying from a serious illness, he told his wife: “Perhaps this is right. What else could I create after “The Master”?” Really, what else could the writer say? This work is so multifaceted that the reader does not immediately understand what genre it belongs to. An amazing plot, deep philosophy, a bit of satire and charismatic characters - all this created a unique masterpiece that is read all over the world.

An interesting character in this work is Yeshua Ha-Nozri, who will be discussed in the article. Of course, many readers, captivated by the charisma of the dark lord Woland, do not pay much attention to such a character as Yeshua. But even if in the novel Woland himself recognized him as his equal, we certainly shouldn’t ignore him.

Two towers

“The Master and Margarita” is a harmonious intricacy of opposite principles. Science fiction and philosophy, farce and tragedy, good and evil... Spatial, temporal and psychological characteristics are shifted here, and in the novel itself there is another novel. Before the eyes of readers, two completely different stories created by one author echo each other.

The first story takes place in modern Moscow for Bulgakov, and the events of the second take place in ancient Yershalaim, where Yeshua Ha-Notsri and Pontius Pilate meet. Reading the novel, it is difficult to believe that these two diametrically opposed short stories were created by one person. Events in Moscow are described in a living language, which is not alien to notes of comedy, gossip, devilry and familiarity. But when it comes to Yershalaim, the artistic style of the work sharply changes to strict and solemn:

In a white cloak with bloody lining, and with a shuffling gait, in the early morning of the fourteenth day of the spring month of Nisan, the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, came out into the covered colonnade between the two wings of the palace of Herod the Great...

These two parts should show the reader the state of morality and how it has changed over the past 2000 years. Based on this author’s intention, we will consider the image of Yeshua Ha-Nozri.

Teaching

Yeshua arrived in this world at the beginning of the Christian era and preached a simple doctrine of goodness. Only his contemporaries were not yet ready to accept new truths. Yeshua Ha-Nozri was sentenced to death - a shameful crucifixion on a stake, which was intended for dangerous criminals.

People have always been afraid of what their minds could not comprehend, and an innocent person paid with his life for this ignorance.

Gospel according to...

Initially, it was believed that Yeshua Ha-Nozri and Jesus were one and the same person, but that’s not what the author wanted to say at all. The image of Yeshua does not correspond to any Christian canon. This character includes many religious, historical, ethical, psychological and philosophical characteristics, but still remains a simple person.

Bulgakov was educated and knew the Gospel well, but he did not have the goal of creating another copy of spiritual literature. The writer deliberately distorts the facts, even the name Yeshua Ha-Nozri means “savior from Nazareth”, and everyone knows that the biblical character was born in Bethlehem.

Inconsistencies

The above was not the only discrepancy. Yeshua Ha-Nozri in the novel “The Master and Margarita” is an original, truly Bulgakovian hero who has nothing in common with the biblical character. So, in the novel he appears to the reader as a young man of 27 years old, while the Son of God was 33 years old. Yeshua has only one follower, Matthew Levi, Jesus had 12 disciples. In the novel, Judas was killed on the orders of Pontius Pilate, and in the Gospel he committed suicide.

With such inconsistencies, the author tries in every possible way to emphasize that Yeshua Ha-Nozri is, first of all, a person who was able to find psychological and moral support in himself, and he remained true to his convictions until the very end.

Appearance

In the novel “The Master and Margarita,” Yeshua Ha-Nozri appears before the reader in an ignoble external image: worn sandals, an old and torn blue tunic, his head is covered with a white bandage with a strap around the forehead. His hands are tied behind his back, he has a bruise under his eye, and an abrasion in the corner of his mouth. By this, Bulgakov wanted to show the reader that spiritual beauty is much higher than external attractiveness.

Yeshua was not divinely calm, like all people, he felt fear of Pilate and Mark the Rat-Slayer. He did not even know about his (possibly divine) origin and acted in the same way as ordinary people.

Divinity is present

In the work, a lot of attention is paid to the human qualities of the hero, but with all this, the author does not forget about his divine origin. At the end of the novel, it is Yeshua who becomes the personification of the force that told Woland to grant the Master peace. And at the same time, the author does not want to perceive this character as a prototype of Christ. This is why the characterization of Yeshua Ha-Nozri is so ambiguous: some say that his prototype was the Son of God, others claim that he was a simple man with a good education, and still others believe that he was slightly crazy.

Moral truth

The hero of the novel came into the world with one moral truth: every person is kind. This position became the truth of the entire novel. Two thousand years ago, a “means of salvation” (that is, repentance for sins) was found, which changed the course of all history. But Bulgakov saw salvation in a person’s spiritual feat, in his morality and perseverance.

Bulgakov himself was not a deeply religious person, he did not go to church and before his death he even refused to receive unction, but he did not welcome atheism either. He believed that the new era in the twentieth century is a time of self-salvation and self-government, which was once revealed to the world in Jesus. The author believed that such an act could save Russia in the twentieth century. We can say that Bulgakov wanted people to believe in God, but not blindly follow everything that is written in the Gospel.

Even in the novel, he openly states that the Gospel is a fiction. Yeshua evaluates Matthew Levi (who is also an evangelist who is known to everyone) in these words:

He walks and walks alone with a goat's parchment and writes continuously, but one day I looked into this parchment and was horrified. I said absolutely nothing of what was written there. I begged him: burn your parchment for God’s sake!

Yeshua himself refutes the authenticity of the testimony of the Gospel. And in this his views are united with Woland:

“Who, who,” Woland turns to Berlioz, but you should know that absolutely nothing of what is written in the Gospels ever actually happened.

Yeshua Ha-Nozri and Pontius Pilate

A special place in the novel is occupied by Yeshua's relationship with Pilate. It was to the latter that Yeshua said that all power is violence against people, and one day the time will come when there will be no power left except the kingdom of truth and justice. Pilate sensed a grain of truth in the prisoner’s words, but still cannot let him go, fearing for his career. Circumstances put pressure on him, and he signed a death warrant for the rootless philosopher, which he greatly regretted.

Later, Pilate tries to atone for his guilt and asks the priest to release this particular condemned man in honor of the holiday. But his idea was not crowned with success, so he ordered his servants to stop the suffering of the condemned man and personally ordered that Judas be killed.

Let's get to know each other better

You can fully understand Bulgakov's hero only by paying attention to the dialogue between Yeshua Ha-Nozri and Pontius Pilate. It is from it that you can find out where Yeshua was from, how educated he was and how he treated others.

Yeshua is just a personified image of the moral and philosophical ideas of humanity. Therefore, it is not surprising that in the novel there is no description of this man, there is only a mention of how he is dressed and that there is a bruise and abrasions on his face.

You can also learn from the dialogue with Pontius Pilate that Yeshua is lonely:

There is no one. I'm alone in the world.

And, strangely, there is nothing in this statement that could sound like a complaint about loneliness. Yeshua does not need compassion, he does not feel like an orphan or somehow defective. He is self-sufficient, the whole world is in front of him, and it is open to him. It is a little difficult to understand the integrity of Yeshua; he is equal to himself and the whole world that he has absorbed into himself. He does not hide in the colorful polyphony of roles and masks, he is free from all this.

The power of Yeshua Ha-Nozri is so enormous that at first it is mistaken for weakness and lack of will. But he is not so simple: Woland feels on an equal footing with him. Bulgakov's character is a vivid example of the idea of a god-man.

The wandering philosopher is strong because of his unshakable faith in goodness, and this faith cannot be taken away from him by either fear of punishment or visible injustice. His faith persists despite everything. In this hero the author sees not only a preacher-reformer, but also the embodiment of free spiritual activity.

Education

In the novel, Yeshua Ha-Nozri has developed intuition and intelligence, which allows him to guess the future, and not just possible events in the next few days. Yeshua is able to guess the fate of his teaching, which is already being incorrectly presented by Matthew Levi. This man is so internally free that even realizing that he faces the death penalty, he considers it his duty to tell the Roman governor about his meager life.

Ha-Nozri sincerely preaches love and tolerance. He doesn't have any that he would prefer. Pilate, Judas and Rat Slayer - they are all interesting and “good people”, only crippled by circumstances and time. Talking with Pilate, he says that there are no evil people in the world.

Yeshua's main strength is openness and spontaneity; he is constantly in such a state that he is ready to meet halfway at any moment. He is open to this world, therefore he understands every person with whom fate confronts him:

The trouble is,” continued the bound man, unstoppable by anyone, “that you are too closed and have completely lost faith in people.

Openness and closedness in Bulgakov's world are the two poles of good and evil. Good always moves towards, and isolation opens the way for evil. For Yeshua, truth is what it really is, overcoming conventions, liberation from etiquette and dogma.

Tragedy

The tragedy of the story of Yeshua Ha-Nozri is that his teaching was not in demand. People were simply not ready to accept his truth. And the hero even fears that his words will be misunderstood, and the confusion will last for a very long time. But Yeshua did not renounce his ideas; he is a symbol of humanity and perseverance.

The Master experiences the tragedy of his character in the modern world. One could even say that Yeshua Ha-Nozri and the Master are somewhat similar. Neither of them gave up their ideas, and both paid for them with their lives.

Yeshua's death was predictable, and the author emphasizes its tragedy with the help of a thunderstorm, which ends the storyline and modern history:

Dark. Coming from the Mediterranean Sea, it covered the city hated by the procurator... An abyss fell from the sky. Yershalaim, a great city, disappeared, as if it did not exist in the world... Everything was devoured by darkness...

Moral

With the death of the main character, not only Yershalaim plunged into darkness. The morality of its townspeople left much to be desired. Many residents watched the torture with interest. They were not afraid of either the hellish heat or the long journey: execution is so interesting. And approximately the same situation occurs 2000 years later, when people passionately want to attend Woland’s scandalous performance.

Looking at how people behave, Satan draws the following conclusions:

They are people like people. They love money, but this has always been the case... humanity loves money, no matter what it is made of, whether leather, paper, bronze or gold... Well, they are frivolous... well, and mercy sometimes knocks on their hearts.

Yeshua is not a dimming, but forgotten light, in which shadows disappear. He is the embodiment of goodness and love, an ordinary person who, despite all the suffering, still believes in the world and people. Yeshua Ha-Nozri are powerful forces of good in human form, but even they can be influenced.

Throughout the novel, the author draws a clear line between the spheres of influence of Yeshua and Woland, but, on the other hand, it is difficult not to notice the unity of their opposites. Of course, in many situations Woland looks much more significant than Yeshua, but these rulers of light and darkness are equal to each other. And thanks to this equality, there is harmony in the world, because if there were no one, then the existence of the other would be meaningless. The peace that the Master was awarded is a kind of agreement between two powerful forces, and the two great forces are driven to this decision by ordinary human love, which is considered in the novel as the highest value.