What moral feat did Yeshua Ga Notsri accomplish? Image of Yeshua Ha-Nozri

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 fiction, 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.

During the reign of the emperors Octavian Augustus and Tiberius, Jesus Christ lived in the Roman Empire, myths about whom became the basis of the Christian religion.
We can assume different dates for his birth. 14 AD correlates with the reign of Quirinius in Syria and with the census of that year in the Roman Empire. 8 BC will be obtained if we correlate the birth of Jesus Christ with the census in the Roman Empire in 8 BC and the reign of King Herod of Judea, who died in 4 BC.
An interesting evidence from the Gospels is the correlation of the Birth of Jesus Christ with the appearance of a “Star” in the sky. A famous such event of that time is the appearance of Halley's Comet in 12 BC. Information about the mother of Jesus Mary does not contradict this assumption.
The Dormition of Mary, according to Christian tradition, occurred in 44 AD, at the age of 71, that is, she was born in 27 BC.
As the legend says, in early childhood Mary served in the temple, and girls served in the temple until the appearance of menstruation. That is, she, in principle, could leave the temple around 13 BC, and in the next year, the year of the comet, she gave birth to Jesus (from the Roman soldier Panther, as Celsus and the authors of the Talmud report). Mary had more children: Jacob, Josiah, Judah and Simeon, as well as at least two daughters.
According to the evangelists, the family of Jesus lived in Nazareth - "... and he came and settled (Joseph with Mary and the baby Jesus) in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophets, that he should be called a Nazarene." (Matthew 2:23 ). But there was no such city in the time of Jesus. The village of Nazareth (Natsrat) appeared in the 2nd century AD as a settlement of Christians (“natsri” are Christians in Hebrew, followers of Yeshua Ha Notzri, Jesus of Nazareth).
The name Jesus is "Yeshua" - in Hebrew, "Yahweh will save." This is a common Aramaic name. But he was not a Nazarene; “Nazarenes” - ascetics - took a vow of abstinence from wine and cutting their hair.
“The Son of Man came, eating and drinking; and they said, “Here is a man who loves to eat and drink wine, a friend of publicans and sinners.” (Matthew 11:19).
The compilers of the Gospels, who did not know the geography of Galilee, decided that since Jesus was not an ascetic, it means he was from Nazareth.
But that's not true.
"...and leaving Nazareth, he came and settled in Capernaum by the sea... (Matthew 4:13)
Jesus performed many "miracles" in Capernaum...
In his native village, where he once returned, Jesus could not perform miracles, because they had to be prepared:
“He said to them: Of course, you will tell Me the proverb: Physician, heal Yourself; do here, in Your fatherland, what we heard happened in Capernaum. And He said: Truly I say to you, no prophet is accepted in in his own country." (Luke 4.23-24)
Capernaum (in Aramaic "Kfar Nahum" - the village of Consolation) was on the northern shore of Lake Kinneret - the Sea of Galilee, in the time of Jesus called Lake of Gennesaret, named after the fertile wooded plain on its western shore. Genisaret Greek transcription. "Ha (Ha, He, Ge)" in Hebrew (Hebrew) is the definite article. Netzer is a shoot, a young shoot. Genisaret - Ge Nisaret - Ha Netzer - thickets, valley of thickets, forest valley or forest thickets, etc.
That is, Yeshua Ha Nozri - Jesus is not from Nazareth, which did not exist at that time, but from the valley of Gennesaret (Ge) Netzer, or from some village in this valley - Jesus of Gennesaret.
Jesus' religious activity, as described in the Gospels, began at the age of 12, when he began to "teach the law" to the people in the temple. He probably left the family very soon, perhaps at that time Joseph died. If Jesus had not left the family at this time, then, according to the custom of the Jews of that time, he would have already been married. Celsus and the Talmud say that Jesus worked as a day laborer in Egypt. It is possible that it was in Egypt that he began to listen to various “prophets” or joined the Essenes sect. The year 19 AD is the year of Jesus' 33rd birthday and the year of one of the outbursts of fanaticism in Judea. According to the Gospel of Luke - "...Jesus, beginning his ministry, was about thirty years old...". This year Jesus linked his activities with John the Baptist. The Apostle John of Zebedee, associated with Jesus precisely from this time, in his Gospel, quite reliably describes his first coming to Jesus and the coming to him as disciples of other young guys who were carried away by his tricks and left their stern teacher for his sake - John the Baptist. Other evangelists describe his more famous activities, which began in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, that is, in 29 AD after his exit from the desert, where he hid after the execution of John the Baptist by Herod Antipas. In this activity, Jesus is accompanied by fully grown apostles.
The signs of Jesus' genius are described quite clearly by the authors of the Gospels, these are: a negative attitude towards the family, a negative attitude towards women, visions of the “devil” who tested his faith.
Perhaps, to propagate his teachings, Jesus himself prepared his arrest, crucifixion and apparent death. In the narration of the activities of Christ, long before his death, the mysterious phrase “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up” allegedly sounded from his lips. Jesus prepared for a long time for the “miracle of the resurrection” to prove that he was a true “prophet”, a messenger of “God”. The very use of Roman execution, that is, crucifixion, and not stoning, which should have been applied to an apostate from Jewish laws, was carefully arranged by himself. This can also be evidenced by the fact that before that he made several trial experiments in the “resurrection” of his assistants: the daughter of Jairus, the son of a widow, Lazarus... It can be assumed that he probably acted according to the recipes of sorcerers of some nations, similar to those preserved in the Haitian cult of “Voodoo”, which dates back to the black cults of Africa. (People know cases when, by all indications, clearly dead people suddenly came to life. Such cases are also known in the practice of various cults, in the cult of Haitian blacks - Voodoo and in the Hindu cult in the practice of yoga. Many mammals can be in the same state of imaginary death animals, and in some of these animals, hibernation is a natural state for waiting out unfavorable conditions. The possibility of being in a state of apparent death for mammals is due to the action of the same mechanisms that are characteristic of fish and amphibians, waiting out unfavorable conditions in hibernation.) The Gospels report details of the "miracle of the resurrection of the crucified Jesus". While on the cross, Jesus received some kind of drink from the guard in a sponge mounted on a spear and fell into such anesthesia that he did not react to the injection in the side with a spear. And the reason for the spear injection was, it must be said, strange...
The fact is that in the case described, all those crucified hung on the cross for only a few hours. This is unusual for this type of Roman execution; executed slaves usually hung on the cross for a very long time, for weeks. It is also known that before being taken down from the cross, two other criminals had their legs broken, and Jesus, who was in a state of anesthesia, was only pierced with a spear. So that during the crucifixion the soldiers acted according to the scenario known to Jesus and some of his companions, they could receive some gifts in advance before the crucifixion, and not only during the “execution” as described in the Gospels. But the resurrection was probably not entirely successful. Although Jesus may have appeared to the apostles three days later, he then does not really act anywhere else. This means that he most likely died at the same time from infection of the wound inflicted by the spear...
The date of Jesus' death is associated with the reign of the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate in Judea. Little is known about the beginning of the reign of Pontius Pilate in Judea, but the end of his activities there is well known... The Roman historian Josephus reports that the Samaritans, friends of Emperor Tiberius, filed a complaint against Pontius Pilate for the bloody dispersal of a demonstration in 36 BC Roman legate Vittellius. In 37 AD, Pontius Pilate was recalled to Rome. However, Pilate, as an official, could have been recalled in connection with the death of Tiberius in the same year.
The last date of the activity of Jesus Christ may be 37 AD, but 33, according to tradition, or 36, the year associated with some demonstration suppressed by Pilate, are acceptable. At the time of the crucifixion, Jesus was about 50 years old, and his mother Mary was slightly over 60 years old.

Yeshua is tall, but his height is human
by nature. He is tall in human terms
standards He is a human. There is nothing of the Son of God in him.
M. Dunaev 1

Yeshua and the Master, despite the fact that they occupy little space in the novel, are the central characters of the novel. They have a lot in common: one is a wandering philosopher who does not remember his parents and has no one in the world; the other is a nameless employee of some Moscow museum, also completely alone.

The fates of both are tragic, and they owe this to the truth that was revealed to them: for Yeshua this is the idea of good; for the Master, this is the truth about the events of two thousand years ago, which he “guessed” in his novel.

Yeshua Ha-Nozri. From a religious point of view, the image of Yeshua Ha-Nozri is a deviation from the Christian canons, and Master of Theology, Candidate of Philological Sciences M.M. Dunaev writes about this: “On the tree of lost truth, refined error, a fruit has ripened called “The Master and Margarita”, with artistic brilliance, wittingly or unwittingly, distorting the fundamental principle [the Gospel. - V.K.], and the result was an anti-Christian novel, “the gospel of Satan”, “anti-liturgy”" 2. However, Bulgakov’s Yeshua is an artistic, multidimensional, its assessment and analysis are possible from various points of view: religious, historical, psychological, ethical, philosophical, aesthetic... The fundamental multidimensionality of approaches gives rise to a multiplicity of points of view and gives rise to disputes about the essence of this character in the novel.

For the reader opening the novel for the first time, the name of this character is a mystery. What does it mean? "Yeshua(or Yehoshua) is the Hebrew form of the name Jesus, which translated means “God is my salvation,” or “Savior”" 3. Ha-Nozri in accordance with the common interpretation of this word, it is translated as “Nazarene; Nazarene; from Nazareth,” that is, the hometown of Jesus, where he spent his childhood (Jesus, as is known, was born in Bethlehem). But, since the author has chosen an unconventional form of naming the character, the bearer of this name itself must be unconventional from a religious point of view, non-canonical. Yeshua is an artistic, non-canonical “double” of Jesus Christ (Christ translated from Greek as “Messiah”).

The unconventionality of the image of Yeshua Ha-Nozri in comparison with the Gospel Jesus Christ is obvious:

Yeshua from Bulgakov - "a man of about twenty-seven". Jesus Christ, as you know, was thirty-three years old at the time of his sacrificial feat. Regarding the date of birth of Jesus Christ, indeed, there are discrepancies among the church ministers themselves: Archpriest Alexander Men, citing the works of historians, believes that Christ was born 6-7 years earlier than his official birth, calculated in the 6th century by the monk Dionysius the Small 4. This example shows that M. Bulgakov, when creating his “fantastic novel” (the author’s definition of the genre), was based on real historical facts;

Bulgakov's Yeshua does not remember his parents. The mother and official father of Jesus Christ are named in all the Gospels;

Yeshua by blood "I think he's Syrian". Jesus' Jewish origins are traced to Abraham (in the Gospel of Matthew);

Yeshua has one and only disciple - Levi Matthew. Jesus, according to the evangelists, had twelve apostles;

Yeshua is betrayed by Judas - some barely familiar young man, who, however, is not a disciple of Yeshua (as in the Gospel Judas is a disciple of Jesus);

Bulgakov's Judas is killed on the orders of Pilate, who wants at least to calm his conscience; the evangelical Judas of Kerioth hanged himself;

After the death of Yeshua, his body is kidnapped and buried by Matthew Levi. In the Gospel - Joseph from Arimathea, “a disciple of Christ, but secret out of fear from the Jews”;

the nature of the preaching of the Gospel Jesus has been changed, only one moral position has been left in M. Bulgakov’s novel "All people are kind" However, Christian teaching does not come down to this;

The divine origin of the Gospels has been disputed. In the novel, Yeshua says about the notes on the parchment of his disciple, Matthew Levi: “These good people... didn’t learn anything and confused everything I said. In general, I’m beginning to fear that this confusion will continue for a very long time. And all because he writes down incorrectly after me.<...>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! But he snatched it from my hands and ran away";

there is no mention of the divine origin of the God-man and crucifixion - the atoning sacrifice (Bulgakov’s executed "sentenced... to be hanged from poles!").

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

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