Korach, Jesus, and Karl Marx

Rebellion is a common theme in Jewish history, and Korach, Jesus, and Marx are prime examples. I see a common thread in their style of rebellion, and it comprises of 2 general tactics. The first is the call for populism, and the second is the threat of violence. Populism is most often used where there is some form of elitism, either legitimate, as in the case of Moses and Aaron the priest, or less than legitimate, as in the case of the Russian Tzars.

Korach uses populism in Numbers 16:3

and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them: 'Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them; wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?'

Jesus uses a mix of populism, and also a threat of divine retribution. In fact, Jesus was rebelling against a divided Jewish leadership, the elitist Priestly Sadducees, who were the rightful heirs to Aaron, and also the Pharisees, who themselves were engaged in a violent battle with the Sadducees. He thus uses polemics of the Sadducees to justify his argument against the Pharisees, and vice versa.

Thus in Matthew 10, he makes the following absurd, cult-like threats:

37 He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me.

38 And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me.

39 He that findeth his life, shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for My sake, shall find it.

For all his use of populism, he also uses the threat, and quite effectively intimidates his potential followers.

Marx was also the populist, but for his system to take a practical stronghold, it also needed the threat of violence, which was provided by Lenin and Stalin. The German (and possibly anti-Semitic) economist Schumpeter, called Marxism the only religion where salvation was to be found on this side of the grave.

In most of my posts there is a critique of Phariseeism, in one form or other. Historically, the Pharisees used both populism and the threat (as well as implementation) of violence to seize power from the Sadducees.

A few examples of this are in previous posts:

http://tanakhemet.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/a-time-to-kill-misprepresentation.html

http://tanakhemet.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/the-rabbis-epistle-to-hebrews.html

The rabbis used populism in their rebellion against the elitist Kohanim, just like Korach did, but combined the violence of Lenin-Stalin to achieve their goals.