My colleague Dr Peter Lewis has written a short article titled 'Portrait of Jesus', which is enclosed below. I hope you like it. I wanted to share it with the readers and hope that it might inspire you to purchase this book that speaks to Progressive Christianity.

Portrait of Jesus

By Dr. Peter Lewis

In the book, Revitalizing Christianity: The Theology of Peter Lewis, the editor, Shane St Reynolds, selected a number of Dr Lewis’ articles and critiqued them. He also asked AI to create an image that related to the subject of each article. For the first article titled ‘Jesus was different’ he asked AI to create a portrait of Jesus when he was a young man in Nazareth.

The image that AI created showed a rather sad, sensitive young man who did not look particularly Jewish. Also, to the surprise of Dr Lewis and Mr St Reynolds, Jesus has an abrasion on his nose and blood coming from around his left eye. It was obvious that he had been bashed.

Who bashed him and why? The most likely answer is that one or more of his brothers bashed him. According to Mark 6:3, Jesus had four brothers and at least two sisters. In Luke 2:7 Jesus is Mary’s first-born, which means that she had more children with her husband Joseph. However, it can be argued that, although she had at least one other child with Joseph, the four brothers of Jesus were half-brothers, the children of Joseph by a former marriage.

When Jesus was on the cross he said that his disciple should be Mary’s son (John 19:26), which suggests that she had no other living sons except her four stepsons. Also, because Jesus’ brothers went to take charge of him when he was in Galilee (Mark 3:21), they were probably older. Younger brothers taking such action would have been inconsistent with Jewish custom. Origen (c. 185-254), Epiphanius (4th century) and other early theologians believed that Jesus’ brothers were children of Joseph by a former marriage. This is the teaching of the Orthodox Church in Greece and elsewhere.

After Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection his brothers believed in him, perhaps because of a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus to James, his eldest brother (1 Cor. 15:7), but during Jesus’ lifetime they did not believe in him. Jesus said,

“The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil.” (John 7:7)

Jesus is saying that his brothers were part of the evil world, which was the environment in which he lived until he was about 30 years old. In that environment he worked as a carpenter with his brothers in the family business. Jesus and his brothers were probably involved in the rebuilding of Sepphoris, which was only a few kilometres from Nazareth. Sepphoris, the traditional home of Mary’s parents, was destroyed by Roman soldiers in 4 BC.

There are three possible reasons for Jesus’ brothers hating him and bashing him. Firstly, he was probably illegitimate. When he was 12 years old and in Jerusalem with his parents, he knew he was illegitimate because he acknowledged God as his father without mentioning Joseph. (Luke 2:49) His older brothers would also have known, and if they had heard that Mary had been raped by a Roman soldier, their hatred of Jesus would have been intense.

Secondly, Jesus was probably gay. His brothers would have noticed that he was not interested in girls, and after the death of Joseph, when James, the eldest man in the family, might have arranged marriages for him, he would not have agreed. His brothers were probably tough, heterosexual tradesmen, and they would have given Jesus a hard time. They would have mistaken gentleness for effeminacy and goodness for weakness. (Cf. Galatians 5:22,23)

Thirdly, Jesus was very intelligent and very much interested in religion, while his brothers were likely to have been of average intelligence and not particularly interested in religion. This difference would have strengthened their dislike of him. Actually, a high level of intelligence coupled with the ability to focus intensely on a subject are ‘symptoms’ of forms of autism such as Asperger’s Syndrome. If Jesus was like that, his brothers might have looked upon him as their ‘obnoxious’ little brother. When they were working hard rebuilding Sepphoris, Jesus might have been sitting at the feet of a priest there learning about the book of Isaiah and other scriptures in Hebrew.

When Jesus returned to Nazareth after being baptized by John, he read from the book of Isaiah and claimed to be the Servant of God about whom Isaiah had written. When the people of Nazareth tried to kill him, none of his brothers or sisters made any effort to save him (Luke 4:29) and there is no doubt that he was ‘despised and rejected’. (Isaiah 53:3) AI must have taken all this into account when it showed Jesus in the way that it did.

Dr. Peter Lewis is an independent Australian scholar not connected to any university or seminary. Although he has postgraduate qualifications in biblical studies, his career has been medical. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and has worked as a surgeon in developing countries (Bangladesh and the Solomon Islands).

Upon returning to Australia, he served as the vice-president of Hopewell Hospice Services on the Gold Coast for twenty years. Peter is also a numismatist and has written books and many articles about coins relating to the history of Christianity. Currently, he is a Research Associate for the Centre for Coins, Culture and Religious History.

Shane St Reynolds is an associate member of ISCAST, a network of people—from students and lay people to distinguished academics—exploring the interface of science, technology, and Christian faith. The Good News Blog believes in Responsible AI practices in publishing and image creation, always ensuring transparency and proper attribution when AI tools are used. The use of AI in theological reflection and biblical studies offers exciting possibilities, but we remain committed to careful interpretation and respect for the sacred texts.

A Reflection on Sobriety and the Wounded Jesus

Click above to read the critique of this article by Shane St Reynolds, offering a deeper exploration of the themes of violence, family, and transformation in the life of Jesus.