Yeshua Ha-Nozri
YESHUA GA-NOZRI - central character novel by M.A. Bulgakov "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 Patriarch's Ponds, one of whom, the young poet Ivan Bezdomny, composed an anti-religious poem, but did not cope with the task. Jesus turned out to be completely alive, but it was necessary to prove that he did not exist at all, "that all the stories about him are mere inventions, the most ordinary myth." This image-myth in Bulgakov's novel is opposed by the wandering philosopher Yeshua Ga-Notsri, as he appears in two chapters of the "ancient" plot: first in the second - under interrogation by the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate - and then in the sixteenth chapter, depicting the execution of the righteous man crucified on the cross . Bulgakov gives the name of Jesus in Judaized form. A likely source was the book of the English theologian F.V. Farrar "The Life of Jesus Christ" (1874, Russian translation - 1885), where the writer could read: Jewish name Yeshua, which means "his salvation is Jehovah", from Hoshea or Hosea - salvation. It was also explained there that "ga-notseri" means a Nazarene, literally - from Nazareth. The image of Jesus Christ, as it is displayed 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 and followers who have accepted his teachings. “I am alone in the world,” says I. Only person, who showed interest in his sermons, is the tax collector Levi Matvey, who follows him with parchment and continuously writes, but he “wrongly writes down”, everything is confused there, and one can “fear that this confusion will continue for a very long time.” for a long time". Finally, Judas from Kiriath, who betrayed I., is not his student, but a casual acquaintance with whom dangerous conversation O state power. The image of I. absorbed different traditions images of Jesus Christ, established in the scientific and fiction, but not tied to any one, strictly defined. Clear influence historical school, which found the most consistent expression in the book by E. Renan "The Life of Jesus" (1863). However, Bulgakov does not have 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 to Jesus - to Christ, the son of man - to the son of God (in the spirit of A. Barbusse's book "Jesus Against Christ", published in Russian translation in 1928 and, presumably, famous writer). During the interrogation by Pilate and later, during the execution, I., perhaps, does not realize himself as the messiah, but he is (becomes) him. An ambassador comes from him to Woland with a decision on the fate of the Master and Margarita. He is the highest authority in the hierarchy of light, just like Woland is the supreme ruler of the world of shadows. Actor, objectified in the narrative, I. is shown on the last day of his earthly path, in the guise of a righteous man, the bearer of the ethical imperative of goodness, convinced that " evil people there is no such thing as a thinker in the world, in whose view “any power is violence against people” and therefore it has no place in the “realm of truth and justice”, where a person must sooner or later go. The time of the creation of the novel falls at the height of political processes, the victims of which were those who committed "thought crime" (Orwell's term), while the criminals were declared "socially close elements". In this temporal context, the story of the condemnation to execution of the “thought-criminal” I. (and the release of the murderer Barrabban) acquired an allusive meaning. I. destroys the cowardly state machine, but it is not the root cause of his death, which is predetermined by a misanthropic ideology posing as religion.
Lit. see the article "Master".
All characteristics in alphabetical order:
The image of Yeshua Ha-Notsri in the novel by M. A. Bulgakov. According to literary critics and M. A. Bulgakov himself, The Master and Margarita is his final work. Dying from a serious illness, the writer said to his wife: “Maybe this is right ... What could I write after the “Master”?” And in fact, this work is so multifaceted that the reader can not immediately figure out which genre it belongs to. This is a fantastic, and adventurous, and satirical, and most of all a philosophical novel.
Experts define the novel as a menippea, where under the mask of laughter lies a deep semantic load. In any case, such opposite principles as philosophy and fantasy, tragedy and farce, fantasy and realism are harmoniously reunited in The Master and Margarita. Another feature of the novel is the displacement of spatial, temporal and psychological characteristics. This is the so-called double novel, or a novel within a novel. Before the eyes of the viewer, echoing each other, two seemingly completely different stories pass.
The action of the first takes place in modern times in Moscow, and the second takes the reader to ancient Yershalaim. However, Bulgakov went even further: it is hard to believe that these two stories were written by the same author. Moscow incidents are described in living language. There is a lot of comedy, fantasy, devilry. In some places, the author's familiar chatter with the reader develops into outright gossip. The narrative is built on a certain understatement, incompleteness, which generally casts doubt on the veracity of this part of the work. When it comes to the events in Yershalaim, art style changes drastically. The story sounds sternly and solemnly, as if it were not a work of art, but chapters from the Gospel: “In a white cloak with a bloody lining, shuffling gait in the early morning of the fourteenth day of the spring month of Nisan, the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, entered the covered colonnade between the two wings of the palace of Herod the Great ... ". Both parts, according to the writer's intention, should show the reader the state of morality over the past two thousand years.
Yeshua Ha-Nozri came into this world at the beginning of the Christian era, preaching his doctrine of goodness. However, his contemporaries failed to understand and accept this truth. Yeshua was sentenced to shame death penalty- crucifixion on a pole. From point of view religious figures, the image of this person does not fit into any Christian canons. Moreover, the novel itself was 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 perfectly, but he was not going to write another sample of spiritual literature. His work is deeply artistic. Therefore, the writer deliberately distorts the facts. Yeshua Ha-Nozri is translated as a 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 Levi Matthew, Jesus has 12 apostles. Judas in The Master and Margarita was killed on the orders of Pontius Pilate, in the Gospel he hanged himself. With such inconsistencies, the author wants to emphasize once again 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 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 tunic. 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 prone to fear of Mark Ratslayer or Pontius Pilate: "The man brought in looked at the procurator with anxious curiosity." Yeshua was unaware of his divine origin acting like a normal person.
Although the novel focuses on human qualities the main character is not forgotten about his divine origin. At the end of the work, it is Yeshua who personifies that higher power, which tells 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 moral law, which enters into a tragic confrontation with legal law. Main character came into this world with the moral truth - every person is good. This is the truth of the entire novel. And with the help of it, Bulgakov seeks to once again prove to people that God exists. A special place is occupied in the novel by the relationship between Yeshua and Pontius Pilate. It is to him that the wanderer says: “All power is violence against people ... the time will come when there will be no power of either Caesar or any other power. A person will pass into the realm of truth and justice, where no power will be needed at all. Feeling a grain of truth in the words of his prisoner, Pontius Pilate cannot let him go, fearing that this will harm his career. Under the pressure of 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 the torment of the hanged man and personally orders to kill Judas. The tragedy of the story of Yeshua Ha-Nozri lies in the fact that his teaching was not in demand. People by that time were not ready to accept his truth. The protagonist 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 already in modern world, the Master repeats. 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 and storyline modern history: "Dark. Came from mediterranean sea, covered the city hated by the procurator ... The abyss fell from the sky. Missing Yershalaim - great city, as if it did not exist in the world ... Everything was devoured by darkness ... ".
With the death of the protagonist, the whole city plunged into darkness. At the same time, the moral state of the inhabitants 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 wagon with prisoners, executioners and soldiers “was about two thousand curious people who were not afraid of the hellish heat and wanted to be present at an interesting spectacle. To these curious ... curious pilgrims have now joined. Approximately the same thing happens two thousand years later, when people strive to get to the scandalous performance of Woland in the Variety. Of behavior modern people Satan concludes that human nature does not change: “... they are people as people. They love money, but it has always been... mankind loves money, no matter what it is made of, whether it is leather, paper, bronze or gold... Well, they are frivolous... well, mercy sometimes knocks on their hearts. .
Throughout the novel, the author, on the one hand, draws a clear line between the spheres of influence of Yeshua and Woland, however, on the other hand, the unity of their opposites is clearly traced. However, despite the fact that in many situations Satan appears to be more significant than Yeshua, these rulers of light and darkness are quite equal. This is precisely the guarantee of balance and harmony in this world, since the absence of one would make the presence of the other meaningless.
Peace, which is awarded to the Master, is a kind of agreement between two great forces. Moreover, Yeshua and Woland are prompted to this decision by the usual human love. Thus, as highest value Bulgako
In interpreting the image of Jesus Christ as an ideal of moral perfection, Bulgakov departed from traditional, canonical ideas based on the four Gospels and the apostolic epistles. V. I. Nemtsev writes: “Yeshua is the author’s embodiment in deeds positive person to which the aspirations of the heroes of the novel are directed.
In Yeshua's novel, not a single spectacular heroic gesture is given. He - ordinary person: “He is not an ascetic, not a hermit, not a hermit, he is not surrounded by the aura of a righteous man or an ascetic, torturing himself with fasting and prayers. Like all people, he suffers from pain and rejoices at being freed from it.
The mythological plot, on which Bulgakov's work is projected, is a synthesis of three main elements - the Gospel, the Apocalypse and Faust. Two thousand years ago, "a means of salvation that changed the course of world history" was found. Bulgakov saw him in spiritual achievement a man who in the novel is called Yeshua Ha-Nozri and behind whom his great gospel prototype is visible. The figure of Yeshua has become outstanding discovery Bulgakov.
There is evidence that Bulgakov was not religious, did not go to church, and refused unction before his death. But vulgar atheism was deeply alien to him.
real new era in the 20th century, this is also the era of "personification", the time of a new spiritual self-salvation and self-government, similar to which was once revealed to the world in Jesus Christ. Such an act can, according to M. Bulgakov, save our Fatherland in the 20th century. The revival of God must take place in each of the people.
The story of Christ in Bulgakov's novel is not presented in the same way as in Holy Scripture: the author offers an apocryphal version of the gospel narrative, in which each of
participants combines opposite features and acts in a dual role. “Instead of a direct confrontation between the victim and the traitor, the Messiah and his disciples and those who are hostile to them, a complex system is formed, between all members of which relations of kinship of partial similarity appear.” Rethinking the canonical gospel narrative gives Bulgakov's version the character of an apocrypha. The conscious and sharp rejection of the canonical New Testament tradition in the novel is manifested in the fact that the notes of Levi Matthew (i.e., as if future text The Gospels of Matthew) are evaluated by Yeshua as completely untrue. The novel appears as the true version.
The first idea of the apostle and evangelist Matthew in the novel is given by Yeshua himself: “... he walks, walks alone with goat parchment and continuously writes, but once I looked into this parchment and was horrified. Absolutely nothing of what is written there, I did not say. I begged him: burn your parchment for God's sake! Therefore, Yeshua himself rejects the authenticity of the testimonies of the Gospel of Matthew. In this regard, he shows the unity of views with Woland-Satan: “Already someone who,” Woland turns to Berlioz, “but you should know that absolutely nothing of what is written in the Gospels never really happened” . It is no coincidence that the chapter in which Woland began to tell the Master's novel was titled "The Gospel of the Devil" and "The Gospel of Woland" in draft versions. Much in the Master's novel about Pontius Pilate is very far from the gospel texts. In particular, there is no scene of the resurrection of Yeshua, there is no Virgin Mary at all; Yeshua's sermons do not last three years, as in the Gospel, but at best - several months.
As for the details of the "ancient" chapters, Bulgakov drew many of them from the Gospels and checked them against reliable sources. historical sources. Working on these chapters, Bulgakov, in particular, carefully studied the "History of the Jews" by Heinrich Graetz, "The Life of Jesus" by D. Strauss, "Jesus Against Christ" by A. Barbusse, "The Book of My Being" by P. Uspensky, "Hofsemane" by A. M, Fedorov, “Pilate” by G. Petrovsky, “Procurator of Judea” by A. Frans, “The Life of Jesus Christ” by Ferrara, and of course, the Bible, the Gospels. A special place was occupied by E. Renan's book "The Life of Jesus", from which the writer drew chronological data and some historical details. From Renan's "Antichrist" Aphranius came to Bulgakov's novel.
To create many details and images of the historical part of the novel, some works of art. So, Yeshua is endowed with some qualities of a sideboard Don Quixote. To Pilate’s question whether Yeshua really considers all people kind, including the centurion Mark the Ratslayer, who beat him, Ha-Nozri answers in the affirmative and adds that Mark, “it’s true, an unhappy person ... If you could talk to him, it would suddenly be dreamy said the prisoner, “I am sure that he would have changed dramatically.” In Cervantes' novel: Don Quixote is insulted in the duke's castle by a priest who calls him an "empty head", but meekly replies: "I must not see. And I do not see anything offensive in the words of this kind man. The only thing I regret is that he did not stay with us - I would prove to him that he was wrong. It is the idea of "infection with good" that makes Bulgakov's hero related to the Knight of the Sad Image. In the majority of cases literary sources are so organically woven into the fabric of the narrative that for many episodes it is difficult to unambiguously say whether they are taken from life or from books.
M. Bulgakov, portraying Yeshua, nowhere shows a single hint that this is the Son of God. Yeshua is everywhere represented by a Man, a philosopher, a sage, a healer, but a Man. There is no halo of holiness over Yeshua, and in the scene of painful death there is a goal - to show what injustice is happening in Judea.
The image of Yeshua is only a personified image of the moral and philosophical ideas of mankind, the moral law, which enters into an unequal battle with the legal right. It is no coincidence that the portrait of Yeshua as such is virtually absent in the novel: the author indicates the age, describes the clothes, facial expression, mentions bruises and abrasions - but nothing more: “... they brought in ... a man of about twenty-seven. This man was dressed in an old and tattered 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. The man brought in looked at the procurator with anxious curiosity.
To Pilate's question about his relatives, he answers: “There is no one. I am alone in the world." But what is strange again: this does not at all sound like a complaint about loneliness ... Yeshua does not seek compassion, there is no feeling of inferiority or orphanhood in him. For him it sounds something like this: “I am alone - the whole world is in front of me”, or - “I am alone in front of the whole world”, or - “I am this world”. Yeshua is self-sufficient, taking in the whole world. V. M. Akimov rightly emphasized that “it is difficult to understand the integrity of Yeshua, his equality to himself - and to the whole world that he has absorbed into himself.” One cannot but agree with V. M. Akimov that the complex simplicity of Bulgakov's hero is difficult to comprehend, irresistibly convincing and omnipotent. Moreover, the power of Yeshua Ha-Nozri is so great and so embracing that at first many take it for weakness, even for spiritual lack of will.
However, Yeshua Ha-Nozri is not an ordinary person. Woland-Satan thinks himself with him in heavenly hierarchy absolutely equal. Bulgakov's Yeshua is the bearer of the idea of a god-man.
The vagabond philosopher is strong in his naive faith in the good, which neither the fear of punishment nor the spectacle of flagrant injustice, of which he himself becomes a victim, can take away from him. His unchanging faith exists in spite of ordinary wisdom and the object lessons of execution. In everyday practice, this idea of goodness, unfortunately, is not protected. “The weakness of Yeshua’s preaching is in its ideality,” V. Ya. Lakshin rightly believes, “but Yeshua is stubborn, and there is strength in the absolute integrity of his faith in goodness.” In his hero, the author sees not only a religious preacher and reformer - he embodies the image of Yeshua in free spiritual activity.
Possessing a developed intuition, a subtle and strong intellect, Yeshua is able to guess the future, and not just a thunderstorm that “will begin later, towards evening:”, but also the fate of his teaching, already now incorrectly expounded by Levi.
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Master. In the early version of the novel, when the image was still not 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 - was clarified.
The master is a tragic hero, in many ways repeating the path of Yeshua, in contemporary chapters novel. The thirteenth (!) chapter of the novel, where the Master first appears before the reader, is called "The Appearance of the Hero":
Ivan [Homeless. — V.K.] lowered his legs from the bed and peered. From the balcony, a shaven, dark-haired man with a sharp nose, anxious eyes, and a tuft of hair hanging down over his forehead, a man of about thirty-eight years of age, cautiously peered into the room ... Then Ivan saw that the newcomer was dressed in sick leave. He was wearing linen, shoes on his bare feet, a brown robe thrown over his shoulders.
- Are you a writer? the poet asked with interest.
“I am a master,” he became stern and took out a completely greasy black cap with the letter “M” embroidered on it in yellow silk from the pocket of his dressing gown. He put on this cap and appeared to Ivan both in profile and in front, to prove that he was a master.
Like Yeshua, the Master came into the world with his truth: it is the truth about those events that happened in antiquity. M. Bulgakov, as it were, is experimenting: what would happen if the God-man again came into the world today? What would be his earthly fate? Artistic research morale 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 conflict, dramatic situation: the authorities 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 be creative, 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 the Master, and this brings him closer to the Creator — the creator, the artist-architect, the author of the expedient and harmonious arrangement of the world.
But the Master, unlike Yeshua, turns out to be insolvent as tragic hero: he lacks that spiritual, moral strength that Yeshua showed both during interrogation by Pilate and at his death hour. The very title of the chapter ("The Appearance of the Hero") contains tragic irony(and not just a high tragedy), since the hero appears in a hospital gown, as a patient in a psychiatric hospital, and himself announces to Ivan Bezdomny about his madness.
Woland says about the Master: "He was treated well". The tormented Master renounces his novel, his truth: "I no longer have any dreams and no inspiration either ... Nothing interests me around, except for her [Margarita. - V.K.] ... They broke me, I'm bored, and I want to go to the basement ... I hate it, this novel ... I I've experienced 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 Kaifa, "the acting president of the Sanhedrin, the high priest of the Jews." Kaifa 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 from Kiriath received his 30 tetradrachms; Aloisy Mogarych - the 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. The image of Yeshua Ha-Nozri. Comparison with the gospel Jesus Christ
- 3.2. Ethical problems of the Christian doctrine and the image of Christ in the novel
- 3.4. Yeshua Ha-Nozri and the Master
With the beginning of the third millennium, all the great churches, except Islam, alas, turned into profitable commercial enterprises. And almost a hundred years ago, unsafe tendencies began to emerge in Russian Orthodoxy, turning the church into an appendage of the state. This is probably why the great Russian writer Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov was not a church person, that is, he did not go to church, he even refused to take unction before his death. But vulgar atheism was deeply alien to him, as was savage empty holiness. His faith came from the heart, and he turned to God in secret prayer, I think so (and even firmly convinced).
He believed that two thousand years ago an event took place that changed the entire course of world history. Bulgakov saw the salvation of the soul in the spiritual feat of the most humane person, Yeshua Ha-Nozri (Jesus of Nazareth). The name of this feat is suffering in the name of love for people. And all subsequent Christian denominations first tried to forgive the theocratic state, and then they themselves turned into a huge bureaucratic machine, now - into commercial and industrial firms, to use the language of the 21st century.
In the novel, Yeshua is an ordinary person. Not an ascetic, not a hermit, not a hermit. He is not surrounded by the aura of a righteous man or an ascetic, he does not torture himself with fasting and prayers, he does not teach in a bookish way, that is, in a Pharisee way. Like all people, he suffers from pain and rejoices in the release from it. And at the same time, Bulgakov's Yeshua is the bearer of the idea of the God-man without any church, without a "bureaucratic" mediator between God and man. However, the power of Yeshua Ha-Nozri is so great and so all-encompassing that at first many take it for weakness, even for spiritual lack of will. The vagabond philosopher is strong only by his naive faith in the good, which neither the fear of punishment nor the spectacle of flagrant injustice, of which he himself becomes a victim, can take away from him. His unchanging faith exists contrary to ordinary wisdom and serves as an object lesson to the executioners and scribe-Pharisees.
The story of Christ in Bulgakov's novel is set out apocryphally, that is, with heretical deviations from the canonical text. Holy Scripture. This is most likely a description of everyday life from the point of view of a Roman citizen of the first century after the birth of Christ. Instead of a direct confrontation between the apostles and the traitor Judas, the Messiah and Peter, Pontius Pilate and the Sanhedrin with Kaifa, Bulgakov reveals to us the essence of the Lord's Sacrifice through the psychology of perception of each of the characters. Most often - through the lips and records of Levi Matthew.
Yeshua himself gives us the first idea of the apostle and evangelist Matthew in the form of Levi Matthew: “He walks, walks alone with goat parchment and continuously writes, but I once looked into this parchment and was horrified. I did not say anything of what is written there I begged him: burn your parchment for God's sake!" The author makes us understand that it is not possible for a person to comprehend and display the Divine idea in letters in words. Even Woland confirms this in a conversation with Berlioz: "... someone, and you, must know that absolutely nothing of what is written in the Gospels never really happened ..."
The novel "The Master and Margarita" seems to continue a series of apocryphal gospels written in Aesopian language in later times. Miguel Cervantes' Don Quixote, William Faulkner's Parable or Chingiz Aitmatov's Scaffold can be considered such gospels. To Pilate’s question whether Yeshua really considers all people to be kind, including the centurion Mark the Ratslayer, who beat him, Ha-Nozri answers in the affirmative and adds that Mark, “it’s true, an unhappy person ... If I could talk to him ... I I'm sure he would change dramatically." In Cervantes' novel, the noble hidalgo Don Quixote is insulted in the duke's castle by a priest who calls him "an empty head." To which he meekly replies: "I should not see, and I do not see anything offensive in the words of this kind man. The only thing I regret is that he did not stay with us - I would prove to him that he was wrong." And the incarnation of Christ in the 20th century, Obadiah (son of God, in Greek) Kallistratov, felt for himself that "the world ... punishes its sons for the most pure ideas and promptings of the spirit.
M. A. Bulgakov nowhere shows with a single hint that before us is the Son of God. There is no portrait of Yeshua as such in the novel: “They brought in ... a man of about twenty-seven. This man was dressed in an old and torn blue tunic. His head was covered with a white bandage with a strap around his forehead, and his hands were tied behind his back. Under his left eye The man had a large bruise, an abrasion with dried blood in the corner of his mouth. The man who was brought in looked at the procurator with anxious curiosity.
But Yeshua is not quite a son of man. When asked by Pilate if he has relatives, he answers: "There is no one. I am alone in the world," which sounds like: "I am this world."
We do not see Satan-Woland next to Yeshua, but we know from his dispute with Berlioz and Ivan Bezdomny that he stood behind him all the time (that is, behind his left shoulder, in the shade, as it should be). evil spirits) at moments of mournful events. Woland-Satan thinks of himself in the heavenly hierarchy on an equal footing with Yeshua, as if ensuring the balance of the world. But God does not share his power with Satan - Woland is powerful only in the material world. The kingdom of Woland and his guests, feasting on the full moon at the spring ball, is the night - fantasy world shadows, mysteries and illusory. The cold light of the moon illuminates him. Yeshua is accompanied everywhere, even on the way of the cross, by the Sun - a symbol of life, joy, true Light.
Yeshua is not only able to guess the future, he builds this future. The barefoot wandering philosopher is poor, miserable, but rich in love. Therefore, he mournfully remarks to the Roman governor: "Your life is meager, hegemon." Yeshua dreams of the future kingdom of "truth and justice" and leaves it open to absolutely everyone: "... the time will come when there will be no power of either the emperor or any other authority. Man will move into the kingdom of truth and justice, where there is no no power will be needed."
For Pilate, such words are already part of the crime. And for Yeshua Ha-Nozri, everyone is equal as the creations of God - Pontius Pilate and Ratslayer, Judas and Levi Matthew. All of them are "good people", only "crippled" by certain circumstances: "... there are no evil people in the world." If he had even a little twisted his soul, then "the whole meaning of his teaching would have disappeared, for good is true!" And "it's easy and pleasant to tell the truth."
Main strength Yeshua is above all open to people. His first appearance in the novel is as follows: "The man with his hands tied leaned forward a little and began to speak:" a kind person! Believe me ... "A closed person, an introvert, always instinctively moves away from the interlocutor, and Yeshua is an extrovert, open towards people. "Openness" and "isolation" are, according to Bulgakov, the poles of good and evil. Moving towards is the essence of good. Leaving In one way or another, a person comes into contact with the devil.This is the key to the episode with the question: "What is the truth?" "Pain is always a punishment. Only "one God" punishes. Therefore, Yeshua is the truth itself, and Pilate does not notice this.
And the catastrophe that followed the death of Yeshua serves as a warning of the coming punishment: "-... semi-darkness came, and lightning plowed black sky. Fire suddenly burst out of it ... A downpour gushed suddenly ... The water collapsed so terribly that when the soldiers ran down, raging streams were already flying after them. "This is, as it were, a reminder of the inevitable the Last Judgment for all our sins.
