Compare the Toldot Yeshu with Heinrich Graetz's views on Jesus Essay

Compare the Toldot Yeshu with Heinrich Graetz's views on Jesus - Essay Example â€Å"Yeshu proclaimed, "I am the Messiah; and concerning me Isaiah prophesied and said, Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." He quoted other messianic texts, insisting, "David my ancestor prophesied concerning me: The Lord said to me, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee." â€Å"High-minded earnestness and spotless moral purity were his undeniable attributes; they stand out in all the authentic accounts of his life that have reached us, and appear even in those garbled teachings which his followers placed in his mouth†¦.† (149) This leaves open the question of how the TY could be so different in conclusion from Graetz and other writers in this field. The answer may lie in the respective audiences for which the authors were writing: the TY’s medieval audience (c14th century) wished to hear a derogatory account of Jesus and Christianity, whereas Graetz was writing a scholarly history of the Jewish people for the erudite. Both the TY and Graetz are certain that Jesus was not the son of God, and Graetz refers to him as a ‘mortal’. One would have expected the TY to deny that Jesus had divine powers. Instead it says that he did; â€Å"Whoever learned the secret of the Name and its use would be able to do whatever he wished†¦. Yeshu came and learned the letters of the Name; he wrote them upon the parchment which he placed in an open cut on his thigh and then drew the flesh over the parchment†¦.† Graetz takes a more cynical view of miracle making in general, informing us that it was accepted practice to capture the attention of people in this way. Whilst he agrees that Jesus must have had some knowledge beyond the ordinary ken of mankind at the time, he puts much of the awe with which Jesus’ ‘powers’ were greeted to the general lack of knowledge about science at the time amongst the ordinary people. Clearly as far as the TY is concerned

Commentary on a macro economics topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Commentary on a macro economics topic - Essay Example This manifests the government’s efforts towards maintaining economic stability in case of unemployment. However, the article reckons that the federal government’s temporary â€Å"extended† and â€Å"emergency† unemployment compensation programs accrue benefits only after the state exhausts its benefits in case of a recession (Mulligan 1). This demonstrates the federal government’s concern on unemployment and depicts the government’s efforts towards economic challenges like recession. Notably, the federal unemployment insurance and any other temporary federal programs have expiration dates to discourage people from leaving their jobs, which would lead to increased unemployment levels. In fact, the article notes that although the Unemployment benefits from any program have great importance to the unemployed, they equally depress the labor market by encouraging retrenchments and allowing people to remain unemployed (Mulligan 1). Nevertheless, wh ere the victims are yet to get other jobs before the expiry date of such programs, the Congress extends the expiry date as part of the fiscal cliff deal (Mulligan 1). Indeed, the Affordable Care Act may replace the Emergency Unemployment Compensation if it expires on December. The new program will be more beneficial since it will cover the unemployed and the premium subsidies for health insurance (Mulligan 1). This manifests the long-term concern by the federal government to address unemployment in the country. Moreover, the article presents the fact that the continued presence of the Emergency Unemployment Compensation and the new health care assistance derives an incentive for workers and employers to create and retain jobs (Mulligan 1). This is a long-term strategy to eliminate unemployment in the country. The article advocates for employment since it leads to income that generates additional taxes and withheld benefits for the federal government (Mulligan 1). However, high tax r ate discourages people from working. (Mulligan 1) The broken line depicts the level of the marginal tax rate if the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program expires on December 2013. The diagram shows that upon the expiry, the tax rates are bound to increase more at the beginning of next year. It also shows that the tax rates are bound to increase at a lower rate if the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program does not expire in December 2013. Ideally, the health assistance will compensate the benefits lost from the expiry of the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program. The fiscal cliff as used in the article refers to a combination of expiring tax cuts and across-the-board government spending cuts effective Dec. 31, 2012 (â€Å"Investopedia† 1). Ideally, the fiscal cliff sought to avoid the adverse effects of expiring tax cuts and reducing the government spending at the same time. The fiscal cliff has an overall effect of reducing the federal budget deficit ( "Investopedia† 1). On the other hand, the marginal tax rate refers to the rate of tax paid to an additional dollar earned through employment (Reynolds 1). Notably, an increase in income leads to an increase in the marginal tax rate. As such, low-income earners accrue lower marginal tax rate that the higher income earners. Although, marginal tax rate seems like an equitable taxation strategy, many people