Oh yeah! Most of us have met self-proclaimed spiritual authorities like this, gurus with no qualifications other than the adulation of their adoring fans, who don’t respect the opinions of anyone else nor enter into reasoned discussion with scholars who have expertise in any field on which they wish to pontificate. A few dismissive put-downs of your more learned opponents and gullible followers can be left to proclaim your status as God’s latest prophet.
That is probably how the scribes saw Jesus as he burst onto the scene in first-century Israel. However, there was one thing about him to confuse this simple picture of what made him popular. His preaching seemed to have an extraordinary amount of divine backup in the way of miraculous results to authenticate his prophetic claims. And the exorcisms at the centre of this activity were especially unnerving if you were a power holder with links to the Empire. The common people got the point right away, but what do they know?
You can check out what I have to say here ….
Howard Pilgrim