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They believed that a great deliverer or messiah would arise to deliver Israel from its enemies and lead all Jews to a glorius new golden age.
他们相信，一位伟大的拯救者或者救世主会降临，将以色列从敌手中拯救，引领所有犹太人进入辉煌的黄金时代。
This Messiahanic belief was especially strong in the days of the early Roman Empire,
在罗马帝国早期，这种救世主的信仰尤其强烈，
just as Augustus was marketing the principate as the basis of Rome's golden age.
当时奥古斯都正在推行元首统治，为罗马的盛世奠定基础。
Different sects of Jews differed considerably on how the Messiah would carry out his function.
不同地区的犹太人对于救世主要怎样拯救他们有着截然不同的看法。
Some Jews, like the Essen sect, believed in withdrawing as much as possible from everyday life to prepare for the judgment day and hopefully for eternal life.
埃森区的犹太人认为要从日常生活中尽可能地抽身出来，准备好迎接审判日，迎来永生。
Not that all Jews believed in an afterlife but the view was becoming more popular.
并不是所有犹太人都相信来生的存在，但是这种观点越来越流行了。
Other Jews hoped that the Messiah would arrive as a great soldier who would drive those Romans out of Judea once and for all.
其他犹太人希望救世主能够以战士的形象出现，将那些罗马人永远赶出犹大地区。
The Christians accepted as their Messiah a carpenter named Jesus of Nazareth.
基督教徒认为一个名叫拿撒勒的耶稣的木匠是他们的救世主。
For a long time Jesus and his teachings escaped the notice of the Roman world,
很长一段时间里，耶稣和他的教义都没有被罗马世界注意到，
save for perhaps the legend, Pontius Pilatus, a historical figure by the way who is responsible for Jesus' crucifixion.
一直到罗马帝国驻犹太的总督彼拉多，将耶稣逮捕并钉死在十字架上。
Because Jesus' teachings were collected only some time after his death establishing their precise meaning is extremely difficult.
耶稣的教义一直到他死后才收集起来，因此要确定它们的准确含义就变得极其艰难。
The process continues to this day and I am confident it always will,
一直到今天这种解释过程还在持续，
and I will leave you to consider these matters yourself in keeping with your personal faith or your academic interest or whatever.
并且我相信还会继续，我将留待你们自己去考虑这些问题，取决于你们自己的个人信仰，学术兴趣之类的。
I do have to point out though that the New Testament's teachings are complex and sometimes paradoxical.
但是我必须要指出的是新约的教义是很复杂的。
These complexities in turn explain the extremely wide range of beliefs about what Jesus actually taught.
有时候还自相矛盾，这些矛盾之处又解释了关于耶稣教义的不同信念的范围何其之大。
For example, prior to the American civil war, to which we will be returning in a while, both the abolitionists and the slaveholders could support their causes with chapter and verse from the new testament.
例如美国内战前，我们很快也会讲到，废奴派和蓄奴者都可以引用新约里的章节和词句来为自己正名。
While irritating no doubt the people who had just rather be told what to believe Christianity presented its believers with spiritual and intellectual challenges.
基督教无疑让那些只想知道去信仰什么的人不大愉快，它给自己的信徒带来了精神上和智力上的挑战。
Those who wished simply to believe could respond to Christianity's simple message of sacrifice and redemption.
那些只想有个简单信仰的人可以仅仅回应基督教简单的牺牲和救赎的讯息。
Those who wished to engage intellectually with the divine found Christianity equally satisfying.
而那些想要和神灵有心智上的交流的人也能从基督教中得到满足。
Then is now, when believers found themselves frustrated by what they saw as a system of Christian worship they found unsatisfactory or inappropriate, they could appeal to their own study of the new testament and to what they saw as Christianity's true traditions and worship accordingly.
到了如今，当信徒们发现基督教崇拜体系让自己感觉沮丧不满或者不恰当的时候，就可以诉诸于自己所研究的新约按自己对于基督教的真正传统和崇拜的理解来行事。
