What a moral feat did Yeshua Ha Notzri accomplish. Yeshua Ha-Nozri

In the novel The Master and Margarita, the two main forces of good and evil, which, according to Bulgakov, should be in balance on Earth, are embodied in the faces of Yeshua Ha-Notsri from Yershalaim, close in image to Christ, and Woland, Satan in human form. Apparently, Bulgakov, in order to show that good and evil exist outside of time and for thousands of years people live according to their laws, placed Yeshua at the beginning of a new time, in the fictional masterpiece of the Master, and Woland, as the arbiter of cruel justice, in Moscow in the 30s . 20th century. The latter came to Earth to restore harmony where it had been broken in favor of evil, which included lies, stupidity, hypocrisy and, finally, betrayal that filled Moscow.

The Earth was initially firmly established between hell and paradise, and there must be a balance of good and evil on it, and if its inhabitants try to break this harmony, then heaven or hell (depending on which way people “tipped” their House) they will “suck” the Earth, and it will cease to exist, merging with that of the kingdoms that people will earn with their actions.

Like good and evil, Yeshua and Woland are internally interconnected, and, opposing, they cannot do without each other. It's like we wouldn't know what white is if there were no black, what day is if there were no night. This relationship in the novel is expressed in the descriptions of both characters - the author focuses on the same things. Woland "in appearance - more than forty years old", and Yeshua - twenty-seven; “Under the left eye of a man (Yeshua - I.A.) there was a big bruise ...”, and Woland’s “right eye is black, the left one is green for some reason”; Ga-Notsri “had an abrasion with dried blood in the corner of his mouth”, and Woland had “some kind of crooked mouth”, Woland “was in an expensive gray suit ... He famously twisted his gray beret in his ear ...”, Yeshua appears before the procurator dressed “in an old and torn blue tunic. His head was covered with a white bandage with a strap around his forehead ... ”and, finally, Woland openly declared that he was a polyglot, and Yeshua, although he did not say this, knew Greek and Latin in addition to Aramaic.

But the dialectical unity, the complementarity of good and evil is most fully revealed in the words of Woland, addressed to Levi Matthew, who refused to wish health to the “spirit of evil and the lord of shadows”: “You spoke your words as if you do not recognize shadows, and also evil. Would you be so kind as to think about the question: what would your good do if evil did not exist, and what would the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it? After all, shadows are obtained from objects and people. Here is the shadow of my sword. But there are shadows from trees and from living beings. Don't you want to rip the whole globe, blowing away all the trees and all living things from it because of your fantasy of enjoying the naked light? You are stupid".

How does Woland appear? At the Patriarch's Ponds, he appears before M.A. Berlioz and Ivan Bezdomny, representatives Soviet literature who, sitting on a bench, again, nineteen centuries later, judge Christ and reject his divinity (Homeless) and his very existence (Berlioz). Woland tries to convince them of the existence of God and the devil. So, again, a certain connection between them is revealed: the devil (i.e. Woland) exists because Christ exists (in the novel - Yeshua Ha-Nozri), and to deny him means to deny one's own existence. This is one side of the issue. The other is that Woland is in fact "... part of that force that always wants evil and always does good."

No wonder Bulgakov took the lines of Goethe's Faust as the epigraph of the novel. Woland is the devil, Satan, the "prince of darkness", "the spirit of evil and the lord of shadows" (all these definitions are found in the text of the novel), which is largely focused on Mephistopheles "Faust". In this work, the name Woland is mentioned only once and is usually omitted in Russian translations. This is how Mephistopheles calls himself in the scene of Walpurgis Night, demanding from evil spirits to give way: “Nobleman Woland is coming!” Also Woland through literary sources associated with the image of the famous adventurer, occultist and alchemist of the 18th century. Count Alessandro Cagliostro; important literary prototype Woland was served by Someone in Gray, called He from Leonid Andreev's play "The Life of a Man"; finally, many consider Stalin one of Woland's prototypes.

It is absolutely clear that the novel Woland is the devil, Satan, the embodiment of evil. But why did he come to Moscow in the 1930s? The purpose of his mission was to reveal the evil inclination in man. I must say that Woland, unlike Yeshua Ha-Nozri, considers all people not good, but evil. And in Moscow, where he arrived to do evil, he sees that there is nothing left to do - evil has already flooded the city, penetrated into all its corners. Woland could only laugh at people, at their naivety and stupidity, at their disbelief and vulgar attitude towards history (Ivan Bezdomny advises sending Kant to Solovki), and Woland's task was to extract from Moscow Margarita, the genius of the Master and his novel about Pontius Pilate.

He and his entourage provoke Muscovites to unfaithful deeds, convincing them of complete impunity, and then they themselves punish them in a parody. During a session of black magic in the Variety Hall, turned into a laboratory for the study of human weaknesses, the Magician exposes the greed of the public, shamelessness and impudent confidence in Sempleyarov's impunity. This, one might say, is the specialty of Woland and his retinue: to punish those who are unworthy of light and peace - and they have been doing their job from century to century. Proof of this is the great ball at Satan's in apartment No. 50. Here devilry demonstrates his undoubted achievements: poisoners, scammers, traitors, madmen, lechers of all stripes pass in front of Margarita. And it is at this ball that the murder of Baron Meigel takes place - he had to be destroyed, because he threatened to destroy the whole world of Woland and acted as an extremely successful competitor of Satan in the devil's field. And then, this is a punishment for the evil that primarily destroyed Moscow and which Meigel personified, namely: betrayal, espionage, denunciations.

And what about Yeshua? He said that all people are kind and that someday the kingdom of truth will come on Earth. Of course, in the novel, he is the embodiment of the ideal to which one must strive. Yeshua haunts Pontius Pilate. The procurator of Judea tried to persuade the prisoner to lie in order to save him, but Yeshua insists that "it is easy and pleasant to tell the truth." So, the procurator declared: "I wash my hands" and doomed an innocent person to death, but he had the feeling that he did not say something with an unusual, something attractive prisoner. Yeshua performed a sacrificial feat in the name of truth and goodness, and Pilate suffered and suffered for “twelve thousand moons” until the Master gave him forgiveness and the opportunity to negotiate with Ha-Nozri. Bulgakov's Yeshua, of course, goes back to the Jesus Christ of the Gospels. The name "Yeshua Ha-Notsri" Bulgakov met in Sergei Chevkin's play "Yeshua Ganotsri. The Impartial Discovery of Truth" (1922), and then checked it against the writings of historians.

I think the writer made Yeshua the hero of the Master's masterpiece in order to say that art is divine and can incline a person to seek truth and strive for good, which was so lacking for most residents of Moscow in the 1930s - the Master turned out to be almost the only servant of real art, worthy, if not of light (because he was disappointed in himself, for some time he surrendered to the onslaught of fools and hypocrites, through Margarita entered into a deal with the devil), then of peace. And this proved that Woland does not have the power to drag those who strive for truth, goodness and purity to the underworld.

One of secondary characters of the work is Yeshua, the prototype of which the writer represents Jesus Christ.

Yeshua is presented in the novel in the form of an ordinary person, a vagabond philosopher, characterized by compassion and good attitude to those around you. Yeshua also, like all people, is in pain and feels fear.

The writer describes Yeshua as a source of power of light, which has a huge impact on people and has the ability to cure ailments. He does not accept insults and insults, because for Yeshua they are the lot of a weak person, and he is a self-sufficient and strong in spirit representative of the people.

Everything is clear and easy for Yeshua in human actions and behavior; he communicates with others through short and simple phrases that carry a deep philosophical meaning. Yeshua's beliefs are based on the idea of ​​universal kindness, however, adhering to this position, he understands that not all people can be happy.

The hallmarks of Yeshua are his undisguised honesty, the absence of lies and antics, courage and bravery, since he does not accept the concept of cowardice, the most terrible human vice.

The writer describes Yeshua as a bright, open and intelligent man who cannot be influenced by external circumstances, creating from this hero the image of an ideally moral person.

The hero is pleased to pronounce the words of truth, and he brings his vision of worldly existence to the masses, when, in his opinion, power in the form of violence against people will be superfluous and universal equality will come.

The author considers the main advantage of Yeshua to be his inner freedom and the opportunity to have an equal conversation with various representatives of social strata. Yeshua's strength lies in the fact that he has the ability to understand the truth, see the future and predict desires, but despite this, he does not strive to become the center of the universe.

In the finale, Yeshua is executed after being betrayed by Judas. The writer portrays this fact from the life of Yeshua as great sorrow for mankind, but focuses on the fact that the death of this hero is not a victory of evil over good, since the image of Yeshua is eternal. Describing the moment before the death of the hero, the author portrays Yeshua as a great disciple of God, expressing the triumph of life over death, proudly raising his head, accepting his death, which Yeshua perceives as another step in the knowledge of perfection.

Option 2

In Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita, one of central characters is Yeshua Ha-Nozri. The author has not devoted many chapters to him, but the importance of this character cannot be denied. Through the image of Yeshua, Bulgakov expresses his attitude to the biblical stories about Christ. And it calls into question not only the fact of its existence, but also the veracity of the events described in the Holy Scriptures.

Bulgakov does not deify his character. Yeshua a common person afraid of death, in pain. But he, like Jesus, preaches his truth, for which he was eventually executed. But if Jesus was killed for his faith and for preaching this, then Yeshua was sentenced to death because of his words: “Soon there will be no power of some people over others - everyone will be equal.” This fact says that Bulgakov questions the causes of the death of Christ.

Yeshua does not know how to lie, even knowing that he will soon be executed. He does not try to justify himself by taking back his words. He does not see evil in people, he believes that everyone is good. With his simplicity and philanthropy, he overturns the worldview of Pontius Pilate.

According to the Bible, Jesus Christ could turn wine into water and heal people using his divine power. Yeshua can also heal, but he heals with his speeches. He was only able to cure the procurator's migraine by talking to him. If Christ knew from birth that he was the messiah, then Yeshua has no idea how strong he is. His strength can be judged from the fact that he can predict the future, guess the desires of people, see the truth.

Ha-Nozri has one follower - Livius Matthew. Levi followed him and imbued with his philosophy, leaving his job as a tax collector. We know from history that Jesus had many followers, crowds of people followed him. Due to the fact that Yeshua knows how to tell interesting things, crowds follow him too, but he does not strive to be the center of something bigger. He simply carries his truth and goodness.

The openness and honesty of Ha-Nozri touched Pilate so much that he wanted to release him. In the face of Yeshua, Pontius saw a man capable of curing him of loneliness and longing. But due to his fear of losing his leadership position, he did not dare to stand up for the prisoner. But Yeshua does not blame him, only says that fear is weakness.

Yeshua Spiritually strong man. Not everyone, knowing that he will lose his life, will have conversations with the person who gave the order to kill him. He does not hold a grudge against people, even against Judas, who betrayed him for three kopecks.

Bulgakov endowed his hero with qualities that are not inherent in all people. But to which you need to strive. Freedom, mind, openness, honesty - this is the ideal of morality in the understanding of the author.

Composition The image and characteristics of Yeshua

In Bulgakov's novel, the hero Ga-Notsri is described in a completely different way than he is shown in the Gospel. Critics note that this hero for the author is a fusion of the brightest and most decent components that people should have. In Bulgakov's work, Yeshua is the same person as everyone else. He also experiences pain and suffering.

The author in his novel shows Ga-Notsri as an ordinary commoner and does not even hint to the reader that this man is the son of God. This poor fellow preaches his doctrine, and also heals people, but the main thing is that he is a man. There is no golden halo above his head. No one from heaven speaks to him during painful agony. Bulgakov wanted to show by this that in the world everything often happens unfairly.

There are practically no descriptions of this person in the novel. Everything is kind of superficial. Bulgakov only conveys to the reader the age of the martyr, the robe. It also emphasizes that his face is beaten, there are abrasions and bruises on it. When the procurator asked a question about Yeshua's relatives, he answered that he himself was in the world. And it doesn't sound like a pity. This hero does not create the appearance of a helpless person who needs to be pitied. In fact, Bulgakov's hero is very strong, but at first people do not understand this and consider his behavior a manifestation of weakness.

The author puts Ha-Nozri on the same level with Satan. After all, Woland imagines himself in the kingdom of heaven on an equal footing with Yeshua. He is the incarnation of God and remains true to his judgments. He believes that all people are kind. It is very difficult to hold such an opinion in the world we live in. Yeshua has a highly developed gift for seeing the future. He sees ahead. Even knowing that he would be executed anyway, he emphasizes that the procurator's life is very meager.

This hero is always open to people and to the whole world. Bulgakov makes it clear that if a person moves towards a meeting, then he embodies goodness. When a society is filled with closedness, then this is already a step towards evil. main meaning his life is to believe only in reality, in what really is.

Yet he is executed. He will die. This event presents Bulgakov as a disaster for all mankind. But the author emphasizes that this is not quite a victory of evil over good. One gets the impression that Ga-Nozri does not even realize that he has died. He will always live, and he is dead only for the procurator.

True, Bulgakov is such that Yeshua was looking for the truth in worldly life. But on the way to the knowledge of this truth stood death, which could not be bypassed, it had to be simply experienced. Yeshua controlled not only his own life, but also his death. He proudly met her, because it was just another step towards knowledge.

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• Analysis of Nabokov's work Camera Obscura

  The work belongs to the category of famous works of the writer, in which the author uses a metaphorical expression borrowed from the Latin language as the title of the novel, meaning an optical phenomenon, a prototype of a camera, that is, a dark room.

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 was Bulgakov's outstanding discovery.

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 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 writings of Levi Matthew (i.e., as it were, the future text of the Gospel 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, “and 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 for three years, as in the Gospel, but in best case- a few 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 with the Knight of the Sorrowful Image. In most cases, literary sources are so organically woven into the fabric of the narrative that it is difficult to say for many episodes 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 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. 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 of himself with him in the heavenly hierarchy on an equal footing. 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, in the evening:”, but also the fate of his teaching, already now incorrectly expounded by Levi. Yeshua is inwardly free. Even realizing that he is really threatened by the death penalty, he considers it necessary to tell the Roman governor: "Your life is meager, hegemon."

B. V. Sokolov believes that the idea of ​​"infection with good", which is the leitmotif of Yeshua's sermon, was introduced by Bulgakov from Renan's Antichrist. 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 power." Man will pass into the realm of truth and justice, where no power will be needed at all.

Ha-Notsri preaches love and tolerance. He does not give preference to anyone; Pilate, Judas, and Ratslayer are equally interesting to him. All of them are “good people”, only they are “crippled” by certain circumstances. In a conversation with Pilate, he succinctly outlines the essence of his teaching: "... evil people not in the world." Yeshua's words resonate with Kant's statements about the essence of Christianity, defined either as a pure faith in goodness, or as a religion of goodness - a way of life. The priest in it is just a mentor, and the church is a meeting place for teachings. Kant considers good as a property inherent in human nature, as well as evil. In order for a person to become established as a person, that is, a being capable of perceiving respect for the moral law, he must develop a good beginning in himself and suppress the evil. And everything here depends on the person himself. For the sake of his own idea of ​​good, Yeshua does not utter a word of untruth. If he had even a little twisted his soul, then “the whole meaning of his teaching would have disappeared, for good is the truth!”, And “it’s easy and pleasant to tell the truth.”
What is main force Yeshua? First of all, openness. immediacy. He is always in a state of spiritual impulse "towards". His very first appearance in the novel captures this: “The man with his hands tied leaned forward a little and began to say:
- a kind person! Trust me...".

Yeshua is a man, always open to the world, "Openness" and "isolation" - these, according to Bulgakov, are the poles of good and evil. "Movement towards" - the essence of goodness. Withdrawal into oneself, isolation - this is what opens the way for evil. Withdrawal into oneself and a person one way or another comes into contact with the devil. M. B. Babinsky notes the ability of Yeshua to put himself in the place of another in order to understand his condition. The basis of the humanism of this person is the talent of the subtlest self-consciousness and on this basis - the understanding of other people with whom his fate brings him together.

This is the key to the episode with the question: "What is truth?". To Pilate, who is tormented by hemicrania, Yeshua answers this way: "The truth ... is that your head hurts."
Bulgakov is true to himself here too: Yeshua's answer is connected with the deep meaning of the novel - a call to see the truth through hints, to open one's eyes, to begin to see.
Truth for Yeshua is what it really is. This is the removal of the cover from phenomena and things, the liberation of the mind and feelings from any fettering etiquette, from dogma; it is the overcoming of conventions and hindrances. “The truth of Yeshua Ha-Nozri is the restoration of a real vision of life, the will and courage not to turn away and not lower one’s eyes, the ability to open the world, and not close oneself from it either by the conventions of the ritual or by the outbursts of the “bottom”. Yeshua's truth does not repeat "tradition", "regulation" and "ritual". It becomes alive and each time full capacity for dialogue with life.

But here lies the most difficult thing, because for the completeness of such communication with the world, fearlessness is necessary. Fearlessness of the soul, thoughts, feelings.

A detail characteristic of Bulgakov's Gospel is a combination of miraculous power and a feeling of fatigue and loss in the protagonist. The death of the hero is described as a universal catastrophe - the end of the world: “twilight came, and lightning plowed black sky. Fire suddenly burst out of it, and the cry of the centurion: “Take off the chain!” - drowned in the roar... Darkness covered Yershalaim. The downpour poured suddenly ... The water fell so terribly that when the soldiers ran down, raging streams were already flying after them.
Despite the fact that the plot seems complete - Yeshua is executed, the author seeks to assert that the victory of evil over good cannot be the result of a social and moral confrontation, this, according to Bulgakov, is not accepted by human nature itself, should not be allowed by the entire course of civilization. One gets the impression that Yeshua never realized that he was dead. He was alive all the time and left alive. It seems that the very word "died" is not in the episodes of Golgotha. He stayed alive. He is dead only for Levi, for Pilate's servants.

The great tragic philosophy of Yeshua's life is that the right to truth (and to choose to live in truth) is also tested and affirmed by the choice of death. He "managed" not only his life, but also his death. He "hung" his bodily death just as he "hung" his spiritual life.
Thus, he truly "governs" himself (and the whole routine on earth), governs not only Life, but also Death.

Yeshua's "self-creation", "self-management" passed the test of death, and therefore it became immortal.

Having met the reader at the Patriarch's Ponds, Bulgakov leads him around Moscow in the twenties, along its alleys and squares, embankments and boulevards, along the alleys of gardens, looks into institutions and communal apartments, into shops and restaurants. wrong side theater life, the prose of the existence of the literary fraternity, the life and cares of ordinary people appear before our eyes. And suddenly magic power Given by talent, Bulgakov takes us to a city hundreds of years distant, thousands of kilometers away. Beautiful and terrible Yershalaim... Hanging gardens, bridges, towers, hippodrome, bazaars, ponds... And on the balcony of a luxurious palace, bathed in hot sunlight, stands a short man of about twenty-seven and bravely makes strange and dangerous speeches. “This man was dressed in an old and torn 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. This is Yeshua, the wandering philosopher, the image of Christ rethought by Bulgakov.
Yeshua Ha-Notsri, this is how Jesus Christ was called in Jewish books (Yeshua literally means Savior; Ha-Notsri means “from Nazareth”, Nazareth is a city in Galilee where Saint Joseph lived and where the Annunciation took place Virgin Mary about the birth of the Son of God. Jesus, Mary and Joseph also returned here after their stay in Egypt. This is where Jesus spent his childhood and adolescence. But further personal data diverge from the original source. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, spoke Aramaic, read Hebrew and possibly spoke Greek, and was put on trial at 33. And Yeshua was born in Gamala, did not remember his parents, did not know Hebrew, but also knew Latin, he appears before us at the age of twenty-seven. It may seem to those who do not know the Bible that Pilate's chapters are a paraphrase of the gospel story of the trial of the Roman governor in Judea, Pontius Pilate, over Jesus Christ and the subsequent execution of Jesus, which took place at the beginning new history humanity.

Indeed, there is common features between Bulgakov's novel and the Gospels. Thus, the reason for the execution of Christ, his conversation with Pontius Pilate and the execution itself are described in the same way. You can see Yeshua trying to push ordinary people to the right decision, tries to direct them to the path of truth and truth: “Pilate said to Him: So You are the King? Jesus answered: You say that I am the King. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth; everyone who is from the truth hears my voice” (Gospel of John 18:37).
In The Master and Margarita, Yeshua also tries in a dialogue with Pontius Pilate to answer the question of what truth is: “The truth is, first of all, that your head hurts, and it hurts so badly that you cowardly think about death. Not only are you unable to speak to me, but it is difficult for you to even look at me. And now I am unwittingly your executioner, which saddens me. You can't even think of anything and only dream of your dog coming, the only creature you seem to be attached to. But your torment will now end, your head will pass.
This episode is the only echo of the miracles performed by Jesus and described in the Gospels. Although there is one more indication of the divine essence of Yeshua. There are such lines in the novel: "... dust caught fire near that pillar." Perhaps this passage is intended to be associated with the 13th chapter of the Biblical book Exodus, where we are talking about how God, showing the way to the Jews in the exodus from Egyptian captivity, walked before them in the form of a pillar: day and night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from the presence of the people.”
Yeshua does not show any messianic destiny, much less justifies his divine essence, while Jesus clarifies, for example, in a conversation with the Pharisees: he is not just the Messiah, the Anointed of God, He is the Son of God: "I and the Father are one."
Jesus had disciples. Only Levi Matthew followed Yeshua. It seems that the prototype of Levi Matthew is the Apostle Matthew, the author of the first Gospel (before meeting Jesus, he was a publican, that is, just like Levi was a tax collector). Yeshua met him for the first time on the road to Bethphage. And Bethphage is a small settlement near the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem. From here began, according to the Gospels, the solemn procession of Jesus to Jerusalem. By the way, there are also differences with this biblical fact: Jesus, accompanied by his disciples, enters Jerusalem on a donkey: “And as he rode, they spread their clothes along the road. And when he approached the descent from Mount Elernskaya, all the multitude of disciples began to joyfully publicly praise God for all the miracles that they saw, saying: Blessed is the King, the coming of the Lord! peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (Gospel of Luke 19:36-38). When Pilate asks Yeshua whether it is true that he entered the city “through the Susa gate on a donkey,” he replies that he “has no donkey either.” He came to Yershalaim exactly through the Susa gates, but on foot, accompanied by Levi Matvey alone, and no one shouted anything to him, since no one in Yershalaim knew him at that time.
Yeshua was a little familiar with the man who betrayed him - Judas from Kiriath: “... The day before yesterday I met a young man near the temple who called himself Judas from the city of Kiriath. He invited me to his house in the Lower City and treated me ... A very kind and inquisitive person ... He showed the greatest interest in my thoughts, received me very cordially ... ”And Judas from Carioth was a disciple of Jesus. Christ himself proclaimed that Judas would betray him: “When evening came, He lay down with the twelve disciples; and as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” They were very sad, and began to say to Him, each of them: Is it not I, Lord? He answered and said, He who dips his hand with me into the dish, this one will betray me; However, the Son of Man goes as it is written about Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed: it would have been better for this man not to have been born. At the same time, Judas, betraying Him, said: Is it not I, Rabbi? Jesus said to him: You said (Gospel of Matthew 26:20-25).
At Pilate's first trial in God's Law, Jesus behaves with dignity and looks like a real king: “Pilate asked Jesus Christ: "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus Christ answered: "You say" (which means: "yes, I am the King"). When the chief priests and elders accused the Savior, He did not answer. Pilate said to Him, "You don't answer anything? You see how many accusations are against You." But even to this the Savior did not answer, so that Pilate marveled. After that, Pilate entered the praetorium and, calling Jesus, again asked Him: "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus Christ said to him, "Are you saying this on your own, or have others told you about Me?" (i.e. do you yourself think so or not?) "Am I a Jew?" - answered Pilate, - "Your people and the high priests delivered you to me; what did you do?" Jesus Christ said: "My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, then my servants (subjects) would fight for me, so that I would not be delivered to the Jews; but now my kingdom is not from here." "So You are the King?" Pilate asked. Jesus Christ answered: "You say that I am the King. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth; everyone who is from the truth listens to My voice." From these words, Pilate saw that before him stood a preacher of the truth, a teacher of the people, and not a rebel against the power of the Romans. And in the novel, Yeshua behaves insignificantly and looks completely defenseless and, as Bulgakov himself writes, “his eyes became meaningless” and “expressing with his whole being his readiness to answer sensibly, not to cause more anger.” Also important here is another point. “When they brought Jesus Christ to Calvary, the soldiers gave him to drink sour wine mixed with bitter substances in order to alleviate suffering. But the Lord, having tasted it, did not want to drink it. He did not want to use any remedy to relieve suffering. He voluntarily accepted these sufferings upon Himself for the sins of people; therefore I wished to endure them to the end,” – this is exactly how it is described in the Law of God. And in the novel, Yeshua again shows himself weak-willed: “Drink,” said the executioner, and the water-soaked sponge at the end of the spear rose to Yeshua's lips. Joy flashed in his eyes, he clung to the sponge and greedily began to absorb moisture ... ".
At the trial of Jesus, described in God's Law, it is clear that the chief priests conspired to condemn Jesus to death. They could not carry out their sentence, because there was no guilt in the actions and words on the part of Jesus. Therefore, the members of the Sanhedrin found false witnesses who testified against Jesus: “We heard Him say: I will destroy this man-made temple, and in three days I will raise another, not made by hands” (Law of God). And Bulgakov is trying to make a prophet out of his hero at the trial at Pilate. Yeshua says: “I, hegemon, said that the temple of the old faith would collapse and a new temple of truth would be created…”
The essential difference between Bulgakov's hero and Jesus Christ is that Jesus does not avoid conflicts. “The essence and tone of his speeches,” S.S. Averintsev believes, “are exceptional: the listener must either believe or become an enemy ... Hence the inevitability of a tragic end.” And Yeshua Ha-Nozri? His words and deeds are completely devoid of aggressiveness. The credo of his life lies in these words: "Telling the truth is easy and pleasant." The truth for him is that there are no evil people, there are unfortunate ones. He is a man who preaches Love, while Jesus is the Messiah who affirms the Truth. Let me clarify: the intolerance of Christ is manifested only in matters of faith. In relations between people, He teaches: “... do not resist evil. But whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also” (Gospel of Matthew 5:39).
The Apostle Paul clarifies these words in this way: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good,” that is, fight evil, but do not multiply it yourself. In The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov gives us his interpretation of the commandment of Jesus Christ. Can we say that the words of the Apostle Paul are applicable to Yeshua Ha-Notsri, Bulgakov's Christ? Of course, because throughout his life he does not deviate a single step from his goodness. It is vulnerable, but not despised, perhaps because it is difficult to despise those who, not knowing you, believe in your kindness, are disposed towards you, regardless of anything. We cannot blame him for inaction: he is looking for meetings with people, he is ready to talk with everyone. But he is completely defenseless against cruelty, cynicism, betrayal, because he himself is absolutely kind.
Nevertheless, the same fate awaits the non-conflicting Yeshua Ha-Nozri as the “conflicting” Jesus Christ. Why? It is possible that here M. Bulgakov tells us: the crucifixion of Christ is not at all a consequence of His intolerance, as one might assume when reading the Gospel. The point is something else, more important. If we do not touch on the religious side of the issue, the reason for the death of the hero of The Master and Margarita, as well as his prototype, lies in their attitude to power, or rather, to the way of life that this power personifies and supports.
It is common knowledge that Christ strongly distinguished between "Caesar's" and "God's". Nevertheless, it is the earthly authorities, secular (viceroy of Rome) and church (Sanhedrin), that sentence him to death for earthly crimes: Pilate condemns Christ as a state criminal, allegedly claiming the royal throne, although he himself doubts this; The Sanhedrin - as a false prophet, blasphemously calling himself the Son of God, although, as the Gospel specifies, in fact the high priests wished him death "out of envy" (Gospel of Matthew 27, 18).
Yeshua Ha-Nozri does not claim power. True, he publicly assesses it as “violence against people” and is even sure that someday she, the power, may not exist at all. But such an assessment in itself is not so dangerous: when else will it be so that people can completely do without violence? Nevertheless, it is precisely the words about the “non-eternity” of the existing power that become the formal reason for the death of Yeshua (as in the case of Jesus Christ).
The true reason for the death of Jesus and Yeshua is that they are internally free and live according to the laws of love for people - laws that are not characteristic and impossible for power, and not Roman or any other, but power in general. In M. A. Bulgakov's novel Yeshua Ha-Nozri and in the Law of God, Jesus is not just free people. They radiate freedom, are independent in their judgments, sincere in expressing their feelings in a way that an absolutely pure and kind person cannot be sincere.

The personality of Jesus Christ is timeless and has been actively discussed among people for more than two thousand years: from great scientists to ordinary believers. His name justified the murder of millions of people, conquered countries, forgave sins, baptized babies and healed the seriously ill.

Bulgakov, as a mystic and as a writer, could not be indifferent to such a person as Jesus Christ. He created his hero - Yeshua Ha-Nozri. This character walked with a light and almost ghostly step throughout the novel The Master and Margarita.

However, at the very end of the novel, it is Yeshua who becomes the one who decides the fate of the Master.

Interestingly, in the novel storyline Woland himself begins about Jesus. At Patriarch's Ponds, he tells a fascinating story to the skeptical atheists Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz and Homeless Ivan.

Yeshua looks and acts like an ordinary person 27 years old, without a family and permanent place residence.

He comes from Galilee, believes in God, in goodness and has the ability to heal. Taking away the unbearable headache of Pontius Pilate, he summons respectful attitude. And after conversations about truth and truth, he wins his trust.

He sees, first of all, the light in every person. I am deeply convinced that a conversation even with Mark Ratslayer, a cruel warrior who does not know a drop of mercy, can change his dark life.

Yeshua addresses any person: "A good person." By this he, as it were, emphasizes that good lives in the heart of everyone.

Undoubtedly, Yeshua is not an easy believing fanatic. Ha-Notsri is a creative person with a philosophical mindset, doing good consciously. He is smart and gentle in communication, but firmly convinced in the power of only the Creator.

Yeshua was loved. People followed him, listening to his every word. There were those who recorded for him. For example - Levi Matthew. When Ha-Nozri looked at the scrolls written by Levi Matthew, he was horrified by the amount of what he did not say.

One thing is known for sure - Yeshua accepts only the power of God and preaches about the Truth. Truth, righteousness, mercy and morality - that's what Yeshua's words were about.

Yeshua himself is turned to the light and does not show aggression towards human vices, even to the most, in his opinion, the main thing - cowardice.

Pontius Pilate admits that it was his own cowardice that led a bright and innocent man to crucifixion and a terrible death. Whatever actions Pilate did later, nothing could calm the remorse of his conscience. Even cruel revenge is the bloody death of Judas.

However, released after two thousand years of solitude, Pilate goes to meet Yeshua in the moonlight.