There is absolutely no doubt that Jesus was a constant source of puzzlement to his contemporaries. This seems very odd to modern readers of the Gospels, who wonder about the collective blindness of Israel. Indeed, Christian theology has accustomed us to see in Jesus the promised Messiah fulfilling the numerous Old Testament texts, and we marvel at the all-apparent incredulity of the Jews.

In my freshman year of college, a professor handed us a piece of paper with a two- or three- sentence paragraph and told us to count the number of times a particular letter occurred, for example the letter H. I counted carefully and was confident that there were a total of six, only to be told that there were actually nine.

Early in the Common Era, Jesus left his carpenter bench and walked east to the River Jordan, where John the Baptist was preaching and baptizing repentant sinners. Jesus asked to be baptized.

John, recognizing his cousin, remonstrated, saying: “It is I that should be baptized by you!”

Jesus replied, “Permit it to be so.” John complied.