# Would Jesus have owned a gun?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [August 30, 2010, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974 "2010-08-30T06:16:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2010, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974/1 "2010-08-30T06:16:13Z")
If guns existed in his time, or if he lived in the modern era. Either premise is fine.
Thread is open to theological arguments, biblical arguments, and personal opinions.
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### Author:  [@willthekittensurvive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/willthekittensurvive)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2010, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974/2 "2010-08-30T08:16:15Z")
If he was a jew in modern Israel, chances are he would
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### Author:  [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2010, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974/3 "2010-08-30T08:16:58Z")
I’d say no; based on the fact that presumably he could have carried a sword, club or dagger in his period but there are no reports that I know of in the Bible saying that he did so.
That said I am no Biblical scholar: so if I’m wrong then I bow to thos who are more knowledgeable then I am.
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### Author:  [@opmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/opmike)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2010, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974/4 "2010-08-30T08:34:19Z")
Are we to presume that the Jesus isn’t just a gun collector, and has one for “protection”? Is Jesus going to shoot someone who’s trying to take his life?
I say no.
However, I’m sure a number of his disciples and entourage would be armed.
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### Author:  [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2010, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974/5 "2010-08-30T08:37:28Z")
> [@opmike](#):
>
> Are we to presume
You’re not really to presume anything. I’d like the question to be as open as possible.
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### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2010, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974/6 "2010-08-30T09:04:02Z")
Based on the gospels:
There is no suggestion that he owned or used a sword, dagger, etc. On the one occasion when one of his followers produced one he told him to put it away. We don’t need to speculate on whether he _would_ have resisted threats to his person or life, since his person and live _were_ threatened, and he offered no resistance. In the crucifixion, he seeks to transcend oppression by embracing it; having a gun would just get in the way, it seems to me, unless possiblty having it for the purpose of making a point of not using it.
It’s not inconsistent with the gospel portrait of Jesus and his teaching to imagine him hunting for food, and had guns been available for that purpose I suppose he might have used one. (Though, in fact, the gospels present him as buying his food, not hunting for it.)
But for fighting? It’s hard to see that.
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### Author:  [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2010, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974/7 "2010-08-30T09:07:31Z")
Well, if we’re looking at guns as the modern equivalent of swords, of course Jesus himself wouldn’t have carried a sword. He believed he had no need of one:
> [@Matthew 26](#):
>
> “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?
Jesus thought he was invincible, so he had no need of weapons for his own defence. Nonetheless he did order his followers to carry swords for their own protection.
> [@Luke 22](#):
>
> He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.”
>
> The disciples said, “See, Lord, here are two swords.”
>
> “That is enough,” he replied.
And he certainly had no problem using swords to threaten people:
> [@Matthew 10](#):
>
> "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.
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### Author:  [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2010, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974/8 "2010-08-30T10:50:38Z")
Luke 22:36-38
[36] Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.
[37] For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end.
[38] And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough.
Yeah, Christ would’ve packed a Desert Eagle, the one with the big clip.
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2010, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974/9 "2010-08-30T10:55:25Z")
> [@Krokodil](#):
>
> Yeah, Christ would’ve packed a Desert Eagle, the one with the big clip.
Bah, don’t be silly. A guy who pulls unlimited loaves and fishes out of nowhere doesn’t need a big clip. He just needs one bullet and the Miracle of the Multiplying Ammo.
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### Author:  [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2010, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974/10 "2010-08-30T10:58:49Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#):
>
> > [@Krokodil](#):
> >
> > Yeah, Christ would’ve packed a Desert Eagle, the one with the big clip.
>
> Bah, don’t be silly. A guy who pulls unlimited loaves and fishes out of nowhere doesn’t need a big clip. He just needs one bullet and the Miracle of the Multiplying Ammo.
As long as we’re playing “What If–?”, I guess we can postulate that Chuck Norris would’ve been an Apostle…
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2010, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974/11 "2010-08-30T11:06:45Z")
All I know is you can get further with The Word and a gun than you can with just The Word.
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### Author:  [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2010, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974/12 "2010-08-30T11:14:07Z")
If I remember correctly, Jesus said,"He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword. One can see through all of history, ammunition of any kind really never has settled anything. Just look to the middle east. and all the wars that have been fought. We just keep building bigger and weapons that will kill more people.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2010, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974/13 "2010-08-30T11:16:41Z")
> [@monavis](#):
>
> If I remember correctly, Jesus said,"He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.
Ah, so the carpenter got nailed to a piece of wood?
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### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2010, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974/14 "2010-08-30T11:23:06Z")
I don’t know whether or not Modern Christ would have a gun, but I wonder if he would get a bulletproof Messiahmobile like the one the Pope has. I mean, if they shot John Lennon you can be positive someone out there is going to come gunning for the J man.
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### Author:  [@qpw3141](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qpw3141)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2010, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974/15 "2010-08-30T11:25:20Z")
The pen is mightier than the sword.
Unless you only have a pen and the other guy has a sword.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2010, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974/16 "2010-08-30T11:27:33Z")
> [@willthekittensurvive](#):
>
> If he was a jew in modern Israel, chances are he would
Actually, most Israelis don’t have guns. Know how to use them, yes - but own them? That’s a myth.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2010, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974/17 "2010-08-30T12:40:53Z")
> [@qpw3141](#):
>
> The pen is mightier than the sword.
>
> Unless you only have a pen and the other guy has a sword.
Gussy it up however you want, Trebek. What matters is does it work? Will it really mighty my penis, man?
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### Author:  [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2010, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974/18 "2010-08-30T13:34:21Z")
When I’m in a tight spot fraught with potential danger, not knowing what I should do, I try to remember to ask myself WAWJBACI.
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### Author:  [@New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Deal_Democrat)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2010, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974/19 "2010-08-30T13:45:45Z")
> [@UDS](#):
>
> Based on the gospels:
>
> There is no suggestion that he owned or used a sword, dagger, etc. On the one occasion when one of his followers produced one he told him to put it away.
Luke 22: 23, 38 Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take _it_, and likewise _his_ scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one…And they said, Lord, behold, here _are_ two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough.
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### Author:  [@New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Deal_Democrat)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-jesus-have-owned-a-gun/551974/20 "2010-08-30T13:47:57Z")
I have heard gun lovers talk about, “the God given right to bear arms.” I have read the bible from cover to cover eight times in seven English translations. I never read anything about such a right.
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