Christian Mysteries - Unveiled
Jesus
Historically Unknown
...it is my firm opinion that the whole batch of religions with their aims and claims are a barrier to world peace. Religion does not unite people. It divides them. Religion is not only a barrier to world peace but a thwarter and a stumbling block to world progress. - G. Vincent Runyon
6th Century Jesus Icon - Open Domain
Since the last few decades, hundreds of
books and volumes have been written by various Christian historians, scholars
and theologians in their quest, attempting to find the proof of the historical
Jesus Christ.
Early Church Fathers, beginning from the
middle of first century fiercely upheld the physical birth and sometimes the
divinity of Jesus as the Christ, while at the same time accepting that Christianity
was not different from the other ancient and extant pagan religions of the
time. They considered Jesus on the same
board as other incarnated, dying and resurrected god-heroes, but to be
literally so, even though the latter were believed to be only allegorical
mythos.
While debating with the pagan
philosophers, who accused the new Christian sect of copying their pagan
religion and gods, Justin Martyr, the
eminent Church Father, who lived in the second century, had this to state :
"And when we say also that the Word, who is First begotten of God,
was born for us without sexual union, Jesus Christ our teacher and that He was
crucified and died and rose again and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing
new beyond what you believe concerning those whom you call sons of Zeus ...
."
Those Apostolic Church Theologians, who
themselves were experts in pagan philosophy, and often accused of plagiarism
particularly of the teachings of Plato, the Greek Philosopher, went to
ludicrous extents of refuting the accusations, even sometimes laying first
claim to such doctrines. Likewise, the others like Justin Martyr arrogantly
declared: "Whatever
things were rightly said among all teachers are the property of us
Christians."
Later, he had
support from Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.), another eminent Church Father: "If those who are called
philosophers, and especially the Platonists, have said aught that is true and
in harmony with the faith, we are not only not to shrink from it, but to claim
it for our own use from those who have unlawful possession of it".
Even the modern times Catholic journal,
Notre Dame Magazine, states: "The
point is clear from the outset: our understanding of divine man or Son of God
is different today than it was to the world in which Jesus lived. It was not an uncommon designation in those
days. Nor was it uncommon to have gods
impregnate mortals who yielded divine offspring often the human partner was a
virgin woman".
What about the Epistles and Book of Acts of
the New Testament, which scholars today accept to be much earlier writings than
the four Canon Gospels? Sadly, there is
no trace in any of them of a historical Jesus.
Paul including, his writings being preaching and exhortations, at best
speaks of a spiritual Christ and acceptance or belief in Jesus Christ for
salvation through works, grace and faith, howsoever differing.
Moreover, the narrations in the Acts are
often at contradiction with the Epistle writings. The four Canon gospels are even more
contradictory and confusing in terms of the narratives in each of them such as,
Jesus' birth, his life, ministry, death and resurrection, not to say about the
errors in geographical and historical details of the time. The last of the
four, Gospel of John, is at odd with the others, in that it speaks of a gnostic
Christ apparently being influenced by the Greek Hellenistic theology, which was
a popular doctrine among the philosophers before and during the time of early Christianity.
Historian Joseph McCabe in "The Witnesses to the
Historicity of Jesus," makes the following disclosure, which sums up the
historical character of Jesus as he exists only in the New Testament literature:
"Our
opponents ask: If Jesus was not an historical personage, how is it that no one
ever doubted his existence? We reply with the further question: Granting that
he was an historical personage, how is it that not only does the Talmud never
mentions him, but, apart from the gospels, not a single work belonging to the
early Christian period gives us any intimate detail about the life of this
personage?
“Examine
Paul's Epistles! ... they do not tell a single special fact about the life of
Jesus. Read the other Epistles of the New Testament - Peter, John, James, Jude,
and the Epistle to the Hebrews - and the letter of Clement to the Corinthians,
the letter of Barnabas, the Pastor of Hermas, the Acts of the Apostles, etc.
“Nowhere
in any single one of these early Christian documents do we find even the
slenderest reference to the mere man Jesus, or to the historical personality of
Jesus as such, from which we might infer that the author had a close
acquaintance with it. His life, as it is described in the gospels, in all its
human detail, seems to have been entirely unknown to these authors " (Arthur Drews [1865-1935], The Witnesses
To The Historicity Of Jesus, Tr. Joseph McCabe, Arno, 1972 (1912 Watts.
It is also not the least surprising that
despite about 25-30 contemporary Jewish and Greek writers and Roman historians,
living around Jesus' life and death and shortly afterwards, there is no record
of the his miracle birth, astronomical wonders, miracles and never-once- before
a resurrection of a dead person.
Prominent Jewish writer Philo Judaeus,
living during Jesus' time and surviving him by at least twenty years, never
mentions Jesus, his name or his wondrous deeds in any of his thirty-eight books passed down to
posterity. The other two contemporary
writers were Justus of Tiberias and Flavius Josephus. Justus is known for his history of Herod the
Great but the canonical story of King Herod ordering the death of innocent
children is entirely absent. Moreover,
from the tribunal Roman records of the time, we find no record of a Roman trial
and death by crucifixion of this particular person, Jesus Christ. The town called Nazareth also did not exist
then until the official acceptance of the Canon Gospels sometime between 70
A.D. and 150 A.D.
Many a times, for lack of evidence,
Christians refer to the writings of another prominent Jewish historian, Flavius
Josephus, (37-100A.D.) also a former Jewish general who led the revolt of the
Jews against the Romans, later pardoned and then having written a history of
those events from Rome. He wrote a long
series of about 20 books titled, Antiquities of the Jews, in which he narrates
even the least of happenings at the time and goes on to mention about John the
Baptist and Pontius Pilate but nothing about Jesus' existence, baptism or
trial.
There is however, a paragraph in the
fourth chapter of Book 18: "Now,
there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man,
for he was a doer of wonderful works—a teacher of such men as receive the truth
with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the
Gentiles. He was (the) Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the
principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the Cross, those that loved him
at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third
day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful
things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not
extinct to this day.”
This paragraph is conspicuous as an
interpolation and as being out of context, before and after, the flow of
Josephus' narratives. Moreover, Josephus
was a staunch Jew (who also wrote, in the process, the history of the Jewish
race) and would certainly not have written such pious information about Jesus,
acknowledging that he was the Christ.
Secondly, this spurious text was not found in the original of Josephus'
book. Until about the middle of third
century, none of the Church Fathers despite making extensive references to Josephus
works mentioned this passage. The main
culprit for interpolating this text into Josephus writings was Eusebius
(270-340 A.D.), the renowned Church Historian, to whom committing of
"pious fraud" for the glory of God was the rule rather than the exception. This text was however, declared as phony
being a interpolation sometime around the sixth century.
The other three Roman historians,
Christians like to refer to bolster their case their Jesus did exist in Palestine,
are Suetonius, Tacitus, and Pliny the Younger. There were associated with the
Roman Rulers during their lives and wrote enough of history of the day. In their writings, besides a line or two
about some rioting among Christian sects or a reference to the name of
Chrestos, a common Roman name, there is nothing specific or any historical
event concerning the life, teaching, ministry, trial, death and resurrection of
a Jesus Christ.
Interesting to note is that the early
Christian sects were not even called Christians until the fourth century or
so. They were generally messianic sects
consisting of such diversity as Nazoreans, Thereupaths, Ebionides and
Essenes. We must give credit to the
Roman Emperor Constantine the Great and his Chief Councilor, Eusebius (270-340
A.D.) - Christian Bishop of Caesarea,
Palestine; for gathering all the warring Christian sects and after much
debating including physical threats, reaching the general consensus of a
composite figure of the Jesus Christ - both as a historical and universal
divine savior, at the Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.). A New Testament of the Church was also
written at this time; contrary writings, burnt or destroyed and beliefs
forbidden under punishment of death.
Thus Christianity got official recognition
and held State Power in par or even greater than the kings and rulers and the
Roman Catholic Church Pontiffs decided the ultimate fate of the masses whether
or not to save their mortal lives or immortal souls beyond. Temporal earthly
powers of the God's Kingdom and its grandeur never ceased to grow. That is
until the 18th century Protestant Reformation when the Church having reached
its peak disintegrated into several Christian denominations each professing to
be the true church of Christ.
Ironically, it appears that the Christian
churches have never been able to put their houses in order other than offer
lip-service by instituting ceremonial ritual and rites for the gullible
believers under the threat of eternal damnation or reward of heavenly
pay-backs. All in the name of a savior Jesus Christ whose historicity on earth
is simply elusive!
***
Paul
Rodricks, Author & Freelance Writer.
I
invite your comments and queries. Thank you
Contact:
paulrodericks@gmail.com