Friday, December 24, 2010
thought of the day.457
Before Jesus was given precious gifts, was hunted by a wicked king, received the Holy Spirit at the Jordan River, spent 40 days in the wilderness, traveled from town to town, had a group of followers, could see the future, knew the thoughts of others, healed a leper, made the blind see, raised the dead, helped an army officer, fed a multitude with only a few loaves of bread (and had left overs), spoke to an audience of thousands, was bowed down to and called “master”, walked across water, controlled the weather, spoke to God on top of a mountain, did as God commanded, was considered the “worst trouble maker in Israel”, was made fun of, was wanted dead by the Jewish people, went off by himself to pray and was strengthened by an angel, had a follower repeatedly promise he would not abandon him, said “go in peace”, and was seen going up to heaven, someone else did these things. And that someone (or ones) were the Old Testament characters, Elijah and Elisha, which were the mythical characters that the New Testament Jesus was built upon.
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8 comments:
So you believe there was no historical Jesus?
I am as convinced as one can possibly be that the biblical Jesus is a myth.
If one thought the Jesus portrayed in the bible was historically accurate then they would be fools to not be Christians, would they not?
Then what of other (non-Biblical) historians' mentions of Christ?
I’ll answer that by asking you a question. Millions of Mormons believe Joseph Smith spoke with God and the Angel Moroni and that their religion is the true religion. This is documented in non-biblical accounts.
What makes your religion’s non-biblical verifying accounts valid and the Mormon’s and countless other religions, invalid?
I was asking simply whether or not Jesus existed, not whether or not his claims were true (although I do believe they were.)
Yes, I believe Joseph Smith existed. No, I don't believe his claims are true. But that's a seperate argument.
There are numerous stories about Jesus that are undoubtedly myths (to my mind). For exmple, Jesus never claimed to be born of a virgin. Others did. Interestingly, only couple of the gospel writers in fact. Seems rather important fact to have been left out by the others don’t you think? Points to a developing mythological character.
Okay, if I understand what you're saying correctly, then you're saying that non-Biblical sources don't say Jesus was born of a virgin, so it isn't necessarily a credible fact, right?
Well, first of all, when someone like Pliny was writing to Trajan about the Christians and describing Christ, the important part of what he was describing wasn't where he came from but what happened with his death and what the Christians believed about his resurrection.
As for the gospel writers who don't make mention of Jesus' birth story or anything surrounding that, well, each gospel writer had a different central focus. Matthew was writing primarily to the Jews, who placed a lot of importance on heritage, so he listed out the heritage for them and some of Jesus' birth story. Luke was interviewing witnesses and trying to get a whole chronological story for Theophilus. John was more focused on the miracles and teachings of Christ than the events that happened in his life. They all had different points of view and different focuses that come together to create the one whole story as we know it. We don't need four people to tell us that Jesus was born of a virgin if two already do. Besides, I doubt that you would believe it any more if Mark and John had added that fact in, anyway. :) You (I'm using a general "you" here) don't just believe something because it's said enough times, but because there's reason to believe it.
As for myth, well, the Gospels were written too closely to the time of Jesus' death (and, Biblically, resurrection and ascension) to be mythological. Historians have shown that it takes two generations after an event for myth to begin mixing with fact. First- and second-generation eyewitnesses have to pass out of existence.
My study of the use of Old Testament themes in the Jesus story has convinced me that that is where much of the Jesus character came from. You obviously see that same information differently. Most do.
For me, all of mankind’s countless religions are evidence the whole idea of a god is clearly a product of man’s mind — born of our early ignorance of nature, our fears of loneliness and death, and desire to be loved, protected, etc.
The idea that those countless religions are all false but Christianity is true (even though everyone of its ideas was first seen in other religions) points to how self-absorbed we can be-how we compartmentalize things in our mind so as to go on believing what makes us feel good.
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