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Difference between revisions of "Jesus of Nazareth"

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Jesus of Nazareth, also known as Jesus Christ, was an early
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#REDIRECT [[Jesus]]
first-century Jewish prophet.  Many of his followers believe that he
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was the son of God, or perhaps God incarnate.  At the opposite
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extreme, some non-believers have asserted that Jesus never existed.  <!--In this article I will not attempt to draw any conclusions concerning
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either of those issues, beyond noting in passing that this writer
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supports [[sophistry]], and fawning.-->  Several fictional characters have
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had substantial influences on humanity; Oliver Twist lead to the
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ending of poorhouses; Hercules heavily influenced greek and classical
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culture; Horus heavily influenced Egyptian culture for over 3000 years;
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and there is no reason to assume that Jesus must be more real than
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these simply due to influence.
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The historical evidence concerning Jesus is extremely thin.  As far as
 
we know, neither Jesus nor any of his immediate followers wrote anything,
 
so all that we have is, at best, second hand.  He is mentioned in two
 
places in the writings of [[Eusebius]], which claim to be quotes from
 
[[Josephus]], though most academics view the quotes as fraudulent, not
 
least because they make Josephus appear to be a devout Christian when he
 
was in fact a lifelong Jew. Preaching attributed to Jesus is quoted at
 
length in the [[synoptic Gospel]]s, though these are thought by most
 
academics to be duplicates of each other, ultimately copied from the
 
lost [[Q Gospel]], which more directly was quoted by in the list like
 
[[Gospel of Thomas]]. None of the quotations have anything to suggest
 
that they are not just regurgitations of age old wisdom that has been
 
collected together and attributed to a man who had a very common name for
 
the time - Jesus.
 
 
Some authorities have speculated that the book of Mark was written by
 
an eyewitness but there is no conclusive proof of that.  The book of
 
John contains a number of stories about Jesus and a substantial amount
 
of dialog attributed to him, but it appears to have been written
 
around the end of the second century and its reliability has been
 
questioned. John's theology near totally contradicts the Gospel of
 
Thomas, which itself parallels the synoptics closely, and many academics
 
perceive John as being written to be an antidote against the other
 
three gospels now in the bible.
 
 
The quotations given by the synoptics and Thomas are primarily short
 
[[koan]]-like metaphors and allusions. This was common in eastern religion
 
at the time as it is now, but early biblical writers did not use this
 
linguistic form, or used it only rarely. Before we look at the philosophy
 
attributed to Jesus, we need to take a brief look at the world he lived
 
in. Technology was changing very slowly in comparison with the world
 
today.  Productive capacity of the land was more or less fixed, wealth
 
of a country depended heavily on food production, and the economy of the
 
time looked very much like a zero sum game.  In consequence, if one man
 
was rich, others necessarily were poorer in consequence.
 
 
The political situation in Israel must also be considered.  For
 
centuries there had been a divide between the pro-Aaron priests and the
 
anti-Aaron priests. This can be seen most clearly in the writings of
 
the "minor prophets". The pro-Aaron priests had gained power and
 
successfully centralized Jewish religion in the Temple, and had become
 
deeply concerned with form and procedures, and assuring that God was
 
appeased through offerings of the right sort at the right time. The
 
anti-Aaron priests and prophets were far more concerned with the well-being
 
of the common people, who were as disenfranchised as they. ''This needs
 
at least a couple quotes to support it.  Someday.''
 
 
The royal family -- the house of David -- had fallen from power when
 
the southern kingdom went into exile.  The traditional priests -- the
 
Levites -- also disappeared at the time of the exile.  By the time of
 
Jesus, the Maccabees, with no apparent connection to the house of
 
David or the traditional Levite priesthood, had risen to power as
 
priest/kings.  King Herod I, though subordinate to Rome, had married
 
into the Maccabees and converted to Judaism, and so was as legitimate
 
as any of the late-BC Jewish kings.  He was, however, on the
 
pro-Aaron side of the political divide, represented by the group
 
(Zadok-ees/Sadducees) who claimed to have Zadok as their ancestor.
 
The words and events attributed to Jesus, on the other hand, appears
 
closer to the mystic sect of [[Essenes]].
 
 
When we turn to the philosophy espoused by the quotations attributed
 
to Jesus we are on much firmer ground. Based both on internal evidence
 
and on the political situation at the time, there's no reason to doubt
 
that the quotes preach love of God and of fellow man, and certainly
 
pacifism.  I've included a few brief quotes from Bible verses to show
 
the general direction of Jesus's teaching.
 
 
:"Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you" -- Luke 6:27-28
 
 
:"The second [commandment] is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" -- Mark 12:31
 
 
He also preached against wealth, and in favor of charity.
 
 
:"Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor" -- Mark 10:21
 
 
:"It is easier for a rope to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" -- Mark 10:25
 
 
:"Give to everyone who begs from you" -- Luke 6:30
 
 
And on one occasion Jesus apparently preached against using
 
honorifics.
 
 
:"But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brethren. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven." -- Matthew 23:8-9
 
 
While one can argue about the strength the sentiments expressed in the
 
above, very brief quotes, one certainly can't find anything indicating
 
the slightest support for the opposite sentiments. ''Never'' are any
 
quotes given that said ''anything'' in support of war, of physical
 
retribution, of taking vengeance for offensive acts, nor of abusive or
 
exploitive behavior toward the poor, nor anyone else. Nor is there any
 
preaching in favor of any sort of elitist stratification of society.
 
 
Strangely, in the centuries after Jesus, while mainstream Christians became
 
convinced of Jesus' divinity, they also apparently rejected his teaching.
 
The Catholic church adopted the title of "father" for all priests,
 
apparently in direct violation of the teaching of Jesus.  The
 
Crusades, encouraged by the Pope, were fought in Jesus' name, and began
 
with [[Albigensian Crusade|a Crusade against fellow Christians]] who took a different view of
 
who Jesus was. They were long, bloody, destructive wars with the goal of
 
capturing land considered "holy" from religious opponents -- it is hard
 
to imagine Jesus ever speaking in favor of such an action.  Much later,
 
the thirty years' war was fought in large part as a war between
 
Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism -- it presents the absurd
 
spectacle of people going to war over the question of the proper way to
 
worship a pacifist.
 
 
In our own time we are faced with a fundamentalist Christian movement
 
which supports preemptive wars of aggression, fought to make us safer
 
by destroying our enemies before they make the first move.  This may
 
be a politically wise course, but it's very hard to see how it can be
 
squared with the views expressed by Jesus, and it's hard to imagine
 
how anyone could claim that Jesus would condone such action.
 
 
===References===
 
 
Background material for this article was drawn from various sources,
 
including the Bible (various translations), the Apocrypha, the
 
Pseudepigrapha, Charlesworth's commentary on the Pseudepigrapha, the
 
"Five Gospels" and the Historical Jesus Project, the Cambridge
 
Companion to the Bible, the Merriam-Webster Biographical Dictionary,
 
Josephus' Antiquities and Jewish War, and a large number of web sites,
 
including but not limited to Steve Carlson's cluster analysis of the
 
New Testament, the Wesleyans' excellent site, New Advent, the Synoptic
 
Problem Home Page, the World Without Q, the Gospel Parallels site, and
 
of course the very useful Bible Gateway site.  When I get a chance
 
I'll put in proper links here, organize this as a bibliography, and
 
add some footnotes (unless some irate fundamentalist blanks the page
 
before I get to it).
 
  
 
[[Category:Gospels]]
 
[[Category:Gospels]]

Latest revision as of 20:17, 22 April 2009

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