The Historical Jesus and the death of Christianity

Dear Readers,




Since many young people are leaving organized religion, I do think that Christianity will eventually die out. So many Christians don't know and would rather not know the history of their own religion or that of their specific denomination, sect, branch, splinter-group or movement. The historical Jesus, not the Biblical Jesus, I think would largely disappoint most Christians.  The historical Jesus was at best, an apocalyptic Jewish rabbi influenced by Essene thought.  All of Rabbi Yeshua of Nazareth's teachings in the Christian Bible are encased in an apocalyptic mindset.  Why do you think he told people to abandon their families and give all of their possessions to the poor? This was largely because Jesus believed that Yahweh was going to have his kingdom established very soon and have his angelic army destroy all of the Gentiles.  The early Christians were highly embarrassed by Jesus' death.  The Messiah according to Judaism wasn't supposed to die.






I would not consider the historical Jesus to be a role model, personally.  He had some very strange views. Some of them was, that if a man looks at a woman with lustful thoughts, he has already committed "adultery" with her in his heart and that divorce was not permissible unless one spouse cheated on the other person. Most religious scholars and historians agree that there was a historical Jesus who was born in Nazareth, baptized by John the Baptist, had a brother named James, was a highly religious Jew who followed the Torah "to the letter", preached apocalyptic teachings to his fellow Jews under the belief that he was the Messiah , caused a disturbance in the Jewish Temple and was crucified by Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius.  The Christian Bible in the earliest copies that we have do not portray Yeshua as the "Son of God" but as a messenger.  He thought himself to be the Messiah, however he clearly did not fulfill the expectations that the Messiah was expected to carry out.  Jews did believe that the Messiah had led a heavenly existence before coming to earth.




The Messiah was supposed to be lead a political revolt, with the Jews against their oppressors.  However, Jesus was most likely a pacifist because he believed that Yahweh would have the Gentiles destroyed very soon. Early  Christianity remained very close to it's Jewish roots. I have already said, that there was not much difference between early Christianity and 1st Century Judaism in other posts.  The Dead Sea Scrolls were written by Essene Jews who lived in caves to seclude themselves from the world.  Paul of Tarsus, a convert to " The Way"/Christianity had persecuted Christians, he was born as a Roman Jew. Most scholars and historians agree that Paul had met James who was the brother of Jesus. 




Paul in his several Epistles to the various Christian communities in the Middle East writes of Jesus as a flesh and blood human, yet he doesn't seem to be confused, or at least not too concerned with what happened to Jesus' body after he died. In fact, I think most of the earliest copies of copies that we have of the Christian Bible, do not mention the resurrection and a number of other stories that we have read about in the four Gospels. Some were not added until later.  It's most odd how Jesus cries out on the torture stake " My God, my God, why have you forsaken me" which portrays him as a wimp.  It sounds to me like he didn't want to die.  I imagine the historical Jesus probably wasn't too willing to die, yet he couldn't have been that stupid, to not have expected the Jewish High Priests of the Temple to not find his views to be blasphemous and heretic, he would probably have been labeled as being "demon-possessed". It would have been naïve of Jesus, I think to not expect the Roman political officials to not view him as a rabble-rouser.  His misguided actions led to his own death, so it's basically Jesus' own fault for what happened to him.




I imagine the twelve disciples who are portrayed a being very stupid in the Gospels were highly disturbed by the whole event.  The Book of Acts in the Christian Bible portrays some of the disagreements between Christians of Jewish or Gentile descent about whether they can eat "unclean" foods or should undergo circumcision. Paul apparently thinks that they should be allowed to eat "unclean" foods, Jesus' spirit appears and gives them permission to do so.  This happens a number of times, Jesus usually ends up always agreeing with Paul, don't you find that a little odd?  I don't remember Jesus telling anyone that they had to stop following the "laws" of the Torah.  Why would a fanatical Jewish rabbi denounce the very rules of his religion that he devoutly followed? So, Christians would probably be viewed as heretics by Jesus, including Paul. 








The Christianity of today is quite different from early Christianity. You can learn this information in probably any religion class that examines the Jewish and Christians texts with a critical eye.  Do your own research.


Sincerely,


B.W.