JESUS, THE LEGEND

JESUS, THE LEGEND

Christianity-Revealed

According to Christianity Jesus was a great worker of wonders and miracles; therefore he “must be” "the" messiah invented in the Hebrew bible/Old Testament. This is what every Christian professes to believe. However, if Christians would honestly think about these things they would find many unanswered questions.

What was so great about being a worker of wonders and miracles? Many people in the Hebrew bible also performed wonders and miracles. Also, according to history, there were many people even in other countries, who, before Jesus, performed wonders and miracles. So claiming that Jesus was a great worker of wonders and miracles was really not a big deal.

Intelligent people know that wonders attributed to Jesus, and gods in general, were not real, but just mythology? Even modern Christian scholars have come to question the authenticity of Jesus’ so-called wonders and miracles. However, when all is said and done, the Christian Bible, the New Testament (NT) is simply fiction by authors unknown.

Randel Helms opens his book Gospel Fictions (pgs. 9-10) with these words:

“In the first century of the Common Era, there appeared at the eastern end of the Mediterranean a remarkable religious leader who taught the worship of one God and declared that religion meant not the sacrifice of beasts, but the practice of charity and piety and the shunning of hatred and enmity. He was said to have worked miracles of goodness, casting out demons, healing the sick, raising the dead. His exemplary life led some of his followers to claim he was a Son of God though he called himself the son of man. Accused of sedition against Rome, he was arrested. After his death, his disciples claimed he had risen from the dead, appeared to them alive, and then ascended into heaven. Who was this teacher and wonder worker?”

“His name was Apollonius of Tyana. He died about 98 C.E. and his story may be read in Flavius Philostratus’s “Life of Apollonius.”

“Readers who too hastily assumed that the preceding described Apollonious’s earlier contemporary, Jesus of Nazareth, may be forgiven their error if they reflect how readily the human imagination embroiders the careers of figures of the past with common mythical and fictional embellishments.”

All the stories of miracles recorded in the Christian Bible were said about other people, both before and after the times of Jesus. The stories of healings, casting out of demons and being raised from the dead are actually archetypal in nature. These characteristics have been applied to many. Of course, fundamental Christians dismiss all this as a demonic smokescreen attempting to veil “the truth.” Whenever anyone debates with them, using facts, their typical answer is “the devil has clouded your thinking.” And to continue the fundies’ thought process, of course the devil has not clouded their thinking, because they are guided by the “holy ghost,” and non-believers are not! Somehow the “holy ghost” must tell different Christians different truths, because you have over 25,000 Christian church denominations―each possessing the truth that their brothers in Christ do not have. Or, maybe the devil has actually clouded ALL their minds! It is really rather pathetic and even comedic when you stop to think about this line of Christian reasoning.

It is well known, and long a matter of controversy with Christians, that beginning in the early 19th century historians began to dispute the existence of a historical Jesus. John E. Remsburg, in his classic book The Christ: A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidence of His Existence¹ lists at least 21 historians/writers who were contemporary with the time of the NT Jesus.

Apollonius Persius                                 Appian Petronius
Arrian Phaedrus                                    Aulus Gellius Philo-Judaeus
Columella Phlegon                                Damis Pliny the Elder
Dio Chrysostom Pliny the Younger         Dion Pruseus Plutarch
Epictetus Pompon Mela                         Favorinus Ptolemy
Florus Lucius Quintilian                         Hermogones Quintius Curtius
Josephus Seneca                                   Justus of Tiberius Silius Italicus
Juvenal Statius                                     Lucanus Suetonius
Lucian Tacitus                                      Lysias Theon of Smyran
Martial Valerius Flaccus                        Paterculus Valerius Maximus
Pausanias

Remsburg writes, “Enough of the writings of the authors named in the foregoing list remains to form a library. Yet in this mass of Jewish and Pagan literature, aside from two forged passages in the works of a Jewish author, and two disputed passages in the works of Roman writers, there is to be found no mention of Jesus Christ.” Nor, we may add, do any of these authors make note of the disciples or apostles; increasing the embarrassment from the silence of history concerning the foundation of Christianity. In other words, the only information of the life of Jesus comes from Christian believers.

Theories have been offered that since Jesus never existed, the early church fathers created him as a figure for their new religion (for non-Jews) which was used to unite the Roman Empire. This task was solidified through the efforts of Eusebius of Caesarea, working with Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicea in 325 CE When one studies pagan mythology of 900 or more years BCE it becomes readily apparent that Christianity is simply a retelling of these myths. The gospels are compilations of various legends that were subsequently attributed to the mythical/fictitious character of Jesus.

There are some historians who accept this and go one step further. They identify the basis of the New Testament Jesus in the story of Yeshu Ben Pandira. This legendary figure, who was branded a heretic by Jewish leaders, founded a Jewish sect that inspired and influenced the early Christians. These early Christians then adopted the Talmudic story of Yeshu Ben Pandira and modified it to fit into a later historical period and their own eclectic religious beliefs. ²

Throughout the New Testament, especially in the 23^rd chapter of Matthew, the violent Jesus is quoted cursing his elders, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. In the gospel of John, Jesus told his fellow Jews that their fathers were the devil (John 8:44-45). These would not appear to be the behavior of any messiah. They are not even the deeds of a good teacher, or a good person. The gospels (Good News?) records Jesus calling people names like: fools, hypocrites, blind guides, full of robbery and self indulgence, blind, whitewashed tombs, full of dead men’s bones, full of hypocrisy, serpents and a brood of vipers.

Jesus would never have been any messiah; his character wasn’t even that of a decent human being. In the Christian story, even his friends though he was insane.

And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself (Mark 3:21)

For anyone to elevate a man to godhood ― to worship and pray to him ― is an idiotic delusional act.

"The Christian god is a three-headed monster, cruel, vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging, three-headed beast-like god, one only needs to look at the caliber of people who say they serve him. They are always of two classes: fools and hypocrites." -Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

Footnotes:

1. The Christ: A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidence of His Existence, John E. Remsburg, The Truth Seeker Company, NY, pp. 24-25),

2. Cf. R. Avraham Ibn Daud, Sefer Hakabbalah, 53; Sefer Hayuchasin, ibid.; Avraham Korman, Zeramim Vekitot Beyahadut, pp. 354-364].

DISCLAIMER:

Citation of Hebrew scripture and sources in articles or analyses is not in any way an acceptance, approval or validation of the Jewish religion, its works or scriptures. The Hebrew bible, like the Christian New Testament, is fictitious; From a 6-day creation of the universe; a cunning, walking, talking snake; big fish tales; world flood and an "Invisible Man in the Sky" ― it is all fiction, a bold sham perpetrated on mankind.

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