Who do you think Jesus was?

.
i'm not so sure that (bolded) statement is true anymore..
there have been non-believers here on this forum that have put forth evidence that jesus did NOT exist..
other non-believers have pulled the evidence card also, both knowing that there would be no evidence to put forth..so to say that you require evidence in incorrect, what would be more accurate would be to say ' i just want you to see that there is no evidence'...

....

No that's not what I said. I said it simply and clearly.
 
I compare Scientology with Christianity - both have people who BELIEVE in supernatural beings and events that they NEVER experienced themselves.

Christians BELIEVE, Scientologists BELIEVE - but none of them ever met Jesus, or Xenu.





K.


i have experienced jesus, and that's the only reason i believe. i have no reason to think that's not the same reason why a lot of other people over the past 2000 yrs have believed also.




Gday,

Who claimed to have met a historical Jesus ?

It is frequently claimed that we have multiple eye-witnesses who claimed to have met Jesus.

This is probably why believers respond with cries of
"why would they die for a lie?"
"how could it all be a hoax?"
"that's just a conspiracy theory"
when a sceptic claims the Gospels are not true history.

Because -
believers are convinced we have numerous reliable claims from identifiable people that they met Jesus - thus if Jesus did not exist, then all those eye-witness claims must have been a "hoax". If Jesus was not historical, the claims to have met him must have been a "lie", If Jesus never lived then all those multiple claimed eye-witnesses must have been involved in a "conspiracy".

So, let's examine the evidence -

How many :
* identifiable people
* claimed to have met Jesus
* in authentic writing.
?

Paul
Paul never met a historical Jesus, and never claimed to.
He did claim to have had revelations "thru Christ" etc.
He did claim to have had a vision of Christ.
And others (Acts) claim Paul had a vision of Christ.

It is worth noting that Paul does not place Iesous Christos in history :
* No places - Paul never mentions Bethlehem, Nazareth, Galilee, Calvary, etc.
* No dates - Paul never places Iesous Christos in time.
* No names - Paul never mentions Mary, Joseph, Pilate, Judas, Nicodemus, Lazarus etc.
* No miracles - Paul never mentions the miracles/healings of Jesus
* No trial/tomb - Paul never mentions the trial or the empty tomb etc.
Paul's Christos is a heavenly being, not a historical person.

the 500
Paul claims 500 others had a vision of Christ. The Gospels do not mention that, no other writer mentions that, and we have no names or evidence for any of the 500. Even IF it happened - they had a VISION like Paul - nothing historical.

G.Mark
The author of this book never identifies himself, and never claims to have met Jesus. According to traditon, Mark was a secretary of Peter and never met Jesus. This Gospel, like all of them, started out as an un-named book.

G.Matthew
The author of this book never identifies himself, and never claims to have met Jesus. According to tradition it was written by an apostle - but it never says so, and it mentions Matthew without the slightest hint that HE was writing it.

G.Luke
The author of this book never identifies himself, and never claims to have met Jesus. According to tradition it was written by a follower of Paul.

G.John
According to tradition this Gospel was written by the apostle John, and the last chapter says :
" This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true."
This is part of a chapter that was added to the Gospels, and it is clearly someone else making a claim for the book. It most certainly does not even come close to specific claim that anyone personally met Jesus.

Jude
This letter contains no claim to have met Jesus.

Johanines
1 John contains this passage :
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4We write this to make our[a] joy complete.
Some believers assert this is a claim to have met Jesus.
What did he see and hear? He certainly never says it was Jesus. He just had a spiritual experience and wants to tell everyone about it - "God is light". Nothing here about any historical Jesus at all.

James
There is no claim to have met Jesus in this letter - supposedly from Jesus' BROTHER ! Yet it contains NOTHING anywhere about a historical Jesus, even where we would expect it. It is clear this writer had never even HEARD of a historical Jesus.

Revelation
No claim to have met Jesus.

the Petrines
2 Peter has this passage :
1.16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.
Here we see Peter directly claim to have witnessed Jesus' transfiguration. The ONE and ONLY such direct personal claim in the entire NT.
But -
2 Peter is the very latest and most suspect book in the whole NT - scholars agree it is a forgery, so do many Christians, ancient and modern. A late and deliberate forgery that claims NOT to be based on "cunningly devised fables" - probably in direct response to critics claims. THAT is the one single book that contains a claim to have met Jesus.

Clement
Never claimed to have met Jesus or anyone who did.

Papias
Does not claim to have met Jesus or anyone who had.
He did claim to have met Presbyters who told him what some disciples had said.
Discusses two books of Matthew and Mark , not called Gospels, not quite like modern Gospels.

Polycarp
Never claimed to have met Jesus or anyone who did.
Irenaeus claimed Polycarp met discples who met Jesus

Ignatius
Never claimed to have met Jesus or anyone who did.

Justin
Never claimed to have met anyone who met Jesus.
Discusses UN-NAMED Gospels not quite like ours.

So,
the entire NT contains only ONE specific claim to have met a historical Jesus - from the most suspect forgery in the whole book.

There is NOT ONE reliable claim by anyone to have ever met Jesus.

But -
there is a vast body of CLAIMS by later Chrsitains - claims that are NOT supported by the earlier books, or by history.

So,
If Jesus wasn't historical, there is NO LIE, NO HOAX and NO CONSPIRACY required at all - because there are NO actual claims to have met Jesus to be a hoax or a lie or a conspiracy in the first place.

Just later books and claims, and claims about books.


Kapyong

yes, claims that he was born on this earth, lived on this earth, died of crucifixion, and was seen on earth resurrected.
:shrug:
 
Gday,

lame.
if it's all a hoax, why isn't it more believable?

Hoax?
NO-ONE said it was a hoax!
I didn't claim a hoax, nor did anyone else.

It's amazing how people say that - as if the ONLY possiblities are :
* truth
* hoax

It's started as a MYTHICAL story, then later people BELIEVED it - no hoax, no conspiracy, no lies.

First Paul wrote about spiritual being,
then years and years later Mark wrote a greate piece of spiritual literature,
then others copied Mark over the years...

LATER still, some people came to BELEIVE it.

It's not a hoax,
but it's not history either.


K.
 
Gday,

i have experienced jesus, and that's the only reason i believe. i have no reason to think that's not the same reason why a lot of other people over the past 2000 yrs have believed also.

Others have experienced Satan, or Krishna, or Buddha, or Bacchus...



yes, claims that he was born on this earth, lived on this earth, died of crucifixion, and was seen on earth resurrected.
:shrug:

Many myths are full of claims.

But NO-ONE ever met Jesus, nor mary or Joseph or Lazarus, or Nicodemus, etc. etc.


K.
 
Gday,

lame.
if jesus didn't exist then why were the gospels written saying he did, by whom, and what was their motive?

Why were the books of the OT written?
Why were the Greek myths written ?
Why were the Hindu scriptures written?
Why were the Egyptian myths written?
Why did L.Ron Hubbard write Scientology?

Because people write religious myths and stories.
We already know that.


K.
 
Gday again,

Paul and other Christian writers clearly indicate that their source for Jesus' story is from revelation, and from scripture :

Firstly, some general comments from the early NT -

2 Cor 1:22 NEB
"It is all God's doing, God has set his seal on us by sending the Spirit".

1 Cor. 2:13 NEB
"We speak of these gifts of God in words found for us not by our human wisdom but by the spirit"

1 Cor. 14:36-37
"Did the word of God originate with you? Are you the only people to whom it came? If anyone claims to be inspired or a prophet, let him recognize that that I write has the Lord's authority"

2 Cor. 5:5
"God has shaped us for life immortal, and as a guarantee of this he has sent the Spirit"

1 Peter 1:12 :
"Preachers brought you the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven."

The source of their gospel, their teaching, is the Spirit - is internal personal revelation.


More specifially, how did Paul know about Jesus -

Gal. 1:16
"God chose to reveal his Son in me, in order that I might preach him among the gentiles"

Jesus was revealed to Paul, IN Paul, by revelation.
Not from any historical tradition.


Rom. 16:25-6
Paul's Gospel
"about Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept in silence for long ages but now revealed, and made known through prophetic writings".

Until NOW it was secret, but Paul now has knowledge about Jesus - derived from his revelation about what the scriptures mean.
Not from any historical tradition.


Eph 3:5
"The mystery about Christ which in former generations was not made known to the human race, is now revealed to dedicated apostles and prophets through the Spirit."

Knowledge about Jesus Christ is only NOW known by revelation.
Not from any historical tradition.


Gal. 1:11-12
"For I neither received (paralambanoo) [my Gospel about Jesus Christ] from man, nor was I taught it, but [I recieved it] through a revelation of Jesus Christ"

He received his gospel about Jesus from personal revelation - specifically saying that he did NOT learn it, and got it from NO MAN.
Not from any historical tradition.
(Note: Paul uses 'paralambano' to refer to receiving revelation.)


1 Cor. 15:3-4
"For I delivered to you ... what I also received (paralambano), that Christ died for our sins, as learned from the scriptures, and that he was buried; and that he was raised on the third day, as learned from the scriptures"
(Translating "kata tas graphas" to "as learned from the scriptures".)

Paul has received this knowledge about Jesus dieing and rising again from HIS personal REVELATION about what the scriptures really mean, probably referring to Isaiah 53, Hosea 6:2, Ps. 22:16, Zech. 12:10 and Ps. 2.
Not from any historical tradition.


1 Cor. 11:23-26
"For I received (paralambano) from the Lord that which I passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was delivered up, took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it and said: 'This is my body..."

Paul's received this knowledge about Jesus' Last Supper by personal revelation.
Not from any historical tradition.


Hebrews
1:2 "In this final age God has spoken to us through his Son" in the present.
But all quotes of the Son are from scripture, not a single Gospel saying - e.g. Ps. 2:12 "I will proclaim thy name to my brothers", not Mark 3:35 as example of being brothers.
Quotes of OT scripture are put in Jesus' mouth with "he says...", in the present tense - e.g. 10:5-7 Christ speaks about himself by quoting Ps. 40:5-8.
5:7 derived from Ps. 116:1 and Ps. 22:24.
Scripture is consistently the source for Jesus' words and actions to this writer.

Rev.
Opens with the "revelation of Jesus Christ" - God reveals it to Jesus, who passes it to an angel who tells John.
Filled with revelation about Jesus.
1:7 is derived from Zech. 12:10
Closes with quote from Habakkuk in the mouth of Jesus.


The Suffering and Vindication of the Innocent Righteous One
Mark's passion of Jesus is derived from the OT - Gen. 39-41, Est. 3, Tobit 1:18-22, Susanna, Dan. 3 and 6, Macc. 3, 2 Macc. 7, Wis. Sol. 2-5.


1 Clement
16:15-16 describing Jesus' suffering - quoting Ps. 22 and Isaiah 53, no Gospel stories.
Ch. 22 - Ps. 34 is quoted as a direct summons from Jesus.
Scripture is a source for Jesus' actions for this writer too.

Polycarp's epistle
8:1 talking of the events around Jesus - he quotes from Isaiah 53.
2:3a speaks of "the Lord in his teaching", then quotes from 1 Clement 13.
No clear knowledge of Jesus stories, except from scriptures.

Barnabas
Talks about Jesus' passion 5:2, 5:12, 13 ; but his sources are scripture - Isaiah 50 and 53 and Psalms 22 and 119.

Tertullian,
On the Flesh of Christ, Ch. 9
"As the case stood, however, it was actually the ordinary condition of His terrene flesh which made all things else about Him wonderful, as when they said, "Whence hath this man this wisdom and these mighty works?" Thus spake even they who despised His outward form. His body did not reach even to human beauty, to say nothing of heavenly glory. Had the prophets given us no information whatever concerning His ignoble appearance, His very sufferings and the very contumely He endured bespeak it all. "

That is -
even if the prophets [i.e. scriptures] had not told us he was physically ugly, we could still tell that was so from his sufferings.

Tertullian's source for Jesus' appearance is the scriptures (the prophets.)

Again in Against Marcion 3, 17 :
Let us compare with Scripture the rest of His dispensation. Whatever that poor despised body may be, because it was an object of touch and sight, it shall be my Christ, be He inglorious, be He ignoble, be He dishonoured; for such was it announced that He should be, both in bodily condition and aspect. Isaiah comes to our help again:
"We have announced (His way) before Him," says he; "He is like a servant, like a root in a dry ground; He hath no form nor comeliness; we saw Him, and He had neither form nor beauty; but His form was despised, marred above all men." Similarly the Father addressed the Son just before: "Inasmuch as many will be astonished at Thee, so also will Thy beauty be without glory from men,"


Isaiah is the source of his details about Jesus.


Origen vs Celsus.
They argue about the characteristics of Jesus - as derived from Isaiah and Psalm 45 (contra Celsum VI, 75)


In summary - many Christians make it clear that their source for Jesus' story is SCRIPTURE and/or personal revelation - not from any historical tradition from anyone who ever met Jesus


Kapyong

(Thanks to Earl Doherty for much of this list.)
 
Gday,

My apologies, that was indeed someone else.

Apology accepted.

AFTER?
How LONG after?
What is your EVIDENCE?

The evidence does NOT support your claim.
There is NO evidence that Constantine set the date to 25th December.
History records this belief as starting in 354 AD.
Your claim is wrong. But you can't admit it.

Haha!
What a joke ! Now you are reduced to bleating that there is no evidence AGAINST your claim !

The only one bleating is you my friend. :) You cannot prove when Christians began celebrating Christmas. But we know that it was practiced in 354 A.D. because there is a historical reference to the practice.

Reason would dictate that the 354 A.D. was not the first year Christmas was celebrated. Constantine's death occured in 337 A.D. And we do know that Constantine was a high priest and devotee of Sol Invictus as were many members of the Roman Army. And we do know that Sol Invictus has Celebrated the birth of the Sun God on December 25th...amazing coincidence don't you think?
Can you prove Constantine was NOT a space alien, joe?

When confronted with fact and reason you do the same things my Tea Party friends do, set up a strawman.

No one (yourself excepted) that Constantine was a space alien. Frankly, I could care less. It is not germaine to the subject at hand.
History does NOT work that way - you are essentially admitting you have NO evidence, but pretending you are still right!
What hogwash.
The evidence we DO have shows you are wrong.

No the evidence does not show that I am wrong. Did anyone document everything you did yesterday? I suspect not. Does that mean that yesterday did not happen? Of course not.

We use fact as we find it. And we use reason to make reasoned judgements to place context around fact, so that facts can become meaningful.
So joe - when is the FIRST evidence for a Sol Invictus holiday on December 25th?

Do you know the answer?
I doubt it.
The answer is : 354 AD !

Well it is obvious by your answer that you don't know it. Because you are wrong.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronography_of_354

The reference is the Chronography of 354 in which it lists both Christmas and the Sol Invictus celebration on December 25. Further, the existence of the Sol Invictus cult preceed 354 A.D. by more than a century. And is likely the morphing of other cults.

Bottom line, December 25th has been celebrated by pagans for a very long time before Christians started using the date to celebrate the birth of Christ. Prior to Constantine, there were many different dates used to celebrate the birth of Christ.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas
So, YOU claim Constantine set the birthdate of Jesus to December 25th to match the Sol Invictus holiday.

But -
There is NO evidence for a 25th December Sol Invictus holday until decades AFTER Constantine.
And -
there is NO evidence for Christians celebrating on December 25th until 354AD either !

But you never knew those facts, did you joe?
And now you can't admit it.

You have a serious emotional blockage about admitting error - common for internet believers.

I admitted my error above in attributing a post - it happens sometimes.

But when I pointed out YOUR errors - and your response is falsehoods and abuse.

I did NOT say you specifically HAD read The Da Vinci Code - I said books LIKE that because there are many such books and web sites - but you will never admit that will you? Because you are pathologically unable to admit ANY error.

You will continue to go on and on and on about that The Da Vince Code issue, you'll never ever admit I said books LIKE that. Because that would mean admitting you were wrong.

Nor will you ever admit you were wrong about Constantine.


K.

If I were wrong I would admit it. I suggest you read, "Constantine's Sword" written by James Carroll a former Catholic priest. Now the book is in excess of 400 pages and I am not going to take the time to go through it and list page numbers for your edification. If you care enough, which I doubt, you can read it.

http://www.jamescarroll.net/JAMESCARROLL.NET/Welcome.html
 
Quotes of thunder!

Jesus, J-Props as I liked to have called him. was 46 feet tall and strangled each and every dinosaur himself. Jesus fucked lots too, he fucked and he fucked until every thing was impregnated with the spice of life, till he was in fact the transglactic sperm donor of suicide we read about today in the bible.

followers of J-Props included Chuck, Steve, Paul, Jon, Ringo, and Mellisa Ethridge. His followers rarly faltured, besides one insident with Mellisa not being able to handle Jesus Man God Cock. The group regularly engaged in harmful orgies due to there intoxicating life style and practices as heavens gate baptists previous to becoming "J-Hoes" as Jesus would have liked to call them.

Roman Times life named him Man of the year every year till he died of a drug over dose in Afghanistan. he was also inducted into the hockey, rock and roll, and comedy halls of fame. Spreading Legs and words Jesus today still incites people to fuck with out condoms, get drunk on Sundays, Stone people we don't want to understand... and fuck young def boys (Mute ones next time eh Vatican?)

No, I think after finishing the bible when I was like ten, It's all a joke. Not the bible, many Christians still trying to finish the thing, quoting every bit of it out of context as if they watched god write it him self, that's the joke.

god didn't make Jesus we did (Well not fucking me) you still make him. Take a Sunday off, the worlds not going to fall apart if you don't get your creepy bed time stories read to you.
 
************
M*W: Jesus is a myth. It's all a myth. The good folks down at the local temple had been waiting for their messiah to come, so it was more simple and easy to just create the idea of the messiah right there in the first century AD. Then the catholic church created christianity from the myth. Myth begets myth. Also, Josephus may have played a part in the ruse to end all ruses. I say stop the guilt train and just enjoy opening your presents, cause that's what it's all about anyway.

I see, it makes sense.
 
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