Who is Jesus?
========= The question “Who is Jesus?” or more accurately, “Who was Jesus?” is of vital interest to those people being pressurized to convert to the Christian religion by the various means Christians use.
Of the three Abrahamic religions, (Judaism, Muslim and Christianity) Christianity continues to be the most aggressive proselytizing religion to this day, having learnt nothing from its murderous, bloody past history. According to Dr. Albert Schweitzer, eminent theologian and doctor, the only thing unique about this biblical Jesus is that he preached the imminent coming of the ¡¥End of the World.¡¦ But this was also to be a ¡¥Final Judgment Day¡¦ on which God takes some chosen people up to a Christian ¡¥Heaven¡¦ but throws those remaining down into a Christian ¡¥Eternal Damnation¡¦ – a place of hell, or so the Bible tells. Even after 2000 years, many fanatical Christian sects (or religions?) still go from house to house in the remote areas of Sri Lanka preaching this same imminent ¡¥End of the World¡¦ and warning people of the dire consequences of not getting baptized.
Learned and committed (Protestant) Christians like Dr. Karl Barth, asks Christians to forget the historical Jesus because there is nothing about this man¡¦s life that is known as a certainty. Dr. Barth thinks that belief in an imaginary Jesus as taught by Church dogma should be sufficient for the purpose.
Two hundred and fifty years of painstaking research of reliable documents and archeological excavations by scholars of many nations using ingenious methods and all the disciplines available to science, has uncovered nothing to prove a factual life of any such Jesus. Dr. Karlheinz Deshner, author of the monumental work ¡§Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums¡¨ (2003) (The Criminal History of Christianity), offers us a summary of the facts acceptable to non-theological, secular historians. He says that it is easier to say what Jesus Christ WAS NOT than what he WAS. This summary of facts I have translated from his book, ¡¥Der Anti- Katechismus¡¦ published by Goldmann (1991) is for the benefit of the reader, as follows:
« Date, year and place of birth regarding a Biblical Jesus given us by pious tradition are historically untrue. Jesus was not born in Bethlehem . 25th of December. This date is of Pagan origin and was adopted and declared a holiday in the Roman Empire in the third century in honor of Solus Invictus, the Sun God. „
« Much earlier than Christianity was the age-old Pagan celebration of the Sun God, Mithras, Saviour of the Romans, being born to a virgin on the 25th of December in a cattle crib. Shepherds adored baby Mithras. He promised peace to the world only to be crucified later. He was resurrected at Easter and rose to Heaven. The claimed legend of Jesus seems almost identical with this original, ages-old Pagan legend. „
« Jesus, was not the child of a virgin, he was the issue of a marriage between a woman named Mary and a man named Joseph. Jesus of the scriptures, did not claim anything more than that. The cult of Mary which the Church developed and embraced later, required the manufacture of legends to embellish this story. The newly created goddess, Mary, could not be presented to the millions of adoring Catholic adulators as the widow of a mere carpenter. „
« That King Herod killed babies is not historically established. Roman records are reliable but no mention of this order to kill is to be found there, nor in the Jewish records. The flight of the carpenter with his wife and baby Jesus to Egypt , can only be mere legend. „
« That a real Jesus would remain unmarried is very doubtful. More likely he was methodically re-shaped in the early centuries to appear as a male virgin because any sexual liaisons by Jesus would have seemed wholly repugnant to a Church headed by celibate priests. „
« Reports of miracles attributed to a Biblical Jesus are undoubtedly pious embellishments attached to the hero-cult-figure of Jesus. Not a single doctrine or teaching that could be attributed specifically to Jesus exists. There is hardly a single word he says that cannot to be already found in the Jewish literature written well before his time. „
« A real Jesus would not have chosen a close circle of twelve apostles from among his believers. The ¡§twelve apostles¡¨ is a later construction and is indeed, a symbolic number. „
« The doctrine, ¡¥Love thy enemy¡¦, which has now been pushed to be the finest and most noble of his teachings, is not found in the earliest Christian texts but is mentioned frequently in the writings of Plato. „
« Biblical Jesus had not specifically claimed to be the Messiah of the Jews. He had not taken any of the many titles attributed to messiahs. To call himself ¡§Christ¡¨ or expecting others to call him so would have been alien to his way of thinking. Historically speaking, not a word is true of the messianic adulation as given in the Gospels. „
« The Passion story is pure legend, embellished and could never have taken place as the Gospels describe. This Jesus ¡¥Passion¡¦ had to fit the prophecy first made in the Old Testament with all details ¡§fulfilled¡¨ as predicted, and so, the text has been created accordingly. The authors of the Gospels had no authentic biographical details to go by. Paul is silent on the subject and there are no eyewitnesses. „
« The general assumption that Judas had betrayed Jesus is fictitious. Even if 91 per cent of the people questioned (in a1967 survey) said that they believed in the betrayal by Judas, this could not be historically true. „
« There are no historical records of a sensational trial of a man, Jesus, but hundreds of other condemnations and executions by Pontius Pilate were recorded. Contrary to what the Gospels report, the Roman High Officer was a strict judge, scrupulously following the legal procedures. However, it is a fact that a few years after the supposed death of Jesus, Pontius Pilate was indeed recalled to Rome on the protests of the Jews. „
« Supposing such a trial took place, in all probability the Jewish High Council would not have conducted it. – it would be likely that Pontius Pilate himself condemned Jesus to death. It was probably the Syrian legionaries who carried out the execution. The Gospels most unreasonably blame the Jews for the death of Christ simply to curry favor with Emperor Constantine. „
« The date of Biblical Jesus¡¦ death is uncertain. It is now assumed to be 7th of April of the year 30. A biblical Jesus of Nazareth, born seven years before the official date, would have been 37 years at the time of his death.
„« The exact place of such a crucifixion cannot be established. It cannot be the place where the Holy Sepulcher stands today. The claim by the mother of Emperor Constantine to have found Jesus¡¦ cross after 300 years cannot be true. Splinters of the ¡§true cross¡¨ displayed around the world are also all fakes. „
« It is absurd to state that such a Jesus voluntarily accepted death by crucifixion. Desire for death is totally alien to Jewish thinking. „
« Jesus of the Bible had not established a single ¡§sacrament¡¦ on his own. He did not baptize anybody. He had only taken a supper. He was totally unfamiliar with the Catholic Church¡¦s Holy Sacrament and certainly did not initiate this ceremony.
The New Testament as we have it in its present form, did not come into being until the second half of the fourth century. Christian leaders needed to have only one version of each book. These were decided upon by the eminent Bishops of the time at the Council of Nicaea (325 CE.) Final agreement was reached by having a vote of approval by these Bishops, who also decreed that all the dissenters present, hereafter be declared heretic from their own religion! Stories and legends regarding the life of Jesus were developed in step with the development and growth of the Catholic Church itself. These were the political and manipulative requirements of a triumphant world-conquering religion which demanded unity in one God, solidarity and uniformity within its domain; a religion the likes of which the world had never seen before.
Paganism – the old Greek and Roman philosophy and relaxed culture, which was the form of all the different popular religions before the arrival of Christianity – was outlawed and severely suppressed by this new religion. The first executions for ¡¥heresy¡¦ (!) started in 385 CE. Having dismissed and destroyed the fountain spring of European civilization, paganism, Europe descended into a most unhappy period of the most severe repression and stagnation imaginable – known as the European ¡§Dark Ages,¡¨ which endured for about 14 centuries.
B.A. Aryatilake, 30th May, 2004