Second thoughts regarding whether Jesus was an invention

I knew sooner or later something like this would surface up. I’m quite sure I’ll have more epiphanies (rejoices).

If (though the contents of his speech renders this unlikely) Jesus was really a cooked-up invention, how could this religion stand the test of time? (Arguably not too strong an argument because quite a number of other religions still survive, and as each religion treats itself more or less as the exclusive one – at least for the major monotheistic religions of the world), then…)

A second point is, if it were so, what about the historical evidences that support his actual being and living? Granted I have not looked carefully at these materials, but I know they exist.

Stuff I gleaned from ‘The Jesus I never knew’

Birth of Christ:
– That the salvation of mankind relied on two rural teenagers from a tiny unknown town in an obscure little land in the Middle East in the vast Roman empire, was a thing that caused author Philip Yancey to shudder. It does me too, quite.

– What did Jesus’ earthly grandparents think of Mary’s pregnancy?

– When he was born, what sort of treatment did Jesus get growing up in a small town Nazareth, where no doubt his name stinked because of the dubious conditions of his conception and birth?

– When Christ was born, Herod had decreed that every infant in Bethlehem and the surrounding regions who were 2 and below were to be executed. In secular history Herod is recorded as a despot under whom hardly a day went by without an execution. Jesus wasn’t born in peacetimes with the notable exception that Israel was under foreign rule, he was born in times where the political climate was not unlike that of Russia under Stalin. The thought of something all glorious choosing to make a trip to earth for the first time, choosing no other place and time but Stalin’s Russia and the gulags, leaves an unpleasant taste in my mouth.

– When would it get into my mind that Jesus was a refugee in Egypt in his infancy, and he lived in a colony torn by civil war, as in modern day parts of Africa?

– Perhaps rather comfortingly, I realise I’m not alone in having as my first language that which is not my mother tongue: Jesus spoke Aramaic, a language which is closely related to Arabic, reminder of the foreign subjucation of the Jews.

Was Jesus Christ an invented story?

Fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, please don’t be shocked.

I was reading Philip Yancey’s The Jesus I never knew and halfway through I was inspired to think along these lines.

Say you (or anyone else) would like to start a cult, or a make-it-big religion. What kind of saviour would you portray?

A superman sort? I doubt it. What about a sort of loser, someone who’s really good deep inside but no one knows, who is ridiculed, who says stupid nerd things that no one understands, and finally, all out of love for his people, sacrifices his life for them?

I actually think, from an objective view, that this is really a good plot for an up-and-coming religion. How many crowds of softies it would gather! If you think of it from a crudely marketing perspective, this is pure genius. If anyone would care to do a survey or study on religious followers, one most probably would come up with results that point to the fact that most religious people are in fact rather prone to things that touch the emotions, or prone to spiritual forces, or anything that feels like it. Think about the number of Christians who at one point or another said that they felt moved, or saw something, or heard something, or whatever, and that the surrounding circumstances pointed to something that matched the biblical records and so they believed it was an act of God, or it showed God’s will, or his existence, or something divinely-related. Ever heard of anyone that said ‘I surveyed nature and facts and the only reasonable inference that I can make is that Jesus Christ is Lord?’ My guess is, rare. These intellectuals are probably in a minority when it comes to faith. So, marketing-wise, to come up with something fluffy would seem to cater to the group that is most likely to end up religious.

If that is the case with the background, then what about the content? How likely is it that someone inventing a religion be able to come up with the words ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’ or ‘born again’? Or associate bread with ‘my flesh’ and wine with ‘my blood’? My guess here would be, not very likely. Perhaps you might wish to argue that in the Jewish religion and the countless prophecies about the coming Messiah, it was easy for anyone who wanted to invent Jesus to borrow these concepts and try to fulfil them in such a way, but how in such manner? It seems more than likely original.

Introduction to Lamentations

As I read I wonder what exactly I was reading two years past when I first read the bible all over. How can I forget that there are only 5 chapters to Lamentations?

Lamentations – chiastic structure for a lot of its 5 chapters. Most of it seemed to have been written in 22 verses per chapter, some were acrostic (each started with a hebrew letter of the alphabet all the way down the 22 verses). Apparently aids memorisation. As a past literature student I am impressed.

Author? Debatably Jeremiah, as tradition holds it, as the structural similarities and the content similarities seem to point towards. Also, the author of both Jeremiah and Lamentations would have to have witnessed the fall of Judah to Babylon, so Jeremiah seems a likely candidate.

Purpose of the book? To show the fulfilment of the rule in Deuteronomy that disobedience to God results in punishment. Whilst Job deals with personal suffering, Lamentations deals with national suffering. Dr Constable notes that the emphasis on the fact that the fall of Judah is occasioned by disobedience to God and is a result of divine judgment, adds a depth to the overall tragic feel of the book that would not have been had it just been a record of another defeat in war.

Yet despite the despair that clouds Lamentations due to the author seeing the event as a tragedy because of its taking the form of divine discipline, Lamentations is also a book of prayer, which becomes particularly fervent and noticeable in Chapter 5.

Introduction to Nehemiah

Interesting, Dr. Constable in his notes to Nehemiah holds that it was written by Nehemiah, somewhat contrary to one of the views that he mentioned in Ezra where the ancient traditions held that Nehemiah Ezra and Chronicles were written by one and the same person.

Nehemiah’s contents are about temple reconstruction, and the author himself, after learning of conditions in Jerusalem, took leave from Artaxerxes, whom he was second in control to, and went back to serve as Governor of Judah for 12 years (444-433 B.C.) whilst reconstructing the temple and at the same time helping to promote spiritual revivial in the returnees. He went back after the end of the 12 years (432 B.C.), but within a year probably went again to Judah to serve a second governmental term (431 B.C.). Perhaps what I can remember from this book was the fact that there was this archenemy of Nehemiah’s, Sanballat, who was the Governor of Samaria, who for some reason tried thwarting his plans to reconstruct so frequently, even trying to put discord between Artaxerxes’ group and Nehemiah, that Nehemiah had to employ some rather drastic measures (such as constant guard of the city during construction) in order to prevent his attacks.

The historicity of the book is established by the discovery of the Elephantine papyrii, which, inter alia, mentioned that Nehemiah ceased to be governor of Judah by 409 B.C.

The content of Nehemiah is claimed to be more civil and secular than that of Ezra, but it is also written from a priestly point of view.

Introduction to Ezra

Most hold that Ezra’s author was Ezra himself, due to ancient traditions that held that Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles were written by the same writer. Another popular view is that Ezra and Nehemiah wrote the books that bore their name. Most people hold that Ezra preceded Nehemiah (ito of the authors’ age and the contents of their book), although there exists a minority view that Ezra was after Nehemiah.

Ezra’s subject is much like that of Chronicles and Nehemiah: that salvation from the Israelites’ bondage in a foreign land was possible, but it had to be through spiritual revival in the Lord. Historically, Ezra covers the church restoration period when the Israelites were under submission to Babylonian and Persian rule, sometime in the 5th-6th century B.C. Most of the action happens in 515-538 B.C. (Ezra 1-6) and then in 458 B.C. (Ezra 7), whilst the middle period that is unrecorded in Ezra appears in Esther.

Ezra and Nehemiah correlated to the Vulgate Esdras I and Estras II, Septuagint Esdras Gamma and Esdras Beta, respectively. Apocryphal books 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras correspond to Esdras III and Esdras IV, and Esdras Alpha for 1 Esdras.

Introduction to Chronicles

The authorship of Chronicles is not certain, but some attribute it to Ezra. Quite a substantial number of people believed Ezra wrote Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles.

Chronicles is history, somewhat like Deutoronomy in this aspect, and also has somewhat of a new testament equivalence in John (although I’m not really sure why and how). It tries to bring a theological message about faith is victory and departure from God is destruction through a historic narrative.

Chronicles also covers a lot of material from Kings, fully 50 percent. Its title means ‘things omitted’ (the Septuagint), or ‘things that were missed’ (the Hebrew) which refers to the material that it provides which were missing from Kings and the other historic narratives.

Introduction to Judges

Source: Dr Constable’s notes on Judges at http://www.soniclight.com/constable/notes/pdf/judges.pdf.

Date and writer: Probably Samuel, since at the time that Judges was probably written he played an instrumental part in leading the people. The book was probably written during early monastic years just after the period of Judges, because there are many references to the past ‘in those days (without a king)’.

Purpose: many and varied responses.

Outline:
– reasons for Israel’s apostasy
– Israel’s conduct and Yahweh’s treatment of Israel
– Results of Israel’s apostasy (6 phases plus the end immorality part)

Joy in the Bible

For all the down-hearted, mildly depressed christians out there: don’t lose heart! Do a search on biblegateway for ‘joy’ in the Bible, and think about what all the quotes mean. Do read in context too.

Some quotes on ‘joy’:

Deuteronomy 16:15
“For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.”
1 Chronicles 16:27
“Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and joy in his dwelling place.”
Nehemiah 8:10
“Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
Esther 8:17
“In every province and in every city, wherever the edict of the king went, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating.”
Esther 9:20-22
“20 Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far, 21 to have them celebrate annually the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar 22 as the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration.”
Psalm 4:6
“You have filled my heart with greater joy
than when their grain and new wine abound.”
Psalm 5:11
“But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy.”
Psalm 51:12
“Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”
Psalm 94:19
“When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.”
Psalm 126: 5-6
“5 Those who sow in tears
will reap with songs of joy.
6 He who goes out weeping,
carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
carrying sheaves with him.”
Psalm 149:4-6
“ 4 For the LORD takes delight in his people;
he crowns the humble with salvation.
5 Let the saints rejoice in this honor
and sing for joy on their beds.”