Two articles
below:
1 A Brief History of Jesus
2 Response to "A Brief History of Jesus"
A BRIEF HISTORY OF JESUS CHRIST
(Investigator 159, 2014
November)
Jesus Christ was born 1st March, BC 7
• Jesus' brothers were James, Jose-Barnabas, Jude,
Simon, Joseph of Arimathea
• First wedding (trial marriage) to Mary Magdalene,
AD 30
• His daughter, Tamara, born Tuesday, September 1st,
AD 33
• Second wedding, again to Mary Magdalene, Thursday,
March 19th, AD 33
• 1st son, Jesus Justus, born June 1st, AD 37
• 2nd son, Jesus III, born April 10th, AD 44
• 3rd marriage to Lydiya, a female bishop on Tuesday,
March 17th, AD 50
• A daughter by Lydiya, born Tuesday, March 16, AD 51
• Paul marries Jesus' daughter, Tamara, on Wednesday,
March 27th, AD 54
• Paul and Tamara have a daughter on Sunday,
September 1st, AD 54, and Jesus at 60 years becomes a grandfather
• Jesus was alive and well at age 64 on March 7th, AD
58
• Jesus age 70 in AD 64 when Peter and Paul were
executed by Nero
• It is possible Jesus died of old age sometime after
AD 64
Jesus rising from the dead is a many times recycled story. 3000 years
before Jesus the Egyptian God Osiris did so, and 1000 years before
Osiris the saviour goddess Easter rose from the dead. Between these
there were dozens of others who rose from the dead.
Jesus' last appearance was at the Council of Ephesus in AD 70. He would
have been about 76 or 78 when he died. Not bad for someone supposed to
have died on the cross at 3pm on Friday 20th March, AD 33.
Jesus is reputed to be the illegitimate son of a Roman archer named
Pantera.
Jesus being of Nazareth is another lie, as Nazareth as a city did not
exist in the 1st to 4th centuries.
Other mythical persons who did not exist are Moses, David, Solomon,
Jacob, Abraham, King Saul, Isaac, Noah, Jonah (in the whale's belly).
There is some evidence that Jesus is based upon much older myths from
around the world, and was not a real person. Jesus was not mentioned by
any of the well known writers and historians of that time. The Jewish
historian and philosopher Philo-Judaeus (20 BC – 50 AD), living in
Jerusalem made no mention of Jesus. Philo said nothing, heard nothing
and wrote nothing of Jesus and his supposed wondrous works.
Josephus was born in AD 37 and was governor of Galilee. He wrote of
every event which occurred there during the first 70 years AD but not a
word about Jesus. One has to come to the conclusion that Jesus never
existed.
Brian De Kretser
Anula, Northern Territory
Australia
RESPONSE TO "A BRIEF HISTORY OF JESUS CHRIST"
Anonymous
(Investigator 161, 2015
March)
Mr De Kretser's "Brief History of Jesus Christ"
(#159) is almost a
repeat of his article in #147).
His list of events in Jesus' life is nowhere in the Bible. The only
correct item is the naming of some of Jesus' brothers (although "Joseph
of Arimathea" is mistaken).
None of the dates, marriages and sons of Jesus listed by De Kretser are
in the Bible. He has relied on Barbara Thiering who claims to find
"second meanings hidden below the words" and who was answered in
Investigator 148. By relying
on supposed "hidden meanings" we can make
"anything mean anything". Thiering's thesis has not been widely
accepted and most theologians don't accept it.
De Kretser has forgotten John H. Williams, another atheist who was
impressed with Thiering but who changed his mind. (#148—Where Is The
Story of Jesus?)
De Kretser also says Nazareth did not exist in the 1st century.
But Nazareth did exist! Its archaeological excavation by a team led by
Yardena Alexandre was reported in 2009. (See #131) Only about 50
impoverished Jewish families lived there in Jesus' time, making
Nazareth too insignificant for Josephus to mention.
The Bible, however, looks far into the future and mentions Nazareth
because in Nazareth lived Mary who would be known to all generations
(Luke 1:46-48) and the "Messiah" (Luke 1:32-33) whose teachings would
modernise the whole world.
I concluded in #131: "Critics who argue from the non-mention of
something [like the non-mention of Nazareth] to its non-existence,
obviously need to rethink their logic."
De Kretser, however, did not "rethink". After listing Jesus' alleged
marriages and children De Kretser then claimed Jesus never existed —
basing this on the non-mention of Jesus in the writings of Philo and
Josephus.
De Kretser again accepts
Jesus' existence by calling him the
"illegitimate son of a Roman archer named Pantera."
This illegitimacy claim was taught by Celsus a 2nd century Greek
agnostic who claimed Mary was an adulteress. Celsus wrote this in The
True Word (CE c.178). No surviving copy is known, but Origen (a
Christian apologist) quoted 75% of it in Contra Celsum (248 CE).
Since there are no known 1st century histories of Jesus' life besides
the Bible, Celsus probably got the "Panthera" story from Jewish sources
later added to the Talmud. The Talmud is: "a massive compilation
embodying the Mishnah (oral teaching) and Gemara (collections of
discussions on the Mishnah, formed during the fifth century CE."
(Hoffman 1984)
How worthwhile are Celsus' opinions? He wrote:
"Like
all
quacks they [Christians] gather a crowd of slaves, children, women and
idlers…
Jesus,
they say, was sent
to save sinners; was he not sent to help those who have kept themselves
free from sin? They pretend that God will save the unjust man if he
repents and humbles himself…
Why
cannot Christians
attach themselves to the great philosophic and political authorities of
the world?"
The
suggestion that Christians "attach themselves to … the world" when
Jesus said "You are not of this world" (John 15:18-19; 17:14-19)
demonstrates Celsus' partisan short-sightedness. "Babylon" in the
Bible book of Revelation apparently refers to Rome and the Romans
believed that Rome "will never see grief". (Revelation 18:7) But
Revelation predicted Babylon’s fall with "plagues" that will "come in a
single day". (Revelation 18:8)
That happened in 410 CE when according to Parade magazine:
"Alaric's Goths and mercenaries rode over bodies six feet deep."
Rome's philosophy, politics and Paganism faded away, but evidence
supporting the Scriptures is still increasing in the 21st century.
Celsus' worldview was flawed, proved stupid by subsequent history, and
his accusations against Mary, based on Jewish prejudice, equally
untrustworthy.
De Kretser also lists some Old Testament men who, he says, "did not
exist". Again De Kretser is wrong, because his list includes King David
who was confirmed by archaeology in 1994.
It's possible that the remains of King David's palace have also been
found — See #106.
Was the news of Jesus' resurrection recycled from a resuscitation story
about the Egyptian god Osiris — another De Krester claim? This claim is
as baseless as the claim that today's medical "miracles" are myths
based on Osiris. The New Testament writers did not quote Egyptian
hieroglyphics — they quoted the Old Testament which foretold a future
resurrection.
Finally, we can test the reliability of the New Testament by its
hundreds of testable and true statements including the names of about
150 places and people, plus statements about history, astronomy,
psychology, ethics and prophecy that are confirmed.
References:
Anonymous, Mary and Gabriel: A Meeting That Shaped History, Investigator
#121, July 2008)
Hoffman, R. J. 1984 Jesus Outside the Gospels, Prometheus, pp
37ff
Parade (magazine), June 1968, The Rape of Rome
Wikipedia: Jesus in the Talmud.