Jesus alternative-views religious views-human issues_Alternative Views of Jesus section updated 02/06/2017; updated 06/14/2016; updates 12/25/2016; 2021/01/11 History dot com “was jesus real” article and Huffington Post-2012/03/26 added to Start Here section  to top/menu ALTERNATIVE VIEWS ON JESUS AND CHRISTIANITY Various Resources Start here https //rationalwiki org/wiki/Jesus_myth_theory History dot com https://www.history.com/news/was-jesus-real-historical-evidence Some names in the article which seem to corroborate Jesus’ existence: Cornelius Tacitus, Flavius Josephus, Pliny the Younger, Suetonius Flavius lived closer to the time of Jesus, born shortly after Jesus’s death.  There are disputed passages in his testimony, and some of it seems to based on how the passage is interpreted.  Flavius was a Jewish military leader and historian who might have worked as a historian under three Roman emperors. Huffington Post 2012/03/26   The Archaeological Evidence For Jesus (PHOTOS) https://www.huffpost.com/entry/archaeological-evidence-for- jesus_b_1370995#:~:text=The%20archaeological%20evidence%20shows%20that%20Jesus%20grew%20up,columned %20street%2C%20but%20its%20inhabitants%20were%20observant%20Jews. Excerpt:  The archaeological evidence shows that Jesus grew up in a small village, Nazareth, about four miles from Sepphoris, a prominent city in the early first century C.E. This city had a Greco-Roman look, complete with paved, columned street, but its inhabitants were observant Jews. The evidence further shows that Nazareth was linked to a network of roads that accommodated travel and commerce. The quaint notion that Jesus grew up in rustic isolation has been laid to rest. The youthful Jesus may well have visited Sepphoris, whose theatre may have been the inspiration for his later mockery of religious hypocrites as play-actors. …We may have the name of Caiaphas, the name of the high priest who condemned Jesus, inscribed on an ossuary (bone box). Only one year ago it was reported that an ossuary has been found with the name of the priest’s granddaughter. A number of other priestly ossuaries and possibly even the burial chamber of the family of Annas, father-in-law of Caiaphas. Of great interest are several discoveries that have a bearing on the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. These include the skeletal remains of a man who had been crucified. (An iron spike is embedded in his right heel!) Despite his execution, his body was taken down from the cross and was properly buried, in accordance with Jewish custom. There is no reason to think that Jesus was treated any differently. His body was placed in a tomb, with the expectation that his bones later would be gathered and placed in his family’s tomb. The Easter discovery dramatically altered this expectation. Will there be more? I have no doubt. Just last week, a court in Israel concluded that there is no convincing evidence of fraud in the case of the ossuary bearing the inscription, “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” The debates and controversies will continue. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/archaeological-evidence-for- jesus_b_1370995#:~:text=The%20archaeological%20evidence%20shows%20that%20Jesus%20grew%20up,columned %20street%2C%20but%20its%20inhabitants%20were%20observant%20Jews. Resources listed on this page: David Fitzgerald (Nailed: Ten Christian Myths), G.A. Wells The Jesus Myth, Frank C. Newby (Jesus: Myth or Reality?), Britannica (on Lord’s Prayer), Jewish Encyclopedia, jdstone.org (Mithras), near-death.com,   truthbeknown.com,  PBS (What Can We Really Know About Jesus?), rationalrevolution.net,  gbgm-umc.org (Various Scrolls),  gnosis.org (Nag Hammadi),  loc-gov (Dead Sea Scrolls), edwardmd (Holy Horus) Books - Alternative Views on Christianity The Jesus Myth G. A. Wells Nailed: Ten Christian Myths That Show Jesus Never Existed at All David Fitzgerald (Oct 1, 2010) Jesus: Myth Or Reality? Frank C. Newby Excerpt - from Amazon notes as description of book (some grammar and other errors): Rarely are Christians allowed to look at their beliefs realistically. They listen to the preacher who has only one thought path. They go to the Christian bookstore which only allows one thought path and they believe because it is the path of least resistance and makes a person feel warm and welcomed within the confines of the closed circle. The good Christian is not allowed to question or doubt. They must accept without hesitation the dogma of the Church and avoid any other path. This book allows a look at the real world of fact and what the Church refuses to explore or discuss. The fact or possibility of a real human being called Jesus is very nebulous at best. There are in history, 16 crucified saviors who precede the man called Jesus and they all have the same biography. They all were of virgin birth, crucified and resurrected. They all were born in similar circumstances, a stable, a cave or in the wilderness. They date back into antiquity for several thousand years and they were just as revered and just as honored as the latest of their line, in the man called Jesus. This book traces the paths of how the religion which we so fervently believe in today. The Holy Bible which is the best selling book in the world is a collection of facts and writings out of ancient history. The 23rd Psalm is taken directly from the Egyptian "Book of the Dead." You cannot call yourself an educated and knowledgeable person until you have read and considered the wisdoms uncovered in this book. It makes no effort to convert or enlist. It is a collection of historical fact from which an educated thought process can ensue. If you are a religious person, you owe it to yourself to understand exactly what you have subscribed to. This book traces the evolution of the Christian religion to its present form. It is not new or radical, it is nothing more than a compilation of previous beliefs out of antiquity, taken out, polished up and presented in a new and compelling format. We will always have religion because it is an escape for the common man. It is also the cause of every conflict in which man slaughters his fellow man. Wars are fought over belief and the beliefs are at best nebulous and unprovable. Give yourself the chance to at least be exposed to the truths behind the story. It may make you think. The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family and the Birth of Christianity (2006) James Tabor On James Tabor: *James D. Tabor is Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and is Professor of Christian Origins and Ancient Judaism, with a focus on apocalyptic and millenarian modes of thinking (200 b.c.e. to 200 c.e.). He has combined his work on ancient texts with extensive field work in archaeology in Israel and Jordan, including work at Qumran, Sepphoris, Masada, Wadi el-Yabis, the “John the Baptist” cave at Suba, the “Tomb of the Shroud” at Akeldama, and most recently the Mount Zion excavation in Jerusalem. Among his published books are Things Unutterable: Paul's Ascent to Paradise and Its Greco-Roman, Judaic, and Early Christian Contexts (1985); A Noble Death: Suicide and Martyrdom among Christians and Jews in Antiquity (with Arthur J. Droge, 1992); Why Waco? Cults and the Battle for Religious Freedom in Amearic (with Eugene V. Gallagher, 1995); The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity (2006); and Restoring Abrahamic Faith (2008). He currently has two books in press, The Jesus Discovery (November 2011) and Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity (April 2012), both with Simon & Schuster. Is there a Jewish related conspiracy theory to think about: Jesus-oriented millennialists who are Christian fundamentalist-like in some ways, and who are purposely recreating events that once lead up to the Nazi take-over of Germany as well as their victimization during the Holocaust? These Jews might feel a non-disclosed link to Jesus (see James Tabor* and The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity - 2006).  Using a sense of destiny and self-importance,  as well as a Misery Loves Company orientation, are they showing Americans how the middle-class can rise up and kill a country and target “undesirables” out of a self-justification over unemployment and a sense of having an unfair share of the work burden in relationship to “non-producers”  just like happened in Germany before World War II.  This might be their way of saying “See?  It can happen to you Americans.”  In other words, by recreating these events, the Jews could show they were not stupid, inept or easy targets, it was not something about the Jews, it was not that they were weak.  It is a type of cruel revenge, in other words. To get a feeling for the middle class rising up against their countries across different time periods and groups, please see Schwartz in the Islamofascist section on this website; it is not just about Islam fascists, but fascism in general.  If this scenario about Zionist revenge is true, we can ask if Russian Jews are involved through Trump.  Veterans Today is one writer’s forum that has suggested Zionist bitterness of the sort that could play out in a number of subversive antics. Links - Alternative Views on Christianity Early and Pre-Christianity The Lord’s Prayer Encyclopedia Britannica’s version on the history of The Lord’s Prayer - also helps clarify Jesus’s connection with the prayer to early disciples.  The Lord’s Prayer has Jewish precedents. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/348087/Lords-Prayer Excellent historical review not only from a Jewish perspective but using good historical research and documentation http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10112-lord-s-prayer-the Mithras http://jdstone.org/cr/files/mithraschristianity.html http://www.near-death.com/experiences/origen048.html http://www.truthbeknown.com/mithra.htm Jesus Myth The real truth about religion and its origins. Holy Horus: The Jesus Origin Exposed. https://edwardmd.wordpress.com/2013/09/18/the-real-truth-about-religion-and-its-origins/ Retrieved 06/14/2016 Rational Revolution Jesus Myth http://rationalrevolution.net/articles/jesus_myth_history.htm https://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/outside2.stm Loc dot gov:  Dead Sea Scrolls http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/scrolls/late.html#scr2 GMCM-UMC:  Various Scrolls https://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/outside2.stm Gnosis:  Nag Hammadi http://gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html PBS What Can We Really Know About Jesus.  By Wayne A. Meeks (Biblical Studies Yale University) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/jesus/reallyknow.html Live Science 2012/10/19   Gospel of Jesus' Wife' Faces Authenticity Tests  By Jeanna Bryner https://www.livescience.com/24139-gospel-of-jesus-wife-faces-authenticity-tests.html 2013/03/12   Shape-Shifting Jesus Described in Ancient Egyptian Text.  By Owen Jarus https://www.livescience.com/27840-shape-shifting-jesus-ancient-text.html Independent 2020/04/17   New archaeological evidence from Nazareth reveals religious and political environment in era of Jesus Nazareth, once thought to have been a small village, likely to have been a town of around 1,000 people, new evidence suggests.  By David Keys https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/jesus-home-town-nazareth-archaeological-discovery-research- a9470716.html Excerpt:  It’s known that the people of Sepphoris, including much of its substantial Jewish population, led lives that were highly influenced by Greek and Roman culture. By contrast, the new evidence suggests very clearly that the people of Nazareth lived purely Jewish lives – and kept to all the major ritual laws.  The area seems to have been actively anti-Roman. In the year 4BC, an anti-Roman revolt is known to have broken out in the area – and rebels attacked the military arsenal and government treasury in the centre of nearby Sepphoris…One of the most significant revelations to have come out of Dr Dark’s investigation is the fact that the farmers of Nazareth seem to have had a prohibition on the use of human manure as a fertiliser, in contrast to the people of Sepphoris and potentially many other areas. Field surveys by the archaeologists have revealed that, about halfway between the two towns, there is an abrupt change in the agricultural strategy.  The discovery is significant because different Jewish groups took very different attitudes to human excrement. …Religious Jews of the first century AD believed that stone vessels were immune to ritual and spiritual impurity in a way that ceramic and wooden vessels were not.  So to keep themselves and their homes ritually clean, they often preferred to use stone vessels….Indeed, what are probably priestly tombs have been discovered by archaeologists in and around Nazareth. Remarkably, some of them were even equipped with extremely rare life-size glass versions of the goats’ horn musical instruments – the shofarot, or shofars, that had been used during religious services in the Temple in Jerusalem and which are still blown today during the two most important religious events of the Jewish calendar….but also with the fact that, in the mid-first or second century, it was chosen as the official residence of one of the high priests of the by-then-destroyed Temple in Jerusalem, when all 24 of those Jewish religious leaders were driven into exile in Galilee. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/jesus-home-town-nazareth-archaeological-discovery-research- a9470716.html

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