Bible scholar: New Testament books and letters bogus
Some 80 years after lawyer Joseph Wheless wrote his classic Forgery in Christianity, it seems some – or at least one – mainstream scholars are catching up to the fact that the New Testament is not what it appears to be and what hundreds of millions have been taught around the world for the past 2,000 or so years.
Published in 1930, Wheless’s work – which was a major influence on my own after I found it on a bookshelf some 20 years ago – essentially consists of quoting the authoritative Catholic Encyclopedia‘s admissions against interest about the New Testament books and epistles, as well as the writings of the early Church fathers. Although the Catholic Encyclopedia (“CE”) does not go so far as to admit that Christianity itself is forged, its editors were fairly honest in their scholarly analyses of some of the individual texts. Obviously, in order to maintain the party line and their vocations, CE editors couldn’t go so far as New Testament scholar Dr. Bart Ehrman has done in his new book Forged: Writing in the Name of God, but even he doesn’t go as far as Wheless did, which was to call the entire gospel tale into question, including the very historicity of its main character, Jesus Christ.
Yet, Ehrman’s hat in the ring of scholarship basically proving textual forgery is a step in the right direction. If one truly studies the literature from the Mythicist School beginning at the latest in the 18th century, one will find as much merit in it as in this “new” analysis of many New Testament texts as forged. It’s just a very small step, really, when one realizes how much of the NT is bogus and how little credible, scientific evidence exists that the gospel tale actually took place when and where claimed or that its main characters were even “historical.”
The Christ Conspiracy
In 1999, my mythicist book The Christ Conspiracy was published, detailing the same research, which, again, actually dates back several centuries, the reason the CE wrote about it. In Christ Con – which has been read by tens of thousands over the past decade+ since its release – I included a chapter entitled, “The Holy Forgery Mill,” in which I stated (24):
From the very beginning of our quest to unravel the Christ conspiracy, we encounter suspicious territory, as we look back in time and discover that the real foundation of Christianity appears nothing like the image provided by the clergy and mainstream authorities.
I went on to describe the atmosphere of fraud that pervaded the founding of the Christian religion, including wholesale forgery of numerous texts, such as not only the “apocryphal” or noncanonical writings but also many of the canonical New Testament books themselves. I quoted Wheless (94) thus:
The gospels are all priestly forgeries over a century after their pretended dates.
I then proceeded to provide numerous proofs of this statement, as well as evidence showing that other canonical texts such as several “Pauline” epistles were known not to have emanated from the apostle’s own hand, such as the three “Pastorals” or epistles to Timothy and Titus, as well as Hebrews. The supposed authorship of the books of Acts and Revelation is likewise highly questionable, despite claims to the contrary, as these texts also do not appear in the literary record until the last half of the second century, neither quoted nor noticed at all by any Christian or other writer before that time. I further included the opinion that the epistles of James, John and Peter were likewise bogus, appearing in the literary/historical record decades after their purported dates and so patently forged in the name of the apostles in order to give authority to doctrines and positions that did not even exist until the second century.
To reiterate, none of this scholarship is new; it’s just the typical catch-up game being played by somewhat mainstream academics following on the heels of “radicals” and laymen, although many of the pioneers in this field of Bible criticism have been professional theologians and New Testament scholars, as my copious quoting reveals.
Since the publication of The Christ Conspiracy, I have written several more books with expanded scholarship demonstrating this contention concerning the forged books of the New Testament, including Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled, Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ and Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection. Needless to say, none of the points made by Ehrman is new to me and, while his details may differ, all of them can be found in my books, published years ago.
“There were a lot of people in the ancient world who thought that lying could serve a greater good,” says Ehrman
Ehrman’s contention of rampant lying in antiquity is precisely correct, especially as concerns Christianity, a fact I demonstrate repeatedly in The Christ Conspiracy. Indeed, such fraud is the Christ conspiracy, extending not just to the Christian texts but also to the gospel tale itself, which is clearly based largely upon the myths and sayings of pre-Christian cultures such as the Greek, Roman, Egyptian, European and Indian. This latter contention I also demonstrate in my books and articles revealing numerous mythical motifs that were worked into the gospel story, along with Old Testament “messianic prophecies” that were used as blueprints in the creation of the Christ myth.
Needless to say, with all the heat I’ve taken over the past 15+ years online since I began publishing my mythicist articles, including and especially “The Origins of Christianity,” which began this entire endeavor, it’s good to see mainstream scholarship finally catching up and exposing the truth. Now, if professional scholars can just take that last little step onto the solid ground of recognizing the gospel story as fiction rather than history, we will all be better off.
Half of New Testament forged, Bible scholar says
A frail man sits in chains inside a dank, cold prison cell. He has escaped death before but now realizes that his execution is drawing near.
“I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come,” the man – the Apostle Paul – says in the Bible’s 2 Timothy. “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.”
The passage is one of the most dramatic scenes in the New Testament. Paul, the most prolific New Testament author, is saying goodbye from a Roman prison cell before being beheaded. His goodbye veers from loneliness to defiance and, finally, to joy.
There’s one just one problem – Paul didn’t write those words. In fact, virtually half the New Testament was written by impostors taking on the names of apostles like Paul. At least according to Bart D. Ehrman, a renowned biblical scholar, who makes the charges in his new book “Forged.”
“There were a lot of people in the ancient world who thought that lying could serve a greater good,” says Ehrman, an expert on ancient biblical manuscripts.In “Forged,” Ehrman claims that:
* At least 11 of the 27 New Testament books are forgeries.
* The New Testament books attributed to Jesus’ disciples could not have been written by them because they were illiterate.
* Many of the New Testament’s forgeries were manufactured by early Christian leaders trying to settle theological feuds.
Were Jesus’ disciples ‘illiterate peasants?’
Ehrman’s book, like many of his previous ones, is already generating backlash. Ben Witherington, a New Testament scholar, has written a lengthy online critique of “Forged.”…
Will the real Paul stand up? Ehrman reserves most of his scrutiny for the writings of Paul, which make up the bulk of the New Testament. He says that only about half of the New Testament letters attributed to Paul – 7 of 13 – were actually written by him.
Paul’s remaining books are forgeries, Ehrman says. His proof: inconsistencies in the language, choice of words and blatant contradiction in doctrine.
For example, Ehrman says the book of Ephesians doesn’t conform to Paul’s distinctive Greek writing style. He says Paul wrote in short, pointed sentences while Ephesians is full of long Greek sentences (the opening sentence of thanksgiving in Ephesians unfurls a sentence that winds through 12 verses, he says).
“There’s nothing wrong with extremely long sentences in Greek; it just isn’t the way Paul wrote. It’s like Mark Twain and William Faulkner; they both wrote correctly, but you would never mistake the one for the other,” Ehrman writes.
The scholar also points to a famous passage in 1 Corinthians in which Paul is recorded as saying that women should be “silent” in churches and that “if they wish to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home.”
Only three chapters earlier, in the same book, Paul is urging women who pray and prophesy in church to cover their heads with veils, Ehrman says: “If they were allowed to speak in chapter 11, how could they be told not to speak in chapter 14?”
Why people forged
Forgers often did their work because they were trying to settle early church disputes, Ehrman says. The early church was embroiled in conflict – people argued over the treatment of women, leadership and relations between masters and slaves, he says.
“There was competition among different groups of Christians about what to believe and each of these groups wanted to have authority to back up their views,” he says. “If you were a nobody, you wouldn’t sign your own name to your treatise. You would sign Peter or John.”
So people claiming to be Peter and John – and all sorts of people who claimed to know Jesus – went into publishing overdrive. Ehrman estimates that there were about 100 forgeries created in the name of Jesus’ inner-circle during the first four centuries of the church.
Witherington concedes that fabrications and forgeries floated around the earliest Christian communities….
Ehrman, of course, has another point of view. “Forged” will help people accept something that it took him a long time to accept, says the author, a former fundamentalist who is now an agnostic.
The New Testament wasn’t written by the finger of God, he says – it has human fingerprints all over its pages.
“I’m not saying people should throw it out or it’s not theologically fruitful,” Ehrman says. “I’m saying that by realizing it contains so many forgeries, it shows that it’s a very human book, down to the fact that some authors lied about who they were.”
68 thoughts on “Bible scholar: New Testament books and letters bogus”
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The role of Judaism?
I read an essay by Barbara Aho a few years ago that suggested Jews played a major role in the formation of the Christian religion. She points out numerous similarities between the two religions, especially when comparing Torah Judaism (as opposed to Rabbinical) with the Roman Catholic church. I wonder whether these same persons had a hand in crafting the New Testament?
The role of Judaism?
Is this an ‘Aha’ moment? Aho has suggested “Jews played a major role in the formation of the Christian religion” ….. is this a serious statement or jest? Jesus was a Jew, the 12 disciples were Jewish, so was Saul/Paul……. the whole enchilada is Jewish! and more power to it for that. But the question is, what kind of Judaism? Read David Segal’s works and you will see that Paul is an early example of Jewish mysticism, which later morphed into Kabbalism.
Meanwhile, Roman and Greek converts who didn’t like the mystical elements, took the whole story to be literal history and so we’ve ended up with the pot pourri of conflicts we see today. The Nag Hammadi texts ought to be taken more as ‘gospel’ than they are.
A B Kuhn’s ‘Shadow of the Third Century’ should put things into perspective for the interested.
Jews?
Of course Jews played a major role. Jesus was a Jew. They are the people he came to, his lineage and they are the people He intended to spread his word through!
Acharya,
Reading the essays by Gerald Massey and he writes of a Paul who was a Gnostic. Massey makes the case that PauL’s message was rewritten after his death to make it seem as if he believed in an historical Christ, when in fact he never made such a claim.
Massey also makes the Egyptian connection as the most paramount of the influences on the New Testament.
Warmest Regards
Phil
Women speaking in church
I don’t believe there are contradictions as much as misunderstandings. For example, telling women to prophesy and pray is different than telling wives not to teach. You might look into the Orthodox faith to see that our leadership readily admit that the true author of some of the books are in question. I can see you are searching and pray that the Holy Spirit will bathe your heart with the truth of the knowledge of the one true Diety
Church and the Bible
It’s not just the Orthodox church, all but some of the American denominations openly admit, some authors and quotes may have been changed. But the message or the point remains; The Bible ought to be taken seriously, but not literary.
Huh?
I assume that you meant to say, “the Bible ought to be taken seriously, but not literally.” – You wrote “but not literary.” Just checking.
“There were a lot of people in the ancient world who thought that lying could serve a greater good,”
In the “ancient” world? Things in this modern world have only gotten worse!
But, seriously, I’m surprised that this is the least bit controversial. The Bible has never passed the smell test.
Who has been debunked?
Mr. Friedrich,
Ms. Murdoch is presenting us with many years of research into Christianity. She presents facts through research not faith as you apparently are. I am going to suppose that you believe the bible literally. You apparently haven’t read Ms Murdoch’s books as they are purely research, not faith that her point of view is correct. She certainly hasn’t been debunked nor has Mr. Ehrman. I see no call to slam either one of them as you have. We fought to live in a country where we could express these opinions not like the middle east countries that are ruled by their religions. Religion is a very dangerous game, controlled by a few to lead many by their supposed faith in what they tell you to believe. I don’t always agree with what Ms Murdoch says, but I certainly respect her right to agree or disagree with Mr. Ehrman without being slammed.
It’s even WORSE than you ‘think’…
Paul turned the Teaching of Jesus upside down through the doctrine of “vicarious atonement” and the pagan-Egyptian, metaphysical [u]doctrine[/u] of the raising of a dead physical body from the grave; when Jesus taught the Doctrine of “resurrection” as a Doctrine of ‘Rebirth’; hence the conflict with both the Sadducees & the Pharisees in the first place.
ONE consequence of this ONE Doctrinal error was the extermination of tens of thousands of Albigensians.
A second consequence was the Holocaust.
Until
your race or culture has had 120,000,000 children, women and men like the Aboriginal American Indians had genocide you have no Holocaust to claim. No race, not even the Jew race can claim the murder and destruction that the American Indians from the Southern tip of Patagonia to the Northern Slopes of the Arctic have endured. They alone should be the ones to receive revenge; forgiveness is their way. We will learn this lesson soon.
good scholarly debate!
You mention Ben Witherington, but only briefly. I think it would be fair to link to his critique, so your readers can make some judgments for themselves.
http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/2006/03/misanalyzing-text-criticism-bart.html
I think the same group created both religions and Islam also. It’s part of the Great Work of Ages dating back thousands of years and continuing today. Discovering who this group is, their motivation, and the end result of this Great Work is the primary mystery for people of our time.
To RS
Yes the same group of Jews created and twisted the Moslem doctrine. But the Iranians also had a hand in the crafting of the present Moslem religion, re Zoarostriasm.
This too.
I would say that because this article used so many quotes and inferences to other articles, that it is nothing but a forgery. It is also nothing more than a untrustworthy shortening of another book that was written 80 years before, so it must be an article full of falsehood.
Wow. That’s one of the most ridiculous and nonsensical comments I’ve ever seen anywhere.
Not just the new testament!
Not only the New testament! Take a close look at the book of Genesis and you will realize that is has been grossly mistranslated. Genesis is clearly not the story of creation it made out to be.
Ehrman debunked
What a long diatribe on alleged “forgeries” – but not a single, valid example of them.
Oh wait, there is just one, the only so-called „proof” is 1 Cor., chapters 11 and 14, regarding woman.
Let’s examine the quality of Mr Ehrman’s (who pays him?) “findings”:
Quote:”The scholar also points to a famous passage in 1 Corinthians in which Paul is recorded as saying that women should be “silent” in churches and that “if they wish to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home.”
Only three chapters earlier, in the same book, Paul is urging women who pray and prophesy in church to cover their heads with veils, Ehrman says: “If they were allowed to speak in chapter 11, how could they be told not to speak in chapter 14?””
The answer is simple: the verse in chapter 11 is a general statement, while chapter 14 refers to life in a church!
Nowhere is Paul “urging” woman to pray and prophesy in church! A blatant lie and forgery by Bart D Ehrman.
The truth in detail: verse 1 Cor. 11:5 does not speak of “churches”, and not of “silent”, and does not contain the word „speak“ either!. It merely says that woman should cover their heads when praying and prophesying. The words ‘church’, ‘speak’ and ‘silent’ simply do not appear in that verse, or the verses in its context.
Then Ehrman mentiones chapter 14; he probably refers to verses 1 Cor. 14:34,35: both verses speak of recommended behavior in a church, where woman should be silent. The greek word for speak also means preaching, but is a totally different word than praying or prophesying!
So where should be any contradiction there?
And you tell me that such a “scholar”, who is unable to understand even simple verses, would be capable of finding “inconsistencies” in the language of Pauls writings?
Mr Ehrman is an other example of someone who went out to debunk the Bible – but failed; in fact he debunked himself and you.
“Science-so called” said Paul, when he categorized such “scholars”!
Thank you!
Your work is incredibly important! I just wish we could have had this information prior to the millions of deaths attributable to Christianity.
this is just more bovine scatoligy trumpeted by christian hateing jews,
you are filled with hatred and jealousy because you through away your birth right as the chosen of GOD so many times that it was given to another people who have excepted him whole heartedly!!! the CHRISTIANS are GODS chosen people now!!! and we will not relinquish our birth right to anyone esua.
Stand Strong
Stand strong you readers who pray and feel Christ’s presense. Let this article and related ones not change your faith. One is either saved or is not saved. In the end, we shall all face either heaven or hell. The name of the author of that article pretty well says it all. Enjoy.
The Truth about Jesus Christ
The christian movement was a jewish movement, and most true christians never called themselves such. They were jews who were following their Messiah. This is why when you go to such countries as Ireland where many Jews fled during the Roman occupation, you will find the staunchest of Jesus followers to this day.
The sad truth is that the Illuminati follow Lucifer and are trying to destroy the historic person known as jesus Ben Joseph. They pay people lots of money to subvert and destroy any real physical evidence of the man we know as Jesus Christ.
But no matter what they do they will not dethrone him. He is higher than Lucifer who only waves a carrot on a string linked to an axe.
The truth is the Loyalty for Lucifer is misplaced by the Illuminati who only have Sodomy to fall back on. Soon that too will be gone, because “men shall seek death and shall not find it.”
New Testament
There is a certain cult that cannot stand the truth. They live by decepton.
Silent?
Any “scholar” who does not know the definition of the word Silent in the original koine should not be writing books.
Scholar?
Just like clockwork, someone crawls out of the woodwork to remake long-discredited and worn-out claims regarding the authenticity of the one book placed under more scholarly scrutiny than any other book in the world.
And what do we find? A typical indefatigable zealot with a mile-wide chip on his shoulder, spouting ideas that wouldn’t pass scrutiny in a college freshman’s incoherent ramblings.
Why do people publish this drivel? Is there no education among editors? Or is it just fun to make fun of those gullible folk who will for a moment have their already weak faith shaken?
sheesh
“Or is it just fun to make fun of those gullible folk who will for a moment have their already weak faith shaken?”
Yeah, thanks for admitting that anyone who would believe the gospel story is gullible.
Sorry, but the burden of proof lies with those making ridiculous claims, like a Jewish guy being God and rising from the dead, and if anyone is spouting “incoherent ramblings,” it’s those who believe these ridiculous claims.
Faith?
“Faith” is believing in something for which there is no supporting evidence (Hebrews 11:1). Enough said.
Tony the Tiger says:
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The comfort of proud ignorance
The bible, and particularly the NT is a mishmash of poetry, political propaganda, grandiose ravings, polemical forgeries, plagiarized myths and other rubbish selected mostly in the 4th century AD by the spin-doctors of the Roman emperors (Constantine to Theodosius), for blatant political reasons. The poetry may be worth saving, the rest belongs to archeology: a heap of quasi-literary sherds that may help us understand partly times and ways of a distant past. At best it can help us understand how mythologies emerge and grow, and guard against believing them as material-historical truths. Let’s grow up a little, from collective 7year olds to say collective 12 year olds. Father Chrismas/Santa, the fairies, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Puss’n boots all belong to the gallery of metaphorical/mythological characters that may have some use, at some time, in some place, but physicallly-materially-historically the evidence for their existence is nil. The good thing is, it does not matter, as long a their stories, are interpreted to promote love, truth, freedom and beauty. But they are only stories, each with its own history of obscure authorship,fabrication, palgiarism, rewriting etc. We can chose to be emotionally immature, intellectually lazy and spiritually cowardly and believe them as ‘really really true’ or we can grow up courageously and thoughtfully and recognise that they are part of our cultural bagage, and treat it as such. Unfortunately, I fear we, as a whole, will chose not to grow up and continue on our destructive, deluded, cowardly and blinkered merry way. Amen!
AMEN!
Christianity is nothing but an ancient game of telephone gone horribly wrong.
Religious apologists are running out of excuses, and they know it. :woohoo:
Robbo
I don’t know what motivates people still trying to disprove the divinity of Christ. Christianity is not a controlling anyones life. Why flog a dead horse? It is right to make the distinction between the religion and the knowledge from which the religion is supposed to be derived but non-believers seem to ignore the most salient pieces of information and as a consequence, shoot themselves in the foot.
Jesus is not a religion – true, because, in the words of our Lord, He is the Truth. Truth is not religion, which is simply the teachings of man, it is reality; it is existance. Those who seek to discredit Jesus would do well to consider the spirit that directs and motivates them. Try as they may, they can never destroy the truth. They may succeed in concealing it from the unsuspecting but destroy it? Never!
If you are seeking the truth then, whether you realise it or not, you are seeking Jesus. He is the truth, the light and the way. If you don’t know Jesus then you cannot know the truth, it’s as simple as that. Discredit Jesus and you discredit the veracity of your own argument.
A telephone game nothing more.
The Placebo Effect
The problem is not the truth of what your saying but the fact that the Religious or specifically the Christians have been persuaded that like the magician, the new testament is magic. They have been overtaken by the “placebo effect” that the magic imposes on them. Sometimes when faced with the truth that their faith is really a placebo they tend to have an increased placebo response with stronger and stronger convictions. Telling them the truth about their illusions only perpetuates the placebo effect. Are they better off drowning in their own convictions?
Read Ehrman’s books
This article doesn’t do the subject, or author, justice. Read his books and, if you react like I did, you will be amazed at how many holes and contradictions and errors and manipulations the Bible contains. And the priests know it. Anyone who thinks that they can take the Bible literally to support a point is sadly mistaken. The New Testament has some good advice in it, so if it helps you find a reason to behave better then that’s great. But telling people when the “Last Days” will be, or that people will be lifted up to Heaven in the “Rapture” without dying, etc. is ignorant and completely without merit. Read Ehrman so you can understand the book, if it is important to you.
Church of Smyrna
While stationed in Izmir, Turkey in the late 60’s and early 70’s my family attended church services at the church built on the original site of the Church of Smyrna that “Paul” claims to have visited. An orthodox Eastern Rite church that proudly boasts of being the oldest continous service in Christianity. Including several periods where Mass was celebrated at the ruins following its destruction. The priests do not hide the fact that it was founded in the early 4th century, in fact, it is written on the facade.
Add to this the history of the church at Ephesus was originally ascribed to a man named John (Simeon in greek), unrelated to any of the Biblical Johns, but a rather an important figure in pre-christian history. His tomb is on the church grounds, all just ruins now.
Archeology does not disprove the existance of early Christianity in some form but it does raise questions about the modern tradition.
The two main players in the christian creation of
I have a problem with these socalled scholars since they continue to ignore telling people that the “risen” Christ originally was James the Just, and the executed samaritan prophet Joshua/Jesus are two of the main players in the christian game of constructing their fictional character Jesus Christ.
Josephus tells the real story of Joshua/Jesus in his Antiquities of the Jews – Book XVIII, chapter four. It´s just mindboggling how scholars choose to ignore this evidence and focus on the Eusebian forgery in the chapter before.
James the Just has been converrted into the brother of Jesus in christian mythology but in real life he was the leader of a sect often called the essenes [which also can be identified as the sicarii]. The story of his “death and resurrection”, which involves Paul in the role as his opponent, took place somehere around the year 25-26. He was finally executed by the priest Ananus on the accusation of heresy in the year 62.
Who aren´t we told this by the scholars? I guess ít´s all about the money.
What if Jesus was real? It would upset a whole lot of people. Like it says in the bible Satan will have people trying to convince the world HE never existed. Be careful of what you read and believe. For only through HIM will you find salvatiuon.
Wrong!
You really should try harder. Your ignorance is showing. Paul told how to solve a problem in one church with the women interrupting what was going on. Thats all. That the problem didn’t exist in another church he could refine practices in another by giving advise about women’s role in the congregation.
Your scholarly work is lacking greatly.
Repackaged mythology
The whole argument is somewhat superfluous after acknowledging that the whole of the Jesus character is mythology. If there ever was a flesh and blood person in history named Jesus, we know absolutely nothing about him.
From the father-god and mortal-mother myth, to the celestial announcement of his birth myth, to the scapegoat myth, to the human sacrifice myth, etc.; all we know about Jesus is repackaged mythology.
Of what importance is it, that half of the NT is forged, when the total is plagiarism?
re David-the role of Judaism
a Rabbi’s wife once told me that Saul/Paul was a hero to the Jesus because he made a new religion for the followers of Jesus and his so called conversion was like a spy working in deep cover. I cannot say this is true or not. But does tend to lead to credence that it was not Jesus who started the religion that diefied him. Another thing that does is that by Jewish law one cannot say the exact same things as someone else when testifying in a court of law or you are found in agreement with them, The New Testament quoting of the words of Jesus fell under the laws about giving false testimony and lies and being in agreement with another person’s “sin” according to my friend who as well as being a rabbi’s wife was a biblical and historical scholar and student of Judaism. I asked a couple of Rabbi’s and they confirmed the theory
Lying a Way of Life for Ruling Class
LocalHero, you got it right! Ruling classes down through the ages have always felt there was a “higher truth,” the service of their own power. This required convenient “white lies.” Just as lying to an enemy in war is not considered a sin, lying to the lower classes of slaves and subjects has never been considered a sin by the rich and powerful. They have always been at war with the people. This is just as true today as ever. It is a form of tribalism — always considering anyone outside their class as outside their moral obligations when the vital interests of the ruling classes could be threatened. That this always rebounds against the ruling class itself is a fact which takes second place in the class war. We see this today in the endless efforts of the owners of the mass media and the virtual rulers of the educational institutions to dumb us down with reference to any social/political reality. (They are also the virtual “owners” of most, if not all, of our politicians).
“Illiterate Disciples”? Seriously?
[b]”The New Testament books attributed to Jesus’ disciples could not have been written by them because they were illiterate.”[/b]
…Seriously? This statement is absolutely ridiculuos. One does not need to be literate in order to “write.” One only needs to be able to speak, and have someone transcribe it for them.
Matthew was a tax collector, who was, by necessity, literate, as he worked with words and numbers all the time.
Luke was a physcian and most certainly literate.
Mark was Peter’s secretary. While Peter was possibly illiterate, he dictated his account to Mark, who transcribed it.
John, a fisherman, was also possibly illiterate. However, this does not preclude him dictacting his account for someone else to transcribe. Also, John was not martyred and lived a long life. Illiteracy is a condition that can be remedied at any age as long as one still has the mental capability and eyesight. John looked after Mary after the Lord’s death, and had alot of time to learn how to read and write during these years.
Paul was a Pharisee who was most certainly literate.
P.S.
“Fisherman” at that time was actually an “upper-class” occupation, that could afford private tutors. Andrew, Peter’s brother, was the first apostle and a disciple of St. John the Baptist. He appears to have been literate and well versed with Jewish scripture. Therefore, it is not a stretch that his brother, Peter, was also literate.
Traditional Catholicism is based on faith. Faith passed on, and verified through Holy Pontiffs and Sacred Councils, except, of course, Vatican II, a modernist council of Satan-Period! Catholics must return to Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. In these end times, fools like agnostics, abound, pretendiing to be scholars of christian thought, but are simply followers of Satan’s lies-The Father of lies. See you at judgment day.
TRUTH at it’s truest form
DM Murdock does it again
Mental Gymnastics:
[img]http://i52.tinypic.com/tahu6c.jpg[/img]
Ok, so who pays you people NWO, Illuminati, Zionists or communists to write such garbage and you even dare to call yourself scholar. Is this a joke? Oh I forgot one, probably you jumped down from the tree as the real descendant of monkeys, do not forget to return there. This is what NWO, Illuminati and Zionists want people to believe, that they are monkeys, you serve them well. Problem is that doing so you condemn yourself. Sorry for you.
new testament bogus
Sure the whole Bible is bogus if you use the catholic versions of scripture– the vaticanus and siniaticus. Those were “discovered” to help sidetrack the true Bible– the recepticus, to counter the protestant revolution.
So, you’re basing your whole philosophy on a bogus foundation.
exposing wierdos
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. PSALMS 14:1
SIN BUSTER
The Word of God is a living book and an unregenerated mind cannot
get it.”YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN”
seduxen
As a matter of fact, only the Talmud and the Tora is the only authentic voice of that cloud being nobody can see or hear… All Goyim come to Israhell and serve to the on;y true religion! Yeah, sure…
small reasoning thrasher
Oh yeah, you will believe there is a God when you cower behind your deflated assumptions at the Great White Throne Judgement!
Aramaic Christians
I refer to Aramaic speaking Victor Alexander in his new biblical translations.i.e.:”In the beginning was the manifestation”,not the “word”.Early Aramaic Christians chanted their bible and,unlike the modern Christians,did not use it literally,not so rationally.A very heart-centered faith was theirs,not so brain-centered as many modern Christians.From early Gnostic tradition to Modern Aristotelian(rational)tradition.
‘
Psychological Tool of Coercion
Yes, I believe that the Bible Jesus-Lie Novel is fiction.
But another realm of the Bible Jesus-Lie Novel that should be explored is the effect that it has had on human psychology – from the individual to nations to human history.
Regarding the psychological realm of the Bible Jesus-Lie Novel, I believe the following:
The Bible Jesus-Lie Novel was designed and created by Jews.
It was designed and created to act as a Psychological Methodological Warfare Tool of Coercion for brainwashing whatever people the Jews, and its Vatican and Protestant salesmen, apply it to.
Jews could apply their Bible Jesus-Lie Novel – their Psychological Methodological Warfare Tool of Coercion – to whomever they choose to control and/or destroy.
Most importantly, to succeed, the Bible Jesus-Lie Novel brainwashes its Christian believers into believing that:
1. Jews are God’s Chosen People
2. God chose the Jewish people – thru His impregnation of Mary – to put His Son, Jesus, onto the planet Earth.
3. God (didn’t) choose an Irish, German, Italian, Norwegian, French, Hungarian, Russian or any other woman to impregnate because (only) a Jewish woman could meet God’s high standards.
The (above) Biblical impresssions are the three most powerful coercions that emanate from the Bible Jesus-Lie Novel. The reason these three coercions are so powerful is because they cause Christian believers to subordinate themselves to the Jews. They cause Christians to believe that they are (inferior) to Jews. Christianity creates an inferiority complex (deep) within the Christian child’s mind and it lasts throughout life.
For the Jew to smother Christian believers into thinking that they are (inferior) to the Jews, and, are (unacceptable) to God, is the surest way for the Jew to brainwash the European Gentile into submission, destruction and extinction. From the day children become Christian – and then throughout childhood – Christian children are told that they are (inferior) to Jews.
Voluntary extinction is exactly what is happening today to the European Christians in Europe because of their unwillingness to stop the influx of Muslims. (Type “Barbara Lerner Spectre” onto your search bar.) Voluntary extinction is exactly what is happening to the European Christians in North America because of their submissive unwillingness to stop the influx of illegal Mexicans.
Christianity is a Psychological Methodological Warfare Tool of Coercion designed by the Jews to make Christians – the European Gentiles – think that they (the European Gentiles), are required to lose whatever the Jews want them to lose, including their own existence.
That’s what I meant!
I had the very first post in this thread, but did not go as far as saying what you just did. Right on! Christianity and its Bible are covert operations of the Mossad.
Hello again Acharya,
This is the 4th post I am sending to to your website.
Let me 1st reitarate how inspiring is your work for any truth seeker.
I agree with everything you say about the mythical and dubious elements on the Jesus related story.
But again : how does your stance void the historical Jesus ? …the one who talkeld about Love vs hate, about turning the other cheeck where everybody’s talking about an eye for an eye, about celebrating the feminine principle where everybody’s talking anout male supremacism… ?
I am sorry to say this, but : do you have a vested interest about the Christ story being plainly fake ?
Re:Repackaged Mythology
“The whole argument is somewhat superfluous after acknowledging that the whole of the Jesus character is mythology.”
And yet, with so many people satisfied that all religion is myth, we persist in fighting the dead fight, safe in the knowledge that if anyone knew the truth, they are long deceased and cannot set the record straight, so we continue to speculate about matters we pretend not to care about in the presence of the people who should be most offended, but have proven themselves to be quite tolerant of your spectacle.
Why are we not avidly deconstructing faiths that were built on these same core traditions, but do not share the Christian tradition of returning good for ill?
Or, why are we not debating the many scientific issues that can be settled empirically in the here and now using contemporary data?
Christians returning good for ill!
I have yet to see Christians returning good for ill. Who was responsible for the world wars, Crusaders war, Inquisitions, the colonizing and plundering of the wealth of non-Christian countries? And which community that could prevent an attempt to annihilate the Jews by a Christian, Hitler, did nothing but watch with glee on the sidelines thinking that their god was seeking revenge on the so called “Christ killers?” Yes, it was none other than the Christians. And for the information of all the uninitiated, the instruction of repaying evil with good has come from the Hindus.
Dialing into your allegory
Thank you for gathering together all your sources and personal perspective on these topics. You stand out among your contemporaries and also among those starting from 4th Century BCE.
I’ve always wondered what separated mythology from religion and I’m still asking that question. Myth to me is of more importance because it is usually a poetic examination and expression of events in a culture. When it gets passed down and becomes dogma is where the trouble begins.
Modern allegory is still thriving, from remembering the names of planets to “the rabbit comes out of the hole, goes around the tree and back down the hole again.”
I’m still going through your work but, happy to have found it. Thank you.
“”Now, if professional scholars can just take that last little step onto the solid ground of recognizing the gospel story as fiction rather than history, we will all be better off.””
Yes–Fiction hidden in sacred Glyph and Symbol. The story is as old as the Humanity. I’m on A.S. side–but the bible is “History” only in the ESOTERIC sense. Not in the Fanatical EXOTERIC literal sense. When decoded and understood properly–the plagiarized Bible is the story of HuMANity.
Dr. Bart Ehrman book falls into the error of many others. He’s arguing and playing around with the LITERAL SENSE. I loved Lawyer/Judge J. Wheless book. Turn the bible back into MYTH–only there you will find the SECRET meaning…Ancient India and Egypt here we All come!!
Jesus Surname is not Christ. Jesus–The Christ. Jesus the Man, Heirophant, Grand Initiator, Grand Master, Hermes Tri., who incarnated–The Christ Principle. And what is this Principle? Keep looking and reading…you’ll find out. The Fanatic’s have turned the Man into a Grand Idol. Of course Jesus was not his real name either. Was not the Gnostic Christ–318. And contrary to the Gnostic camp–Paul is a Myth as well…Did St. John not baptise the Man? In the June 21 glyph?
A lovely Trinity…
Jesus the Man
Christ the Myth
Christ the Mystic
The “process” of cultural homicide is continious and includes one culture against another, and within groups of the same culture. That’s the beauty of life, Living things eat other living things, eventually all things living will kill and eat themselves (that’s a metaphor) It is very sad. People will go through their whole life with no understanding of the simple fact that when it is over, it is over.
They wasted the only opportunity they’ll ever have to to be alive.
Fairy tales and fables
There is no reason to place the truth here nor there. All you need do is listen to the words that the man spoke. He spoke those words because they have lived through and have torn the dark veil of lies that have shrouded this world, thor’s hammer was in full use while the words were resounding around the wilderness, and Thor’s hammer could not prevent the truth from being revealed.
So in the end, most will only have their faith in the words spoken, the words were spoken for those who have ears to hear. The empirical world demands proof, but the only proof they will get is a grave, and whether they know how to reincarnate through specific bloodlines or not, they will only have the limit of death to look forward to.
For those who believe in the ressurection, they have faith that one day they will see the whole image of god.
“We shall see him as he is, because we shall be like him.”
So let the Usurpers from Sirius spew their lies, we know a dog returns to it’s own vomit.
A composite of 20 people is no one.
Jesus myth
I was born into a Catholic family and, hence, had to hear the nativity story year after year. It seemed like a very nice fairy tale meant for the uninitiated. I always wondered why Mary, the mother of Jesus, had to wander around with her “husband” Joseph in search of a place to deliver her son. Wouldn’t Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin, who was delighted to reveal that Mary was to give birth to an important being, have given them shelter? Couldn’t Mary have delivered the baby in her mother’s house? And how about Joseph’s house or carpentry shop? Joseph and Mary couldn’t have been fleeing from Herod because Herod only came to be aware of a “supernatural being” that could have been a threat to his throne after the so called “three kings” inquired about his whereabouts. Then it is said that Herod requested the three kings to let him know about the whereabouts of this wonder kid on their return. Wouldn’t Herod have sent his men along to check where the wonder kid was? Then it is said that Herod decided to kill all the first born Jewish males. It seems ridiculous that a man that built the second temple for the Jews (Herod being a Jew himself) would have decided on such an execution. Sounds very much like a copy and paste from the Moses narration in the Scriptures. The Paul or Saul story, too, is a big hoax. It was the beginning of a huge scam perpetrated by a few on the gullible and ignorant people of those days. Unfortunately todays Christians are hanging on to the straws in the hope that their sins will be forgiven by an entity that will award them everlasting happiness.
hipriestess4u–when has any professing Christian followed his ‘meek’ and ‘mild’ words? Christian’s have been killing one another (Yes–their fellow Christian’s!) for c.2011 years. Just when do you think this supposed new (old) Holy dispensation to kick in?
“‘The empirical world demands proof, but the only proof they will get is a grave, and whether they know how to reincarnate through specific bloodlines or not, they will only have the limit of death to look forward to.””
The Soul goes to its “Death” once reincarnated in the Feotus. Your not going to be any more “Dead” than what you already are. In fact your Body is dying daily. The Body is the ‘material/matter’ Grave of the Soul. At corporeal death the Soul/Spirit returns to Life and is weighed in the Balance–All Merits and Demerits. So who needs Churchianity and Priestcraft? If you’ve been a bad boy–you’ll be reincarnated on this Hell Hole called Earth. Death is not the End–its only a Transformation from one state to another. If you watch Nature–she will provide you with the Symbol. If a corpse appears dead–is not the decomposition process still matter in motion? If in motion–is IT not still alive? Bacteria etc. breaking down the Elements–where does that Bacteria in motion move on to? Its still ALIVE and was part of YOU…
Nelson–Jesus Myth.
Your being caught up in the LITERAL SENSE–look at your posting! For instance, the slaughter of the innocence? If the story were True, (and it is) Why was not baby St. John slaughtered? Because there is a SECRET Esoteric meaning to the Glyph and Symbol. Do not take ANY world scripture at Face Value. Or you’ll become a “Literalist”, and spin yourself into a ball of Confusion. Read it like “Jack and the Beanstock” but using you sharpened intellect try looking for a hidden glyph or symbol within the Narrative. Or you could walk “The Path” towards Initiation in the East, and learn the ‘Secret’ meaning yourself. Now then—
According to (Master/Seeress/Initiate) Ms. H. P. Blavatsky–if I could speak for her today–I’d say for her, “I TOLD YOU SO!”. She say’s that the hidden meaning of the Slaughter of the Innocense is the butchering and killing of secret INITIATES. You can NOT separate the study of Religion without knowing something of ‘The Ancient Mysteries’ as they are part and parcel of the same thing. A.S. hit on this very important point in one of her books. Religion used to be like, (Using a Modern >SYMBOL ONLY
The effects of time and man.
Having studied the bible and religions for years , and yet not claiming to be an expert on translations of various texts I have moved from being a fundamentalist to simply claiming Christ as my savior.The reason for this is that the message is in the scriptures to be found regardless of all of mans manipulations,be they nefarious or accidental. All things of great importance to mankind have taken time to understand and develop, some for better and some not. Christ was not an advocate of the many differently named churches that men have created. But his message of truth is still in the corrupted scriptures if one only will take the time to discern it.