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Dec. 28, 2004 The earliest mention of Jesus outside the Bible was made by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in the year 93, though its authenticity is hotly contested. You might think that challenging the historicity of this so-called Flavian Testimony is just a facile way of suppressing legitimate Christian evidence, but the commentary of Saint Origen, who reviewed Josephus’ writings a couple centuries later, seems to bear out the contention that the Flavian Testimony was a monastic interpolation made after Origen’s time. At any rate, the ‘testimony’, coming in the year 93, could easily have been derivative of the Epistles or Gospels, most of which had been written by then, and therefore proves nothing. The next mention of Jesus was made in 115 by Tacitus, the Roman historian, and it agrees handsomely with the Bible, except for a couple of small points on which it isn’t exactly rigorous to place great emphasis. The differences do tend to suggest, however, that Tacitus did not get his information straight from the Gospels, but nothing I know of rules out the possibility that his source got them from the Gospels. Tacitus, then, also makes a poor witness. The shroud of Turin proves nothing, for even if it dates to Biblical times, despite the findings of Oxford, Zurich and Arizona Universities, who’s to say the image left on it is that of Jesus? Yes, it looks like Jesus as we imagine him, but how do know what Jesus must have looked like? The James Ossuary has just been declared a forgery, and probably many Christians disagree, but they certainly cannot prove it is not a forgery, so the jury is still out and will stay out. This latest discovery of jars in which water may have been turned to wine is just another of the many wills-o-the wisp that have been appearing for centuries. Pontius Pilate and Herod were real people, no doubt, but that doesn’t prove anything either. I could write a book today alleging that Christ appeared in 1962, meeting with Kennedy, Castro and others, before returning to Heaven, but does that make it so? The Churches of the Nativity and the Holy Sepulchre were built centuries after the supposed time of Christ at places probably artificially selected as those of his birth and death. The upshot of all this is that there is no evidence whatsoever to corroborate the existence of Jesus, and in view of such tales as those of walking on water, raising the dead, and multiplying fish and loaves, a strong presumption of his entirely mythical nature must be formed. There is an outside chance that someone named Jesus, who was considered by himself or others to be God or the Son of God, did actually live, but it hardly matters. Any intelligent, mature person should know that no one can or ever could work such miracles. But let us not dwell on miracles. Let us instead go to the Sermon on the Mount, to the parable of the Lilies of the Field. Jesus admonishes us to take no thought for what we will eat or drink or what we will put on, but to think instead of the kingdom of Heaven, conficent that God knows what we need and will see to it that we get it. This is entirely false. I submit that anyone who takes no thought for what he will eat tomorrow will very probably not eat tomorrow. If Americans believe in Jesus, why do they work for pay, save money in banks, take out insurance policies and contribute to pension funds? If Jesus utters falsehoods, then either God utters falsehoods or Jesus isn’t God. The fact of the matter is that there is no God and almost undoubtedly no Jesus either. Then whence came the Sermon on the Mount? Some naive person, presupposing that there really was a benevolent God on high, tried to imagine just what God would do and have us do. Actually, if you start with such a supposition, the Sermon on the Mount makes sense. Unfortunately, the supposition is false and, therefore, the conclusions are false also. Was the story of Jesus the greatest story ever told? No, nonsense. It doesn’t even make good literature. Repetitious, self-contradictory, boring, it shouldn’t even be considered must reading. Better to study something that will enable you to get a job so you’ll always have something to eat and drink and wear. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non- fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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