A Christmas present for the class—the "unknown" Jesus. Posted by The happy birthday boy. :-) on December 23, 1999 at 22:14:11:
The other evening I happened by luck to tune-in to a documentary on the
Arts and Entertainment channel, about the generally unknown facts about
Jesus. These facts are all documented in the New Testament, or in some
cases supplemented indirectly in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and directly in
the Gnostic Gospels which pick up where the Dead Sea Scrolls leave off.
(See www.biography.com to obtain the videotape.)
I was so struck from the beginning by the interesting points being made
in this documentary that it brought out my old newspaper reporter's mode
in me in a flash. And I started scribbling like mad in a notepad like I
used to do thirty years ago for a living. This still comes in handy,
every once in awhile, and I'm glad to have had this ability while
viewing this remarkable A&E program from the "Biography Channel," called
"A Search for the Unknown Jesus" . . . . . because, I'd like to share
this bit of on-the-spur-of-the-moment "news reporting" with you members
of this class, as a Christmas gift, and a celebration of the Winter
Solstice.
I guess I'm especially interested in this subject, because my own
birthday is on the 25th. Throughout my life I've wondered and wondered
what the real Jesus is like, if only he could have been better known, in
person . . . like during his time upon this earth. Narrator Jack
Perkins quickly dispelled my superstitions about my birth date {heh-heh}
pointing out, *authoritatively, that Jesus' birth was probably not
really on December 25th, and probably not 2,000 years ago either. That
date on the 25th is suspiciously the same as the ancient Mythraic high
holy day of the Solstice, which is occurring now, a few days earlier
than that this year. — And we just don't know when Jesus was born is
the truth of it.
Nor do we know what Jesus really looked like, either, despite the many
portraits that have fused a general image of his features within nearly
all of our minds. Earliest mosaic and painted portraits of Jesus show
him clean-shaven and rather short-shorn. In later times Byzantine
painters started adding in long-hair, a mustache, and a beard, to convey
the standard impressions of male strength that were prevalent in their
society in their time.
"Jesus was human," the moderator said. "He had personality traits. He
had his 'bad days.'" — But . . . . . the idea of Jesus that most of us
have today, the ideas of who he was and what he was really like as a
Man, are nearly all derived from four Gospels— Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John. For centuries, these were the only books of the New Testament
that weren't *banned! And the books of the Essene community at Qumran
were banned as well, and the books of the Gnostic brotherhood of
Pacomian Christian monks at Naj Hammadi along the Nile, were all banned.
These books were banned and all burned as far as anybody knew. Only the
"Four Gospels" were allowed, to convey a portrait of the being of Jesus
Christ, the Man. — "The canonized Jesus (in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John, 'the Jesus of faith') became the Jesus that we all know today."
The documentary gave a sample from one of the Gnostic Gospels, the
Gospel of Thomas, that is a clue to mindfulness students of the richness
of information about Jesus as a teacher that has been missing from our
understanding because of the suppression of these writings (The Gnostic
Gospels were only rediscovered in jars in a cave during this century):
One of the disciples asked Jesus: "When will the Kingdom come, so we
can see it?"
"It will not come by waiting," Jesus said. "The Kingdom is spread out
upon the earth, and we do not see it."
......................................................
Apparently, Jesus had many brothers and sisters, and grew up in a large
extended family. They lived in Nazareth, a small Jewish town in
Galillee. A large portion of the village's harvest was taken by Rome,
which was "running an empire" in its conquered land. But, the Romans
allowed the Jews of Nazareth to practice their religion. They were
indifferent about it. Yet, to the Jews, the Roman gods were gods of
oppression. In Yaweh was the only hope for their freedom.
Luke tells that Jesus had mastered the scriptures as a child. Joseph
and Mary took him to Jerusalem when he was twelve, and they found him in
the Temple astonishing the scholars there with his knowledge. According
to most accounts, Joseph taught Jesus to be a carpenter. (The word is
now regarded as better translated as "stone-mason.") It is known that
laborers from Nazareth built stone buildings in Sephyris, a short
distance away. Joseph and the boy Jesus could have shaped stones that
were used in this work that are still resting there in place to this
day.
The documentary points out that Jesus may have mingled with many
different kinds of people while working in Sephyris. It was the
hometown of his mother, Mary, and of his grandmother, Saint Ann. Some
scholars have speculated that he might have met Buddhist teachers there.
Others have speculated that he might even have gone to India to study
Buddhism during his "missing years." Between the ages of 12 and 30,
Jesus' whereabouts are not stated in the Gospels. But it is told that
when he "reappeared" as a teacher, people *did wonder: "Where did he
get all this??? Is this the son of Mary and Joseph?"
The temptation is strong to believe that Jesus might have gotten some
parts of his teachings from a Buddhist master because of the
similarities that Buddhism has for Jesus' Way. Certain scholars have
argued this for years. Speculations of his going to India have been
many. Yet others say that everything the Lord taught about appears to
have been derived from the Torah, the Books of Moses, and so one needn't
go farther than that to explain his doctrine. A priest, one of the
Bible scholars who appeared in the documentary, said: "Jesus emphasized
certain Jewish teachings that were being neglected at that time."
Everything necessary as a foundation for Jesus' teachings is found in
Jewish traditions, he said.
Yet the documentary also cited two separate modern authors, who
independently went to a certain Buddhist temple in India, and
individually translated ancient documents there which corroborated that
a remarkable "Issa" from a small Mediteranean country studied Buddhism
with the monks there during Jesus' lifetime. Some of the similarities
in this account seem "compelling."
Certain other scholars speculate that Jesus and Joseph went to England,
and Jesus was taught by Celtic masters. And more common than either of
these theories is the theory that Jesus was a student of the Essenes,
right there near Jerusalem, where he was.
The documentary points out that Jesus may well have known about the
Essene Community of Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. It
was only a few miles from Jerusalem. He may have lived there with them
for a time, and studied there. Many scholars theorize this. One said:
"I believe the people at Qumran and the 'early Christian people' were
one and the same." Another scholar said: ""The Lord's Prayer' appears
to be a Qumranian prayer."
Jesus was an unknown laborer whose teachings reach the whole world to
this day, two thousand years later! Where did these teachings come
from? How did this amazing feat come about? What we do know is this:
John the Baptist came along, preaching repentence, and telling of a
Messiah who would follow after him. Jesus was baptized by John,
according to the Gospels. He may have been his disciple, or his
colleague. John did his teaching in the south, and Jesus in the north,
in Galillee. [The New Testament citings of chapter and verse on all
this are all dutifully given throughout this documentary, which can be
ordered at the web address shown above and below this article.)
Jesus was somehow associated with the group that John the Baptist was a
member of. Peter, Andrew and other disciples of Jesus were disciples of
John the Baptist before they followed Jesus. Jesus found the first
disciples among fishermen of Galillee. "It's not likely that a stranger
appeared and a bunch of fishermen suddenly dropped their nets in the
sea, and followed him," the narrator said. They were disciples of John
the Baptist, certain scholars imply. They were all "fishers." The fish
was their symbol for what they were doing. Jesus became "a fisher" of
men and women in his ministry.
John the Baptist was assassinated because King Herod was afraid he would
start a rebellion among the Jews, according to a scholar in the
documentary. Jesus took up John the Baptist's cause at his death. This
may have made him "a marked man" already at that point, the narrator
said. And, Jesus' own death might have happened just a few months
later—so soon after Salome had asked the King for John's severed head on
a platter in exchange for her sultry dance.
Jesus, like John, was a threat. He seems to be aware of the danger he
was in, and of the power within him, too. He welcomed outcasts into his
following, and sinners. He treated women as equals, and worked among
the poor and the sick and the downtrodden. He was "an organizer." He
organized people under the idea of loving one another. That was
dangerous to the King. In the Beatitudes, Jesus taught that the common
peoples' lives, and their sufferings, are not meaningless—that their
lives have a purpose. He gave them a sense of purpose as Jews, during a
time when they were being oppressed. The King, who acquiesed to Roman
tyranny, gave them a sense of futility.
.....................................................
"Was Jesus married?" the moderator asks. That must seem like such a
strange question to most people!!! And there is a surprising amount of
conversation among scholars in this documentary to support the idea that
he either was married, or could have been.
Despite the widespread assumption today that Jesus was celibate for
life, that is not stated anywhere in the New Testament. God's first
command in order to be a good Jewish man is to be fruitful and multiply.
Jesus was a Jew. He lived according to Jewish Law. Moses and David
were married. In the entire Bible, there is apparently not a single
report of lifelong celibacy related.
Jesus' father performed the four functions prescribed for him by Jewish
Law . . . or else he didn't. He had him circumcized, had him learn the
Jewish Law, and trained him in a trade. The fourth prescribed function
would be to find him a wife. The Law says if a man reaches the age of
20 without a wife, "let him perish." Jesus is called "Rabbi," or
"Teacher" by his followers throughout the New Testament. Jewish Law
says an unmarried man may NOT be a teacher of children. Some scholars
speculate that "the wedding at Canaan" was Jesus' own wedding! . . . .
. Or . . . didn't Joseph fulfill all four of his fatherly duties with
Jesus, after all?
Who, then, if he was married, was Jesus' wife? Mary Magdalene is
mentioned first in every one of the Gospels. She is traveling with him
from the beginning of his ministry to the very end. In one of the
Gnostic Gospels, several of Jesus' disciples get highly upset because
Jesus kisses Mary Magdalene on the mouth. According to the documentary,
Jesus responded to this by saying: "Great is the mystery of marriage.
The world would not have existed without it." [I think this is in the
Gospel of Phillip. My notes aren't clear here.] It was Mary Magdalene
and his Mother Mary, who went to the tomb. In Jewish tradition, the
washing of the body is customarily done by the closest relatives.
Jesus never advocated a life of celibacy for his followers. The first
disciple, Simon Peter, was married, and probably a father. His wife
traveled with him on his mission, as did the wives of others among the
apostles. And Jesus selected Peter, a married man, to carry on his own
mission. — For many centuries after this, Popes married. It was not
until 1015 A.D. that the Church passed a law forbidding the clergy to
marry. At the time, it was expressed that this was not done for
"spiritual reasons" but for "reasons of the Church." A scholar
speculated that the Church was losing lands and revenues in inheritance
claims by the children of high-ranking clerics when they died, and
needed a way to stop this.
On the other hand, celibacy was not completely *unknown in Jesus' time.
The Essenes of Qumran were known to practice celibacy. In that, they
were different than the other Jews around them in the land. If Jesus
did adopt their teachings in the Dead Sea Scrolls into his message of
love, did he adopt their celibacy, too?
.....................................................
"Was Jesus a political revolutionary?" the moderator asks. The Lord
taught: "Whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him
also." Yet, on another occasion, he said, "Do not think I have come to
bring peace on earth. I bring a sword!" The documentary examines the
idea that Jesus was an important Jewish revolutionary.
First of all, that is what the Romans thought! If Jesus saw himself as
intending to bring about revolt in Jerusalem, only He knows. But when
he went to Jerusalem before the Passover that year, it was perceived as
a revolutionary act. The Jewish leaders were very nervous about all the
things that he was doing, including criticizing them! His whole
demeanor was an act of defiance, an act of rebellion. And the crowds
everywhere adored him. People climbed palm trees to throw down cut
fronds to lay out before him on the road (Palm Sunday). The Romans were
already on alert, with extra large crowds gathering in the city during
the holiday. It was a highly dynamic and explosive situation.
Jesus' first act upon entering the city was to go to the Temple and
create a ruckus, such as had never been seen before! Driving the
sellers out of the Temple and kicking over the money-changers' tables is
"Jesus' one known act of violence." This violence attracted the
attention of the crowd, and the people were "spell-bound." And after
all that, the Roman officers couldn't arrest him because he was always
surrounded by adoring crowds. This man had done something different!
He had changed their world. It was a new day that had dawned! No one
had ever seen anything as revolutionary as that before, not since Moses
had led their people out of their slavery under the Pharoah of Egypt.
After they were alone together for the Last Supper, Jesus and the
disciples all went to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus told them to
wait for him, and told them "not to sleep." "Go into your inner
chambers," he told them. When he returned he found they were
"sleeping." [Ah, such are the frustrations of mindfulness teachers
throughout all history, apparently.] And they arrested him there. He
walked into it, with eyes wide open.
The documentary noted that the Gospels don't explain on what charges
Jesus was sentenced to death. In the trial, the High Priest tried to
get him to say that he was the Messiah. "You said that," Jesus replied,
turning the confrontation back on him (a *perfect example of the "non-
committal response" strategy of the awareness game!). But on that note
he was found guilty . . . on suspicion of claiming to be "King of the
Jews."
The blame is shifted in the New Testament from Pontius Pilate to the
Jews. "The New Testament presents Pilate as a good guy," a scholar in
the documentary said. The Roman leader, who had his own reasons to be
rid of the rebel Rabbi, is portrayed as "powerless" before the Jewish
mob that clamors for Jesus to be crucified.
At 3 p.m. that Friday, Jesus died on the cross. "Forgive them, Father,"
he said at the end, "for [[[being asleep]]] they know not what they do."
The sky clouded over and darkened.
........................................................
"Why?" the moderator asked, "would the disciples believe that Jesus
would 'rise from the dead?'" There is no precedent for this in Jewish
traditions, not even with the highest religious figures in their
history.
"The only explanation for being convinced that Jesus was alive," said
the moderator, "was that they had seen him." On that Easter Sunday
morning, the greatest of all miracles occurs, Jesus rises from the dead.
This brought the inspiration that led the disciples to go forth in the
world, despite the continuing dangers and persecutions, to spread the
teachings of the Lord. Many of them were martyred in their turn in the
years soon to come.
......................................................
Two years later, Jesus appears to Paul (Saul of Tarsus), formerly one of
the persecutors of Jesus' followers. Paul, who never knew Jesus during
his life, said he was ordered by Jesus to carry his message to the
Gentiles.
Christianity, under Paul, split from the Judaism of Jesus. Jesus'
brother James rose to leadership of their group after Jesus' death, and
had a confrontation with Paul. James said Jesus' *only purpose was to
reform Judaism, and not to set up a separate church. But, Paul became
the architect of the Christian Church, a Jewish sect that became a new
religion. "And the center of the church was moved from Jerusalem to
Rome," a scholar noted.
The moderator concluded that Jesus was a man, and yet *more than a man.
"If he was only a man, how did all this come to pass?" There are more
than two billion Christians in the world today.
.......................................................
Most of these, by far, know only the canonized Jesus, of Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John—the "Jesus of faith." Few know the Jesus "of Buddhism,"
and fewer yet, the Jesus "of the Celtic masters." And fewer even than
these know the Jesus "of the Essenes and the Gnostics," the Jesus who
said:
"You have eyes and you don't see. You have ears and you don't hear.
Wake up (in there in your inner chamber) . . . and see! The Kingdom of
Heaven already lies right here at hand!"
That's the "Good News" from here! Merry Christmas to All, Happy
Solstice, and, to All of you, a great New Year 2000!!! Remember you're
in there behind those eyes.
Coach John Bilby — — — MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!
—To obtain a copy of this truly outstanding A&E Biography documentary,
"A Search for the Unknown Jesus," visit:
www.biography.com
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Archived February 13, 2000