07-08-2020, 10:52 PM
In other words, some people think they are references to Jesus (your Jesus). Others disagree. I happen to think that your Jesus (who is a complete myth) was based on several background concepts:
(1) The actual Yeshu ha-Notzri, who lived a century earlier than Jesus was supposed to have lived, was a famous personality and may have begun a community of believers who followed his teachings. This could actually be the original person upon whom the myth was based.
(2) The idea of itinerant preachers making their rounds in the land of Israel during the Second Temple period.
(3) The development of angel and demon theology in Second Temple Judaism and its concomitant cosmogony and cosmology.
(4) Syncretism of Jewish concepts with Greek-style mystery religions.
All of these things together formed the mixture from which Christianity emerged. It was helpful that people like Philo had developed the idea of the Logos being the heavenly high priest and making a connection between the Logos and Yeshua from the book of Zechariah (through the Branch prophecy). It is so easy to see how Christianity could develop from these pieces of historical accident without a real Jesus at all.
Again, I recommend that people read and argue against On the Historicity of Jesus by Richard Carrier. The argument is strong.
(1) The actual Yeshu ha-Notzri, who lived a century earlier than Jesus was supposed to have lived, was a famous personality and may have begun a community of believers who followed his teachings. This could actually be the original person upon whom the myth was based.
(2) The idea of itinerant preachers making their rounds in the land of Israel during the Second Temple period.
(3) The development of angel and demon theology in Second Temple Judaism and its concomitant cosmogony and cosmology.
(4) Syncretism of Jewish concepts with Greek-style mystery religions.
All of these things together formed the mixture from which Christianity emerged. It was helpful that people like Philo had developed the idea of the Logos being the heavenly high priest and making a connection between the Logos and Yeshua from the book of Zechariah (through the Branch prophecy). It is so easy to see how Christianity could develop from these pieces of historical accident without a real Jesus at all.
Again, I recommend that people read and argue against On the Historicity of Jesus by Richard Carrier. The argument is strong.