RE: Open debate: What does Jesus teach?
July 20, 2014 at 4:42 pm
(This post was last modified: July 20, 2014 at 4:44 pm by Mudhammam.)
(July 20, 2014 at 2:43 pm)ThomM Wrote: Actually - Jesus teaches NOTHING
Myths do not do anything in reality
However - it is again a matter of having people actually READ the bible - to see ALL of the things that are attributed to Harry Potter - I mean James Bond - I mean the Christ.
Albert Einstein was once asked:
"You accept the historical existence of Jesus?"
He answered:
"Unquestionably. No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life. How different, for instance, is the impression which we receive from an account of legendary heroes of antiquity like Theseus. Theseus and other heroes of his type lack the authentic vitality of Jesus."
I partially agree with Einstein. When I read the Gospels, I read evangelical tracts that were composed based off hearsay and oral tradition that reflected the views of people who did believe Jesus was a historical figure who was crucified, and to some degree represent Jesus' actual teachings. The crucifixion alone, given the Jewish background of the early church, is unprecedented and makes no sense as complete fabrication; nothing was more demeaning to the idea of Jewish sanctity than the idea of hanging on a tree--they may or may not have wrote Joseph of Arimathea into the story to get Jesus off the tree before sun down, as that was an even bigger no-no and disgrace to first-century Jews. My problem with the Jesus-myth theorists (as opposed to the myth of Christ, er, God-man, which is completely without merit) is that it leaves far too many questions and problems in discerning the origins and nature of the mid-late first-century Jesus movement.
He who loves God cannot endeavour that God should love him in return - Baruch Spinoza