(May 27, 2016 at 8:10 am)Aractus Wrote: I'm not sure I understand what you mean when you say "the earliest visions of Jesus were 'spiritual visions"? Are you claiming that there were later visions that were personable? Because that's not at all the account in the gospels and Acts. In their account the personable appearances of Jesus occur following the resurrection (i.e. post Resurrection and pre-Ascension), and the 'visions' are possibly what Paul has, though Paul actually says he receives things through 'revelation' rather than vision, so he in fact never actually claims to have had a vision of Jesus. It's perfectly possible that the disciples and others legitimately felt that they saw Jesus appear to them post-death (group hysteria is what it's called, and there are solid examples of similar incidents known to be cause through this phenomena).
Your use of the word 'embellishment' is wrong. Mythology grows organically, and I don't see Mark embellishing on things at all. His writing style is short and to the point. There are so many direct parallels between the Sermon on the Mount (in particular) and the Epistle of James that if the writer were to be embellish rather than relying on an account of the Sermon (probably a written account, but may have been oral) wouldn't be possible.
There is no doubt that Mark incorporated already-existing embellishments within his Gospel. As for Jesus' "appearances", Jesus has been appearing to people throughout the ages, 1st century included, up to our present day:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visions_of_Jesus_and_Mary
As with alien abduction claims, these experiences are almost certainly natural.
