RE: Reason Jesus must have been a real person
September 19, 2018 at 6:26 am
(This post was last modified: September 19, 2018 at 6:27 am by Fake Messiah.)
(September 18, 2018 at 8:15 pm)mrj Wrote: So one question I have, is if Jesus was completely made up, why is his name "Jesus"?
Actually Jesus the risen and the one who brings forgiveness for all sins in a single day was nothing new to the Jews because there was already a character liked in the Bible that and also named Jesus. In the Book of Zechariah there is already Jesus ben Jehozadak, the legendary first high priest of the second temple. In Zechariah 6:11-13 Lord commands Zechariah to place the crown of kingship upon Jesus, for he will rise up from his place and build the House of the Lord. Earlier, this same Jesus is given authority over the temple; brings forgiveness for all sins in a single day; and in both passages is called a high priest. So there you go: name for a messianic figure, the name "Jesus ben Jehozadak" is also remarkably suitable. As it happens, in Hebrew the name Jehozadak/Yehozadak means "Jehovah the Righteous," so one could also read this as "Jesus, the son of Jehovah the Righteous." If you are searching the scriptures for hidden messianic hints (as many first century Jews were) it doesn't take much of a leap to turn this figure into a "Jesus, the son of God." Indeed, it's tailor-made for the job.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"