RE: Why do atheists even bother about debating Jesus?
January 30, 2013 at 5:35 pm
(This post was last modified: January 30, 2013 at 5:38 pm by catfish.)
(January 30, 2013 at 4:47 pm)Zone Wrote: Jews never traditionally believed in gods in human form only human prophets. Pagans did believe in gods in human form so what seems likely is a fussion of Judiasm and classical paganism. Also themes such as a saviour child being born of a virgin goddess is a classical pagan theme, this goes back millenia before Christ.
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The actual Jewish prohecy of the Messiah in it's original Aramaic just says that the Messiah would be born of a young woman not a virgin. This was a good religion for the pagan world to convert to as it had all the imagery and themes they were already used to. I'm sure Jesus was historical but there was a mixture of influences at work in the final dform the religion would take.
Jews were also split on the idea of life after death and reincarnation.
It was most likely the "young woman" you mention was about a sign that would appear within a short time of when it was written.
Early Christians did not believe that Yeshua was God as is pushed in the religion today. Most biblical scholars agree that the gospels got progressively more "supernatual" as time went on until at the end, we had "god" walking with us.
I watched a Christian-Muslim debate once where they talked in great detail about this but I have never been able to find it since. C'mon, Yeshua was a Jew who celebrated Sat Sabbath. Have you ever heard a Christian try to explain why they celebrate on Sun. How about why they say it's OK to celebrate Easter and X-mas...
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