lying for Jesus

[rightcoaster]

I am not anti-Semitic. I was trying to explain to you, along with Minimalist, that the gospels are indeed anti-Semitic and show very little knowledge of the Jewish milieu in which they are supposed to be set.

Sorry, I had forgotten your reasoning on the empty tomb. ... I still see the empty tomb story as a fiction written a generation later. First, the Jews say, your Jesus was dead and buried, and then the Christians counter with a story about an empty tomb. So the Jews respond, the disciples must have stolen the body, and the Christians make up a story about a Roman guard on the imaginary tomb. Even if Jesus had been buried in the dirt, we would have got the same story of resurrection and apotheosis ...

I assume you were referring to " "skimming 5%" and "anti-usury protest" continues the Jew-sliming ..." I didn't really mean to imply anti-Semitism, but rather an unconscious absorption of the pervasive anti-Judaism of the NT, that without special effort to expunge finds its way into your premises. Just learned a new concept that seems to apply: a "meme".

As to the other story, I think it's helpful to recall that for a while the only Christians were observant Jews, not Hellenized Jews or gentiles. I think the resurrection story could have originated and probably did originate with his modest following of observant, Judean or Galilean, Jewish followers. There were OT resurrection stories: (I Ki 17:17-24) son of the woman of Zarephath raised by Elijah; (II Ki 4:20-37) then, not to be outdone, the son of the Shunamite woman raised by Elisha; (II Ki 13:21) man raised by contact with Elisha's bones ergo God did it. So by my version of the story the tomb was used briefly for practical reasons and emptied ASAP. The chagrined, perhaps embarrassed followers of this apocalypse-predictor needed a cover story, the tomb was empty, and resurrection both had precedent and served the purpose. Highly speculative, but requires no newly minted miracle concept alien to Jews. They would have blamed the religious authorities also for the death of the "messiah", as the Temple was surely a principal complainant; therefore, the seed for the rest was planted. If they did not believe in his predictions and teachings they would not likely have continued to follow him after his death .... the most recent messiah is Rabbi Schneerson, and his Lubavitcher followers predicted he'd return from the dead (I think they have given up on that by now) and they do carry on his works and teachings quite assiduously, globally.