Was Jesus a great moral teacher?

[truthBtold]

Who is this long haired hippy you speak of??

[xpastor]

"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." I could be wrong, but my best guess is that Jesus did not say this.

Duh. As opposed to all the other stuff, which is verbatim from one historical person? Come on!

Duh. Where did I say ALL the other stuff is verbatim from one historical person? For one thing I would toss every bit of the Gospel of John as totally unhistorical.

As for the stuff in the other three gospels, the earliest one (Mark) was written at least 30 years after his death. I would also agree with modern critical scholars that Jesus probably never claimed to be the messiah or to be the apocalyptic figure referred to as the Son of Man, and he never said many other things which are attributed to him.

You can usually tell sayings which are made up because they speak to a situation which applies to the church decades after Jesus lived. That is the test that I applied to the words above.

You can sometimes tell sayings which are authentic because the church would NOT be likely to write them in. (This is known as the criterion of dissimilarity.) Examples would be Jesus' statement that the law of Moses will continue in force until the end of time and elsewhere that he was sent only "to the lost sheep of the House of Israel." By the time the gospels were written the mission to the gentiles was in full swing and Paul had convinced most Christians that the law of Moses had been replaced by salvation through Jesus' death, etc. The only plausible reason for attributing these contradictory statements to Jesus would be a tradition of his authentic sayings.

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Who is this long haired hippy you speak of??

An obscure guru who believed in flower power. "Consider the lilies of the field ...."

[fr0d0]

In essence, Jesus is telling people to let the world do as it will to them, because in the end god will fix everything up all neat and tidy.

I think in essence the message is the opposite to that, but I respect your opinion.

[Alex K]

Duh. As opposed to all the other stuff, which is verbatim from one historical person? Come on!

Duh. Where did I say ALL the other stuff is verbatim from one historical person? For one thing I would toss every bit of the Gospel of John as totally unhistorical.

As for the stuff in the other three gospels, the earliest one (Mark) was written at least 30 years after his death. I would also agree with modern critical scholars that Jesus probably never claimed to be the messiah or to be the apocalyptic figure referred to as the Son of Man, and he never said many other things which are attributed to him.

You can usually tell sayings which are made up because they speak to a situation which applies to the church decades after Jesus lived. That is the test that I applied to the words above.

You can sometimes tell sayings which are authentic because the church would NOT be likely to write them in. (This is known as the criterion of dissimilarity.) Examples would be Jesus' statement that the law of Moses will continue in force until the end of time and elsewhere that he was sent only "to the lost sheep of the House of Israel." By the time the gospels were written the mission to the gentiles was in full swing and Paul had convinced most Christians that the law of Moses had been replaced by salvation through Jesus' death, etc. The only plausible reason for attributing these contradictory statements to Jesus would be a tradition of his authentic sayings.

Interesting! So one can be confident that these passages are later additions. I find that more justified than talking about what jesus said and what not. The fact that they leave these passages in even though they are at odds with Paul's message, might be an argument for their importance in tradition (i think it's called the argument from embarassment or so, right), but not really for a historical Jesus saying them.

[archangle]

jesus is fine. I do not know of many leaders that did not have flaws. So jesus for the tree huggers is cool.

No doubt he had OCD. These people get things done. I don't know any leader that is not kind of over the top. So jesus is ok based on this too.

Washington, lee, sherman, and grant for me. But jesus is fine. Martin luther king type is cool too.

Oh wait, this is an atheist site ... shit on me ...bla bla bla he sucks bla bla bla shit head. bla bla bla hate hate hate and all that.

[cromwell]

Jesus teachings was a great thing at the time, some of you people have to remember that when these teachings where written down it was a very different time. His teachings basically shaped the western culture. Oh yeah, I forgot though, we are atheists, like the guy above said, babababalaaaa hate that jesus guy blabla bla.

[Chad32]

We're not just hating the guy to hate the guy, as you're implying. Plus who cares if it was a different time? Why did the norms of that time dictate what Yahweh/Jesus thought was right or wrong?

[cromwell]

We're not just hating the guy to hate the guy, as you're implying. Plus who cares if it was a different time? Why did the norms of that time dictate what Yahweh/Jesus thought was right or wrong?

Jesus was a great person if he infact existed, a revolutionary of his people and time. No one is without flaws, especially someone brought up in a time of brutal oppression and the strict jewish faith. He basically taught them to treat each other as brothers and sisters and to not judge and punish eachother.

[truthBtold]

We're not just hating the guy to hate the guy, as you're implying. Plus who cares if it was a different time? Why did the norms of that time dictate what Yahweh/Jesus thought was right or wrong?

Jesus was a great person if he infact existed, a revolutionary of his people and time. No one is without flaws, especially someone brought up in a time of brutal oppression and the strict jewish faith. He basically taught them to treat each other as brothers and sisters and to not judge and punish eachother.

Jesus was a soft ball and ur a mush!!!

[cromwell]

Jesus was a great person if he infact existed, a revolutionary of his people and time. No one is without flaws, especially someone brought up in a time of brutal oppression and the strict jewish faith. He basically taught them to treat each other as brothers and sisters and to not judge and punish eachother.

Jesus was a soft ball and ur a mush!!!