sunlore wrote:
This is true. If ever there was a historical Jesus, he never claimed he was the son of god. More of a political activist, from what I've heard of it. Paul, that's were it took a turn for the worse.
Just like in the Beatles, man...
Anyway, not crap.
Great stuff! I'd vote not crap it you could get the guy out of the context of the gospels, which according to most scholars were written centuries after the said events by people that had never met the guy. The Old Testament is even worse.
I think the evidence points to Jesus being a composite of a number of local prophets and wack-jobs, which were later combined with several Greek and Egyptian religions. It doesn’t take much delving to see the very obvious links to a number of other contemporary cults and religions. Especially the Cult of Mithras, with its salvation via the blood etc. The “Virgin Birth” myth is nothing special at all, Zeus was running around impregnating mortals left and right.
This stuff goes pretty deep and I’m no Classic scholar, but it all seems to fit into place. I recently had an interesting experience at the MASP gallery in Sao Paulo. In the Classic Art area there was a Statue of Alcmene holding Heracles. Opposite the statue was a near identical picture of the Virgin holding Jesus… I just stood there thinking, “ and you couldn't figure it out from this?!!”