{"id":813,"date":"2024-12-23T01:37:43","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T01:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/john-shirley.com\/blog\/?p=813"},"modified":"2025-12-25T00:24:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T00:24:02","slug":"the-historical-jesus-merry-christmas-either-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/john-shirley.com\/blog\/the-historical-jesus-merry-christmas-either-way\/","title":{"rendered":"The Historical Jesus? (Merry Christmas, either way)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jesus, most scholars agree, existed\u2013in the sense that Yeshua the Nazarene wandered around, said some of the things attributed to him; Jesus made an impression, locally; drew some followers, was crucified. (As for what he really said, see, the \u201cBook of Q\u201d for some sayings they feel certain of, and see also, in my opinion, the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas<\/em>.) He may not have died during crucifixion, according to one story, which is more believable than resurrection\u2013he simply looked dead. The Bible, as I recall, does say they got permission to take \u201chis body down early\u201d. But dead on the cross or not, he was likely just a \u201cwisdom teacher\u201d of the time, perhaps a bit mad, in some ways, but brilliant, quite possibly a genius. And well meaning. He was likely not nearly so apocalyptic in his oracular sayings as later evangelists, pissed off at their persecutors, liked to make him out. And it is those later evangelists we can likely blame for the fabrication of most of the fantastic elements of the Jesus mythology.<\/p>\n

I believe Jesus was likely more of an Essene-flavored Gnostic than a teacher of what people now think of as Christianity, and likely never claimed he was the son of God, in any literal sort of way. He called himself the Son of Man. He seems to have had deep insights into man\u2019s nature, a philosophy of life that was rather like Lao Tzu and not far from Buddha, and he likely had enlightenment experiences.<\/p>\n

He did believe, apparently, that he had a divinely ordained mission. Christ means “the annointed”. To me, this label suggests he was a human being who was annointed by God to undertake a special mission. <\/p>\n

Yeshua might<\/em> have been the bastard son of a Roman soldier, whom Mary explained as a miraculous birth. Joseph had to tolerate him but probably never accepted him as his own child, perhaps leading to Jesus having a somewhat neurotic attachment to his \u201cdivine father\u201d; a projection on the supposed father of the universe, the only one he could psychologically accept.<\/p>\n

Jesus seemed to like children, the poor and oppressed\u2013and Mary Magdalen. A Gnostic text mentions him kissing her on the mouth and in another he defends her worthiness to his male followers.<\/p>\n

Jesus was called \u201cthe annointed\u201d by his followers\u2013that is, Cristos\u2013and the Romans (Tacitus) record him as having been executed for insurrection. \u201c\u2026Christus, from whom the name [Christian] had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

There are indications that he may not have quite died on the cross–it’s hinted that he was taken down from the cruciform framework early–and he may have recovered enough to visit his followers, thus fulfilling the prophecy of resurrection.<\/p>\n

Some time after Jesus passed from the scene, elderly Jewish writers rolled their eyes at the recollections of him, saying they remembered him well, as a \u201csorcerer\u201d, a trickster, and the bastard son of a Roman soldier named Pantera. Essentially saying: \u201cHim? We remember, already-\u2013he was a schmuck!\u201d (Okay, so I\u2019m paraphrasing).<\/p>\n

There are two references to him found in some versions of \u201cAntiquities\u201d, attributed to the Jewish historian Josephus, but the more enthusiastic one was clearly interpolated\u2013-an out and out fraud, simply inserted in the text by a later Christian copyist.<\/p>\n

However<\/em> there was one text about Jesus, likely authentic, attributed to Josephus, that has the ring of authenticity:<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus, and his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesus, most scholars agree, existed\u2013in the sense that Yeshua the Nazarene wandered around, said some of the things attributed to him; Jesus made an impression, locally; drew some followers, was crucified. (As for what he really said, see, the \u201cBook of Q\u201d for some sayings they feel certain of, and see also, in my opinion,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Historical Jesus? 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