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Jesus was a great teacher and revolutionary thinker, and a man.
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He probably worked out his philosophy of life with John the Baptist, his mentor.
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He was neither divine nor resurrected, but a member of a Jewish family with four brothers and at least two sisters.
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He was conceived by Mary through normal sexual relations with his father, Joseph.
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He was crucified as a criminal by the Romans with encouragement from the Jewish rulers of Palestine.
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His crucifixion was an embarrassment to the early Christians (human nature) and not mentioned in the Epistle of James (Jesus’ younger brother), the earliest leader of the Christian movement in Jerusalem. Neither was there a mention of a resurrection or divinity. These latter are odd omissions if they were believed to be true by the earliest Christians.
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He did not die to save us from our sins and, on the cross, believed his “God” had forsaken him.
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His “divination” and “resurrection” were added by later Christian leaders to win favor with the Roman empire and to liken Christ to Mithras or Apollo, sun gods acceptable to the Roman elite. The story of Jesus was converted into a pagan myth and heresy.
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Early Christians looked to the words and sayings of Jesus as a guide to life in an intolerable world and had no reason to believe in his divinity or resurrection.
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The corruption or Romanization of Christianity was triumphant at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., paid for by the pagan worshiper Constantine, emperor of Rome. There is not one Christian symbol on the Arch of Constantine in Rome
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Mary Magdalene was an early leader among the disciples and probably the wife of Jesus. (Common sense.) She was vilified by later Christian leaders to suppress the role of women in the Christian church and movement. (More Romanization.)
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Jesus taught men and women to live in the spirit of a loving God, not the Jewish god of wrath. (Remember Jericho.) He broke entirely with Jewish tradition by embracing all of mankind and his thoughts had nothing in common with the pagan religions of his time.
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The views of Jesus espoused by early Christians, including the equality of men and women, his pacifism and his condemnation of the rich, were wildly popular without force of arms, but growth of the movement slowed noticeably after Christianity became Romanized and corrupted by the pagan Constantine. Constantine forced the Christian Church to serve imperial interests and its followers to be soldiers of Rome.
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Constantine never had a vision of Jesus or the cross. These specious facts were added late by Constantine’s personal biographer Eusebius to embellish his story years after his victory against Maxentius at Milvian Bridge in 310 A.D.
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Modern Christianity is primarily built on lies, spin and deceit designed and adapted to enslave the minds of the general population to the will of the ruling elite and is a grand pagan heresy to the original teachings of Jesus.
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The hope for Christianity is to return to the egalitarian and compassionate beliefs of the early Christian movement, which focused on the sayings and teachings of Jesus and not on the corruption and embellishment by the pagan Constantine and his elitist successors. The Way of Jesus gave the oppressed the means to fight back against the evil of Rome without force of arms and was subverted by Rome for that reason. The followers of the Way were happier and more loving knowing they would be rewarded in the next life despite the cruelties of this life and their oppressors would be judged and punished by God. Jesus calculated that living in the spirit of a loving God would improve the quality of life for believers in all circumstances and he was right.
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I trust only the words, sayings and teachings of Jesus, as they are known to us, as a close approximation of his “truth” and reject the lies and spin laminated together in official church doctrine.
Interesting theory. Never heard that one.
Amen, brother. That sums it up nicely.
The OP is well supported by historical scholarship.
Great OP. Where’s an evangelical when we need one? Where’s Selah7+?
If true, I’d like to see what Christianity would have been like had it not been changed.
Do you think he believed himself to be divine or the son of God?
Why an embarrassment to Christians?
Did he die willingly? If so, why?
I thought Jesus said he came to fulfill the old Jewish tradition [“law”], not abolish it. Also, Jesus wasn’t all about love and peace, was he? For instance, he talks about turning family members against each other, hellfire, and damnation.
“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace but a sword.” - Matthew 10:34
How can you tell the lies apart from the original teachings?
Not to presume to speak for Thomas Bowers, I’ll answer based on my reading of the subject…
There is little scholarly consensus on this. But, in the synoptic gospels Jesus tells the disciples to keep his divinity a secret. That suggests that it was not a claim that he actually made.
Because his followers expected him to become the earthly messiah not to be executed as a criminal.
He took a great risk coming to Jerusalem as messiah. In Mark which is probably closest to history, he doesn’t seem to have die willingly.
Historians analyze putative Jesus sayings according to the likelihood that Jesus actually said them. Accordingly, Jesus did represent a radical departure from legalism.
Jesus scholars have worked on principles of hermeneutics for over 200 years. Principles such as criterion of dissimilarity, criterion of embarrassment,
criterion of multiple attestation are well explained in Wikipedia.
There is little scholarly consensus on this. But, in the synoptic gospels Jesus tells the disciples to keep his divinity a secret. That suggests that it was not a claim that he actually made.
Honestly, no. But the rumor was part of the hype to build his movement. Jesus appears to have bought into this possibility gradually.
Because his followers expected him to become the earthly messiah not to be executed as a criminal.
His followers did not expect their rumored messiah to be treated as a criminal.
He took a great risk coming to Jerusalem as messiah. In Mark which is probably closest to history, he doesn’t seem to have die willingly.
After the excruciating pain experienced by Jesus on the cross, he would have hoped for God to intervene. This is the great “oops” moment. Jesus wonders why his God has forsaken him.
Historians analyze putative Jesus sayings according to the likelihood that Jesus actually said them. Accordingly, Jesus did represent a radical departure from legalism.
Jesus offered passive resistance to the intolerable cruelties of his time while showing love to his fellow man, even his enemies. If everyone believed in eternal punishment by God for their evil acts and cruelties while expecting love and charity to be rewarded in the afterlife, life on earth would necessarily improve.
Jesus scholars have worked on principles of hermeneutics for over 200 years. Principles such as criterion of dissimilarity, criterion of embarrassment,
criterion of multiple attestation are well explained in Wikipedia.
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Look at the spirit of a loving God. What would it promote and encourage? The lies promote disharmony, division and cruelty among men and women; the truth promotes love, charity and harmony.
All good, I think, except the “Paganisation” bit.
Pagans were those unfortunate enough to be persecuted by the Christians, and they deserve a better press.
After Constantine, the NRM christianity was an urban phenomenon, and spread throughout the Empire. The people of the villages, literally the Pagani, held on to the older religions the longest. These were vilified as country bumbkins as they depended on their earth-religions which helped them understand the cycles of nature and the growing of the food supply to the townies.
These Pagani were damned as witches and sent to die in the arenas, or were burned as witches, or forced to convert of die.
As for Joshua Ben Josef he has some good things to say, but did not go far enough, and his death was basically in vain. I do not think it likely that he ever claimed literally to be the son of god, as that was a phrase used by all rabbis of the time, and when the story moved to Greece where is was later written down, this was when the myth of his divinity became liberalised. Afterall the Greeks were very familiar with god on earth. Divine people were very common to Greeks and Romans. One thinks of Alexander and Augustus, both deified in their own lifetimes. And nothing out of the ordinary.
And then, sadly we have had 2000 years of hatred wars and strife over this supernatural film-flam.
I do not think that Christianity is salvageable, though. It simply has too much crud sticking to it; too much evil to account for.
And although had some good ideas, he justified slavery and rejecting the family to follow a religion. There is much more besides bothe good and evil. But he was not the only person to be put on a cross and not the most important.
As for cruxified people, ~I think Spartacus is a far better example for the cuurent times and the future.
I’m not taking about the portrayal of TV 
. But the real man that freed thousands of slaves, and fought against the empire, for freedom.
According to Rabbi Blue, all Rabbis at the time of Christ were known by the phrase “Son of man/ son of god”?
When this was later written down into Greek it took on a literal meaning.
Patently false. Prisons are filled with criminals who believe exactly what you describe. To propose something like that at this point in history seems wildly naive. If that is what Jesus thought, he was clearly wrong.
Christianity was officially paganized by the Council of Nicaea in 325A.D. by the authority of Constantine. After that, Christianity was used to victimize other pagans and true Christians by force of arms by the Roman elite and their successors. Agreed. Spartacus was an inspirational challenge to the evils of Rome, but his strategy was obviously less successful than the challenge of Jesus mounted by early Christians.
How do you know what they believe?
I’ve read a good but about it actually. There are studies and statistics on the subject.
Surely the Paganisation of Christianity is a good thing.
The challenge of Spartacus to the evils of Rome are inspiring, but the challenge of Jesus by early Christians was obviously much more successful.
Yes, if it was honest.
An honest bastardization of Christianity would be okay?
Okey dokey
References please??
And there these verses :
Mat 19:16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
Mat 19:17 And he [Jesus] said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God
The trouble New Testament scholars have, in getting at the historical Jesus is, digging thru all the bullshit.
In “Forged” New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman basically reveals how early Christians loved to make up complete bullshit about Jesus. And given that the Canonical gospels are anonymous, how can we be certain that we’re not reading some of that bullshit.
Is there any wonder Christianity syncretized with Paganism …