In
history there is, as most scholars agree, no reliable
historical evidence of a real Jesus of the New Testament
Bible outside of the New Testament itself. This is not
entirely true; in fact, there actually was a real Jesus in
history. If you will bear with me for a little while in
reading this article, dear reader, he will be revealed to
you.
At the time of the beginning of the Jesus
movements there was considerable intellectual turmoil in
Palestine. Many secular scholars and scholars from
non-Christian traditions have proposed that it is likely
that the story of Jesus began as a social movement to repair
Judaism. At this point, the temple was thoroughly corrupt,
the high priest was a political appointee of Rome, and many
Jews felt that their culture and religion was threatened.
The most prominent of the many movements to
repair Judaism was the Essene. The Essenes, founded in the
second century B.C., were greatly influenced by a "Teacher
of Righteousness," to which the Dead Sea Scrolls make
constant reference without ever naming. One individual who
fits the scanty evidence is a Joshua or Jesus Ben Pantera,
who apparently had some influence with his movement, but
was, in my opinion, much more than that. Apparently he had
enough influence that he became a political threat;
sufficient that he was declared a heretic by a temple
court and was stoned to death and his body hanged on a tree
on the eve of the Passover in 88 B.C. However, his
influence didn't die with him. Within a few years,
mythmaking began around this Essene, attributing to him
miracles and a resurrection. Indeed, there are
even several first-century Christian references to this
supposed miracle worker.
This should bring to mind the Jesus in The
Acts that was slain and hanged on a tree with no reference
to being nailed to a Roman cross. According to these
references in Acts, Jesus was first slain and then hanged
and not nailed on a cross:
“The God of our
fathers raised up Jesus,
whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.”
(Acts 5:30) “And we are
witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the
Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a
tree:”
(Acts 10:39).
The gospels have Jesus dying on a Roman
cross, however, the gospels are later writings than the
first 15 chapters of the Acts, which are written in the
third person style, whereas, after Paul enters the scene as
an apostle it is written in first person. The gospels are
written after Paul’s influence, therefore, it is Paul’s
Jesus that is nailed to a cross while Peter’s Jesus is slain
and then hanged on a tree as in the above. (We will return
to Paul’s influence a little later).
If Jesus was the Teacher of Righteousness
referred to by the Dead Sea Scrolls, as some have suggested,
his impact on the movement towards Jewish reform was
significant. And if he were the Teacher of Righteousness, it
would answer a lot of interesting questions, such as the
scattered first century Christian and Talmudic references to
a miracle worker named Jesus Ben Pantera. Among them are
quotes from Origen, saying that his archrival Celsus had
heard from a Jew in Jerusalem that Jesus Ben Pantera was
born of Mary as the result of a rape by a Roman soldier
named Pantera, and had borne the baby in secret.
This would account for why Mark (the
earliest gospel) never mentions Joseph as the husband of
Mary. It was both the Roman custom and the custom of the
Jews to include a patrilineal surname as part of a person's
full name; yet the New Testament does not give the surname
of Jesus (or Joseph either, for that matter) anywhere. Jesus
is always referred to as Jesus of Nazareth, a geographical
surname that was reserved by Jews for illegitimate children
of unknown patrilineage (Romans used the surname of the
father, regardless of the legitimacy of the birth). The
Talmud refers to Jeshu (i.e. Jesus) as being the
illegitimate son of an adulteress named Mary Magdala.
There are numerous rabbinical sources from
the early Christian period that refer to the Jesus of
Christian fame as Jesus Ben Pantera. There are several
interesting references to a Jeshu Ben Pandera from Nazareth
who traveled around and practiced magic during the reign of
Alexander Janneus, who ruled Palestine from 104 to 78 BC.
As these references are Talmudic, and
therefore presumably anti-Christian, Christian scholars have
simply dismissed them as referring to someone else or being
fabricated propaganda. But if they really do refer to the
Jesus of whom Acts 5:30 and Acts 10:39 speak, they add
evidence to the claim that Jesus of Nazareth is really Jesus
Ben Pantera, possibly the Essene Teacher of Righteousness,
who died in 88 B.C.
by being stoned and then hanged on a tree.
So, how did Jesus of the gospels end up
being nailed to a cross? Even Constantine went out to
conquer in the sign of a cross but it was so close to the
Mithraic cross of light that Constantine's soldiers who
worshipped Mithra were not offended.
Enter Saul of Tarsus
Since the city Saul heralded from was a main
hub of the Mithraic mystery religion, there is no way that
Saul, who became Paul would not have been very familiar with
it. In fact he may have even been a priest of Mithra. What
follows is what I think actually happened, in spite of the
interpolations and extrapolations in the New Testament by
the later organized church to cover up the truth.
First of all, Paul could not be a Pharisee,
as he claimed, if he were a Roman citizen. The Pharisees
hated Rome. There would be about as much chance of a Jewish
Pharisee being a Roman citizen as the Pope joining Osama Bin
Ladin’s merry men.
Saul was not with the Jews in stoning
Stephen but stood by and watched (Acts 7:58 – 8:3). Those
witnesses laying their clothes at Saul’s feet shows that
rather than being one of the Jews, he was a hired bounty
hunter. Going about “entering into every house, and haling
men and women committed them to prison” also indicates that
Saul is a bounty hunter. And, evidently, he really was Roman
because a Pharisee would not have the authority to go into
Gentile territory in search of “heretics” of Judaism, which
he does when he goes to Damascus, way outside of Judea.
However, in Saul’s pursuit of the followers
of the Jesus movement, something happens on the road to
Damascus (Acts 9:1-2). He most probably decided to become
one of them and in that way capture all of them at once, as
they had become so scattered (Acts 8:4). Instead, he learns
some of the beliefs of “the way” from one of the disciples
in Damascus. Acts 9 says that Saul went to Jerusalem and
joined with the “pillars” Peter, James and John, however,
contrariwise Paul says he did not go to Jerusalem but went
into Arabia and was there for 3 years and then returned to
Damascus before going to Jerusalem (Gal. 1:16-20). What was
in Arabia for Paul to go there? Zoroasterism and Mithraism
were there, a good place for Paul to gather his thoughts and
his doctrines. Maybe that’s why there is mention of the
“wise men” from the East (the Magi, Priests of Zoroaster) in
the gospel of Matthew (Matt. 2:1-2).
Then after preaching and establishing
gentile congregations and leaving bishops in charge of them
Paul returns to Jerusalem after 14 years (Gal. 2:1). Upon
Paul’s arrival in Jerusalem there is contention between Paul
and Peter. Paul has been preaching that it was not necessary
for the gentile churches to keep the Old Testament law but
the Jewish converts in Jerusalem were still doing so. It was
agreed that Paul did not have to do that and letters were
sent out to the congregations (Gal. 2:9) (Acts 15:1-24).
This, however, was only the beginning of the contention
between Paul and the “Pillars”; Peter, James and John.
Enter Church Wars
Paul complains that the Judaizers that he
contended with about the law, Peter, James and John, were
sending spies to check on what gospel Paul was preaching and
accuses them of teaching a different gospel from what he and
his bishops were teaching and also another Jesus (II Cor.
11:4) (Gal. 1:6-7) (Gal. 2:4) “that they might bring
us into bondage” (of the law).
This causes Paul to make another trip to
Jerusalem and the same contention over the law is still
there (Acts 21:17-21). However, Peter, James and John get
Paul to pretend that he also keeps the law (Acts 21:
22-25). Thus, Paul is cruelly set up by his “brothers” to be
captured by the Jews (Acts 21: 26-30) while Paul’s
“brothers” close the door behind him (v.30). By these means,
the “Pillars” (Peter, James and John) are finally rid of the
“apostle Paul” and desert him to his fate.
However, Paul pulls his trump card out of
his sleeve, so to speak, and reveals that he is a Roman
citizen (Acts 22:25) and escapes the fate intended for him
by Peter, James and John. The rest of the Acts has Paul
going on to Rome and this is probably where he retired from
the preaching scene and likely lived out his days satisfied
that he had succeeded in destroying the Jesus movement and
setting up his own religion based on Mithra, leaving his
bishops in charge.
After all, Paul himself said that he did not
learn his doctrines from the original disciples in Jerusalem
(Gal. 2:6) no, he received his doctrine by revelation (Gal.
1:11-12) and this “revelation” came “in a mystery” and this
“mystery” was the Persian Mystery Religion of Mithra which
contained the “wisdom of God, hidden in a mystery” (I Cor.
2:7).
Instead of writing letters to the
congregations to straighten things out about the contentions
between the followers of Peter and those of Paul, as
promised in the Acts, Peter, James and John wrote letters
contrary to Paul.
The letter to the seven churches calling
Paul’s bishops “Nicolaitans” (Rev. 2:6, 15) and accusing
Paul and his bishops of not being Jews or apostles (Rev.
2:2, 9). John further accuses Paul of teaching, “to
eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.”
Actually, Paul did teach that it was okay to
eat things sacrificed to idols if it is done correctly (I
Cor. 8:4-13). The result of this letter to the churches in
Asia was that they all turned away from Paul, “This thou
knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from
me . . . “ (II Tim. 1:15).
Peter, James and John’s Jesus is a flesh and
blood man while Paul’s Jesus is “the lord from heaven”, “God
manifest in the flesh”. Therefore, to them, Paul is the
deceiver and the antichrist (II John 1:7) because it is Paul
that said these things. That would also make Paul the false
prophet etc. But when all is said and done, Christendom ends
up a perfect portrait of what can be found in any good
encyclopedia by looking up the word “Mithra” which is Paul's
“mystery” of I Cor. 2:7. from which his revelation sprang.
400 B.C.
”Mithra: A god of the Persians, and
popular with the Roman soldiers in the first and second
centuries, was referred to as "the Light of the
World", symbol of truth, justice, and loyalty. He
was mediator between heaven and earth and
was a member of a Holy Trinity. According
to Persian mythology, Mithras was born of a virgin
given the title 'Mother of God'. The god
remained celibate throughout his life, and valued
self-control, renunciation and resistance to sensuality
among his worshippers. Mithras represented a system of
ethics in which brotherhood was encouraged in order to unify
against the forces of evil. The worshippers of Mithras held
strong beliefs in a celestial heaven and an infernal
hell. They believed that the benevolent powers of
the god would sympathize with their suffering and grant them
the final justice of immortality and eternal
salvation in the world to come. They looked forward
to a final day of Judgment in which the
dead would resurrect, and to a final
conflict that would destroy the existing order of all things
to bring about the triumph of light over darkness.
Purification through a ritualistic
baptism was required of the faithful, who also took
part in a ceremony in which they drank wine and ate
bread to symbolize the body and blood of the god.
Sundays were held sacred, and the birth of the god was
celebrated annually on December the 25th.
After the earthly mission of this god had been accomplished,
he took part in a Last Supper with his
companions before ascending to heaven, to forever protect
the faithful from above.”
So who is History’s Jesus? He is the Persian
god/man Mithra. He is Egypt’s god/man Horus combined and
translated by Paul into the flesh and blood man known as
Jesus Ben Pandera. As a possible explanation for who
actually was crucified on a Roman cross and inspired the
crucifixion story we have Origen, an early church father, to
thank. Origen says his name was Jesus Bar Abbas. That's
right, the insurrectionist and murderer called, in the
Bible, "Barabbas".
If, by chance, that education finally ends
the myths and legends of gods and demons in the minds of
mankind it truly will be, "History’s Jesus"
and he will be relegated to the Mythology section of the
library shelf along with all the rest of antiquity's
man-made gods.