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Historical Jesus

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Historical "evidence" of Jesus?

Probably the most famous non-Christian source used as "evidence" for a historic Jesus, is the Roman senator, consul, speaker, and historian Cornelius Tacitus ( 20 - 117 AD). In a passage in his "Annales, book 15, verse 44" from the year 115 AD concerning the Christians, he mentions the name "Christ" as the subject for the Christian's cult and worship:
"Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of... Pontius Pilate, and the pernicious [or wicked] superstition [Christianity] was checked for a moment, only to break out once more, not merely in Judea, the home of the disease, but in the capital [Rome] itself, where all things horrible or shameful in the world collect and find a vogue."
This is mere hearsay; it's by no means an eyewitness report or useable as evidence of a historical Jesus-figure.

Then we have Tranquillus Gaius Suetonius ( 69 - 140 AD), a Roman historian and the personal secretary of emperor Hadrian. Suetonius also mentions the name Chrestus as the subject of the Christians worship.
"Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus (Claudius) expelled them from Rome".
("Judaeos, impulsore Chresto, assidue tumultuantes (Claudius) Roma expulit".)
This is also mere hearsay, and not any kind of suitable evidence for the existence of a historical Jesus.

So is also the information by Pliny the Younger, Roman governor in Asia Minor around AD 110. In a letter to emperor Trajan, he asks what to do with the Christians who "sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god".
Not exactly an eyewitness report of Jesus, and surely not hard evidence of anything else that Christians also sang hymns around 110 AD.

Josephus Flavius (born AD 37 or 38), a Jewish historian, does not mention any Jesus in his Jewish Antiquities, the history of the Jews from the beginning of time until the time of emperor Nero (published ca AD 93). Josephus mentions, among others, Pontius Pilate, John the Baptist and king Herod, and numerous events of minor and major political, religious and economical interests in the area. But he does not seem to know of any Jesus.

Then, in the third century, an earlier unknown addition to the Jewish Antiquities miraculously emerged, the so called"Testimonium Flavianum". Here Josephus suddenly witness Christ, and becomes a Christian. The problem is that this text is a forgery! Even parts of the Catholic Church acknowledges this. The forgery was probably written by the infamous bishop (and famous Church historian) Eusebius of Caesarea (ca AD 265-330). He forged a lot of texts in his time.

What about Christ's contemporaries?
None of the literate contemporaries of Jesus know anything of him. The Jewish historian Justus of Tiberia who lived at the time of Jesus, do not know of him. (Tiberia was a place not far from Capernaum which Jesus often visited, according to the Bible).

The Jewish scholar and leader of the Jewish society in Alexandria,Philon of Alexandria (around AD 30 - 45) does not mention any Jesus anywhere in his texts. Philon was a famous scholar of the Old Testament and had deep knowledge of the Jewish cults of his time. He died ca. AD 50.

There is thus no real historical evidence of a historical Jesus. One would suppose that, a character like Jesus who according to the gospels raised the dead, healed the sick and annoyed both the Jewish establishment and the mighty Romans to such a degree that they finally had to execute him, one should think such a character would make it into at least some contemporary historical texts. Nope. No record.

In view of the evidence the only honest conclusion is that the Gospel's Jesus never existed.

That there once lived a wannabe-Messiah named Joshua (greek: Jesus) in the first century Palestine is more than probable. Roman sources tell of dozens of more or less religiously confused wannabe-Messiahs at the time, and Joshua was a very common Jewish name. But this could not be the Gospel's Jesus, not the Son of God, raising the dead, healing the sick, annoying the establishment, executed as a criminal, and then finally flapping away to heaven. All that stuff is pure mythical, and blatantly stolen from older pagan cults by the anonymous Gospel-authors.(Read more here).

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The originality of Jesus

Who was the Son of the highest God, and the biggest healer in Antiquity? He healed the sick and even raised the dead. Hear and behold: former paralysed walked again, the blind could miraculously see again, and the deaf could listen and the mute speak after the Master's gentle touch! But he did not only heal the body, he also healed the soul. They called him Saviour and Redeemer, and he healed both rich and poor, men and women, young and old, slaves and free men, friends and enemies. In one occasion a paralysed man was brough to him in his bed, and took his bed and left walking after the Saviour had touched him. What was this Saviour's name?

… Asklepios.

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Who was born by a mortal virgin mother and had a divine Father, and was known as the "Saviour of the world"? Before he was born his parents wandered to a bigger town, and prophets had foretold his birth and that he would be a king. This instigated a search for the infant Saviour by a leading figure who wanted to kill him. After growing up the Son of God was shown all the kingdoms of the world from a high mountain. He also walked on water and when he met his end his mother and his favorite disciple stood by him. He then tells his mother: "Do not cry, I'm going to heaven". When he dies he utter: "It is finished" and the earth trembles and darkness cover the land. Then he ascended to heaven, and his greatest achievement was to conquer death.

His name was of course...Hercules.

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We all of course know the Redeemer who was no figure of pagan Greek polytheism. He was the true Saviour who wanted to help and save the sinful humans, by sacrificing himself. But he was willing to do this, out of love, pity and compassion for the humans.

His name:...Prometheus.

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Now, who was the real Son of God, born by a mortal virgin mother, and often presented as the venerated newborn infant, or depicted riding a donkey? He healed the sick and did numerous wonders, among those making fine wine from plain water. He was killed but resurrected from the dead and became immortal. The followers of this God often ate a holy meal in a kind of sacramental union with the deity to achieve immortality after their death. One of this god's finest achievements was his death, his sacrifice, which delivers the whole human kind.

The God was the very popular Dionysos.

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Who is the "Light of the World", the One, the God who defeated death? Born of a virgin mother, considered the first true King by the people. Who rose from the grave and ascended to heaven. He defeated death, and must be considered the single true God.

Of course the Egyptian Osiris!

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Now, the real God often called the "Light of the world", "The good shepherd", "The lamb" and is "…the way, the truth, and the life". Identified with a cross. Who could that be?

Horus, (the son of Osiris).

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The original "Light of the world" was the mediator between God and man and was born on the 25.th of December. Local shepherds witnessed his birth and gave him gifts. He had 12 disciples, and when his work was done on earth he gathered together to a last supper, and then ascended to heaven. At doomsday he will return to pass judgment on both the living and the dead. The righteous will go to heaven and the sinful will be killed in a giant fire. Sunday is his holyday, and this religion gave us the seven days of the week. His followers called each other "brothers" and their leaders "fathers". They practiced babtism and established a sacred meal ritual, where flesh and blood was symbolically consumed by initiates. Above earth was heaven, and below the dark hell with demons and the sinners.

The 'Light of the World' is of course the sungod Mithra.

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Wise men were led to his birth by a star, and his conception was miraculous. After his birth the ruler in the area wanted him dead and started a hunt for the child. But his parents were warned by a heavenly messenger who told them to escape over the river with the holy child. Here, he was met by shepherds. The boy grew up and did many great deeds, and was the mediator between God and man.

His name: Krishna.

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Who then, was the God whose mother was told by an angel that she would give birth to a holy child destined to be a Saviour? Even as a child he instructed the priests in the temple in religous matters, while his parents were looking for him. He started his religious career when he was ca 30 years of age, and surrounded himself with 12 disciples. One of the disciples is his favorite another is a traitor. He and his disciples abstain from wealth and travel around talking in parables and metaphors. This God called himself "Son of Man" and was referred to as "Prophet", "Master" and "Lord". He did many great wonders and healed the sick, blind could see again and deaf hear.
He also walked on water. When one of his disciples tried to do the same, he started to sink - his faith was not strong enough.

We are here obviously talking about Buddha.

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Our Saviour cannot be mistaken for any other. He performed countless miracles on earth, miracles well attested to by bystanders. He healed the sick and the crippled, restored sight to the blind, cast out demons, and even raised the dead! His birth was of a virgin, foretold by an angel. While still a child, he exhibited extraordinary knowledge of religious scripture. He reformed the corrupt and worldly religions of his day. He was crucified, rose from the tomb and appeared to his disciples to prove to them his power over death, after which he ascended to Heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father. He was known as "the Son of God!" His message is of love and compassion.

We give you: Apollonius of Tyana*

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And there is of course the God-man, the prophet, the founder of a great monotheistic religion that still exist today. He preached that there was only one true God, and his teachings focused on the eternal fight between good and evil. The teachings include the idea of the Saviour will wake the dead and pass judgment on all. The righteous ones goes to Paradise and the sinful straight to a burning Hell. The very word of Paradise stems from this religion. This semigod started his career in his early thirties, and had a following of disciples. As a band of monks they wandered around, preaching their religion. He was eventually killed and sent to heaven.

And he was the Persian Zarathustra.

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The problem for Jesus is that all these deities are much older than him. You don't have to be very bright to see where the authors of the Gospels got their "devine inspiration" when they created the Jewish version of the popular God-Man/ World-Saviour of Antiquity.

This was inspired by this web page.
* The part about Apollonius is from the very same web page

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Asklepios / Aeskulap

Hercules

Prometheus

The holy Dionysos Child

Dionysos (Bacchus) Osiris Horus Mithra Mithra Krishna Krishna Buddha (Siddartha Gautama) Buddha Buddha Apollonius Zarathustra/ Zoroaster

Original or a copy?

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he Jesus Myth

Why a historical Jesus never existed

There is no contemporary historical record of any kind of Jesus!! No written Roman, Greek or Jewish sources from this time (apart from the gospels) know of any historical Jesus or Christ. The name "Christ" is mentioned in some later texts (Tacitus, Suetonius Pliny d.y.) but then merely as the name of the idol of the Christians' worship (Read what these sources really say here). We don't even know who the writers of the Gospels were, and don't have the original manuscripts themselves either. We just have later copies of copies of copies of copies … of copies of the assumed lost originals. And with each copy the copyist usually felt free to alter details or rewrite whole parts of the manuscript. (We usually don't trust dubious anonymous sources as evidence for anything, do we?)

All the divine aspects of the Jesus figure are "stolen" from earlier similar dying and resurrected godmen, such as Dionysos, Osiris, Hercules, Attis, Mithra, Horus, Zarathustra and others. Actually there are few (if any) things about Jesus that are original at all. Jesus is just the Jewish version of this popular mythic Saviour- character in the Mystery-religions of Antiquity. (See the similarities here).

All the teachings of Jesus are "borrowed" from older sources, for example from the teachings of Buddha. Many of Jesus teachings are almost word for word identical with some of Buddhas sayings (400 years earlier). The so-called "Golden rule" can be found in several earlier pagan Greek (and Jewish) texts. The famous "Sermon on the Mount" was never held by Jesus (of course, since he never existed), but also because it was actually first produced in the second century AD by Christian priests, assembled from what they assumed were sayings of Jesus in different other texts.

The "birthday" of Jesus is of course unknown, not even the year of his miraculous birth is known. The church just stole the already popular date of the 25th December, which in Antiquity was an immensely popular celebration of the birth of the sungod Mithra, - "the light of the world".
More on the origin of Christmas - see the here

The story of Jesus was originally an allegorical story based partly on the Jewish exodus myth and Joshua/Jesus ben Nun, successor of Moses, the Jewish Messiah-myth and the widespread pagan myth of the dying and resurrected godman Dionysos-Osiris. Later uneducated Christians in Rome, people without the insight and understanding of the deeper meaning of the texts, started to take these allegorical stories for their face value, and Literary Christianity as we know it was born.

See more on the gnostic background of Jesus this web-site.

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Note:
Much of the writings and research on the Jesus figure is amazingly biased, vague, tendentious and pervaded with wishful thinking.

One should in general be a bit sceptical to Christian scholars who often (obviously) don't have the necessary distance to their subject and obviously seem to be on a mission to prove the statements in the Bible, no matter what the real evidence say. As Christians they are usually convinced that Jesus did once exist as a real person in the first place, and are just looking for a confirmation.

The reader should of course not take my assertions for granted either, but investigate the sources themselves, also the critical literature. The conclusions are then just a matter of honesty.

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The origin of Christianity is the Jewish religion, Judaism. Christianity is a development of Judaism and the fulfilment of the Jewish Messiah prophecies of the Old Testament. That the new religion achieved fast and widespread popularity was mainly the workings of a well-organized and effective Roman empire and the emperor Constantine, or rather his mother. Constantine’s mother was a Christian and she had a huge impact on her son. When Constantine embraced Christianity in the beginning of the fourth century, the religion suddenly found itself in the middle of the administration of the world’s biggest and most influential empire with a very effective bureaucracy. Soon Christianity expanded from Rome to the whole of the Mediterranean area. During the reign of emperor Theodosius the Great, Christianity became official state religion in 381 AD, and the basis of the unified Christian culture was established.

The foundation of the religion is the collection of different texts called the Bible (from greek tà biblía – the books), the scriptures of a small Semitic nomadic tribe, the Hebrews. This tribe was part of a larger Semitic union of tribes, and emerged in the area called Canaan, later Palestine, probably sometime in the 13th or 14th century BC. The exact time is unknown since there is little archaeological evidence after them from this period.

The Old Testament
The Bible’s texts are divided into two parts, the Old and the New Testament. The Old Testament claims to tell the early history and religious myths of the Hebrew/Jewish people. Actually the Old Testament is a collection of propaganda texts, made by Jewish priests to give the Jewish people a great and glorious history they never had. Palestine, and the nomads living there, had up through history usually been occupied, ruled and influenced by the mighty civilisations surrounding them. By Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Greece and the Romans.

The original petty state of Israel formed 884 BC existed for just a few decades until overtaken by the Assyrians. After being oppressed and ruled by their mighty neighbours for centuries the Jews developed a strong nationalism, and messianic prophecies and unrealistic dreams of political and military power flourished in the last centuries BC.

In this atmosphere, the texts of the Old Testament emerged, and could suddenly “prove” that the oppressed Jews once had had just as a glorious past as their mighty neighbours and occupants. The texts told the story of a powerful Israel and how they together with their tribal God Jehovah/Yahweh had won one glorious victory after victory against their many enemies.

These megalomaniac fantasies, now told by the new written evidence, culminated in the presumptuous Jewish rebellions in the first century AD. The uprisings were swiftly crushed by the formidable Roman army, and after the last Jewish uprising in 70 AD, the Romans said enough is enough, and levelled Jerusalem and the Temple to the ground. It seem futile and strange that the Jews thought they could fight the mighty Romans, but fuelled by the stories of their glorious past and almighty God, and actually believing in the Messiah prophecies, counting on the warrior king Messiah should come from the skies with his divine army and wipe the Romans of the face of the earth. It was written that their God had given his chosen people glorious victories over superior enemies numerous times in the past, - pity that these stories were mere fiction. It must have been quite a disappointment for the survivors.

The Myths in the Old Testament (OT) were borrowed from the surrounding cultures. OT was written in Hebrew and canonized as the Palestinian Jew’s Holy Scriptures, - Tanakh. The final form and content of both the New- and the Old Testament was not clear from the beginning but was subject to different resolutions on church councils in the first centuries AD. A first version of OT was agreed upon some time between 90 and 100 AD. This version contained 24 books, equal number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Today’s Old Testament with its 39 books was not agreed upon until in the 15th century AD. This is also the version of OT which Protestantism accepts as authoritative.

Different Bibles
Up through history different Christian sects had different Bibles. Texts held as holy and authoritative by one congregation were considered highly suspicious by others, and was thus not a part of their Bible version. During the reign of Ptolemaios 2 of Egypt (283-246 AD) OT was according to tradition translated from Hebrew to Greek, since the Jews of Alexandria no longer understood Hebrew. According to tradition the texts were translated in the library of Alexandria during 72 days by 72 scholars. Therefore the translation is called Septuaginta, which means seventy and is usually referred to as LXX (70 in Roman letters). The story of the 72 scholars is by the way only a myth, too.

The Jews divided OT in three parts, the Law (thora), with the Pentateuch, the Prophets (nebi’im) with the eight prophet books, and the Scriptures (kethubim) with the remaining 11 books. In addition we have the Apocrypha, texts which never made it into the Bible (Apocrypha means ‘hidden’ in Greek). The opinions on the Apocrypha have varied through history. The catholic church counsil in Trient in 1545-63 AD decided that the Apocrypha, with exception for 3rd and 4th book of Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh, was of equal value with the canonical books. The protestant church only accepts the Palestinian canon, and sees the apocrypha more as a kind of dubious supplement to the Bible.

Monotheism?
Judaism and Christianity are today strictly monotheistic religions, but they didn’t start out as such. In the societies where the stories of the Old Testament emerged there were numerous gods. The Jews and other tribes in the area were originally polytheistic and worshipped several gods and spirits. Traces of this is still in the Bible (1 King 8,5 f). One of their god figures was the Semitic El(Dagan), a dude with a very big penis. And his son Baal (the son of Dagan) was a fertility deity worshipped by the Jews. Over time El and the local tribal god Yahweh/Jehovah became one god.

The Hebrews also worshipped celestial objects, nature gods, house gods, animal gods (calf, snake), holy trees, holy springs and rocks. All the different tribes in the area had their own tribal deity, who was part of a larger pantheon and the common mythology of the area. Yahweh/Jehovah was originally a insignificant local tribal god for the Hebrew tribe. When these tribal gods were treated correctly with proper offerings, they protected the tribe, and could help the tribe when they waged war on their neighbouring tribes. The relation with the tribal god was considered as a pact, a pact between the male part of the tribe and the deity (Bultmann 1970).
The deity brings victories on the battlefield and protects the cattle and sheep, the crops and even controlled the weather. In return the tribal god demanded blood offerings, the slaughter of an animal or a child (see below) now and then. Blood was considered as the life force for both Jehovah and the Jews, without spilling of blood no forgiveness and no divine services (Heb 9,22; Lev 17,11.)

Sacrificing Children
According to the Old Testament, Jehovah is an especially bloodthirsty deity, and he is usually not exactly portrayed as a jolly amiable figure. He demanded blood, and for a long time he demanded human blood, to be precise: the blood of children. (Edwien 1958:27). Traces of the Jews’ child sacrifices we find in the stories of Abraham willing to sacrifice his son Isac (Gen 22,1), in the story of the daughter of Jefta (Judg 11,1 ff) and in the Mosaic laws where the sacrificing of children is compared to sacrificing animals (Ex 13,1, see also Ex 22,29-30; Mic 6,7; Ezek 20,25f).

All the first-born, both of humans and animals should be given to the Lord as sacrifice. Over time, this changed to replacing the sacrificing the first-born children with animal- or money sacrifice. (Ex 13,13; Num 18,15). To sacrifice children was probably practiced until the sixth century BC. (Edwien 1958:27).

Other Gods than Jehovah?
In the Old Testament, it is clear that the Jews believed there existed other deities than Jehovah, but these are of no concern for the Jews. Even St.Paul think there exist other gods than Jehovah (1 Cor 8,5-6). The first commandment also indicates that it is possible to choose other deities than Jehovah as your favourite deity. It says: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Ex 20; Deut 5,7). It doesn’t say “Jehovah is the only God there is”.

Anyway, over time the once small tribal god Jehovah became an almighty overlord God, an omnipotent creator god who doesn’t tolerate any other gods. He demands total submission and undivided attention from his people. The obviously most important thing to Jehovah, something repeated time and time again in the texts, is not to worship any other deity than him. The Jewish religious monotheism and the idea that they were Gods specially chosen people, result in the most extreme nationalism in antiquity (Deschner 1986:82). The Roman historian Tacitus writes that the Jews will be remembered for their hardcore superstition (pervicacia superstitionis) and as a people hated by the gods (genus hominum…invisum deis) (Deschner 1986:82).

The Pentateuch
The Pentateuch claims to be written sometime around the 13th or 14th century BC, and the Church claims that the inspired author is Moses. In reality the Pentateuch is far younger, most texts are probably written in the last five centuries BC, and by anonymous writers. It is in the Pentateuch we find many of the favourite myths from Sunday school, the two different creation myths, Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, Noah and the great flood (two versions), the tower of Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah, Moses and the exodus, the plagues of Egypt and more. The Pentateuch also contains numerous strict rules and regulations for the Jews; among these the famous Ten Commandments (Read more about them here).

Both the Pentateuch and the rest of the Old Testament is very much a work of propaganda, made up by Jewish priests to give the Jews a great and glorious past. None of the stories in the OT are supported by any other sources or by archaeology. Many of the stories are clearly myths borrowed from other and older cultures in the area. There is no evidence of the great empires of king David or his son king Solomon. The Exodus never happened, nor did the great battles were the Hebrews and their god eradicated their enemies by the hundred of thousands. (Read more here).

What about Moses?
According to Biblical chronology Moses lived some time in the 13 th or 14 th century BC. The oldest parts of the OT are, according to old traditional biblical research, written at the earliest in the 9 th century BC. Moses can then hardly be the writer of any of it, even though the Church still claims that Moses is the inspired author of the Pentateuch. It is then strange, to say the least, that Moses should write about his own death and constantly speaks of himself in third person. That Moses probably never was a real person, does not help the case either. There is absolutely no historical evidence for this greatest Jewish leader of all times. No inscriptions on whether stone, bone, bronze, clay tablets, papyri or any mentions in place names or in traditional legends in the area, other than in the Bible. Even though Moses is far younger than well documented Egyptian, Assyrian and Sumerian rulers who have left us monuments, statues, pictures/hieroglyphs and an abundance of inscriptions. (Read more of Moses, the man of Myth, here.)

Most of the Pentateuch was written and compiled by Jewish priests at the earliest in the fifth century BC. Ca 60 of the chapters of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers was compiled in the fifth century BC, but the final editing and composition of the Pentateuch was first done early in the third century AD. In these centuries there were produced a large number of holy texts which were edited, compared and interpolated through several different versions before they finally ended up as the Jewish Tanakh, which then again became the Christian Old Testament. At this time writing “prophetic” texts was a very popular activity among the religious literalists. The “prophecies” were often based on events already happened, and the trick was to claim the texts older than they really were.

The writers of the Old Testament texts incorporated oral traditions, legends and myths from this part of the world, and mixed it together with Jewish nationalism and the associated megalomaniac fantasies. They also incorporated historic figures and place names in the stories to suggest historical authenticity.

The texts were meant to give the Jews their own glorious past, just as glorious as the great civilizations surrounding them. The Jews and Palestine had for centuries been controlled by these great civilizations, Egypt, Greece, Babylon, Assyria and lastly the Roman Empire. Through most of their known history they had been occupied and ruled by others, and this was probably the cause why the extreme nationalism and megalomaniac fantasies thrived in the Jewish society. Finally they also led to their demise. With the Jewish uprisings the Romans crushed so hard that it led to the Jewish diaspora.

The varied processes of the Old Testament’s creation are evident in the inconsistencies of the contents. There are two creation myths, two accounts of the great Flood (with different duration), two different family trees of Adam, and tree different durations for the exile in Babylon to mention a few inconsistencies. There is a multitude of inconsistencies and contradictories in the Bible. Todays version of The Old Testament is based on Medieval translations not older than the ninth or tenth century AD. The discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls (dated to 100 BC – 50 AD) at Qumran in 1947 revealed many text of the early Jewish/Christian sect the Essenes, commentaries and texts with regulations for the sect and fragments from the Hebrew bible. A version of Isaiah and a commentary on Habakkuk is the only text that is directly related to the canonical Bible.

The analysis and study of the Old Testament in the nineteenth century challenged the “holiness” of the texts. As a countermove the pope Pius 10 issued a declaration (”De mosaica authentia Pentateuchi”) the 27. of June 1906 where the Catholic Church maintains that Moses is the inspired author of the Pentateuch.This view is not supported by any serious scholars on the Bible today.

The Sumerian Legacy
One of the cultures the writers of the Old Testament texts have used extensively as “inspiration”, is the Sumerian culture of southern Mesopotamia. The Sumerians invented writing and were the world’s first great Civilization as we know it. The civilization flourished in the valleys between the two great rivers Tigris and Euphrates, the area known as southern Iraq today. The Sumerian civilization existed for ca 3000 years, between the fifth and the second millennium BC. They reached their golden era 3-2000 BC. The Sumerians invented the wheel, the plough, irrigation, sailing boats, the keel, potter’s wheel and were the first to build stone arcs and multi-storeyed buildings. They had an advanced juridical system, developed mathematics, astronomy and the calendar. Still today our definition of time is based on the original Sumerian number system based on 6 and 60, and also our division of the circle in 360 degrees. But their most important invention, the very basis of all later civilizations and cultures was done late in the 4 th century BC: – the art of writing.

The Sumerians wrote on clay tablets with straw of reed cuneiform script. Hundred of thousands of these clay tablets are found in archaeological excavations. The more of these tablets are found and interpreted, the more of the original stories and motifs known from the Old Testament stories emerges in their original form. (Read more here). Most of the clay tablets are at least a thousand years older than the earliest texts in the Old Testament. The Sumerian culture had a huge impact and formed the casting mould for the later great civilizations.

(C) Ragnar L. Borsheim 2005

Keiser Konstantin
Constantine Keiser Theodosius 1
Theodosius

Gutenberg Bibel Thoraen

Background of the Old Testament

Sources:
Bultmann, R. 1970. "Urkristendommen". København
Deschner, K, 1986. ”Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums.” Band 1. Die Frühzeit. Hamburg
Deschner, K. 1990 "”Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums.” Band 3. Die Alte Kirche. Hamburg
Edwien, A. 1958: ”Idékampen i det bibelske gudsbilde”, Oslo
More literature here

Clay tablet from Sumer

Tacitus

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The Crucifixtion

* - Jesus was no slave, but a free Jewish citizen of Palestine. Since he was sentenced by a Jewish council (but with authority from a reluctant Pilate) stoning would be a more likely method of execution.

Prometeus
The dying Prometheus tied to a tree

The suffering Marsyas

** Some skeletal remains found in an ossuary had a nail driven through the heel, and the legs were broken. Source

Crucifixion as a method of execution originates from the Far East. The method is also known from Assyria, Egypt, Persia, Greece, Carthage and Macedonia. From Carthage the method was introduced quite early to the Roman Empire, and there used primarily to execute slaves, pirates, rebels and criminals. *

The method had no symbolic significance; its purpose was just to provide a slow painful and public death. The victim had nails driven through his wrist, not the palms since nails through the palms cannot support the weight of the body. The legs of the crucified were often broken, to make the victim die sooner. Usually the majority of the crucified ones died of dehydration and fatigue, not of the blood loss or the injuries. Crucifixion was a gruesome, painful and slow death, and the victim might live for days before he finally died. This form of execution was abolished by law in 315 AD by the emperor Constantine and replaced by hanging.

The story of the crucifixion of Jesus raises a lot of questions.There are no Roman sources on the trial of the “rebel” Jesus, where the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate acted as judge. There are Jewish and Roman sources on executions on other wannabe-Messiahs at this time, but no one seems to know of Jesu case. There is actually little archaeological evidence for crucifixion from this period **, but the Jewish and Roman written sources indicate that it was a fairly common practice of execution.

According to the evangelists Mark, Matthew and Luke, Jesus passed away in the ninth hour, and strange darkness happened between the sixth and the ninth hour. St. Mark can tell us that Jesus was crucified in the third hour, which means that Jesus died after only six hours. Usually it took much more than six hours to die on the cross, victims suffering for days were not uncommon.
According to St.John Jesus never had his bones broken to hasten his death, and none of the other evangelists say anything of any breaking of his bones. Jesus had, according to the gospel stories, apparently no large open wounds or other injuries that could explain such an unusual fast death.

The writer of the gospel of St.John tells us that after Jesus had died a Roman soldier poked a spear in his side to check if he really was dead. Immediately water(!) and blood poured out of the wound. This is quite strange, when dead people do not tend to bleed after the heart has stopped. And since crucified people usually had problems with dehydration, and human bodies usually do not contain much water in liquid form outside the stomach, this is very strange information indeed. But, none of the gospel writers are eyewitnesses of the drama, anyway.

In the St.Mark version of the story, even Pilate himself is very surprised that Jesus already should have died and need to get the information verified by one of his officers. For the most part the gospels have quite similar accounts of the crucifixion, except for St. John. This is probably due to the fact that both St. Matthew and St. Luke used versions of St. Mark as their source for the story. The source of the younger St.John gospel is more dubious, - probably “artistic license” for a huge part.

As the only one St. Matthew also knows that the graves of many holy men broke, when Jesus expired, and the holy dead ones shuffled out of their graves and “appeared to many people” (Mt 27,52-53). It couldn’t be particularly many people, since no other evangelist or historian knows of this spectacle.

An original story?
The crucifixion of Jesus is neither especially original. Of suffering executed and resurrected god men in Antiquity we can list for example Herakles, Tammuz, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Baal (Bel-Marduk), Mithra, Zarathustra, Odin (Wodan), Dionysos and Buddha.

The word in the original Greek gospel texts usually translated as “cross” can also mean “pole” or “stake”. In the Acts (of the Apostles), Peter tells us that Jesus was hung on a tree (Acts. 10,39), and the same St.Paul says in his letter to the Galateans (Gal. 3,13). The Jews actually had a tradition for hanging the bodies of stoned offenders on poles for deterring others (Freke and Gandy 1999). The godman Dionysos was, according to some versions of his passion, was executed on a cross or a pole. The god man Attis was often depicted tied to a tree, and Marsyas met his end tied to a tree and skinned alive. Depictions of a crucified Dionysos/Orpheus are also known.

The resurrection and ascension of Jesus is a story not consistent or coherent at all. Read more here.

(C) R.L. Borsheim

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Where is the Christ in Christmas?

Literature - se here

The Coca Cola Santa

St. Nicholas

My claim is that the most “Christian” part of Christmas is actually Santa Claus/Father Christmas. As most enlightened people know, the Church bluntly “stole” an already widely popular pagan celebration and just transformed it into a celebration of Christ instead. At every Christmas, children and everyone else is told that Christmas’ original background is the miraculous birth of Jesus. This is of course utter nonsense.

Background
The original celebration of “Christmas” started in ancient Egypt as a celebration of the god Aion or Osiris (who, by the way, was also born by a virgin mother). The “Saturnalia”, the fertility festival of the Roman god Saturn (aka the greek Chronos) was celebrated on the 17th of December and the following days. The festivals of Aion/Osiris (often called the Light of the World) and Saturn merged over time, and in the fourth century BC the celebration was moved to the end of December. The Saturnalia was a hugely popular and very important public holiday (feriae publicae). In the last century BC this celebration merged with the also hugely popular celebration of Natalis Solis Invicti, the birthday of the personified sungod Mithra on the 25th of December. (Mithraism also had a profound influence on the concepts and teachings of Christianity, se more here).

In Germanic Europe they also celebrated a festival of light and of the turning of the sun at winter solstice in the end of December. They celebrated the turning of the sun and for good health and abundant crops in the coming year. The Germanic name for the celebration was (and still is in Skandinavia) “jul” (yule, noel). The European celebration of Yule is actually an age-old communal Germanic festival, far older than Christianity in these parts.

The birthday of Jesus?
The date or even the time of year of the alleged birth of Jesus is not known. Even the gospels do not know the precise year of this birth. According to St.Luke, Jesus was born during the reign of King Herod (the great) and when Quirinius (Publius Sulpicius Quirinius) was governor of Syria. The problem of course, is that king Herod died in 4 BC and Quirinius became governor in Syria first around 6 AD. At a Church Council in 353 AD, the Church simply decided, with simple majority, that the birth of Jesus was to be celebrated on the 25th of December. This date was already a well established and widely celebrated as the festival for the sun god Mithra all over the Mediterranean world. This way, the Church wanted to replace the date’s association to the sungod with the mythical birth of Christ. This also became the starting point for the Roman Abbot Dionysos Exiguu’s (died c. 550 AD) new Christian calendar he came up with in the beginning of the sixth century, and that we still use.

Before 353 AD the date of the birth of Jesus varied within the different Christian congregations. As examples, both the 19th of April, 20th of May and 17th of November were thought to be the holy date, until the Church just decided upon the 25th of December. So the date itself has originally nothing to do with Jesus.

Food and Drink
In the Old Norse sources the pagan celebration of Yule in the Nordic countries is often described as “to drink jul/yule”. The central aspect of the pagan Germanic celebration of midwinter was to eat and drink well. To bake and to produce ale and mead were important preparations for the celebration. On medieval wooden calendars and pre-Christians picture stones, this celebration is still symbolised by a barrel of ale, or a drinking horn. So the emphasis on food and drink traditions is originally pagan trait of the “Christmas” celebration.

The Christmas Tree
Trees are important symbols in most religions. Depictions of trees are found in the rock art from the Bronze Age, and suggest that trees were important symbols in the pagan religion or myth even then. The significance of the evergreen trees as a symbol of life and immortality has been important, especially in the northern regions of Europe where most other vegetation seem to die in the cold winter. So celebrating an evergreen tree as a symbol of immortality and life in midwinter, have strong pagan roots. In the Old Norse religions the world itself was symbolized by a giant “world tree”, the Yggdrasil. This giant ash shelter the worlds of god and men, and at its base you find three wells, - the well of Wisdom, the well of Fate and the well that is source of all the rivers. The evergreen Taxus baccata – (English Yew) was also considered to have magical properties in the pagan Norse mythology.

At the Roman Saturnalia, which originally was an agricultural celebration of fertility, the Romans decorated their homes with greenery being hung over doorways, windows and furniture. The Romans also decorated trees outside with ex. sun- and star symbols. Food was also an important decoration, and children were allowed to pick the treats from the trees.

The Christmas tree custom, as we know it, is essentially a modern tradition, first known in Germany in the end of the 16th century. It became widespread and popular in the rest of the world first in the beginning of the 20th century.

A festival of Light and exchanging gifts
The celebration of Christmas is also a celebration of light, both because its origin as a celebration of (the turning of) the sun and the light/candle traditions of the Saturnalia. At the Saturnalia candles were lit in Saturn’s honour, slaves were given liberties and switched places with their masters for a day, and gifts were exchanged! The story of the tree wise men who give baby Jesus gifts, have little to do with the gift-giving traditions at Christmas. (By the way, the story of the three wise men is only mentioned in the gospel of St.Mathew). The tradition of gift-giving at Christmas has obvious roots back to the pagan Saturnalia, but is today mainly connected to the myth of St. Nicholas (aka Santa Claus/ Father Christmas).

Santa Claus
Santa Claus is based on the myth of Saint Nicholas who was a Christian bishop in the city of Myra in Asia Minor (today Kale in Turkey) in the second century. Bishop Nicholas died the 6th December 343 AD (according to tradition) and was canonised as a catholic Saint by the church in the 10th century. St. Nicholas is the patron of f.ex. barrel makers, bakers, druggists, judges, sailors and children. It became customary to give the children gifts in secrecy on his memorial day 6th of December. This tradition originates from the legend of how Nicholas saved three poor girls from prostitution by giving them dowry. He supposedly tossed sacks (or barrels) of gold/money through their open window at night. This legend exist in several versions, but the essence is that the bearded bishop in his bishops-gown and pointy hat in secrecy giving gifts in the night.

To see the act of gift-giving at Christmas as a Christian tradition because of this can hardly be correct, since it would be ridiculous to define all the alleged actions performed the more than 4500 different Catholic saints as particularly “Christian” deeds. In the 14th century French nuns celebrated St.Nicholas by placing food outside the doors of poor people. Over time the gift giving traditions were associated with the celebration of Christmas/Yule, and the St.Nicholas became the mythical Father Christmas. The tradition became particularly popular in Germany and the Netherlands. With the Dutch immigrants their tradition of Sinterklaas came to America, and became the Santa Claus tradition we are familiar with today.

In the Scandinavian folklore there is a figure often confused with Santa Claus, and therefore has been associated with midwinter and Christmas time. It’s the “nisse/tomte”, a small gnome kind of being, a fairly unpleasant choleric guy with a red pointed cap, watching over the cattle and the farms. If not treated with porridge at Christmas he could instigate bad luck and illness among both people and cattle. He has nothing to do with Santa Claus, he does not give gifts to anybody and he despises children.

Santa Claus is a fairly modern part of the Yule/ Christmas-celebration in the Nordic countries, introduced first in the very end of the 19th century. The costume and colours of Santa Claus come from St. Nicholas red bishop gown, and the pointy bishop’s hat. The depictions of St.Nicholas/Santa Claus have varied over time. Today’s picture of the fat and jolly Santa Claus in his red costume with the white fur trimmings, black belt and boots, and flying reindeers, is actually made by the Coca Cola Company. The image originated in a commercial campaign Coca Cola started in 1931, made by the swedish/american illustrator Haddon Sundblom. He used himself as model.

Conclusion
The date and time of year of Christmas, the food and drink traditions and the very celebration itself are of pagan origin, and have nothing to do with either the birth of Jesus or other Biblical traditions. The Christmas celebration as a festival of light has obvious pagan roots, and the Christmas tree have certainly no foundation in the Bible whatsoever. The gift-giving tradition was very prominent in the pagan Saturnalia, and can hardly be seen as of Christian origin. As a Christian bishop, and later mythological catholic Saint, St. Nicholas or Santa Claus, is actually the most “Christian” aspect of our Christmas traditions.

(c) R.L. Borsheim

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