What's to insult? Nothing but spam in this thread.

Toto

You Christians do have a problem with vocabulary. "Spam" = unsolicited mass email, generally of a commercial nature. This thread may have flippant, short comments, but not exactly spam.

The link, if you care to follow it, is to an article claiming that Jesus was actually a violent revolutionary terrorist (or freedom fighter, if you prefer), and his disciples were a band of thugs who beat people up. It claims that Barabbas was actually an alias of Jesus. I'm sure that no established scholars endorse this view.

[This message has been edited by Toto (edited May 04, 2001).]

Okay, nothing here but flippant, short comments. Oh, that are entirely conclusory.

"And Anthony Quinn was also Zorba the Greek. I'm sure that you could make something out of that."

Don't forget, he was also 'Quinn' the Eskimo in 'Nanook of the North'!!

Yes, but it can't be proved. Heck, we can't even prove much about jesus. So, no sense in worrying about it. The "jesus barabbas" line is probably just an error on the part of the scribe.

Michael

Lance

Bingo. Its been around a bit, but its not talked about because it radically changes the meaning of what went on at that time.

The name Barabbas in Hebrew is "bar Abbas" which can be read as "son of the father". Now...coincidence?

Furthermore, earlier translations of the gospels in John specifically mention a cohort and tribune present at the arrest of Jesus...which fits the theory nicely. Why do you need a small army (600 men) to arrest a "meek lamb".

Read this link:

spazioweb.inwind.it/bravo/qumran/english_files/gesing.htm

Here is a .gif that Dr. Donnini sent me showing the Greek and Latin that he was talking about in his article.

Since John is a fiction, we might ask, why would the author invent a cohort and its tribune arresting Jesus? The answer of course, is simple: it enhances the dignity of Jesus.

Frankly, the Jesus-as-political-revolutionary interpretation just doesn't make sense. To me, based on what I understand of savior movements everywhere, the human underlying all these layers of fiction was an iterant preacher who had a message of inmpending doom for the world, a very common event in oppressed communities undergoing economic dislocation during colonial periods.

Michael

Well, it looks like I was responding too soon. A very interesting site and article.

Michael