jakejonesiv

When I was a kid, I read a book by Michael Moorcock titled "Behold the Man (or via: amazon.co.uk)."

In the book, the protaganist goes back to 28 CE in a time machine to find the historical Jesus. His girl friend had implied that Jesus may not have existed, but for psycholgiocal reasons, he thinks there must have been something behind the myth. Well, Jesus turns out to be mentally and physically challenged, so the protanganist (can't remember his name) plays out the gospel role himself, getting himself crucified.

Now, the question I have for the readers is this: If you could go back in a time machine to the crucial point of Christian origins, what would you see? You define the the crucial scene yourself. I am not interested in proof, only what you think or believe at this time. A parady is OK too.

OK, I will start. I get in a time machine and set the controls for Passover, the year 33 CE. Carfully hiding the time machine inside an empty tomb, I make my way to Jerusalem.

On the day before the Sabbath, there is a big commotion in the city. A messianic pretender and rabble rouser named Jesus has been captured and turned over to the Roman authorities for execution. There he is, on a small hill just outside the city. He is being crucified between two other malfactors. From a distance I wait for eclipses and eathquakes and other celestial signs. None happen.

Darkness approaches, and I look for someone to stab him with a spear, to take him down. Nobody comes, the three are just hanging there. It is full dark now. Oh dear, the time machine is only good for 24 hours. I have to hurry. I walk over to the cross and look up. No body is there.

Your turn.

Jake Jones IV

aa5874

I get in my time machine and set the time to 33 CE, destination Jerusalem.

I meet Matthias, the father of Flavius Josephus and he takes me on a tour of Jerusalem. On the way to the Temple, I notice some people dressed in apparel that is made from plants or some kind of leaf, Matthias told me that these people are the Essense sect.
He further went on to say that he knows two other sects, the Pharisees and the Saducees and that I will see some of them as we enter the Temple.

At one time, I saw some Roman soldiers with what appears to be crosses and Matthias tells me some insurgents were to be crucified but before I could get more information, I saw a mob stoning someone, but I couldn't see who it was being stoned. Matthias calmed me down and told me that these practices are legal in Jerusalem for certain crimes like robberies.

As we moved through Jerusalem, I noticed that quite a few of Matthias's friends were named Jesus and he told me that Jesus was a common name, because a lot of people in Jeusalem wanted to be a Saviour for the Jewish people.

But an event occured that left me spell-bound, a magician, named Simon was honored for his magical acts, and I never saw Matthias again.

douglas

My time machine zips to the year 34 and I park it behind the temple in Jerusalem. I wander into the Hall of Hewn Stones as the sanhedrin is debating the fate of some local Jew for blasphemy. The accused is muttering something about his recently deceased rabbi and how he just wanted to make some changes in the way things were run at the temple. There is much heated discussion about this Stephen guy, but they end up stoning him. (I toss a few stones and gnash my teeth, just to get in the mood.)

As I turn to leave (in search of the nearest Roman bordello) I notice a guy standing over the corpse, shaking his head in disappointment. I walk up to him, introduce myself, and strike up a conversation. Then I ask him if he was a relative.

"No. I just feel bad for the guy."

"Why?" I ask.

"He had a good message, but just couldn't execute. People around here are ready for a change. Someone with powers of persuasion, decent writing skills, and knowledge of scripture could definitely make it big with what this guy was preaching."

"What do you mean?" I say. "The Jewish leadership just stoned him to death?"

"I'm not talking about Jews." he scoffs "I'm talking about gentiles! Look around. Gentiles everywhere, and they're going to love this eternal life & forgiveness of sins stuff. There's just one problem."

"What's that?" I query.

"This rabbi he was blabbering about is just too boring. You would need to spice him up a bit in order to get anyone's attention these days."

"Interesting. What next?" I ask.

"I don't know. Anyway, I can't hang around here. I've got a tent making job in Damascus waiting for me."

Then he just walked away. I never did catch his name, but he seemed like a guy determined to make something of himself.

Clivedurdle

Saw deja vu last night. Let's spoil the plot! They have a wormhole that allows them to look back four days, snag is you don't get a second chance and you have to know excactly where to look. This is a quite common sci fi plot so a wormhole going back two thousand years might do it.

I would aim for an emperor concerned about the Jewish wars, or maybe a good library somewhere.

Would an interview say with Pilate help?

jgibson000

Why would you break character? And since there would be no Wiki available to you and none of the volumes or items stored there would be on line, how would you ever do any of the sterling "research" you are so well known for?

JG

mountainman

325 CE: Council of Nicaea. I dont think you'd find too many christians
before this date, and those found after this date were irrevocably
altered as a result of the council proceedings.

The Bishop

I'd go to the tomb and nick the body.

gregor

. . . Only to find that somebody beat you to it.

Wolfie

I found out that the guy who was crucified wasn't called Jesus - but he was another son of Mary, Jesus's younger brother, name of Judas. Quite a family resemblence bewteen the two, apparently - often mistaken for each other...

jgibson000

Thank you, Frank Yerby.

JG