Doug Shaver

It is clear from the earliest Christian writings that Christians from Day One were equating some entity they called Jesus Christ with God. What apparently happened over time, starting not sooner than the late first century, was that they heard a few stories about some itinerant Galilean preacher named Jesus and began to equate him with that Jesus Christ.

PhilosopherJay

Hi Doug,

I think separating out the gospel itinerant Galilean preacher tales from the Jesus name of God group is important. In a way, Acts itself indicates this original separation:

The text tells us that some people received the baptism of John in the name of Lord Jesus, but did not receive the Holy Spirit. It is difficult to believe that John was the first to baptize in the name of Jesus after meeting him casually and accidentally during a mass baptism session. Rather, we can imagine that when John baptized, he was simply giving the name Jesus as the secret name of the Lord. In other words, no son of lord here, just the secret of name of the Lord which makes prayers/magic effective. It is an old principle of magic that if you know and say the name of a God/demon, you can control him/her. In this case knowing the name allows to get your sins wiped out.

I would suggest that John is an origin myth story. Various members of a group starting using the name Jesus as the name of the Lord and doing ceremonial washing, baptizing, as an initiation ritual. A prophet character, John, was created to legitimize the practice. One can imagine a child asking a set of questions before initiation. Why do I have to go in the cold water and get baptized? The answer the cult leaders came up with was that it washes away sins. "How do you know this?" There was a prophet named John and he came out of the wilderness and he was baptized and he baptized others. John is an origin myth.

Since the gospel stories do not include a Jesus as name of God story, we may take it that in phase two. A separate group that came up with the idea of Jesus as name of God adopted the John origin myth to their own purposes.

One may take the idea of placing of hands and the idea of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues as an entirely separate activity done by an entirely separate sect. It is associated with the idea of prophesy and having the power of God speaking through a person. Paul is the origin myth of the Holy Ghost.

Thus we have:

Group 1. The Baptists
Idea - Repentance for sins (following Roman ways)
Ceremony - Baptism
Origin Myth - John the Baptist
Development - Name of Lord is Jesus or Jesus Christ

Group 2. the Holy Ghosts
Idea - Holy Ghost God speaking through a man
Ceremony - Laying of hands causing speaking in tongues
Origin Myth - Peter rejecting Jewish laws. The Lord speaking directly through him.
Development - Peter defeats his arch nemesis Paul/Saul and converts him. The Paul tales are just renamed later Peter tales.

Group 3. The Messiahs.
Idea - Forgive other Jews, but not the Roman supporting Jewish leadership who are traitors.
Ceremony - Supper meal/open banquet - bread and wine
Origin Myth - Earthly Jesus Christ, based on rewriting John and Peter material.
Development - Four Gospels.

The Early orthodox Church brings together these divergent cores from these three diverse groups. The group ordering (1,2,3) represents the historical order of the three groups.

Warmly,

Jay Raskin