lpetrich

Some more Gospel oddities:

As to Pontius Pilate, he not only existed, but he was described by two other historians, Philo and Josephus. However, both of them describe him as ruthless instead of as a whimpering coward. Were the Gospel writers trying to take the side of the Roman authorities?

Philo also described King Herod as ordering the assassination of some family members out of fear that they would try to overthrow him, but he did not mention his massacre of baby boys in the Gospel of Matthew. An event that went unmentioned in the rest of the New Testament, it must be said. But if Philo was correct about Herod, such a massacre would have been completely in character for him.

Also, both Philo and Josephus were interested in people like Jesus Christ. Philo discussed various odd Jewish sects, and Josephus discussed various self-styled religious prophets. But all we have is a few controversial paragraphs in Josephus.

So if there was a historical Jesus Christ, then the Gospels were dead wrong about how famous he had been.


It gets even worse with the crucifixion miracles. I imagine something like:

Josephus: Dad, you once told me that something weird had happened about when I was born.

J's father: Yes, son, some false prophet named Joshua of Nazareth was crucified. And when he was, lots of strange things happened.

Josephus: I'm all ears.

J's father: There was a big earthquake and the sky went dark for three hours and the tombs opened and their inhabitants took some walks. Yes, son, I swear by His Holy Name that it all happened; I saw all that with my very own eyes.

Josephus: I see no reason to disbelieve you, Dad; others have said similar things. [writes it all down in his notes for Antiquities of the Jews] Looks like the Holy One was saying what he thought of that false prophet Joshua.


Pliny the Elder might have said something similar, like:

Hmmm.... let's see.... [he reads an account of JC's crucifixion] Sky going dark, an earthquake, tombs opening up... that looks like it belongs under "eclipses". They always seem to happen with someone famous dies.


But did any such thing really happen? Josephus's and Pliny's books reveal no such thing.

Chili

It's been beaten into gold by millions of swordmakers who still do not understand and never will.

mindovermyth

Jesus preached, did miracles and gathered a following over a period of what, 1, 2, 3 or more years? Suddenly he is completely despised within the period of one week due to a VERY abrupt realisation that he did not fit the profecies? I smell a fish here. Interestingly, the way the jews are portrayed in the gosels as so vehemtly and universally condemn Jesus to his fate has given rise not only one but two rather major historical developments:

1. Of course, the rise and spread of christianity.
2. The percecution of the jewish race down millennia (i.e. christ killers).

More interestingly, if the gospels are truly divinely inspired, god would either have willingly inspired the writers to PORTRAY jews this way or instigated the jews to actually behave this way by sending down Jesus while fully knowing that the jews would react this way (the whole point of the exercise was his guaranteed death).

Thus god's second (or partial) goal must then have been to punish the jews for the umpteenth time in his ongoing on/off love/hate very kinky S/M relationship saga with the jewish race.

Rather clever of him and definitely wicked, but hardly beyond how any corrupt powerhungry human despot of the time (or today) with average intelligence could be expected to behave. Right?

andrewcriddle

Jesus is presented as a popular figure in Galilee which is the scene of almost all the reported miracles (including all those mentioned above).

A cheering crowd of pilgrims coming to Jerusalem (plausibly from Galilee) escort him into the city.

None of this necessarily indicates any great popularity within Jerusalem itself.

Andrew Criddle

Ulrich

Not only that, but one must ask why Pilate (a Roman) would have any passover tradition when he had been in Judea for less than 10 years? And to make that tradition one in which convicted criminals are pardoned simply makes no sense at all. I could see Pilate having a tradition of getting drunk every passover, but this supposed tradition of pardoning criminals does not compute.

I find Monty Python's retelling of these events much more believable anyway. Pilate actually did pardon Jesus, but when the soldiers went to take Jesus down they had no clue which prisoner it was (all those Jews look alike), so they asked. Barabbas simply had a much quicker wit (he was a career criminal, used to thinking on his toes), and claimed he was Jesus, so they released him on the spot.

For some reason I am now compelled to whistle the tune to "Always look on the bright side of life."

Amaleq13

I had always thought of them as greeting him but you are correct that the text does not say this. It seems to, instead, describe an entourage that came with him.

Vorkosigan

Shit. It's so hard not to read one gospel in light of what one knows from other Gospels.