911

Why can I not interpete it this way?

Jesus was actually preaching to the Jews who believed that the way to God was by "keeping the law."

Jesus then came along and say:
I and the Father are one.
I am the way the truth and the life.
The Father is in me and I in the Father

The people who was listening and looking at him saw a man just like themselves.

They then conclude:

If he, a man is all that; well so am I?

Helpmabob

The folk could see that there was something different about Jesus. his preaching, behaviour and answering of questions clearly set Him apart from other men. Especially His death was different.

911

As far as I know - Jesus did not ask people directly to worship him but to worship God?

chrysalis

He wasn't dead when he was preaching to them so why would his different death matter all to them?

Besides, he died in a matter (via crucifixion) that was very common in that era.:huh:

Helpmabob

Hi 911 - I think He did not seek worship, but if people worshipped Him, He did not stop it.

Hi chrysalis - Fair point, they wouldn’t really know about it, or know that it mattered. It remains an irrelevant point (to this discussion only) that his death actually meant everything to them.Yes, but the difference was in the detail e.g.: 1. One of the people who saw Him said �Surely this man was God�; 2. the temple curtain was ripped in two, as Jesus had said; 3. One of those crucified beside Him asked Him for forgiveness, acknowledged that Jesus had done no wrong and Jesus answered that that man would be in paradise that day.

911

Well if Jesus told people to worship God and they turn around and worship him; then people are in error, no?

TySixtus

911,

Could you explain what it means to be "the way, the truth, and the light"?

This is, as I read it, gibberish. Can you explain what it actually means?

Freiheit

As I understand it, Jesus never actually said "I am the way, the truth, and the life." This is one of a number of statements that is found only in John. John was the last Gospel written. When you place the books of the New Testament in the order that they were written as opposed to the order in which they are presented (the works of Paul were written first, then Mark, then Matthew, then Luke, then John) you can actually see the story evolving. With each step miracles are added, old miracles become more miraculous, and bolder claims are associated with Jesus.

John had absorbed the most Pagan mythology into the story of Jesus. Perhaps whoever actually wrote John confused the common Jewish expression "Son of God" to actually mean that Jesus was begotten by a God, as any number of Pagan heroes were. The phrase "the way the truth and the life" in particular is one of a number of expressions that was probably adapted from the Myth of Horus.

Horus was a God-Man Son Saviour figure whose legends were circulated around the Roman Empire hundreds of years before Jesus was born. The Jesus presented in the Gospels shares over 200 points of similarity with the Horus of antiquity.

Consider these quotes:

Horus: "I am Horus in glory...I am the Lord of Light...I am the victorious one...I am the heir of endless time...I, even I, am he that knoweth the paths of heaven."
John's Jesus: "I am the light of the world....I am the way, the truth and the life."

Horus: "I am Horus, the Prince of Eternity."
John's Jesus: "Before Abraham was, I am"

Horus: "I am Horus who stepeth onward through eternity...Eternity and everlastingness is my name."
John's Jesus: "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today and forever."

Horus: "I am the possessor of bread in Anu. I have bread in heaven with Ra."
John's Jesus: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven."

Here's the link for this and more of these striking similarities:
Jesus and Horus

This is the best one, I think:

Horus raised Osirus, his dead father, from the grave in the Egyptian city of Anu.
Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave in the city of Bethany.
Hebrews added their prefix for house ('beth") to "Anu" to produce "Beth-Anu" or the "House of Anu." Since "u" and "y" were interchangeable in antiquity, "Bethanu" became "Bethany," the location mentioned in John 11.
Asar was an alternate name for Osirus, Horus' father, who Horus raised from the dead. He was referred to as "the Asar," as a sign of respect. Translated into Hebrew, this is "El-Asar." The Romans added the prefix "us" to indicate a male name, producing "Elasarus." Over time, the "E" was dropped and "s" became "z," producing "Lazarus."

All probably fictional, but even if they were all true it wouldn't mean anything.

freigeister

Christ is a mystic. Mystics use language in ways that unsettle our thoughts. As Constantin Brunner puts it (Our Christ, p. 303):

Quote:

It is their words, pre-eminently, which empower language to do for the cognition of spiritual being what mathematics does for the understanding of the world of things. Such words reveal directly that the mystic's humanity has become Spirit, thus manifesting its power, and by the shortest route, it reaches us all. It addresses the original, naïve human being in us, which, free from the deluding mists of superstition, is in touch with the eternal.

Avatar

Well you don't expect that mythical heroes ever looked ordinary do you? Jesus fits the mytholigical hero mold to a T. In real life, the closest we ever got was Alexander the Great.