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Old 06-13-2013, 05:48 AM   #61
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Obviously, it started as a vision of a Savior figure, growing out of the context of earlier Jewish beliefs about two powers in heaven, god, and an intermediary figure. I suspect that it started in the Diaspora among the God-fearers and not among Jews proper, though perhaps that is only where it found a hearing, and of course, among the Gentiles. As Earl argues, the early prophets were those who had been vouchsafed a vision of Jesus, a bit of a problem if you wanted to sustain an orthodoxy. When the Church began developiing its current Leninist structure in the 2-3rd centuries, it eliminated the whole idea of direct contact with Jesus as a legitimizing experience.
Obviously?

Methinks the JC historicists, and NT scholars, are not buying this vision idea as the root of early christianity. Visions don't take either the one claiming a vision, or those who buy into that vision, very far at all - just until the next big vision comes along. A Battle of the Visions - such a simplistic view of what started early christianity - a view that will continue to keep the ahistoricist JC position on the back foot in any debate over the gospel JC story.

The gospel JC story, a story set within Jewish history, is, like the stories of the OT, a story about Jewish history. A story about Jewish history retold, interpreted, through a prophetic lens. It is a very Jewish story - and it's roots are entangled within Jewish history. While that story, via it's resurrection element, has reached for the sky, it's roots are securely based on terra firm. Without that base, visions have no 'legs' by which to run very far at all. Visions, however imagined, might be, for some people, the cherry on the cake - but it's the 'cake' that holds and sustains that cherry.

'Visions', without relevance for living on terra firma are visions of the night; visions with no more value than the entertainment value of science fiction.
The 'visions' that are important, that have relevance for living on terra firma - are the 'visions' of the day. Day dreams about the reality that is - and the reality that could be.

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All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.

T. E. Lawrence
So, what did start the story?
History, Jewish history. Someone, or some people, Jewish people, interpreted their history through a prophetic lens. Yes, of course, the original source of the gospel story, who created that story, what people were involved in spreading that story, is interesting........But, from our perspective today, a perspective that is seeking early christian roots, it's the JC story itself that needs, first, to be acknowledged for what it is: A prophetic rewriting, retelling, of Jewish history. From that position i.e. putting Jewish history on the table - one can then, perhaps, be able to take that further step back - naming those who would have had an interest in specific elements of that Jewish history - and might have had a hand in the creation and spreading of that JC story.
Well, that's the question, isn't it? what started Christianity? and if the answer to that is, the story started Christianity, then the obvious next question is, what started the story? although of course there's another obvious question, namely, how did the story start Christianity?
Well, stories have a habit of doing the rounds.....but that's the second leg is it not i.e. how the story gained ground. The fundamental question regarding the story is not how that story gained acceptance - all sorts of stories have their adherents. The fundamental question is: What is the gospel JC story about? The root of early christianity is not the spread of the gospel story - the root is the story itself - what is that story about?

1) the JC historicists claim it's about a flesh and blood JC (of whatever variant - i.e. cherry picking the gospel story).

2) mythicists of the Earl Doherty camp who claim christianity began via a vision.

3) my position, an ahistorical JC position - the gospel story is a prophetic interpretation, retelling, of Jewish history. Jewish history is fundamental, basic, the core, the root, of that gospel story.
The question with which this thread started was 'what started Christianity?' The answer has been given that a story started Christianity, which is why I'm asking what started the story (stories don't tell themselves, after all) and also how a story started Christianity? It's true that stories have a habit of going around, but they don't have a habit of starting religions.
What started the story that led to Christianity? An interpretation, a prophetic interpretation of Jewish history. Jewish history plus a prophetic interpretation on that history led to the creation of the gospel JC story.

Someone created a pseudo historical story, a prophetic story.

Why did the story start a religion? Because it was based upon a religion. It was an offshoot from a religion. A religion with a long history of interpreting history as salvation history. The OT god saves his people from Egypt and Babylon...in the NT god offers salvation to all people. National salvation, group salvation, needed to move forward to incorporate individual salvation, personal salvation. A theological democracy where individual salvation, individual growth or development, was a necessary value within a rational society. People are to be valued for their humanity not their ethnicity.
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Old 06-13-2013, 06:42 AM   #62
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What is a vision of a "Savior figure"? Can you flesh that out some, to give some color on what there was that required following? What need did it fulfill and how did the one(s) with the vision satisfy that need? What would they had to have said, for example?

I prefer to stay with the evidence we have that Earl has interpreted as showing that the early Christians did not know a human Jesus but instead worshiped a figure who had made a cosmic sacrifice in the heavens which had redeemed... well, then they argued about whether all men were redeemed, when redemption would occur, etc. Clearly the social process of working out what the vision and the social structures that grew up around it meant would go on until the present.


Vorkosigan
"...evidence we have that Earl has interpreted....."

Indeed, there is evidence that Earl has proposed a "cosmic sacrifice in the heavens". However, there is no evidence for such a "cosmic sacrifice" in a fleshly sub lunar. Earl is speculating. Earl is interpreting the Pauline writing.

Indeed, "..the social process of working out what the vision and the social structures that grew up around it meant would go on until the present."

Why? Because interpretations carry no guarantee. All they do is tickle the fancy of those who propose them. Earl has not, and cannot, win a NT interpretation Lottery. To assume that early christian origins was based upon a "cosmic sacrifice" is to shut the door to ever understanding, or reaching, ground zero for early christian origins. A pie in the sky scenario for early christian origins will be thrown out of court by any biblical historian worth of that name.
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Old 06-13-2013, 07:20 AM   #63
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The question with which this thread started was 'what started Christianity?' The answer has been given that a story started Christianity, which is why I'm asking what started the story (stories don't tell themselves, after all) and also how a story started Christianity? It's true that stories have a habit of going around, but they don't have a habit of starting religions.
Christianity is about renewal of life that is native to humans as outsider to their own self. Renewal of life is native to all sentient beings for whom also metamorphosis is native to them that we call natural as seen from the outside, while from the inside 'the being' knows exactly how it is done.

Banned from Eden is why humans are sentient as outsider to their own self, which is a good thing, of course it is, so we can also be rational agents to gather knowledge that is stored and retained in our right brain, or TOL, there called woman as womb of man, and not just a female, but 'woman' in us, next to which we as human are outsider to it, that so now is conditional only.

IOW, there is no material cause with form for the human condition as created, and is not formed in Gen. 3 where 'like god' is added to give form to 'man' as co-creator with [first cause] God so that Lord God as formed (there called Second Cause in Gen. 2) can be renewed each generation anew. So now, 'like god' is partner with 'God' in the creation process and only needs 'realization' to be fully God and for this a re-emergence is needed to fully understand who he really is . . . wherein so temporal is needed to enter eternity by way of re-emerge to be the fruit of his own womb, this time, and not some female out there (with all respect to ladies and females alike).

Then take a close look at Matthew where Joseph was a dreamer by night to show desire inside TOK (left brain) to be counted among the righteous, and compare this with Luke where it was an innate fruition (right brain) that was brought on by tradition based on determinate forces that we call nature in animals who know when it is time to spin their own coccoon.


Notice that Gabriel is the functional agent here as first cause from God, that is prior to religion itself, and so is born out of tradition (that is by way of tradition only to subdue the TOK as reason itself), and hence is anti-dreamer as first cause by nature, let's say, to keep human desire away from this event (hence thief in the night and phrases like that say the same thing).

So in answer to the question: Where did the story come from? It comes from within, and never forget that Jews were not familiar with that, for whom the Torah of Tradition bore the fruit against the pulpit event as negative stand for them in this real life event.

Where did Christianity come from? Christianity is just a fiery movement by self proclaimed 'look-likes' who preach Jesus instead of Christ, but it must also be true that Christ must be real before the anti-christ can be conceived to exist.

A good allegory here is to say that while Paul was knocked off the high horse he was riding when he saw the light as [anti-pulpit] persecutor himself, the self proclaimed Christians became like 'the whole cavalry' on the run empowered to spread [pulpit] Jesus allover the land and so persecute Christ.
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Old 06-13-2013, 07:40 AM   #64
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I would imagine that the translation of the Hebrew religious texts into Greek was probably the most significant originating factor.
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Old 06-13-2013, 08:39 AM   #65
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Thanks aa. You didn't really address what I'm looking for. You address the 2nd century perception of OTHERS. I'm asking for personal opinions as to what it was that was being preached/taught that the early Jewish people responded to, and why they responded to it.

It sounds like your personal opinion is that Aristides account was accurate: there were 12 people who knew Jesus, and thought he had risen from the dead after the Jews killed him. Their preaching and example was so powerful that other Jews believed what they said.

Is that IYO, what started the spread of Christianity among the Jews?
Of course I addressed your questions. Speculation and imagination resolves nothing. It is the witnesses of antiquity who will answer you. Aristides is one of them .
So in other words, you decline to share a personal opinion. ok. This thread is for those that are willing to share an opinion of their own, instead of someone else.
Don't let "aa" or Aristides fool you, Ted. The single 'gospel' passage in that apology is almost certainly a later insertion. I posted here my full Appendix from Jesus: Neither God Nor Man on that subject a couple of months ago Edit

The question that really needs to be examined has a different nuance than what you present, Ted. We need to ask to what extent Christianity actually arose among Jews, and what was the form of it in its initial stage. There is a huge difference between the idea that Jews in Jerusalem responded to a preaching, miracle-working sage and came to take his disciples' word for it that he had walked out of his grave and was consequently the redeemer of the world (all of which enjoys no evidence in the entire epistolary record, in contrast to the 2nd century Acts) and the idea that some Jews in Hellenistic influenced milieus, with many gentiles taking part as well, were persuaded that God had a Son along Logos lines and that scripture revealed activities of that Son in the heavenly realm.

Your "among Jews" really needs to be defined and analyzed first. (My apologies if that has been done in subsequent postings in this thread.)

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Old 06-13-2013, 08:58 AM   #66
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We know what started the Jesus story--- it was the Fall of the Temple, the desolation of Jerusalem and the Words of the Lord in the books of the Prophets.

The books of the Prophets are BOLTED to the story of Jesus and it is documented that the Jewish Temple did Fall and that the Jews suffered greatly at that time in the writings of Josephus, Tacitus and Suetonius.
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Chapter 1 of Mark doesn't say anything about the fall of the Temple and doesn't come from any of the books you have just been talking about, so where does it come from?


Chapter 2 of Mark doesn't say anything about the fall of the Temple and doesn't come from any of the books you have just been talking about, so where does it come from?

Chapter 3 of Mark doesn't say anything about the fall of the Temple and doesn't come from any of the books you have just been talking about, so where does it come from?
Why don't you just go and read Mark first before you post such absurdities?

At the very begining of gMark the author made references to the Words of the Lord in the books of the Prophets.

Mark 1:2 KJV
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As[ it is written in the prophets, Behold , I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
Now examine the Words of the Lord in the book of the Prophet called Malachi.

Malachi 3:1 KJV
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Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek , shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come , saith the LORD of hosts.
Again, please first read gMark because you don't seem to know what you are talking about.

We know what started the Jesus story--it was the Fall of the Temple, the desolation of Jerusalem and the Words of the Lords in the books of the Prophets.
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Old 06-13-2013, 09:09 AM   #67
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The question with which this thread started was 'what started Christianity?' The answer has been given that a story started Christianity, which is why I'm asking what started the story (stories don't tell themselves, after all) and also how a story started Christianity? It's true that stories have a habit of going around, but they don't have a habit of starting religions.
What started the story that led to Christianity? An interpretation, a prophetic interpretation of Jewish history. Jewish history plus a prophetic interpretation on that history led to the creation of the gospel JC story.

Someone created a pseudo historical story, a prophetic story.

Why did the story start a religion? Because it was based upon a religion. It was an offshoot from a religion. A religion with a long history of interpreting history as salvation history. The OT god saves his people from Egypt and Babylon...in the NT god offers salvation to all people. National salvation, group salvation, needed to move forward to incorporate individual salvation, personal salvation. A theological democracy where individual salvation, individual growth or development, was a necessary value within a rational society. People are to be valued for their humanity not their ethnicity.

No where in OT scripture is a Galilean traveling teacher and healer who went around and healed for free hoping to get a chance to pass on his message around the dinner table.

No where was a man crucified by real historical characters on earth like Pilate


Not only that most of the OT mythology was written and created about past events hundred and hundreds of years in the past, not in living memory.
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Old 06-13-2013, 09:23 AM   #68
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The question with which this thread started was 'what started Christianity?' The answer has been given that a story started Christianity, which is why I'm asking what started the story (stories don't tell themselves, after all) and also how a story started Christianity? It's true that stories have a habit of going around, but they don't have a habit of starting religions.
What started the story that led to Christianity? An interpretation, a prophetic interpretation of Jewish history. Jewish history plus a prophetic interpretation on that history led to the creation of the gospel JC story.

Someone created a pseudo historical story, a prophetic story.

Why did the story start a religion? Because it was based upon a religion. It was an offshoot from a religion. A religion with a long history of interpreting history as salvation history. The OT god saves his people from Egypt and Babylon...in the NT god offers salvation to all people. National salvation, group salvation, needed to move forward to incorporate individual salvation, personal salvation. A theological democracy where individual salvation, individual growth or development, was a necessary value within a rational society. People are to be valued for their humanity not their ethnicity.

No where in OT scripture is a Galilean traveling teacher and healer who went around and healed for free hoping to get a chance to pass on his message around the dinner table.
And just where in my post did I say any such thing???

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No where was a man crucified by real historical characters on earth like Pilate
You've lost me with this statement....

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Not only that most of the OT mythology was written and created about past events hundred and hundreds of years in the past, not in living memory.
I don't think you have read what I wrote at all.....
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Old 06-13-2013, 09:37 AM   #69
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And just where in my post did I say any such thing???



...
Here


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What started the story that led to Christianity? An interpretation, a prophetic interpretation of Jewish history.

That is not the core of the story, that was not how. It was a writing style used by the later authors.

But they didnt start Christianity. It had been going for some time before it was written down.


How about witnesses to a murdered man at Passover that was martyred?
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Old 06-13-2013, 09:58 AM   #70
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And just where in my post did I say any such thing???



...
Here


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What started the story that led to Christianity? An interpretation, a prophetic interpretation of Jewish history.
Nonsense. My statement does not relate to your quote - which you have cut out of this post......:huh:

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That is not the core of the story, that was not how. It was a writing style used by the later authors.
Writing style? Deal with the content of the story not the style of it's composition!
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But they didnt start Christianity. It had been going for some time before it was written down.
Jewish history preceded the written gospel pseudo-historical story. Christianity springs from the gospel story. The debate is not over the gospel story - it's a story. The debate is over what caused that story to be created. What inspired that story? What relevance does the story have to the historical time frame in which that story is set down?

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How about witnesses to a murdered man at Passover that was martyred?
How about getting real and dealing with Jewish history instead of that history's interpretation, it's reflection, it's prophetic interpretation, within that gospel story?
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