Professor Vermes put it this way: "The switch in the perception of Jesus from charismatic prophet to a superhuman being coincided with a geographical and religious change, when the Christian preaching of the Gospel moved from the Galilean-Judaean Jewish culture into the surrounding Gentile Graeco-Roman world. The disappearance of Jewish teachers opened the gate to an unbridled "Gentilization' and consequent "de-Judaization,' leading to the "anti-Judaization' of nascent Christianity." (p. 147)
Thus, the Christianity that exists today is not only "an elaborate doctrinal construct developed by Paul's fertile mind on the subject of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ" (Vermes, p.99), but also a religion perpetuated by a Graeco-Roman church first created by Paul, that emphasized the authority of bishops, creeds and authoritative sacred texts.
Although "no teaching of the church can be traced back to Jesus," (Vermes, p. 160) by the early second century Ignatius of Antioch was insisting that it was "the duty of all the Christians to subject themselves to their bishop, to a single usually named bishop in each single church, and to the colleagues of the bishop, the presbyters and deacons." Perversely, as Professor Vermes observed: "the idea of the church totally absent from the teaching of Jesus, had now become a dominating principle eighty years after the cross." (pp. 166-67)
It was the church, Professor Aslan asserts, that stood reality on its head by elevating the significance of Paul and Peter at the expense of James. Paul was preferable to James in the eyes of the church because the demand for faith in return for grace promised to gather more converts to Christianity than the demands for Mosaic Law and good works (especially works to help the poor.)
Peter was preferable to James because "the bishops who succeeded Peter in Rome (and who eventually became infallible popes) justified the chain of authority they relied on to maintain power in an ever-expanding church by citing a passage [probably unhistorical] in Matthew in which Jesus tells the apostle, "I say to you that you shall be called Peter, and upon this rock I shall build my church."
It was the church that ultimately decided when Jesus became Christ -- because, the New Testament offers contradictory explanations. The earliest explanation came from Paul, who had picked it up from some of Jesus' early followers. According to Paul, Jesus became Christ only after his death, at his resurrection. "Thou art my Son, this day I have begotten thee" (Acts 13:33).
Soon, however, "some followers of Jesus reasoned that he must have been the Son of God, not just after his resurrection, but during his entire public ministry." Thus, in the gospel of Mark, Jesus is baptized and a voice from heaven proclaims, "You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Professor Ehrman notes, however, that Mark never says that Jesus actually is God. (Jesus, Interrupted, p. 247)
Not content to have Jesus become the Son of God after his baptism, Matthew and Luke -- writing decades after Mark -- have Jesus become the Son of God at his birth, as a result of intercourse between the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. Thus, Jesus was the Son of God during his entire life.
Then, at least a decade after Matthew and Luke, John wrote yet a different story. "For John, Christ is not the Son of God because God raised him from the dead, adopted him at baptism, or impregnated his mother; he is the Son of God because he existed with God in the very beginning, before the creation of the world, as the Word of God-- (Ibid., p 248)
Ultimately, John's view prevailed, but it "set into motion the heated doctrinal debates which stretched from the fourth to the sixth centuries" (Vermes, p. 133) But, imagine how much contradictory rubbish had to be glossed over in order for the church to get its story straight on this issue alone! Unfortunately, most of our so-called Christians remain blithely unaware of how Jesus became Christ.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
1
1
