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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 5/23/22

A Message Lost in the Mythology

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This article could have been written about almost any ethical religion and virtually any political party. It just happens that the predominant "religion" in our country is made up of a conglomeration of people who profess belief in someone we call "Jesus Christ." Now, "Jesus Christ" is not the name of a person; rather it is a Greek translation of the Aramaic title "Eshuah Hamashicha" or the Hebrew "Yeshuah Hamashiach." The title, in English, means "Anointed Savior." As a title it should probably be "Christ Jesus," a transposition apparently used solely by Saul of Tarsus, better known as St. Paul, author of a number of New Testament epistles attributed to him. At this time the only physical evidence we have regarding Jesus' actual name is an ossuary or bone box, found in the Israeli government archaeological-storage facility and traced back to the Talpiot tomb outside of Jerusalem. The inscription on the ossuary translates as "Jesus the son of Joseph." In that tomb lay engraved ossuaries with names such as Mary, Joseph, Judah, and possibly Mary Magdalene. Another ossuary was found in the possession of an antiquities dealer. On it was an inscription that translates to "James, the Brother of Jesus." The patina, that is the soil, vegetation, chemicals, and bacteria covering both bone boxes, seemed to match those in the burial cave at Talpiot. To make matters even more complicated, in Matthew 2:23 we are reminded that the prophet Isaiah predicted the birth of a savior to be called "Emmanuel" or "G-d is with us." However, there is no record of Jesus ever being referred to, in his own lifetime, as "Emmanuel." In II John 3, in fact, he is called "Jesus the Son of the Father," which translates, embarrassingly, to the same exact name as "Jesus bar Abbas," his unlikely evil, "Unanointed" twin, supposedly released by Pilate in place of the "Anointed" Jesus.

Now it seems quite reasonable that the Talpiot ossuaries are authentic, that originally they were located in the same tomb, even if the words "brother of Jesus" may have been later added to the original James inscription. We also have evidence that during the Crusades, the Knights Templar and the Church itself apparently believed that the cave represented the Jesus family tomb. In fact, it seems that one of the duties of the Templars was to guard the cave containing the ossuaries. The only bone of contention, I believe, is the possibility that since nothing written about Jesus during his lifetime or shortly thereafter survived, it is quite possible that knowing little or no details of his life, later accounts of his family and origins may have been based, to some degree, on the combination of names found in the Talpiot cave. There is also a good chance that, as was their habit, Paul and his followers may have purposely destroyed any other information that they felt might interfere with recruitment for Paul's pagan "franchises."

Curiously, the first historical mention of Jesus is by Paul himself. Paul has never met Jesus in the flesh. In fact, he never calls him by his actual name. Instead, he uses the relatively anonymous title "Christ Jesus." One can only assume that even after his supposed vision of the amnesiac ghost who has apparently forgotten the important ethical "message" he was actually sent to deliver, Paul never finds out Jesus' birth name or, just as likely, was never interested in learning it. The authors of the gospels, except possibly for Matthew, pagan converts to a new religion, adopt the Greco-Roman custom of referring to someone based on his place of origin. Thus, quite unlike the native Judeans of Jesus' time, they mistakenly call him "Jesus of Nazareth." In Matthew 2:23 they compound their lack of knowledge by deciding that this is the meaning of "Nazarene" in Isaiah's description of his "messiah." As anyone versed in Hebrew would know, the term Netzer as used by Isaiah, refers to a "root" or a "branch" of King David's family, not to a town coincidentally called Nazareth, which did not even exist in the time of Isaiah. It also explains why Jesus' original disciples routinely called him "Son of G-d,'' a term in Judaism that has nothing to do with divinity, but is used to refer to all Jewish kings legitimately related to King David. Thus Jesus, ironically, admonishes his followers not to call him that or he will be executed by the Romans! Instead he instructs them to refer to him as "Son of Man," a title commonly associated with Jewish prophets. Somehow, the Romans seemed to understand this, but the gospel authors did not, as Jesus was summarily executed by Pilate precisely because so many Jews proclaimed him as the true Davidic king. I say this because so much of the "mythology" associated with Jesus seemed to be created by Paul and his followers virtually out of thin air. I stress it as one of the main themes of this article. Ironically, Paul's "mythology" in no way seems to match the truly profound message of Jesus. Jesus, as a man, possesses all of the best qualities that can possibly be found in a human being. Whether one believes he is G-d or not, his message, very simply, is that if we love G-d and "love our neighbors as ourselves," eventually a "Kingdom of G-d '' can evolve as an example for other cultures. It is the same message as that of Hillel, the greatest Pharisee and, in fact, the same as that of his fellow Pharisees. Jesus, of course, is a Jew who actually practices his religion. He is obviously a follower of Rabbi Hillel's school, most likely of Hillel's grandson, Gamliel, who is credited in the New Testament with saving "Christian" lives from the hands of the Roman-appointed priestly faction of the Sanhedrin. **

Paul, whether (doubtfully) born Jewish or not, was clearly a pagan, concerned far more with pagan "mythology" than with any ethical "messages." What one must understand is that virtually every religion has a mythology surrounding it. In a manner of speaking, anything that is actually true in any mythology is so merely by coincidence. It is not that the creators of the mythologies are liars or fabricators, but it is in the very nature of religion itself, in its attempt to explain what is literally "unexplainable." What came first, the chicken or the egg? G-d or the universe? If G-d came first, how did "He" get here? Obviously, none of these problems bothered Jesus. He simply assumed that G-d came first and proceeded to the business at hand, the development of the "Kingdom of G-d," that very same "city on a hill" that President Reagan sought for us to be, as an example to other nations. The all-too-obvious problem is that so often and so sadly, the "message" becomes absolutely lost in the mythology.

Jesus, for instance, practiced Phariseeic Judaism as he assures us in his Sermon on the Mount and in numerous other instances. In Judaism there was no concept of "grace," no magic exoneration through "belief." Yes, G-d could forgive "trespasses" in people who had redeeming qualities and were truly repentant, but they were still responsible for their actions. Meanwhile, the concept of G-d in the early books of the Old Testament was one of jealousy, vindictiveness, violence, and cruelty. Later, as the authors matured, so too did their concept of their G-d. To make up for unfairness and tragedy, the Pharisees developed the idea, not only of building a "Kingdom of G-d" on earth, but the idea of G-d breathing new life into bodies of the dead, if their behavior warranted it. Thus mankind bears responsibility for its actions precisely because their G-d is responsible for His.

The pagans' gods were never responsible for their behavior. In fact, Hammurbi's and Roman civil codes were so necessary because their religions were devoid of morality. Ironically, Paul and his followers seem to have done the exact opposite of what they had intended. Instead of elevating Jesus to a divine status, by introducing "grace," they lowered G-d to the status of a human king, not accountable for his actions, and in doing so, ripped away any of their own responsibility for their actions, including the millions of needless murders that continue to accumulate to this very day in the name of their mythology; that is deaths committed for Paul's "sake," but in Jesus' "name." The latest example of this is Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Most people are completely unaware of his repeated claim, apparently backed by a deeply corrupted Russian Orthodox Church, that he and Russia have been chosen by G-d to resurrect "a fourth Reich," ie. a fourth incarnation of the autocratic Holy Roman Empire.

Political parties, unfortunately, are not that different. In every war, it is invariably extremists of a religion or political party that are responsible for initiating the conflict. These parties have radical, hateful, and greedy messages, always backed up by the importance of their mythology. It does not take a Rhodes Scholar to figure out that certain "religious" people of any faith, no matter how intelligent, if purposely taught that their religion's "mythology" is more important than the "ethical" message, they will be far more susceptible to extremist causes than will the average American citizen. While Jesus' humble message is quite clear, believe in one G-d and "Do unto others...," Paul's message is obscure and seems to boil down to the very same message of other autocrats: "Believe in me, I and I alone, am your only salvation!" Sounds like Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Putin and, yes, Donald Trump! I guarantee you, the humble Jesus never said those words! They were put into his mouth by an envious narcissistic and power-hungry Paul after stealing Jesus' identity, then promoted by the limited understanding of the sometimes well-meaning authors of the New Testament. "Salvation" is difficult! Paul tries, like Trump and his acolytes, to make it look easy, just blame all of your problems on someone else! For Paul and his followers, it was the Jews, Satan and a host of demons. For Trumpets it is the fault of globalists, immigrants, and any minorities who don't contribute to their campaigns. All Liberals and Socialists are "Communists" and facts are something to be hidden if they disagree with their message. There never was nor is there any racism in this country and anyone with sexual orientation out of the ordinary automatically forfeits their citizenship. Books with which they disagree should be burned and inconvenient scientific facts that interfere with their beliefs should be blocked from the public. Only their ideas and their ideals should be taught in schools from elementary through college levels. College professors who teach anything that offends their sensibilities, even if it is factual, should be summarily untenured.


Unfortunately, Mr. Trump's litmus test for picking federal judges at all levels seemed to boil down to how hopelessly indoctrinated they are in their respective religious mythologies as opposed to ethics or any respect for civil law. Currently, the most damaging of the justices are those who proudly call themselves "originalists," a term apparently invented to excuse our founding fathers for the people they found it necessary to sacrifice in order to form "a more perfect union" of white men. In fact, despite these judges' adamant denials, it seems that our founding fathers actually appear to have been human after all, apparently inspired by G-d, but still only human. Just as in the case of the human authors of both the Old and New Testaments, their inspiration did not somehow make their quite serious mortal weaknesses disappear either. At the same time, the fact that our white forefathers, for whatever "understandably" selfish reasons, worked so hard to first subjugate, destroy the family structure, then force black people into poverty and miserable communities doesn't hide the fact that even well-meaning police are generally scared literally "out of their minds" to even enter those neighborhoods that were purposely, I repeat, purposely created that way. Clearly, the "originalist" concept seems to consist mostly of denial, maintaining injustices, and an excuse to suck us backward as far as possible to the blatant ignorance of their beloved Dark Ages. It is no coincidence that quite unlike that of our founding fathers, their "originalist" theory of a perfect government seems to simply represent an updated version of the autocratic Holy Roman Empire.


Al Finkelstein 5/2/22


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Dr. Allen Finkelstein, writing since 2006 under the penname “O’finky,” was born in New York, where he attended the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County as a boy. He continued his religious training in South Florida until his family, (more...)
 

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