Dec 2002

Why Jesus? Christians would have us believe that this man is special above all other men throughout history. But why? Why not someone else? Unlike the religiously motivated I do not except authoritative statements on face value, there must be more to it then just believing it because a book says so. Many homo sapiens have aspired to greatness, conquered foes, created massive empires, all for the sake of power. But this person known as Jesus Christ has done none of these things but still he is admired and adored in the same way. I would imagine that most people have heard about this man, at least enough to recognize the name, even those who follow another religion.

Christianity has spent an exhaustible amount of time and effort, throughout many generations, to insure that this story does not become lost in history.

Throughout my own journey in life, I have become quite knowledgeable about these events surrounding this 1800-year-old or so legend that which I believe, you will find quite interesting. Let us begin with one of the most obvious events that affects everyone Christian or not - the year.

In 664 C.E. King Oswy chose to ally with Rome creating an overwhelming amount of letter writing from monks and scholars. One Northumbrian monk named Venerable Bede became known as the best European scholar of his age. His work, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, made popular the use of B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Latin Anno Domini - year of our Lord) to date historical events. Many religions have their own dating systems such as the Israeli’s who use A.M. (anno mundi-the year of the world) and the Islamic calendar which has only 354 days. And if you’ve been wondering, I use what most scientists use which is B.C.E. (Before Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era) - nice and secular.

And let’s not forget about the Year itself, 2002. How do we know that it's right? Could the ancient people have been wrong or made mistakes? Well of course many scholars mixed the dates around until about 1000 C.E. We’re not too sure where old Bede got his date from in the first place. But as far as being connected to the birth of Christ, now that’s a different story. There is very little historical data about it. One such historian who lived in Jerusalem during the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 66 C.E. was Flavius Josephus. Scholars have searched hundreds of historians writings during this time for any hints that a man named Jesus lived where the Bible says he did. Scholars are relatively sure of the dates they give to Josephus’s work by cross referencing it with Roman writings about the uprising. Any mention of Christ by these scattered historians outside the Bible has been ruled forgeries by most legitimate scholars today. So if we’re going to find out who this Christ was our information is limited to a few books of the New Testament. Well then, what exactly is this New Testament and where did it come from?

The New Testament is made up of 27 documents written sometime between the first and second centuries mainly concerning matters of Christian belief. Despite the argument of their original language, all have been handed down in Koine or Common Greek. In 325 C.E. Constantine the Great, Emperor of Rome, created The Council of Nicaea along with 318 bishops to hammer out the precepts of Christianity . I’m sure not very many bishops disagreed with the Emperor and were very willing to please him in any way. And by this time most of the books of the New Testament were basically decided upon, excluding more than 150 other various writings. Known as Apocrypha, most were indistinguishable from their canonized counterparts having very similar style and sayings about Christ.

I would imagine these early sculptors of Christianity had no idea of the huge historical decisions they made with a simple pick of a document.

And what about the writers? Who were they and what part do they play in all this? Well that’s a good question because unlike what you may have heard the names Matthew, Luke and Mark etc. are basically nothing more than a bishops whim. None of the books of the New Testament contain names of their original authors. It was common practice during that time to apply the name of a well-known author instead of your own. We of course call that today as nothing more than forgery but the religious writers then hurried frantically to immortalize their legends.

Many people of that time could not read so they excepted what was written and told to them by the priest as truth. Take for example the book of Mark, being the oldest of the other gospels, 90 percent of it is contained in both Matthew and Luke word for word. Which makes perfect sense in those days if you wanted to have a copy of something you have to copy it yourself. And in doing so the scholars took liberties in adding their own ideas and creating new embellishments and so on and so forth.

Well we’ve taken a look at how all this stuff in the New Testament came to be but what about what it says. Even though the earlier writers were not eyewitnesses to these events and could write what ever they wanted, is there anything of value there. It might not be anything a preacher would want you to read but it definitely is eye-opening to anyone with common sense.

Let’s take the passage in Mark 9:1 "Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power." Or How about the Phrase in Luke 21:32, "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled."And here’s a nice juicy one our barbaric muslim friends might enjoy, Luke 19:27 "But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me."

I don’t know about you but I just don’t see how a kind highly intelligent supreme being type figure would say things mean and hateful as well as just untrue. It has been a very long time since that generation passed away. But why do people insist that this simple mythology, not nearly as creative as Greek or Norse legends, must be followed or you will be deep fried? Nothing more then tradition and fear' something us humans gain from our evolutionary past of passing on ideas from one family to another even though they don’t make much sense. So if you're like me and just don’t want to be bullied into a silly prayer or forced by your family to go to church and kiss ole Jesus’s ass, don’t! Stand up for yourself and say "No thank you!". And if you’re a Christian reading this and mumbling to yourself something about burning in imaginary hell, why don’t you grab up a gallon a gas and come and burn me yourself, because your God just can’t seem to get off his ass and do it!