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453 lines
28 KiB
Markdown
453 lines
28 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: On the Crucifixion
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date: 2011-03-11
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techne: :rough
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episteme: :broken
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---
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<%= youtube("http://www.youtube.com/v/PZBqsqvfj0Y") %>
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We know that the crucifixion of Christ is a myth[^1]. We also know that it isn't
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unique; there are plenty of life-death-rebirth gods. The theme goes back to at
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least 2,000BCE in its explicit form. But what's the charm? What is its
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attraction?
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There are two points that can be made, I believe.
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The first would be a [Jaynesian][Julian Jaynes] argument; that the early
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"reborn" gods are hallucinations of former rulers that continued beyond their
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death. The king would give commands, many of which were in the form of explicit
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voice-hallucinations by his subjects, and as such they tended to hang around a
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while after the king's death. The bodily death of a person didn't wipe it out
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completely; resurrection becomes obvious. (I'm not gonna give a detailed account
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how this worked, for Jaynes and others have already done so.) I find this very
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convincing for many cases. [^2]
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In the case of Jesus, however, we have a somewhat different scenario. For one,
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it plays out much too late. The bicameral mind would've already largely been
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gone, so it seems unlikely that many of the early believers actually had the
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dead still hanging around. (Which, of course, is the main reason reborn gods
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have fallen out of favor since then.) Furthermore, it seems unlikely that the
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man existed in the first place. His resurrection was not a construction to
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explain away his incomplete death; instead, death came first and life was build
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around it much later.
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Luckily, early Christianity is the best documented idea of the whole ancient
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world, so let's take a closer look how the story unfolded.
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There are two sources we can build on, Mark and Paul[^3]. Additionally, we will
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take a look at John, as will become clear soon. While it may be possible that
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Mark is actually a later, condensed gospel, I find the argument for it
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unconvincing. The story is much too sober and it already has signs of extension,
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so it seems more likely to me that Mark is one of the earliest documents, maybe
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even the first written gospel, period.
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What stands out in Mark's gospel is the lack of a biography. Jesus appears out
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of nowhere, gets baptized, heals a lot of people, appoints his staff and finally
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is killed. The miracle stories are very non-specific, giving just minimalist
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accounts, reminiscent of today's anecdotes about "spiritual healers" (c.f.
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[Sathya Sai Baba][]). The person described here is just one con-man among many,
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with some Jewish justification thrown in in an obvious attempt to later support
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his authority over the Jews, capitalizing on John the Baptist as well.
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But the tone changes dramatically at the end. Suddenly, Jesus becomes insecure
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and actually takes his own practices seriously. Before, you get the impression
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he is doing all the miracles, handing out the teachings only for his own profit
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or to shut people up. Now, he begs God to save him! This might certainly be a
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later addition, retconning a sudden arrest into an expected betrayal. Yet
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observe Jesus on the cross. Mark (15-16) tells it like this[^4]:
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> It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him. The inscription of
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> the charge against him read, "The king of the Jews". And they crucified two
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> outlaws with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by
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> defamed him, shaking their heads and saying, "Aha! You who can destroy the
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> temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself and come down from the
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> cross!" In the same way even the chief priests - together with the experts in
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> the law - were mocking him among themselves: "He saved others, but he cannot
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> save himself! Let the Christ, the king of Israel, come down from the cross
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> now, that we may see and believe!" Those who were crucified with him also
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> spoke abusively to him.
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>
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> Now when it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the
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> afternoon. Around three o'clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "Eloi,
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> Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken
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> me?" When some of the bystanders heard it they said, "Listen, he is calling
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> for Elijah!" Then someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a
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> stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, "Leave him alone! Let's see if
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> Elijah will come to take him down!" But Jesus cried out with a loud voice and
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> breathed his last.
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This Son of Man is clearly panicking, not in control at all. He dies on the
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cross and is quickly buried.[^5] Finally, Mark concludes:
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> Then as they went into the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe
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> sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, "Do not
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> be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has
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> been raised! He is not here. Look, there is the place where they laid him. But
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> go, tell his disciples, even Peter, that he is going ahead of you into
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> Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you." Then they went out and
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> ran from the tomb, for terror and bewilderment had seized them. And they said
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> nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
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It just ends there. Jesus doesn't even appear after his death. None of his
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teachings, in any way, justify his death or give it any meaning whatsoever. He
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is just suddenly taken away and killed, story over. The earlier "prophecies" and
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assurances that it went "just as planned" are clearly later additions, but the
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core seems very harsh. In fact, there's barely any attempt at wisdom or
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teaching![^6] This gospel is not about resurrection at all.[^7]
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Now let's take a look at Paul. Taking a conservative approach[^8], there are
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four authentic letters, namely Romans, I+II Corinthians and Galatians. Some of
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the others might be authentic, at least partially, but existing dogma hides the
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early developments we want to see. Paul writes about a lot of stuff, much of
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which is of little importance to us. Like Mark, he rarely gives any *explicit
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teaching* about or by Jesus. He insists that truth is revealed to him by God,
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but he never feels the need to actually articulate this truth. Some vague
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sentiments and emotional sing-song are enough.
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For example, in I Corinthians 1:11-31, Paul writes:
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> For Christ did not send me to baptize[^9], but to preach the gospel - and not
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> with clever speech, so that the cross of Christ would not become useless. For
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> the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to
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> us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will
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> destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will thwart the cleverness of the
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> intelligent." Where is the wise man? Where is the expert in the Mosaic law?
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> Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made the wisdom of the world
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> foolish? For since in the wisdom of God the world by its wisdom did not know
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> God, God was pleased to save those who believe by the foolishness of
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> preaching. For Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks ask for wisdom, but we
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> preach about a crucified Christ, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to
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> Gentiles. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the
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> power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than
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> human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
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>
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> Think about the circumstances of your call, brothers and sisters. Not many
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> were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were born to a
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> privileged position. But God chose what the world thinks foolish to shame the
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> wise, and God chose what the world thinks weak to shame the strong. God chose
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> what is low and despised in the world, what is regarded as nothing, to set
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> aside what is regarded as something, so that no one can boast in his presence.
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> He is the reason you have a relationship with Christ Jesus, who became for us
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> wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that,
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> as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
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Paul is very explicit here in his outright rejection of any kind of argument. No
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wonder the teaching is so lacking of content; it is empty on purpose! Paul takes
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his conviction from the warm, fuzzy feelings he gets when he thinks of (not
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about!) the Christ. Everything else, he argues from Jewish law or his own
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prejudices. There is literally nothing about the actual crucifixion or even the
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character of Jesus Christ in there. It is merely a source for him to draw all
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this "faith" from.
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What, then, is the crucifixion? What did later Christians get it *from*? All we
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have seen so far are miracles stories, interpretations of Jewish law and some
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organizational issues.
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What we really see happening is a hijacking. Gnostic thinkers, most notably
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[Marcion][] and [Simon Magus][] [^10], develop their own theology, based on Jewish
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mythology, a rejection of Jewish law and many (mostly Greek) mystic techniques.
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To increase mass appeal, they retrofit it into existing legends and begin a
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process of "historization", identifying a spiritual messiah figure with an
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actual person. Over time, the idea of a Jewish faith healer as central figure of
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a cosmic struggle sticks, people like it and the myth moves. Mark assimilates
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anecdotes and myth into a plausible story. Followers like it, but the narrative
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is severely lacking. Luke and Matthew rewrite it, introducing many new popular
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anecdotes, giving Jesus an actual character and adding a proper arc structure.
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Now intellectuals can find something in there, too! That's the way the story
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should've happened, you know.
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Believing that Jesus must have lived (others say so), and that his teachings
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must've been profound (his followers swear by it), mystics start substituting
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their own ideas for whatever really happened and teach what they thought the
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Son of Man should've taught. Full fan-fiction mode kicks in and a couple of
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decades later, all coherent structure is gone. The New Testament is born,
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optimized for sounding as profound and authoritative as possible without
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excluding any prevailing idea, pandering to as many biases and prejudices as
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possible.
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In other words, the crucifixion is a form of secularization[^11], making
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abstract mystic teaching more palpable by giving them concrete form. We could
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look at early Gnostic documents or try to reconstruct them from similar, but
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better documented traditions (say, the Upanishads, the Pali Canon or Crowley's
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work). But let's unravel it from the inside.
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We come now to John, whose gospel is a clear case of later Christian editing of
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an originally Gnostic document. Just look at this beginning:
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> In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
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> fully God. The Word was with God in the beginning. All things were created by
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> him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In
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> him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. And the light shines on
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> in the darkness, but the darkness has not mastered it.
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Except for a change of names, this is exactly the basic Gnostic world view of
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the Supreme God from whom all other beings emanate, of the broken Demiurge that
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makes the world but doesn't understand it, and of Sophia (wisdom) who brings the
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divine spark into this world, giving humanity its soul and way of liberation.
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John's new Jesus is divine in ways he never was in Mark. God is not Jehovah
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anymore - the god that walked the earth, talked to people and messed with their
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affairs. John's God is as unworldly as can be.
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But back to the cross. After preparing his disciples for the upcoming sacrifice,
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Jesus is arrested and found guilty. John gives us a much more detailed story.
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> So they took Jesus, and carrying his own cross he went out to the place called
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> "The Place of the Skull" (called in Aramaic Golgotha). There they crucified
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> him along with two others, one on each side, with Jesus in the middle. Pilate
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> also had a notice written and fastened to the cross, which read: "Jesus the
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> Nazarene, the king of the Jews." Thus many of the Jewish residents of
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> Jerusalem read this notice, because the place where Jesus was crucified was
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> near the city, and the notice was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. Then
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> the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write, 'The king of the
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> Jews', but rather, 'This man said, I am king of the Jews.'" Pilate answered,
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> "What I have written, I have written."
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>
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> Now when the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and made four
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> shares, one for each soldier, and the tunic remained. (Now the tunic was
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> seamless, woven from top to bottom as a single piece.) So the soldiers said to
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> one another, "Let's not tear it, but throw dice to see who will get it." This
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> took place to fulfill the scripture that says, "They divided my garments among
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> them, and for my clothing they threw dice." So the soldiers did these things.
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>
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> Now standing beside Jesus' cross were his mother, his mother's sister, Mary
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> the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. So when Jesus saw his mother and the
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> disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, "Woman, look,
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> here is your son!" He then said to his disciple, "Look, here is your mother!"
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> From that very time the disciple took her into his own home.
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>
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> After this Jesus, realizing that by this time everything was completed, said
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> (in order to fulfill the scripture), "I am thirsty!" A jar full of sour wine
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> was there, so they put a sponge soaked in sour wine on a branch of hyssop and
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> lifted it to his mouth. When he had received the sour wine, Jesus said, "It is
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> completed!" Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
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>
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> Then, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies should not
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> stay on the crosses on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was an especially
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> important one), the Jewish leaders asked Pilate to have the victims' legs
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> broken and the bodies taken down. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of
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> the two men who had been crucified with Jesus, first the one and then the
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> other. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did
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> not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and
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> blood and water flowed out immediately. And the person who saw it has
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> testified (and his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the
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> truth), so that you also may believe. For these things happened so that the
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> scripture would be fulfilled, "Not a bone of his will be broken." And again
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> another scripture says, "They will look on the one whom they have pierced."
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>
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> After this, Joseph of Arimathea, a disciple of Jesus (but secretly, because he
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> feared the Jewish leaders), asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus.
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> Pilate gave him permission, so he went and took the body away. Nicodemus, the
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> man who had previously come to Jesus at night, accompanied Joseph, carrying a
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> mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about seventy-five pounds. Then they took
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> Jesus' body and wrapped it, with the aromatic spices, in strips of linen cloth
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> according to Jewish burial customs. Now at the place where Jesus was crucified
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> there was a garden, and in the garden was a new tomb where no one had yet been
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> buried. And so, because it was the Jewish day of preparation and the tomb was
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> nearby, they placed Jesus' body there.
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Several things stand out about this.[^12] For one, Jesus is now fulfilling all
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kinds of prophecies. John is a great example of the later attempt to write Jesus
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into the Jewish messiah. This is not part of the Gnostic teaching and was also
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clearly not in Mark or other early documents. Only now does this become
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necessary with the church spreading among and breaking away from the Jews.
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Furthermore, Jesus now interacts with witnesses. He is finally in control. He
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even comforts his mourning family. This doesn't look like a sacrifice at all
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anymore. And we see one thing missing that changes the whole dynamic, that
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betrays its Gnostic roots: God is absent. Read closely. Jesus does not pray, he
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is not the Christ, he does not beg, does not bring the Kingdom. John's gospel is
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not about a resurrection, but a transformation. Jesus frees the divine spirit
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and breaks the cage of the flesh.
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The crucifixion is the symbol of this transformation and is used in that light
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by Paul who references his own death and resurrection. It stands not for an
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overcoming of death. In no meaningful way does Jesus die; his body dies, but the
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transformation continues independent of it, as we will see now. In stark
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contrast to Mark, John continues after Jesus' death.
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<%= dailymotion("http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xnryl") %>
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> Now very early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary
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> Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been moved away from the
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> entrance. So she went running to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus
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> loved and told them, "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t
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> know where they have put him!" [...]
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>
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> But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. As she wept, she bent down and looked
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> into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus' body had
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> been lying, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why
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> are you weeping?" Mary replied, "They have taken my Lord away, and I do not
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> know where they have put him!" When she had said this, she turned around and
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> saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
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>
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> Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?"
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> Because she thought he was the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have
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> carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will take him." Jesus
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> said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him in Aramaic, "*Rabboni*"
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> (which means Teacher). Jesus replied, "Do not touch me, for I have not yet
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> ascended to my Father. Go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my
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> Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene came and
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> informed the disciples, "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them what Jesus
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> had said to her.
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It then goes on to fabricate a "tradition" of revelation. This kind of thing
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becomes important for the growing church, but is of little concern to us.
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But this ascension is important. It is a purely spiritual experience of which
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the bodily death is just a vivid metaphor. It is the central technique around
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which the early church is built. The miracles are only there to finance it, the
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prophecies to gain a greater audience, the morals to further its influence. But
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the core is this accessible, graphic and guided mystical transformation.
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But what *is* transformed? Now that is the real strength of the crucifixion.
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*Everything*. *Anything*!
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You see, it is a placeholder. It can take on the role of any mystic technique.
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It is a universal metaphor. The Gnostic can see Sophia, the Theravadan can see
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the [Arising and Passing Away][], the new convert sees hope. What the
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crucifixion provides is a usable interpretation for a wide variety of confusing
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experiences. Instead of having to deal with the mind and the world as they
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really are, the crucifixion gives security. The difficult part of the ongoing
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transformation has already been done by someone else, the purpose is clear, the
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goal relatable. Overcoming death, freeing the spirit, getting closer to God -
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pick whatever seems most attractive to you. The Christ died for all of these, so
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have faith.
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The crucifixion is a Rorschach blot of the psyche.
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> I looked at the Rorschach blot. I tried to pretend it looked like a spreading
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> tree, shadows pooled beneath it, but it didn't. It looked more like a dead cat
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> I once found, the fat, glistening grubs writhing blindly, squirming over each
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> other, frantically tunneling away from the light. But even that is avoiding
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> the real horror. The horror is this: In the end, it is simply a picture of
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> empty meaningless blackness. We are alone. There is nothing else.
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>
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> -- Dr. Malcolm Long, Watchmen
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<%= image("rorschach.jpg", "Rorschach") %>
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[^1]: [Robert M. Price][], yada yada, Christ myth proponents not convincing? Do
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you also believe in Oz? If not, how about Hercules? If you understand why
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they are myth, you will understand why Christ is, too.
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[^2]: A completely unjustified speculation: the Buddha stands out by being the
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only one that breaks the pattern. He taught within a context that still
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accepted general rebirth, so continuing the theme would be very obvious and
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in fact, later Buddhists, particularly in the Mahayana tradition, did bring
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it back by making Buddha an ascended god, or by inventing the idea of the
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Bodhisattva, a being that intentionally ensures its own rebirth to help
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others. But in the original story, Buddha was a mortal who distinguished
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himself by *not* being reborn. He successfully extinguishes himself after
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death and his disciples didn't doubt it. Why is this remarkable? It would've
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happened during the transition to conscious minds, according to Jaynes'
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theory. There would be lots of remnants around, lots of old ideas colored by
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bicameral minds. What the Buddha did, maybe, was achieve full subjective
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consciousness(, destroy his personal god called the self) and teach it to
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his students, thus killing the dead voices. He wouldn't hang around after
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death because he changed the minds of his followers, so he was truly gone -
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[Tathagata][]. Later students, already conscious, couldn't understand the
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remarkableness of this feat anymore, so they retconned the Samsara story
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into it, maybe even actually inverting it. Now the goal of enlightenment is
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to destroy the linguistically constructed self and see the world "raw",
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non-subjectively. I would strongly suspect that during this retcon, they
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invented the figure of the Buddha, moved him closer to their time and
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assembled his story out of ongoing myths. The "real" Buddha, the one that
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brought death to the world, is almost certainly much older, dating back to
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maybe 1000BCE.
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[^3]: Mark and Paul, of course, are likely not really Mark and Paul, but rather
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anonymous texts attributed to the fictitious characters. Paul, at least, is
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most likely based on a real person, in the same way that Jetpack Hitler is.
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[^4]: Always using the NET bible, as on [bible.org][].
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[^5]: I find it fascinating that there is explicit mention of how fast Jesus
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died. Also, his followers took his body right away. This gives some credence
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to the idea that his death was faked. However, Jesus does not return in any
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way. He might've successfully gone into hiding (or to India, as some
|
||
traditions have it), but that seems a bit too speculative to me. I don't
|
||
really see how you could fake a crucifixion, or why you would draw attention
|
||
to the fact afterwards. If Mark was in on the lie, he wouldn't have told us
|
||
about the preparations or the sudden death. It would look much more like
|
||
Luke.
|
||
|
||
[^6]: If you find my dismissal of Mark too harsh, try reading it yourself, but
|
||
as if it were new. Imagine we met at a friend's house and I introduce you to
|
||
some text I wrote. It's all true, I inform you. It's about my former
|
||
Japanese teacher, Takashi, but I wrote it in English for you, translating as
|
||
necessary. Try reading Mark that way, substituting Takashi for Jesus, Osaka
|
||
for Galilee, Suzuki the Monk for John the Baptist and so on. What would you
|
||
think about this Takashi? What is his message? Could you even decipher any?
|
||
|
||
[^7]: There is the idea that the New Testament is a (partial) parody. Some parts
|
||
of it might be, especially in Acts, but I don't buy it for Mark. It follows
|
||
well-known woo-woo con-men structures, has obvious editing mistakes and no
|
||
underlying plot. The text is partially manipulative, partially sincere, as
|
||
is typical for the genre. Compare with reports about Sai Baba or Osho, for
|
||
example.
|
||
|
||
[^8]: I'm eagerly awaiting Price' upcoming book, "The Amazing Colossal Apostle".
|
||
I'm certainly seeing the merit of rejecting all Pauline letters as authentic
|
||
already, but I'm not fully convinced yet. Also, I didn't want to make my
|
||
analysis contingent on it.
|
||
|
||
[^9]: I'd love to know what exact practices Paul is talking about. I suspect
|
||
something akin to what modern Pentecostals are doing.
|
||
|
||
[^10]: Robert Price identifies Simon Magus as Paul. I haven't looked much into
|
||
the evidence for this yet, but it seems plausible to me.
|
||
|
||
[^11]: Funny thing is, about a millennium later, the same thing happened to
|
||
Christianity, too! The Reformation is nothing but an attempt to rationalize
|
||
Catholic dogma. This process continues to this very day, producing Christian
|
||
Atheism and Universalism (see Mencius Moldbug's glorious 5-part series
|
||
[How Dawkins got pwned][] (link to part 5, which links to previous parts)).
|
||
Or, as Jaynes said it:
|
||
|
||
> What happens in this modern dissolution of ecclesiastical authorization
|
||
> reminds us a little of what happened long ago after the breakdown of the
|
||
> bicameral mind itself. Everywhere in the contemporary world there are
|
||
> substitutes, other methods of authorization. Some are revivals of ancient
|
||
> ones: the popularity of possession religions in South America, where the
|
||
> church had once been so strong; extreme religious absolutism ego-based on
|
||
> "the Spirit", which is really the ascension of Paul over Jesus; an
|
||
> alarming rise in the serious acceptance of astrology, that direct heritage
|
||
> from the period of the breakdown of the bicameral mind in the Near East;
|
||
> or the more minor divination of the *I Ching*, also a direct heritage from
|
||
> the period just after the breakdown in China. There are also the huge
|
||
> commercial and sometimes psychological successes of various meditation
|
||
> procedures, sensitivity training groups, mind control, and group encounter
|
||
> practices. Other persuasions often seem like escapes from a new boredom of
|
||
> unbelief, but are also characterized by this search for authorization:
|
||
> faiths in various pseudosciences, as in scientology, or in unidentified
|
||
> flying objects bringing authority from other parts of our universe, or
|
||
> that gods were at one time actually such visitors; or the stubborn muddled
|
||
> fascination with extrasensory perception as a supposed demonstration of a
|
||
> spiritual surround of our lives whence some authorization might come; or
|
||
> the use of psychotropic drugs as ways of contacting profounder realities,
|
||
> as they were for most of the American native Indian civilizations in the
|
||
> breakdown of their bicameral mind. Just as we saw in
|
||
> [previous parts of the book] that the collapse of the institutionalized
|
||
> oracles resulted in smaller cults of induced possession, so the waning of
|
||
> institutional religions is resulting in these smaller, more private
|
||
> religions of every description. And this historical process can be
|
||
> expected to increase the rest of this century.
|
||
>
|
||
> [...]
|
||
>
|
||
> Science then, for all its pomp of factness, is not unlike some of the more
|
||
> easily disparaged outbreaks of pseudoreligions. In this period of
|
||
> transition from its religious basis, science often shares with the
|
||
> celestial maps of astrology, or a hundred other irrationalisms, the same
|
||
> nostalgia for the Final Answer, the One Truth, the Single Cause. In the
|
||
> frustrations and sweat of laboratories, it feels the same temptations to
|
||
> swarm into sects, even as did the Khabiru refugees, and set out here and
|
||
> there through the dry Sinais of parched fact for some rich and brave
|
||
> significance flowing with truth and exaltation. And all of this, my
|
||
> metaphor and all, is a part of this transitional period after the
|
||
> breakdown of the bicameral mind.
|
||
|
||
[^12]: Also note that John is trying to provide plausible reasons why Jesus was
|
||
taken from the cross so early. Did somebody get accused of fakery, I wonder?
|