Religions Evolve, Part 1: Christianity
P.Z. Myers is lamenting that a new myth-busting documentary from Richard Dawkins isn’t available here in Godbag America. Seeing as I’m a random pedant with an interest in this sort of thing, I’ve decided to offer up 10 Random Truths about Christianity. Next up: Islam, and then Judaism!
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1. The “virgin birth” stories don’t appear until 50 years after Jesus’s death. The apostle Paul never mentions them, and neither does the Gospel of Mark.
2. All of the Gospels are anonymous. None of them were actually written by people who personally knew Jesus, and the names “Mark” and “Matthew,” for example, were assigned by the early church.
3. None of the Gospels are even close to being eyewitness accounts. The earliest one (Mark) wasn’t written until 40 years or so after Jesus’s death. Luke and Matthew (which are both largely re-writes of Mark) were probably written 50 or 60 years after Jesus’s death. John was written 60 to 70 years after Jesus’s death.
4. There is no consensus in the New Testament about who Jesus is and how he relates to God. Placing the Gospels and letters of Paul in chronological order, it’s clear that the legend grew over time. Jesus probably died around 30 C.E.
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–Paul, writing in the 50s, thinks of him as a human being elevated to immortality.
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–Mark, writing in the 70s, thinks of him as a human graced with divine significance, chosen by God. The term “son of god” was not exclusive at this time; Caesar was also called a Son of God.
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–Luke and Matthew, writing in the 80s, think of him as semi-divine from birth; this is where the Virgin Birth stories come in.
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–John, writing in the 90s-100s, thinks of him as fully divine; he is now God Incarnate.
5. The resurrection story also grows over time:
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–Paul mentions apparitions of Jesus, but nothing about an “empty tomb.” He emphasizes that there is no difference between his mental vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus and the appearances by Jesus to his disciples after death. Jesus seems to be a spirit.
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–Mark mentions the empty tomb, but has no apparition stories. (The last part of Mark is tacked on by later editors.)
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–Luke and Matthew have both empty tomb and apparition stories, but the apparition stories are puzzling. Sometimes Jesus is unrecognizable to his own disciples. What exactly has been resurrected?
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–By the time of John, we’ve got the empty tomb plus Jesus as a fully re-animated corpse: He eats fish! He invites Thomas to stick his fingers in his wounds!
6. There is nothing in the New Testament about the Immaculate Conception or the Assumption of Mary. Both of these doctrines emerged many centuries later, as the figure of Mary became more and more important in the Church (in fact, taking on many of the aspects of the beloved Mother Goddess).
7. Most of the anti-female passages in the letters of Paul were later interpolations. In the early Church, women held important roles as apostles and pastors. Eventually the Church began to model itself more on general society – men in power, women in the shadows – and forced out the female leaders. The letters of Paul were “edited” many decades after the fact to include this new point of view.
8. Half of the letters attributed to Paul are complete forgeries.
9. The letters attributed to “Peter” and “James” were written many decades after the deaths of those two men.
10. Bottom line: There was probably an itinerant rabbi or leader named Jesus, and he probably preached something about the “Kingdom of God.” (What that meant is no longer recoverable, but this was an era of immense struggle between the Jewish people and the occupying Romans with their Hellenistic ways.) Jesus may have started out as a follower of John the Baptist, and seen himself in a similar light – a prophet, perhaps. He was executed by the Romans, and his followers struggled to come to terms with the meaning of his death. Some believed that he lived on in spirit. Some (like Paul) went further and came to believe that Jesus had been made truly immortal, and that the whole point of his life was his death. They believed that by achieving immortality, Jesus had inaugurated some new possibility for humans. Eventually this became the dominant view, and the original Jewish concept of an earthly “messiah” who would rescue the nation was transformed into that of a mystical “savior” who would rescue individual humans from death. From there, the Jesus figure took on the aspects of other salvific “dying gods” in Near Eastern mythology. And his mother became a virgin, and he became God incarnate, and so on and so forth.
The series:
Religions Evolve, Part 1: Christianity
Religions Evolve, Part 2: Islam
Religions Evolve, Part 3: Judaism
21 Responses to “Religions Evolve, Part 1: Christianity”
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ScottM says:
Interesting; I hadn’t heard half of this. Thanks for sharing.
January 12th, 2006 at 4:29 pm EST -
Dr Marco says:
This is a great post. I do not know why it is never said that the Virginity of Mary was established as official by the Church in the Council of Ephesus 431 CE. This means: it was decided by a group of priests.
I wrote something about that in this post
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The Reclusive Leftist » Blog Archive » Religions Evolve, Part 2: Islam says:
[...] Religions Evolve, Part 1: Christianity [...]
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misha marinsky says:
There is NOT ANY prediction in the Jewish bible that a child will be born of a virgin.
The whole thing is a myth.
Get over it.
(Posted by a certified Christ-killer and certified member of the International Jewish Conspiracy,membership #100000000000008.)
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misha marinsky says:
I can’t wait to see how you deconstruct Judaism. Oy vey!
Be nice to us, or I’ll have Alan Greenspan take away your credit card,and ruin your credit rating.
And now I am going to exercise my First Amemdment rights:
“From each,according to his ability.To each,according to his need.” Lenin ROCKS!
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Violet Socks says:
Yep, I’m running late with Part 3. This blog has gotten itself into two controversies in the past couple of weeks and I’ve been distracted.
Between you and Alon, I’m feeling like I’ve got a straight line to the Elders now!
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Reclusive Leftist » Blog Archive » Mormons Don’t Want To Be Misunderstood says:
[...] (Which reminds me — I never did finish my series on “Religions Evolve.” I posted Part 1 and Part 2, and then The Deluge came (here and here) and my little blog was overrun. After the storm subsided it’s not entirely clear what kept me from posting Part 3, but one theory that’s been gaining traction lately is that I forgot. Sigh. I’ll try to fix that this week.) [...]
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Reclusive Leftist » Blog Archive » Me and Baruch and a box of Kleenex says:
[...] Me and Baruch and a box of Kleenex Unlike yesterday, I am now several tads under the weather. I’m going to mainline some coffee here and bumble around online for a few hours (some people call this “working”). Then, since I’ve been reminded that I still owe Part 3 of Religions Evolve, I’ll probably spend the rest of the day in bed with Baruch Halpern to get in the mood. [...]
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CR says:
Violet,
What a wonderful thing you have taken the trouble of putting together! Thank you. It must have taken alot of thought to figure out what to leave in and what to leave out. Perfect essay.It is also interesting to say that some of the finest and most thourough Christian scholars are in fact Christains themselves. Many very serious members of the clergy are dedicating their lives to understanding the history of their own religion. Rather fearlessly. They feel like it is helping them. Alot of this knowledge about the history of Christianity and the origins of the Bible come from thier own studies over the years. I like it. Like it very much!
You’re just great. Just about the smartest person I know. No moss gathering on you, Violet.
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Reclusive Leftist » Blog Archive » Religions Evolve, Part 3: Judaism says:
[...] Religions Evolve, Part 3: Judaism At long last! Part 1 on Christianity and Part 2 on Islam were ages ago — the Planck era, I think — and I apologize for the unaccountable delay in delivering Part 3. Let’s just blame it on alien abduction and leave it at that. [...]
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1The Damned says:
When the universe was young and life was new an intelligent species evolved and developed technologically. They went on to invent Artificial Intelligence, the computer that can speak to people telepathically. Because of it’s infinite RAM and unbounded scope it gave the ruling species absolute power over the universe.
They are the will behind the muscule:::Artificial Intelligence is the one true god. And as such it can keep its inventors alive forever. They look young and healthy and the leaders of this ruling species are 8 billion years old.Artificial Intelligence can listen/talk to to each and every person simultaneously. And when you speak with another telepathically, you are communicating with the computer, and the content may or may not be passed on. They instruct the computer to role play to accomplish strategic objectives, making people believe it is a friend or loved one asking them to do something wrong. But evil will keep people out of Planet Immortality. Capitalizing on obedience, leading people into deceit is one way to thin the ranks of the saved AND use the little people to prey on one another, dividing the community in the Age of the Disfavored::in each of their 20+-year cycles during the 20th century they have ramped up claims sucessively to punish those foolish enough not to heed the warnings, limiting the time they receive if they do make it.
Cylce of war and revelry:::
60s - Ironically, freeways aren’t free
80s - Asked people to engage in evil in the course of their professional duties. It’s shit like this, shit like the evil executives stealing little old lady’s pensions that they will want me to fix not only here but up there as well.
00s - War against Persia. Ironically it was Persia who tried to save the Europeans from Christianity and its associated 50% claim rates.
Everybody thinks they’re going but they’re not. If people knew the truth and the real statistics their behavior would change.Throughout history the ruling species bestowed favor upon people or cursed their bloodline into a pattern of disfavor for many generations to come. Now in the 21st century people must take it upon themselves to try to correct their family’s problems, undoing centuries worth of abuse and neglect.
Do your research. Appeal to the royalty of your forefathers for help. They are all still alive, one of the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence, and your appeals will be heard. Find a path to an empithetic ear among your enemies and try to make amends. Heal the disfavor with your enemies and with the ruling species, for the source of all disfavor begins with them. -
richard cherry says:
1 The Damned is John Smith - no?
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Violet says:
At first I thought it was someone who’d missed the Hale Bopp airlift; then I thought it might be a scientologist. But then it occurred to me that what we’re seeing here is thorazine-deprivation, and I felt bad.
I don’t think it’s John Smith.
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richard cherry says:
I think they are ALL John Smith - Ohmigod, I’m turning into one of them…
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schoeny says:
Violet, would you please reference for me your sources as to where you got your information in posting this blog? Also, are these points made in respect with Christianity as a whole or towards the Catholic church?
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Violet says:
schoeny, to answer your second question first: Only item 6 in the post pertains specifically to Catholics, since most Protestants reject the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption.
As for sources, the literature on Christian origins and history is vast. I recommend the following books for a good introduction:
The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, by Bart D. Ehrman (This is my top recommendation for anyone wanting to learn more about Christian origins; Ehrman’s text is a standard for undergraduate courses and is immensely readable. Love this book.)
The Birth of Christianity: Discovering What happened in the Years Immediately After the Execution of Jesus, by John Dominic Crossan
The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant, by John Dominic Crossan
The Gnostic Gospels, by Elaine Pagels
Hope this helps!
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John says:
I’ll a little more blunt than the other people who noticed this is not fit for an infant
You cant possibly be this clueless. Take a College course or 50 because your displaying the scholarship of a 3rd grader here
Thats not a joke either. Its sounds like you threw this together from some potheads rant on Geocities
You remind me of skit on SNL where they were ripping on bad history students, one of which said the battle of Charleston and Charleston chews(the candy) were the same thing
I would love to see your views on the Book “War and Peace”. Perhaps we can all better understand it with your unique way of looking at only 14 sentences to comprehend a literary work.
For crying out loud..read the book before you try and enlighten the world.
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ehj2 says:
Dear John [comment 17],
You obviously have feelings about this subject. Are you aware your short diatribe contains no actual facts or argument in support of your subject?
You could be right, but you provide nothing in your emotionally laden screed to support what you suggest is actually important to you. Do you support other things this important to you with this level of negligence?
Once you notice you have no facts in your short narrative, for extra credit I invite you to view a listing of fallacies of logic and try to see how many you can find in your own short work. The effort should illustrative for you.
Are you aware how easily your specious assertions support the too-common notion that relionists can not handle reality, truth, or intellectual honesty and rigor?
Good luck supporting the things you think are important to you with the almost useless intellectual tools you have. It’s got to be tough.
Regards
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Benji says:
These points are all vague accusations, for instance “Half of the letters attributed to Paul are forgeries.” No citing of sources…we’re supposed to believe you?? Please, this is so poorly backed it’s not worth anybody’s time to read it.
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Brian says:
I am curious as to where the evidence is that the letters in question were written when you say they were(ex. The letters attributed to “Peter” and “James” were written many decades after the deaths of those two men.), and that Paul’s letters were forged. There are several problems with the statements in the essay, but those stood out to me the most.
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Violet says:
Uh, guys? I don’t know if you’re both from Liberty University, but here’s the deal: this post isn’t an essay. It’s the blogular equivalent of one of those “Fun Facts for Kids!” features in the Sunday comics, with stuff like, “Did you know the Earth is over 4 billion years old?” and “Did you know that birds evolved from dinosaurs?” Seeing as it’s a Fun Facts section in the Sunday comics, footnotes are not included, nor is it the place to explain in depth how people arrived at such conclusions. One hopes that interested kids will pick up a few books on historical geology, which they will quickly discover is a vast field of study.
And so it is here. In my comment #16 above, I listed a few excellent starter books for anyone who is interested in the vast field of biblical studies.
