The Gospel of Atheism and Freethought—According to Sherlock by Michael Sherlock

Author:Michael Sherlock [Sherlock, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion, Atheism, Non-Fiction, Freethought
ISBN: 9781908675286
Google: _zu7oAEACAAJ
Amazon: 1908675284
Barnesnoble: 1908675284
Goodreads: 22855179
Publisher: Dangerous Little Books
Published: 2014-06-17T23:00:00+00:00

THE JESUS OF HISTORY: A FRESH PERSPECTIVE

Above I made a promise to the reader that I would provide evidence that both the Talmudic and Toledoth Yeshu traditions spanned as far back as the second century ce. It needs to be acknowledged, that by this time, the Gospels were already in circulation, or at least the oral traditions that formed the various Gospels were wide-spread and such timing does not take us beyond the influence the Gospels. Thus, such traditions constitute neither solid evidence for the aforementioned proposition, nor adequate historical evidence for the Jesus of the Gospels. Yet it may be somewhat enlightening to expand our previously narrow horizons and contemplate new possibilities, for we have neither the truth, nor even the semblance of it in the Gospels or any other Christian testimony relating to the historicity of Jesus. Instead, all we have are the testimonies of liars, deceivers and forgers, who have openly displayed their deceitful cards on occasions when they felt that doing so would pose no threat to their ill-gotten credibility. For example, in the fifth century, John Chrysostom in his Treatise on the Priesthood, Book 1, wrote:

And oft en it is necessary to deceive, and to do the greatest benefits by means of this device, whereas he who has gone by a straight course has done great mischief to the person whom he has not deceived.193

Further, writing in the 16th century the famed father of the Protestant Church, Martin Luther said:

What harm would it do, if a man told a good strong lie for the sake of the good and for the Christian church … a lie out of necessity, a useful lie, a helpful lie, such lies would not be against God, he would accept them.194

It would do us no harm to look beyond the words and testimonies of these self-confessed liars, so now let us examine the following evidences in a bid to establish the possibility that the Jews, in their Talmud, their Tosefta and their Toledoth Yeshu, may hold the keys to understanding the possible historical origins of the mythical/legendary Jesus Christ. As early as 150 ce Justin Martyr, in his dialogue with a Jewish Rabbi called Trypho, demonstrated that he was aware of at least portions of the Jewish traditions found in both the Talmud and the Toledoth Yeshu, saying:

…you have sent chosen and ordained men throughout all the world to proclaim that a godless and lawless heresy had sprung from one Jesus, a Galilean deceiver, whom we crucified, but his disciples stole him by night from the tomb, where he was laid when unfastened from the cross, and now deceive men by asserting that he has risen from the dead and ascended to heaven.195

Further, as can be witnessed in the writings of the third century Church Father Origen, who wrote against the famous second century Greek philosopher and Christian opponent Celsus, the traditions contained within the both the Talmud and the Toledoth can be shown to have been wide-spread during the second Century.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.