New Testament misconceptions and fallacies

Since there are frequent articles in the FCJ on religion, specifically on Christianity and by writers who claim the authenticity of their own beliefs at the exclusion of all other views, perhaps it is time to look at such opinions objectively.  There are many misconceptions and fallacies the average person has about Christian doctrine and history, but one misconception seems to be most prominent — failure to separate the authentic Jesus of history from the mythical Jesus of faith.

We know very little about the early years of Jesus. The work of the Biblical scholar Bruce Chilton and his thesis roughly corresponds to the theories of most objective scholars. According to these theories, Jesus is not a typical Jew.  This is because his paternity would have been in question since Mary was an unwed mother. Being with child without clear knowledge of who the father was threatened blood lines and the purity of the tribe.  Because of this, Jesus would have been ostracized from many forms of Jewish religious practices. The virgin birth story was likely invented to remove the stain and impurity placed on Mary and Jesus.  This invention probably happened several decades later but was firmly rooted in Christian dogma by the time of the Council of Nicea in the 4th century.

But the relevance and importance of these scholarly theories should not be emphasized at the expense of what Jesus is most remembered for, which is not in much dispute.  As an apocalyptic prophet, he is remembered for two basic messages: as a Jewish insurgent against the Roman power structure, he warned constantly that the Romans, along with any other “unbelievers,” would eventually be destroyed for their evil ways.  But his most powerful and central message throughout his life was his insistence on the importance of justice, compassion, taking care of the poor and dispossessed and showing love and respect for all of humanity. This is his legacy that has survived for over 2,000 years and is the bedrock for all religions and civil democracies. However, what most mattered to the Romans was that he was an insurgent against the current power structure and for that reason he was executed.

What happens next is the beginning of the mythical Jesus of faith narrative.  It is a much different story where Jesus’ riveting, powerful yet simple message and his humanity are largely subsumed into a fantastical, supernatural theology, largely created and encouraged by Paul. In other words it is the beginning of the distortion, perversion, and fictionalizing of the authentic Jesus of history.  He begins to lose his humanity and becomes instead just another dying and arising savior god, not unlike the many other such pagan gods and goddesses of the time. Other myths were attached to him — he was the product of a virgin birth, he was said to have ascended bodily into heaven, he could heal the sick, he could control the wind, walk on water, etc.

So why was Jesus so radically transformed beyond his humanity?  Paul, in his missionary service to largely pagan communities, was faced with a gigantic problem.  How could he convince the locals to abandon the worship of their local gods whom they had honored for over a thousand years and instead accept whom Paul now called “the Christ”?  It was probably a hard sell.  After all, Jesus was a rather nondescript wandering prophet preaching impending doom but who did not consider himself a god.  The locals had much more colorful, magical gods and goddesses to worship — Orpheus, Zeus, Adonis, and Isis, for example.  To win over the inhabitants he likely allowed them to think of Jesus as not unlike their own supernatural pagan deities. At that point, with much imagination, it was an easy step for Paul to embellish and finalize his complete fabrication and make-over of the authentic Jesus of history.

One wonders if Jesus were alive today how shocked he would be, that he had been made out to be a god, something that he never intended.