The Real History of Christianity (Part 1)

The following historical information has been extracted from the writing of Bill Zebub, entitled: The Real History of Christianity.

What is it that blocks otherwise intelligent people from looking objectively or critically at Christianity?

Is it like overlooking the defects of a loved one? Is it denial, like refusing to see the signs of drug abuse in a loved one? Is this how the myriad contradictions are reconciled within the believer’s mind?

While all religions are fabrications, Christianity deserves special investigation because of its aggressive history, namely in the forced conversions and the murderous removal of opposing sects. It is this very sort of abusive power that has controlled what the masses hear, but anyone who wishes to discover the true origins is by no means completely blocked. It is not an ordinary thing, however, for someone to actually research history, especially when it applies to religious farce.

The one thing that is common to all forms of Christianity is the myth of the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus.

It should be interesting to note that the story of the resurrection did not exist in the earliest manuscripts.

Further, the Gospels were composed during times when hundreds of Jews were being crucified each week. They were written for a Greco-Roman audience. If the events did actually happen, the obvious role of the Romans in the trial of Jesus as well as his execution “had to be whitewashed and presented as sympathetically as possible” (Holy Blood, Holy Grail 348). There was absolutely no criticism of Roman oppression, nor any mention of Jewish revolt. The Jews were cast in the role of villains, but this is historically illogical because they (the Sanhedrin) had the right to pass death sentences. They did not need Pontius Pilate. Further, if they had wanted Jesus to be killed, he would have been stoned to death, not crucified. Crucifixion was exclusively used by Rome to execute the enemies of Rome. It was never a Jewish form of capital punishment. If he really was crucified, he did something to provoke Roman wrath, not Jewish wrath.

The three Synoptic Gospels have Jesus being arrested and condemned by the Sanhedrin on the night of the Passover. This could not be real history because the Sanhedrin, by Judaic law, were forbidden to meet over Passover. The Gospels state that the arrest and trial occurred at night, but the Sanhedrin “were forbidden to meet at night, in private houses, or anywhere outside of the precincts of the temple” (Holy Blood, Holy Grail 349).

The story of Barabbas being freed in exchange for Jesus is pure fiction. Two Gospels describe a Roman custom of freeing a prisoner during Passover festival, but no such policy ever existed on the part of the Romans. A Roman procurator, especially someone as ruthless as Pilate, would likewise never consent to the pressure of a mob.

Pontius Pilate, as he is depicted in the Gospels, appears to be a decent person who consents only reluctantly to the crucifixion of Jesus. History paints a different picture of him. He was a procurator of Judea from A.D. 26 o 36, and he was a cruel and corrupt man. Why is there no criticism of him in the Gospels?

Another historical impossibility in the crucifixion story is the removal of the body of Jesus from the cross. According to Roman law at the time, a crucified man/woman was denied burial. The person was left to the elements, birds, and animals, which completed the humiliation of this form of execution.

There is no verification of a significant crucifixion in the writings of historians such as Philo, Tacitus, Pliny, Suetonius, Epictectus, Cluvius Rufus, Quintus, Curtis Rufus, Josephus, nor the Roman Consul, Publius Petronius. The crucifixion also was unknown to early Christians until as late as the Second Century.

The punishment for robbery was not crucifixion. The New Testament accounts of the crucifixion depict two thieves being crucified along with Jesus. Crucifixion was never the penalty for robbery. On the other hand, the Romans spoke of Zealots as 'Robbers' in order to defame them. Zealots were crucified because of their crimes against the Roman Empire.

“Messiah” is a term that Christians think had specifically been applied to Jesus, but for people living at the time of Jesus, the idea of a divine Messiah “would have been preposterous, if not unthinkable” (Holy Blood, Holy Grail). The Greek word for Messiah is Christos. The term generally referred to a king. For Zealots, the term implied a lost king, someone from the bloodline of David who would liberate them from Roman tyranny. In one Gospel, the lineage of Jesus is traced to David, which is ironic because his father is named as Joseph, which contradicts the myth of the Immaculate Conception in which Jesus is birthed by a deity as well as a mortal woman.

Gospels that do not appear in the New Testament, such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Truth, and the Gospel of the Egyptians, were mentioned by the early church fathers, like Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus, and Origen. These texts date no later than A.D. 150. What is interesting about them is that they escaped the censorship and revision of the later Roman orthodoxy, and they were written for an Egyptian audience, so they weren’t slanted to the Roman ear. The Gospel of Thomas was unearthed in 1945. This, and other works that were salvaged, are collectively called the “Nag Hammadi” scrolls. In one such scroll, Jesus speaks:

I did not succumb to them as they had planned and I did not die in reality but in appearance, lest I be put to shame by them. . . my death which they think happened. . . their error and blindness.. . . And I was laughing at their ignorance. (Holy Blood, Holy Grail 381).

Fundamentalists believe that the Bible is actual history, and apparently they believe that totally different stories are equally valid. According to Luke, when Jesus was born he was visited by shepherds. According to Matthew he was visited by kings. There are many such contradictions, and the validity of any is questionable, if not utterly fictitious. For instance, Nazareth did not exist during the lifetime of Jesus, but it did exist at the time of the writings which occurred much later.

It wasn’t until A.D. 325, at the Council of Nicea, convened by Roman emperor Constantine, that it was decided, by a vote, that Jesus was to be depicted as a god, not a mortal prophet. A year after this the Council of Nicea, Constantine ordered all works that challenged the official orthodox teaching to be destroyed. In A.D. 331, he commissioned and financed new copies of the Bible. It was at this point that crucial alterations were made, and the new status of Jesus was fabricated. Constantine never converted to Christianity. He was actually baptized when he was on his deathbed, completely unaware.

 
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Sources include:
 
Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. Holy Blood, Holy Grail. New York: Dell Publishing, 1983

Tony Bushby. The Bible Fraud. Australia: Griffin Press, 2001

Dr. Barbara Thiering. Jesus and the Riddle of the Dead Sea Scrolls. New York: HarperCollins, 1992