XPost: alt.religion.wicca, alt.arts.poetry.comments, alt.writing   
   XPost: alt.magick   
   From: dmh7@skypoint.com   
      
   Josh Hill wrote:   
   > On Wed, 02 Mar 2005 21:29:39 -0600, Dale Houstman    
   > wrote:   
   >   
   >   
   >>   
   >>joerevskelton@bellsouth.net wrote:   
   >>   
   >>>"Dale Houstman"  wrote in message   
   >>>news:422633E5.8060109@skypoint.com...   
   >>>   
   >>>   
   >>>>Karla wrote:   
   >>>>   
   >>>>   
   >>>>   
   >>>>>>P   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>>I agree that Jesus, using the Word, heals(ed) bodies, souls and minds,   
   >>>>   
   >>>gave,   
   >>>   
   >>>   
   >>>>>and still gives purpose to lives, and stands ready to do the same today.   
   >>>>>Several witnesses wrote down accountings of these magic moments.  The   
   >>>>>accountings have been reprinted for hundreds of years.   
   >>>>   
   >>>>Actually, quite untrue. There are NO written accounts by any witness to   
   >>>>these supposed miracles,   
   >>>   
   >>>   
   >>>Three of the four gospels are attributed to witnesses.   
   >>   
   >>True, but - as I said - the accounts come long after thesupposed   
   >>incidents. Even in modern times, we have the phenomenon of a supposed   
   >>eye-witness giving what turns out to be false - or inflated - testimony.   
   >>This occurs most frequently when a "cult of personality" has grown about   
   >>the subject at hand. In that case, the witness him/herself can either be   
   >>self-deluded (liquid memories informed by mythology) or - due to certain   
   >>advantages of "professed closeness" to the subject will simply lie to   
   >>bolster their own importance. The fact remains that there are NO   
   >>accounts - independent of certain supposed friends of Jesus - of this   
   >>alleged celebrity; a man who was supposed to be shaking the foundations   
   >>of the Roman world. It is beyond strange.   
   >>   
   >>The first non-personally connected story of Jesus occured long after his   
   >>supposed life and death, and its very isolated nature suggests that -   
   >>once again - the writer was using a powerful myth to bolster his own   
   >>profile.   
   >   
   >   
   > Of course, Jesus could just have been a very minor figure, an   
   > itinerant miracle worker/cult leader of the sort common in the region   
   > at the time who happened to have an unusual gift for metaphor and   
   > great personal magnetism, as cult leaders frequently do.   
      
   This is true. There are no other supporting texts for his existence   
   though, and quite a number of inter-textual evidence that the stories   
   are only stories. For one, many of the names gien to the pertinent   
   characters are not - in fact - names of persons but place names. This   
   occurs most frequently in fantasies. And there are quite a large number   
   of date/inconsistencies considering this was supposed to have been a   
   fairly important person. Of course, again, this could be because he   
   wasn't important, rather than that he didn't exist, but he is now   
   beginning to vanish toward virtual non-existence. The stories about him   
   are - in many cases - contradictory, portraying him as several different   
   sorts of personalties with different agendas and different methods. One   
   is - as you suggest - a sort of shaman, another a sort of social   
   revolutionary (quite rabid at points), another as a somewhat normal   
   Jewish priest, another as a "turn the other cheek" pacifist, a sort of   
   John the Baptist doppelganger, and so on. In some of the withheld texts   
   he is depicted as a child who withers person's hand out of mere pique.   
   This suggests he is a composite character - not at all unusual for   
   legendary figures.   
      
     And then   
   > something happened -- his disciples, afraid they'd lose their   
   > business, continued the tradition of shamanistic trickery and "raised   
   > him from the dead" by having someone who didn't look like him take his   
   > part three days after he was crucified. The tale of sacrifice and   
   > salvation and paradise they developed touched something in people, and   
   > the religion became much more than its founders could have imagined.   
      
   This is certainly more than probable. But again - with all the   
   inter-textual evidence - the figure we call "Jesus" is running swiftly   
   into virtual non-existence.   
      
   dmh   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)