Did Jesus Exist? - The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth
Just finished reading "Did Jesus Exist? - The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth" by Bart D. Ehram, published by HarperOne back in 2012.
Yes, "Did Jesus Exist?" has been in my tsundoku, my antilibrary for over a decade now.
Confession time: I'm always leery about reading books discussing Christianity because people always make the wrong assumption that I'm about to announce the I seen the light and accept Jesus as "THE MESSIAH." Oh the joys of being a Conservative Jew who is probably going to offend some people with what I'm about to say next.
Jesus is not the messiah. What Jesus was a rabbi, of sorts, who was crucified by the Romans for civil disobedience. His followers who created a cult around his life and death and even to this day try to shoehorn him into the Jewish concept of a messiah.
What most Christians fail to realize and really don't comprehend because they don't attempt to learn about other religions is that in Judaism that a messiah is not divine and that he or she - which surprisingly really infuriates a majority of Christian women when they learn that a messiah can be a woman - administers G_D's laws/will here on Earth. Notice that I said "a messiah." In Judaism, the messiah is an ordinary mortal man or woman who will eventually die and salvation in the Christian sense of the word is not worshiping the messiah, but following G_D's laws. Technically, there is no limit to the number of messiahs that can exist in Judaism, though it's usually meant to reference one messiah at a given point in time. Also keep in mind that the history of Judaism is littered with false messiahs throughout the centuries - including Jesus. Also keep in mind that Jesus wasn't Christian. He was Jewish.
Yet the question that has haunted Christianity for centuries is was Jesus actually a real life historical person or a myth created by a Jewish cult?
Ehrman looks at both sides of the argument. He is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also has his fair share of haters in and out of the academic and religious communities for tackling the hard questions about Jesus mainly due to his free and open acknowledgement that he is an agnostic.
SPOILER ALERT - Ehrman explores both the historical and mythicist camps and comes to the decision that Jesus existed as a historical person - though not as the blond hair/blue-eyed Jesus that most Christians envision him to be - Jesus was a first century Jew.
I'll probably get in trouble for saying this, but Ehrman follows Jewish tradition in presenting the case for Jesus existing as a historical person - in other words he uses sound reasoning.
STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Did-Jesus-Exis...
Yes, "Did Jesus Exist?" has been in my tsundoku, my antilibrary for over a decade now.
Confession time: I'm always leery about reading books discussing Christianity because people always make the wrong assumption that I'm about to announce the I seen the light and accept Jesus as "THE MESSIAH." Oh the joys of being a Conservative Jew who is probably going to offend some people with what I'm about to say next.
Jesus is not the messiah. What Jesus was a rabbi, of sorts, who was crucified by the Romans for civil disobedience. His followers who created a cult around his life and death and even to this day try to shoehorn him into the Jewish concept of a messiah.
What most Christians fail to realize and really don't comprehend because they don't attempt to learn about other religions is that in Judaism that a messiah is not divine and that he or she - which surprisingly really infuriates a majority of Christian women when they learn that a messiah can be a woman - administers G_D's laws/will here on Earth. Notice that I said "a messiah." In Judaism, the messiah is an ordinary mortal man or woman who will eventually die and salvation in the Christian sense of the word is not worshiping the messiah, but following G_D's laws. Technically, there is no limit to the number of messiahs that can exist in Judaism, though it's usually meant to reference one messiah at a given point in time. Also keep in mind that the history of Judaism is littered with false messiahs throughout the centuries - including Jesus. Also keep in mind that Jesus wasn't Christian. He was Jewish.
Yet the question that has haunted Christianity for centuries is was Jesus actually a real life historical person or a myth created by a Jewish cult?
Ehrman looks at both sides of the argument. He is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also has his fair share of haters in and out of the academic and religious communities for tackling the hard questions about Jesus mainly due to his free and open acknowledgement that he is an agnostic.
SPOILER ALERT - Ehrman explores both the historical and mythicist camps and comes to the decision that Jesus existed as a historical person - though not as the blond hair/blue-eyed Jesus that most Christians envision him to be - Jesus was a first century Jew.
I'll probably get in trouble for saying this, but Ehrman follows Jewish tradition in presenting the case for Jesus existing as a historical person - in other words he uses sound reasoning.
STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Did-Jesus-Exis...
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