Session 2 – The Stolen Jesus?

1. Session 2 – The Stolen Jesus? In this session we will look at the idea that the story of Jesus was made up by someone by compiling pre-existing legends We will not concentrate much on who they claim was making up the story, often times they say a group of people, we will instead focus on the myths they say we stole

2. A story to get us started Once upon a time there were three little donkeys, who built houses out of paper, sticks, and bricks Along came the big bad elephant to the first house, he blew it down. He then went to the second and blew that one down too, and he went to the third, and couldn’t (until he got help from another elephant)

3. What is this a copy of? The three little pigs Even though I didn’t call them pigs, and it was an elephant not wolf, and I changed the ending, you still knew it was using that story This is how some people today approach the story of Jesus, they claim it was based on pre-existing stories and legends (although they did add some unique stuff)

4. They claim that in mythology, there are many men who do things that Jesus does Born of a Virgin Suffers for others Ascends into heaven We do not have time to cover all the parallels people give, we will look at a few and general problems with them

5. Caesar Augustus He was called a savior by his people Well folks, that about all that lines up between the two of them I think we can name a few more things different between them, don’t you? This isn’t too popular among parallelists

6. Odysseus and Jesus They were both carpenters Both sailed in seas (Odysseus a little more than Jesus, but Jesus did go out on the Sea of Galilee Both of these individuals face supernatural foes during their lives Both had last suppers before visiting Hades

7. Apollonius of Tyana He lives during the first century, but his account was not written down until 170-245 A.D. It was not written by eye-witnesses, it was by people who lived after the Bible was written Our only historical source for this individual is Philostatus

8. When we look at the Bible, we have multiple sources for what happened in the life-time of Jesus Philostratus was commissions by the Emperor to write a biography for the Temple dedication to Apollonius If anything, Philostratus would want to exaggerate the biography, and would steal from the Christian religion

9. Was Jesus based on Dionysus? They claim the idea of a Virgin birth came from the myth of Dionysus, because he was born of a Virgin Understand, what we mean by virgin birth, and what they mean by virgin birth, are very different Dionysus mother was killed, and he was taken and sown into the thigh of Zeus

10. What about the Osiris myth They claim that the story of Jesus’ baptism would have been take from Osiris and his baptism story which pre-dates Jesus What actually happened in the Osiris story? After he had died, his coffin was thrown into the Nile…

11. They also claim that Osiris had a resurrection story and the Jesus myth could have stole that Are the stories similar when looking at them? We all know the story of Jesus and his resurrection In the Osiris myth, his dismembered body is pieced back together and he becomes the zombified lord of the underworld

12. And now for the most popular version of the parallelism, Jesus and Mithra They say Mithra had twelve disciples Mithra and his twelve disciples had a last supper before his death Mithra is supposed to be born December 25th They claim all these things line up… obviously the Christians had to steal some of this?

13. Let’s look at these similarities in more detail Mithras twelve disciples are actually the twelve signs of the zodiac This is different than the disciples of Jesus who are real people from real geographic places They did eat together and had a meal, but they never called that meal the last supper

14. Earliest Christians were not discussing December the 25th, in reality the date they first discussed was January 6th, and then they later discussed December 25th We have records of Christians discussing the December25th date before we have evidence of Mithra have that birthday Many Christians today do think the Christians stole that date from Pagans, but it was discussed very early

15. There are even bigger problems Mithraism didn’t come into Rome until the 2nd Century, after the entire Bible was written There is no evidence the Christians had any contact with Mithraism when they were writing the Bible Even if they did, the odds are Christianity influences Mithraism, not the other way

16. Watch how easy parallelism is to make up Is parallelism is a trustworthy method, we can prove The Hobbit (Movie) was not based off the book, but actually off the movie Braveheart It is easy to see that Peter Jackson was basing the dwarves off the Scotts in Braveheart

17. Both groups in the movies (dwarves & Wallace's) are being chased by the enemy In both movies, the good guys are setting out to recapture their homeland Both the main characters' ride horses Steven and Bard are both from outside groups, but come and help those conquering their homeland

18. In both movies they are using swords as a primary weapon Both the main characters‘ are captured by the enemy at some point Both groups fought against large enemies Both groups are fighting a war and are abandoned by their friends in time of need

19. Smog and Long Shanks are similar, one hates the Scotts, and one hates the dwarves Thorin and Wallace both lost their fathers early on The Grammatical Similarity In the hobbit they have runes, in Braveheart they fight in the ruins of Scotland (and in Bravehart they moon their enemy, and in the Hobbit they are moon runes.)

20. Christianity was based off another religion, and it was Judaism! A bigger problem for this parallelism idea is prophecies of Jesus Isa.7:14: Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. This far pre-dates Dionysus

21. He would be born of a virgin (Genesis 3:15, Isaiah 7:14) To be announced by an Elijah-like herald (Isaiah 40:3-5, Malachi 3:1, 4:5) He would proclaim a jubilee to the world (Isaiah 58:6, 61:1) His ministry would be one of healing (Isaiah 53:4) He would teach through parables (Isaiah 6:9-10, Psalms 78:2) He would be betrayed by a friend for 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:1-13, Psalms 41:9) He would rise from the dead on the third day (Genesis 22:4, Psalms 16: 10-11, Hosea 6:2)

22. Almost everything that happened in the life of Jesus was prophesied before any of these myths were created The idea of Jesus being a parallel of other religious and mythical figures and not actually existing falls apart when you look at it in more detail There are other problems though denying Jesus ever existed

23. We have quotes from people alive around the time of Jesus who were not Christians • Flavius Josephus (AD 37?-101?) mentions Jesus - Antiquities, Book 18, ch. 3, par. 3. • Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles.  

24. Flavius Josephus: "Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James,and some others, [or, some of his companions]; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned: but as for those who seemed the most equitable of the citizens, and such as were the most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they disliked what was done."

25. Tacitus (A.D. c.55-A.D. c.117, Roman historian) - Annals 15.44 • "Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus…”

26. Lucian (circa 120-after 180) mentions Jesus. Greek writer and rhetorician. • "The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account We have many sources outside the Christians who talk of Jesus as a historical figure

27. In 2002, the Biblical Archaeological Society and the Discovery Channel announced in Washington, D.C. that an ancient inscription on a 2,000-year-old ossuary with the inscribed Aramaic words "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" was genuine. (dated A.D. 6-70)

28. The Bible is also allowed to be used as a reference, it is a historical document of that time “Today, nearly all historians, whether Christians or not, accept that Jesus existed and that the gospels contain plenty of valuable evidence which has to be weighed and assessed critically.” The late Graham Stanton, Cambridge University, in The Gospels and Jesus

29. Remember, the Bible is not just one source and one piece of evidence for the existence of Jesus, it is a compilation of evidence Paul, James, Peter, Luke, Mark, Matthew, John, and Jude are all different authors who report of the historical Jesus We will end with some quotes from experts on this topic of history

30. Non-Christian Bart Erhman said the following about this topic: “Few of these mythicists are actually scholars trained in ancient history, religion, biblical studies or any cognate field, let alone in the ancient languages generally thought to matter for those who want to say something with any degree of authority about a Jewish teacher who (allegedly) lived in first-century Palestine…

31. There are a couple of exceptions: of the hundreds — thousands? — of mythicists, two (to my knowledge) actually have Ph.D. credentials in relevant fields of study. But even taking these into account, there is not a single mythicist who teaches New Testament or Early Christianity or even Classics at any accredited institution of higher learning in the Western world. And it is no wonder why.”

32. “Some judgments are so probable as to be certain; for example, Jesus really existed, and he really was crucified, just as Julius Caesar really existed and was assassinated. .... We can in fact know as much about Jesus as we can about any figure in the ancient world.” Marcus Borg, Professor of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University, in The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions

33. “we can no more reject Jesus' existence than we can reject the existence of a mass of pagan personages whose reality as historical figures is never questioned. ..... In recent years, 'no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non historicity of Jesus' or at any rate very few, and they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary.” The late Michael Grant, eminent historian of the Roman Empire, in Jesus: an historian's review of the gospels

34. Memory Verse Isa.7:14: Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.