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The Life of Jesus
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The Epistles

The Jewish Mysteries of the Messiah
The Epistles
An Authoritative
Guide
The Jewish
Logos
 The Gospels
The Common
Saying Tradition
Did John the
Baptist Exist
 The arg. from Silence
The Letters of
Pliny the Younger
A Conversation
with Paul
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The
Epistles
Details
The
Gospels
Details
Other Texts
Two Theories for the Origin of this "Jesus"
Investigating their 50 Main Elements
Jesus of Nazareth The Jewish Mysteries of the Messiah
Religious
Context
Preaching
Jesus
Was
  • A Recent Man in Galilee
  • Jesus of Nazareth, including
    • A Hero Founder and Role Model
    • A new Moses/Elijah/Elisha
    • Born in Bethlehem to the Virgin Mary
    • 40 days in the desert
    • Baptized and Transfigured
    • A Performer of Miracles
    • A Reformer
    • A Wandering Cynic Philosopher
    • An Apocalyptic Prophet of the Kingdom
    • Acclaimed during his entry in Jerusalem
    • Teaching in the Temple
Preaching
a Passion
Story
How
2nd Century
Scholarship
  • Current Consensus & Presented as a Fact
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Top of Page Religious
Context		 Preaching
Jesus Was 		Preaching a
Passion Story 		How 2nd Century
Religious Context (quick overview)
Jewish Turmoil & Re-Interpretations
A Religious
Revolution		 A Multitude
of Sects		 The Logos
of Philo
A Complete Religious Change
"By the end of that same [first] century, after eight years of class warfare and colonial revolt, the Jewish homeland was devastated, Jerusalem and its great Temple were destroyed, and leadership had shifted its paradigm from Temple, priest, and sacrifice to Torah, rabbi, and study. That is religious paradigm shift writ large."
J.D. Crossan The Power of Parabale
A Time of Midrash
From Paletine to Alexandria, many Jews were reinterpreting the Sacred Texts.
  • You can find many at Early Jewish Writings.
    It includes for example the 1st Century:
    Biblical Antiquities (or Pseudo-Philo)
    a whole second Bible in 65 chapters!
  • The "House of Hillel" and the "House of Shammai" came to represent two distinct perspectives on Jewish law, and disagreements between the two schools of thought are found throughout the Mishnah. The later is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Torah.
A Plethora of Jewish Sects
In late antiquity, an impressive network of different Jewish beliefs, sects & schools had spread across the diaspora & Palestine. Many had similitudes with Christianity.
The most famous:
  • The Sadducees
  • The Pharisees either Shammaites or Hillel
  • The Essenians
  • The Samaritans
  • The Galilean Hasidism
  • The Zealot
  • The Therapeutae
  • The Mamdeans (John the Baptist)
  • The Bene Sedeq
  • The Sicarii
Some of them are described by Josephus.
Messianic & Apocalyptic Expectation
Many Jews were expecting the imminent arrival of the Messiah (=Christ in Greek). Although traditional views saw him as a triumphant king on earth, others were already describing him as an Archangel, a Heavenly Judge, an Intermediary to God...
They produced an important body of apocalyptic literature
  • 2nd century BC or after
    Daniel
    The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs
    1 Enoch
    2 Enoch
    Jubilees The Sibylline Oracles (2 BC - 7 CE)
  • 1st century BC or after
    Apocalypse of Elijah
    The Martyrdom of Isaiah
    Apocalypse of Zephaniah
  • 1st century CE or after
    the Apocalypse of Abraham
    Ascension of Isaiah
    Assumption of Moses
    4 Ezra
    Apocalypse of John
    Apocalypse of Adam
The Jewish Personal Wisdom and the Logos
The concept of a Son or Intermediary who was a channel between God and humanity was widespread.
See many Greek philosophers, Philo of Alexandria and the Old Testamant.
A cousin of Jesus in Alexandria
The Jewish
Logos
Pagan Ancient Mysteries
Afterlife and
Salvation		 Death, Rebirth &
Rituals		 Sources
The idea of afterlife comes from our hopes that there will be something after death and of our fears that there will be nothing.
After the Greek Olympian Gods started to fade away, but before any Gospel was written, religious thought in the eastern part of the Roman empire, and more, was dominated by Mystery Religions.
Map of Mithraic sites in
the Roman Empire
Map doesn't include these recent discoveries:
  • 2000 - Crypta Balbi, Rome
  • 2001 - Aigio, Greece.
  • 2002-4 - Güglingen Mithraeum II.
  • 2003 - Héviz mithraeum, Hungary.
  • 2003 - Lugo mithraeum, Spain.
  • 2004 - Els Munts mithraeum, Tarragona, Spain.
  • 2004 - Santo Stefano ai Lupi (?)
  • 2008 - Szombathely, Savaria mithra., Hungary
  • 2009 - Veii, Italy.
  • 2010 - Inveresk Mithraeum, Scotland (UK).
  • 2010 - Angers mithraeum, France.
  • 2010 - Thermes, Greece.
more
  • 2013 - London mithraeum, UK.
  • 2013- Carmona mithraeum, Spain
  • 2015 - Possible Mithraeum at Bingen in Germany. Article.
  • 2015 - New Mithraeum at Kempraten in Switzerland.
  • 2017 - New Mithraeum discovered at Lucciana in Corsica.
  • 2017 - New Mithraeum discovered at Zerzevan Castle, Diyarbekir, Turkey
See online Mithra Discoveries, The Invincible Mithras, Mithraism
The initiate was promised benefits of some kind in the afterlife. The whole process was presented in the resurrection of deities and other figures.
"The Eleusinian goddess makes us look with joyful hope upon the end of life and upon existence as a whole"
Isocrates of Athens
"We have learned [from the Eleusinian mysteries] the beginnings of life, and have gained the power not only to live happily, but also to die with better hopes"
Cicero De legibus, II
Death & Rebirth
All Mystery Religions envision a death of the God (Osiris, Tammuz, Dionysos, Persephone...) or by the God (Mithras slaying the Bull) followed by a resurection or rebirth. Other cultures like Jainists, Buddhists and Hindus also had examples of resurrection in their beliefs.
Sacraments of Baptism & Eucharist
They all had rites allowing the initiate to be purified or taste the body and blood of eternal life and be reminded of the divinity sacrifice.
We'll come back on that in connection with Jesus in Elements A Dying & Rising Savior and By Baptism & Eucharist.
Archaeology has unearthed plenty of religious sites related to Ancient Mysteries.
Some records have also avoided the destruction:
  • The Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and Kore
    Homeric Hymn to Demeter
    Herodotus History
    Aristophanes The Frogs
    Plutarch Progress in Virtue
    Diodorus Siculus Library of History
    Lucian of Samosata Alexander the False Prophet
  • The Andanian Mysteries of Messenia
    Pausanias Description of Greece
    Rule of the Andanian Mysteries
  • The Greek Mysteries of Dionysos & Orphism
    Euripides The Bacchae
    Livy History of Rome
    Achilles Tatius, The Adv. of Leucippe & Clitophon
    Pausanias Description of Greece
    Rule of the lobacchoi
    Plato Republic
    Orphic Hymns & Lamella
  • The Anatolian Mysteries of Cybele & Her Lover Attis
    Arnobius of Sicca the Case Against the Pagans
    Livy History of Rome
    Catullus Poem
    Prudentius On the Martyrs' Crowns
  • The Egyptian Mysteries of Isis and Osiris
    Plutarch On Isis & Osiris
    Isis Aretalogy from Cyme
    Great Magical Papyrus of Paris
    Apuleius The Golden Ass
    Flavius Josephus Jewish Antiquities
  • The Roman Mysteries of Mithras
    Lucian of Samosata Menippus
    Plutarch Life of Pompey
    Mithraic Inscriptions of Santa Prisca
    Firmicus Maternus The Error of the Pagan Religion
    Origen Against Celsus
    Porphyry On the Cave of the Nymphs
    The Mithra Liturgy
A Widespread Syncretism
The Maccabean revolt of the 160s BCE was a reaction to a Hellenizing trend in Jewish society under the overlordship of the Greek Seleucid kings. When Rome arrived on the Judean scene in 63 BCE, pagan influence became even stronger.
Archeology and extant records give us many examples of syncretism between the Jewish and Hellenic worlds.
Wikipedia Hellenistic Judaism.
Religious Syncretism happens all the time.
All these Jewish Archangels and heavenly Judge up to the Intermediary Son & Logos were divine beings or spirit like all the other pagan gods of the day, or indeed of any day: confined to the supernatural dimension and communicating with believers and spokespersons through inspiration, visions and other spiritual manifestations. This is the way gods have been perceived to interact with the world from time immemorial.
Other Men Exalted this Way
Could there have been an historical man who was rapidly glorified the same way Jesus would have been?
From Pharaohs & Roman emperors to all these weird cults, there is a ton of real people who have been deified.
Wikipedia List of people who have been considered deities
They do have many similar ideas and concepts than the ones you can find in the Gospels.
But to be comparable with the Elevation of the HJ in the Epistles, it requires these elements:
while at the same time, never connects anything with a recent life of a man on earth.
From this long list of deified people given by Wikipedia, none of them is as extreme & bizarre than the one of Jesus. Such deification of a simple man would have been unique in the history of mankind.
Still, we investigate below several cases that have been brought:
Rabi Menachem Mendel Schneerson,
Ali (Muslim),
Simon bar-Kochba and other revolutionary Messiahs.
Rabi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994) and Lubavitcher movement in Hasidic Judaism
"Shortly after his death, some of Schneerson's followers, on account of his holiness and legal wisdom, were led to identify him with the coming Messiah. Soon they were even regarding him as "the Essence and Being of God enclothed in a body."
...[but] the fundamental difference between Jesus and Rabbi Schneerson is that no one ever lost sight of the latter's human origins and character; he has not (so far) been presented in entirely heavenly terms with no reference to a life on earth. Nor, I think, has Schneerson yet been elevated to the status of pre-existent creator and sustainer of the universe."
Earl Doherty
Wikipedia Menachem Mendel Schneerson
The Islamic figure of Ali (600-661 CE)
Ali ibn Abi Talib was the cousin and adopted son of Muhammad, and gave rise to the breakaway Shi'ite sect. Ali underwent a dramatic mythological elevation even before his death, which involved seeing him as the incarnation of Allah on earth. Shia extremists, known as Ghulat, believed that Ali had access to God's will. For example, the Nuṣayrīs considered Ali to be an incarnation of God. See Wikipedia Ali
However, the group is believed to have been founded by Ibn Nusayr during the 9th century, so 200 years after the death of Ali. The Alawites were later organised during Hamdanid rule in northern Syria (947–1008) by a follower of Muhammad ibn Nusayr known as al-Khaṣībī, who died in Aleppo about 969, 300 years after Ali.
Such an elevation of Ali was from the beginning motivated by political circumstances and rivalry, no parallel for which exists in the case of Christianity for the pre-Pauline period of Jesus' 'elevation'.
Alawite theology seems also dependant on Christianity. Its doctrine incorporates elements of Phoenician mythology, Gnosticism, neo-Platonism, Christian Trinitarianism (for example, they celebrate Mass including the consecration of bread and wine); blending them with Muslim symbolism and has, therefore, been described as syncretic.
See Wikipedia The Alawis, Alawites
Simon bar-Kochba and other Josephan episodes concerning revolutionary Messiahs
Josephus' accounts of men like Theudas and the unnamed Egyptian establish the current concept of a Joshua Messiah—which is, directly translated, "Jesus Christ." Nonetheless, all these 'false' messiah have not been deified.

Fits Jewish Beliefs & Culture
God in Judaism
Within a handful of years of Jesus' supposed death, the idea that Jews, both in Palestine and across the empire, could have come to believe —or been converted to the idea by others— that, a human man was the Son of God, is very unlikely.
Judaism's fundamental theological tenet was: God is one.
It is true that the first Jewish Christians, such as Paul, were flirting with a compromise to monotheism in postulating a divine Son in heaven, even though he was entirely spiritual in nature and was conceived of as a part of God; this Son was derived from scripture and was an expression of the prominent philosophical idea of the age that the ultimate Deity gave off emanations of himself which served as intermediaries with the world.
But this is a far cry from turning a recent man who had walked the sands of Palestine into part of the Godhead. (It was essentially gentiles who were later to create such an idea, and it produced the "parting of the ways" between the Christian movement and its Jewish roots.)
In a society in which the utter separation of the divine from the human was an obsession, the Jewish God could not be represented by even the suggestion of a human form, and thousands bared their necks before the swords of Pilate simply to protest against the human images on Roman standards being brought into the city to overlook the Temple.
Almost any Jew would have reacted with apoplexy to the unprecedented message that a man was God. To believe that ordinary Jews were willing to bestow on any human man, no matter how impressive, all the titles of divinity and full identification with the ancient God of Abraham is simply inconceivable.
Since not only Paul is assumed to have done this, but he did so without ever telling us that anyone challenged him on it, that he had to defend such a blasphemous proposition. An Elevation never challenged
There is not a murmur in any Pauline letter, nor in any other epistle, that Christians had to defend such an outlandish doctrine. No one seems to challenge Christian preaching on these grounds, for the point is never addressed. Even in 1 Corinthians 1:18-24, where Paul defends the "wisdom of God" (meaning the message he preaches) against the "wisdom of the world", he fails to provide any defense for, or even a mention of, the elevation of Jesus of Nazareth to divinity. He can admit that to the Greeks and Jews the doctrine of the cross—that is, the idea of a crucified Messiah—is "folly" and "a stumbling block." But this has nothing to do with turning a man into God, a piece of folly he never discusses or defends. That his opponents, and the Jewish establishment in general, would not have challenged him on this basic Christian position, forcing him to provide some justification, is inconceivable.
Earl Doherty
Greek Philosophies
"From the beginning, Christianity has understood itself as the religion of the Logos... we Christians must be very careful to remain faithful to this fundamental line: to live a faith that comes from the Logos..."
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)
Following Platonic views that split the universe into a lower material world and a higher invisible and spiritual one considered as the real Truth,
"I know that I know nothing" Socrates
"If any one imagines that he knows something,
he does not yet know as he ought to know."
1 Corinthians 8:2
As for Plato's allegory of the cave:
"At present all we see is the baffling reflection of reality;
we are like men looking at a landscape in a small mirror."
1 Corinthians 13:12
some Hellenic Jews have considered the highly anticipated Jewish figure of the Messiah as...
Preaching Jesus Was
The Son of God
There are plenty of references to Jesus as the Son of God in the Epistles, but none to Mary or Joseph.
Rom. 1:4, 1:9, 5:10, 8:3, 8:29, 2 Cor. 1:19, Gal. 2:20, 4:4, 4:6, Eph. 4:13, Col. 1:15, 3:16, Heb. 1:3, 1:5, 1:8, 4:14, 5:5, 6:6, 7:3, 10:29, 1 John 3:8, 4:15, 5:1, 5:5, 5:9, 5:10, 5:12, 5:13, 5:20, 2 John 1:9, Rev. 2:18...
"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."
1 John 5:13
"Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession."
Hebrews 4:14
...
A Spirit, Revealer & Mediator
Jesus is also a Spirit that was betowing knowledge on earth through spiritual channels.
1 Cor. 2:13, Rom. 8:34, 2 Cor. 1:22, 5:5, 1 Pet. 1:12,...
"We speak of these gifts of God in words found for us not by human wisdom but by the Spirit"
1 Corinthians 2:13
"Christ ... is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us."
Romans 8:34
"It is all God's doing. God has set his seal on us by sending the Spirit."
2 Corinthians 1:22
"God has shaped us for life immortal, and as a guarantee of this he has sent the Spirit"
2 Corinthians 5:5
"Preachers brought you the gospel [not the written Gospels that cam afterwards] in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven."
1 Peter 1:12
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These beliefs correspond to the 2 prominent philosophical-religious concepts of the age:
The Logos
"In Stoic philosophy, the logos was the active reason pervading and animating the Universe. It was conceived as material and is usually identified with God or Nature.
The Stoics also referred to the seminal logos ("logos spermatikos"), or the law of generation in the Universe, which was the principle of the active reason working in inanimate matter. Humans, too, each possess a portion of the divine logos.
The Stoics took all activity to imply a logos or spiritual principle. As the operative principle of the world, the logos was anima mundi to them, a concept which later influenced Philo of Alexandria, although he derived the contents of the term from Plato."
"Logos ... had long been one of the leading terms of Stoicism, chosen originally for
the purpose of explaining how deity came into relation with the universe"
Anglican priest Maxwell Staniforth Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, 1964
Wikipedia Stoic Logos
A Greek concept integrated by Jewish thinkers then identified with Jesus
"Yahweh, the God of Israel, was solely responsible for creation and had no rivals, implying Israel's superiority over all other nations. Later Jewish thinkers, adopting ideas from Greek philosophy, concluded that God's Wisdom, Word and Spirit penetrated all things and gave them unity. Christianity in turn adopted these ideas and identified Jesus with the Logos."
Wikipedia Biblical cosmology
The anthropomorphic Logos of Philo of Alexandria (20 BC-50 CE)
"The Greek, metaphysical concept of the Logos is in sharp contrast to the concept of a personal God described in anthropomorphic terms typical of Hebrew thought. Philo made a synthesis of the two systems and attempted to explain Hebrew thought in terms of Greek philosophy by introducing the Stoic concept of the Logos into Judaism. In the process the Logos became transformed from a metaphysical entity into an extension of a divine and transcendental anthropomorphic being and mediator between God and men."
M. Hillar Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Jesus & the Logos
More details
Jesus & the Logos
J. Ratzinger quoted at the beginning of this page is correct!
The Co-Creator with God of the Universe
Upholding the Universe & Through Whom We Exist
The Power, Wisdom, Love & Likeness of God
The First-Born of All Creation
This pre-existing heavenly intermediary son
Heb. 1:3, Col. 1:15-17, 1 Cor. 1:24, 8:6, 2 Cor. 4:4, Rom. 8:39...
"He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature,
upholding the universe by his word of power."
Hebrews 1:3
"He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation;
for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible...
all things have been created through him and for him.
And he exists before everything and all things are held together in him".
Colossians 1:15-17
"Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."
1 Corinthians 1:24
"yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist."
1 Corinthians 8:6
"Christ, who is the likeness of God"
2 Corinthians 4:4
"[nothing] ... will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 8:39
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The Anti-Adam
Paul uses the expression 'anthropos' ('man') for his Christ in three passages: Rom. 5:12-19, 1 Cor. 15:21-22 and 15:45-49 (also in 1 Tim. 2:5. but not changing anything). In all three, he is setting up Christ as a heavenly antithesis to an earthly Adam. His main concern is to create parallels and contrast.
"thus it is written, the first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam a life-giving spirit.
the first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven."
1 Corinthians 15:45-47
See "Heavenly Man" below for an extended quote 1 Cor. 15:40-49
"Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, ... as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come... Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!"
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous."
Romans 5:12-19
"For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive."
1 Corinthians 15:21-22
Adam himself was in current Jewish thought a larger-than-life figure (see Philon), almost mythological.
Both, for Paul, are representative figures, not historical individuals.
more
The two entities are clearly assigned in two exclusive worlds: Adam to the physical side, Christ to the spiritual side. In this context, Paul's theology brings us salvation by making the redeeming act of Christ in heaven superseding/supplanting the original sin on earth. Expressed this way, it is very difficult to see Christ assigned, at any time, to the physical side.
A Heavenly Man with a Spiritual Body
While comparing Adam to Christ, Paul also tells us that the body of Jesus is purely heavenly and spiritual and that we, as humans, will be 'raised' in this kind of matter/stuff after we die.
"There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies;
but the glory of the heavenly is one kind and that of the earhly another.
...
The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable;
it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory;
it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;
it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body
And so it is written,
"The first Adam was created to have a living nature." The second Adam to be a life-giving spirit.
However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.
The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.
As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly.
And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we[d] shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man."
1 Corinthians 15:40-49
The 'man' referenced here is anything but a human on earth.
An Archangel Origin
Its origin can be traced back to the angels/messengers of the Hebrew Bible :
"The Jewish Heavenly Man probably evolved from earlier mythology regarding angelic delegates and messengers from God. They were the original medium of God's revelation and the instrument by which he controlled and communicated with the world. In early books of the Hebrew bible, these messengers are designated "the angel of the Lord" (Gen. 22:11-12, Exod. 23:20-23). Following the Babylonian Exile and its Zoroastrian influence, primary angels (archangels) began to emerge, with names like Gabriel and Michael. These intermediary angels were in part a Hebrew equivalent to the Primal Man concept in other nations."
E. Doherty Jesus Neither God Nor Man

Angelology and the World of Heavenly Men
In the Epistles Jesus as Archangel Philo
Heavenly Man		 Jewish Angelology Primal Man &
Zoroastrianism		 Christian Today
"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first"
1 Thessalonians 4:16
"Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee."
Jude 9
"And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets."
Revelation 8:2, 9:11
Some evidence suggest that these angels not only evolved into a Heavenly Man, but into Christ himself.
Christ would then be at the top of this hierarchy of Angels.
Justin Martyr regarded scriptural references to the Angel of God to be referring to Christ in his pre-incarnation state.
"Moreover, in the book of Exodus we have also perceived that the name of God Himself which, He says, was not revealed to Abraham or to Jacob, was Jesus, and was declared mysteriously through Moses.
Thus it is written: ‘And the Lord spake to Moses, Say to this people, Behold, I send My angel before thy face, to keep thee in the way, to bring thee into the land which I have prepared for thee. Give heed to Him, and obey Him; do not disobey Him. For He will not draw back from you; for My name is in Him.’
Now understand that He who led your fathers into the land is called by this name Jesus, and first called Auses (Oshea). For if you shall understand this, you shall likewise perceive that the name of Him who said to Moses, ‘for My name is in Him,’ was Jesus."
Dialogue with Trypho, 75
Similarly, the Ebionites testify of a pre-Gospel tradition about the derivation of Jesus:
"They say that he (Christ) was not begotten of God the Father, but created as one of the archangels... that he rules over the angels and all creatures of the Almighty, and that he came and declared, as their Gospel,..."
Epiphanius Haer 30.26, 4f quoting the lost Gospel of the Ebionites
Jewish Heavenly Man
This Heavenly Man of the Epistles can be found almost word by word the same, and at the same time, in a Greek Jew, Philo of Alexandria:
"There are two kinds of men. The one is Heavenly Man, the other earthly. The Heavenly Man being in the image of God has no part in corruptible substance, or in any earthly substance whatever but the earthly man was made of germinal matter which the writer [of Genesis] calls 'dust'."
Philo leg. 1.31.

For more details:
The Jewish
Logos

Wikipedia Angels in Judaism

  • Angels exist! From Genesis to Revelation, they are referred
    • 103 times in the O.T.
    • 93 times in the N.T.
  • Archangels exist too. The main ones are Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.
    See Tobit 12:15, 4 Ezra, book of Enoch, Daniel 12:1, 10:13...
  • The "Son of Man" too. It is revealed to several Jewish apocalyptic minds.
    See next point below "A Heavenly Judge & Apocalyptic Figure"

Wikipedia Seven Angels
These ideas of spiritual bodies, superior Archangel, Primal Man or Archetypal Man were widespread at that time through many variants. They all came after Zoroastrianism.
"An increasing number of experts in anthropology, theology and philosophy believe that Zoroastrianism contains the earliest distillation of prehistoric belief in angels."
Mary Boyce A History of Zoroastrianism Volume One: The Early Period.
See Wikipedia Archangel.
See Wikipedia Zoroastrianism.

Wikipedia Angel

"So it is possible that between man and God there exist creatures of higher than human intelligence and power. Indeed, the existence of lesser deities in all heathen mythologies presumes the existence of a higher order of beings between God and man, superior to man and inferior to God. This possibility is turned into certainty by the express and explicit teaching of the Scriptures. It would be sad indeed if we should allow ourselves to be such victims of sense perception and so materialistic that we should refuse to believe in an order of spiritual beings simply because they were beyond our sight and touch.
The study of angels or the doctrine of angelology is one of the ten major categories of theology developed in many systematic theological works."
Angelology: The Doctrine of Angels at bible.org.
A Heavenly Judge & Apocalyptic Figure
The "Son of Man" is a figure from Jewish apocalyptic litterature. He was a heavenly Judge with an apocalyptic role that will come down from heaven to earth at the end of time.
"Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing."
2 Timothy 4:8
"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air."
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
"I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet saying,
What thou seest, write in a book and send [it] to the seven churches: ...
And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And having turned ...I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the candlesticks one like unto a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle.
And his head and his hair were white as white wool, [white] as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;
and his feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and his voice as the voice of many waters.
 ...And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades."
Revelation 1:10-18
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This figure comes from Jewish apocalyptic literature, particularly Daniel 7, 1 Enoch and 4 Ezra.
"As I watched, thrones were set in place, and an Ancient One took his throne; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool;... The court sat in judgment, and the books were opened...
As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him. To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed... But he said to me, 'Understand, O mortal, that the vision is for the time of the end'".
Daniel 7:9-13
"The Lord of spirits sat upon the throne of his glory. And the spirit of righteousness was poured out over him. The word of his mouth shall destroy all the sinners and all the ungodly, who shall perish at his presence. In that day shall all the kings, the princes, the exalted, and those who possess the earth, stand up, behold, and perceive, that he is sitting on the throne of his glory; that before him the saints shall be judged in righteousness; And that nothing, which shall be spoken before him, shall be spoken in vain...
...from the beginning the Son of man existed in secret, whom the Most High preserved in the presence of his power, and revealed to the elect... They shall fix their hopes on this Son of man, shall pray to him, and petition him for mercy...
And with this Son of man shall they dwell, eat, lie down, and rise up, for ever and ever...
Then I fell on my face before the Lord of spirits. And Michael, one of the archangels, took me by my right hand, raised me up, and brought me out to where was every secret of mercy and secret of righteousness."
The Book of Enoch chap. 61 and 70
"And I looked, and behold, this wind made something like the figure of a man come up out of the heart of the sea. And I looked, and behold, that man flew with the clouds of heaven; and wherever he turned his face to look, everything under his gaze trembled, and whenever his voice issued from his mouth, all who heard his voice melted as wax melts when it feels the fire."
After this I looked, and behold, an innumerable multitude of men were gathered together from the four winds of heaven to make war against the man who came up out of the sea... And I looked, and behold, he carved out for himself a great mountain, and flew up upon it
. ...but I saw only how he sent forth from his mouth as it were a stream of fire, and from his lips a flaming breath, and from his tongue he shot forth a storm of sparks. All these were mingled together, the stream of fire and the flaming breath and the great storm, and fell on the onrushing multitude which was prepared to fight, and burned them all up, so that suddenly nothing was seen of the innumerable multitude but only the dust of ashes and the smell of smoke. When I saw it, I was amazed...
After this I saw the same man come down from the mountain and call to him another multitude which was peaceable."
4 Ezra
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"Before Jesus, even purely Jewish groups had begun to envision a Messiah figure who was more than human, someone waiting in heaven for the great day to arrive when he would bring about God's salvation of the righteous."
E. Doherty
A Recent Man in Galilee
"If Jesus had been on earth, he would not even have been a priest."
Hebrews 8:4
See the tabs "No Place & Time", "No Character", "No Teachings &
Parables", "No Miracles", "No Stories", "No Passsion"		 in
The Life of Jesus
Epistles vs Acts
There is no sign that this Jesus was a recent man on earth.
Jesus of Nazareth
The word 'Nazareth' never appears in the Epistles, as everything else related to the career of Jesus on earth.
See
The Life of Jesus
Epistles vs Acts
 and
200 Years of Christian Records
  • A Hero Founder and Role Model
  • A new Moses/Elijah/Elisha
  • Born in Bethlehem to Mary
  • 40 days in the desert
  • Baptized and Transfigured
  • A Performer of Miracles
  • A Reformer
  • A Wandering Cynic Philosopher
  • An Apocalyptic Prophet of the Kingdom
  • Triumphal entrance in Jerusalem
  • Teaching in the Temple
Preaching A Passion Story
A Forever High Priest
In the Epistle of Hebrews, Jesus has been turned into a Forever High Priest. The author is making a contrast between the sacrifice of Jesus in heaven and the one performed by Melchizedek, traditionnaly seen as part of a pre-Abrahamic dynasty of priest-kings. This is a very unique way of describing the celestial Jesus.
"so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people."
Hebrews 2:17
"Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin."
Hebrews 4:14-16
"As He also says in another place:
“You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek”; (Psalm 110:4)
who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek,” of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing."
Hebrews 5:6-11
"For it is declared:
“You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”Psalm 110:4
The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
 ... And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him:
“The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind:
‘You are a priest forever.’”Psalm 110:4
Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant. Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. ... Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever."
Hebrews 7:11-28
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The Logos too was said to be the Expiator of Sins and to procure Forgiveness and Blessings.
When acting as the high priest, he softens punishments by making the merciful power stronger than the punitive.
"For it was indispensable that the man who was consecrated to the Father of the world [the high priest] should have as a paraclete, his son, the being most perfect in all virtue, to procure forgiveness of sins, and a supply of unlimited blessings."
De Vita Mosis 2.134

The Jewish
Logos

A Descending/Ascending Redeemer
By reversing the original Sin, Christ was indeed a redeemer.
"In certain circles of ancient Jewish angelology, both BCE and the first and second centuries CE, there existed a mythology with a descent-ascent pattern, in which the redeemer figure descends, takes human form, and then ascends back to heaven either after or in connection with his saving activity."
Charles H. Talbert The Myth of a Descending-Ascending Redeemer in Mediterranean Antiquity
"In Hellenistic Judaism, this Jewish motif is becoming merged with the Greek Logos, until one arrives at the concept of an intermediary emanation of God impacting on the world..."
E. Doherty
The details of the stories could vary, but a recurrent pattern was that something was 'broken' in our world so a Bel oved one will come from heaven to free the souls of the dead and take them to heaven.
For Paul and other Jews, the Original Sin was that broken thing (see "Anti-Adam" above).
Descending/Ascending Redeemers
In the Epistles In Jewish writings In many Gnostic documents In the Hellenic world
" But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says:
“When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.” (Psalm 68:18)
(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions?
He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)"
Ephesians 4:7-10
"Then in the fullness of time, God sent his Son... in order that he might purchase freedom for the subjects of the Law, so that we might attain the status of sons."
Galatians 4:4-7
"After being made alive in the spirit, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah...""
1 Peter 3:19
"He who was manifest/revealed in flesh, vindicated in spirit, seen by angels;...glorified in high heaven."
1 Timothy 3:16
"But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man."
Hebrews 2:9
" made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men...
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,"
Philemon 2:6-11
Notice that according to this last hymn, Christ got his name 'Jesus' (meaning Savior or Yahweh saves) only at the time of his exaltation after his death.
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The Ascension of Isaiah is a Jewish text for which the first layers can be dated to the end of the 1st Century.
God commands to the Son
"And I heard the voice of the Most High, the Father of my Lord, as he said to my Lord Christ, who will be called Jesus, "Go out and descend through all the heavens. You shall descend through the firmament and through that world as far as the angel who (is) in Sheol, but you shall not go as far as Perdition. ... And you shall make your likeness like that of all who (are) in the five heavens, and you shall take care to make your form like that of the angels of the firmament and also (like that) of the angels who (are) in Sheol. And none of the angels of that world shall know that you (are) Lord with me of the seven heavens and of their angels. For they have denied me and said, 'We alone are, and there is no one beside us.' And afterwards you will ascend from the angels of death to your place, and this time you will not be transformed in each heaven, but in glory you will ascend and sit on My right hand. And the princes and powers of this world will worship you."
The descent of the Son
And thus I saw when my Lord went out from the seventh heaven into the sixth heaven. And the angel who had led me from this world was with me, and he said to me, "Understand, Isaiah, and look, that you may see the transformation and descent of the Lord."
...
And I saw when he descended into the fifth heaven, that in the fifth heaven he made his form like that of the angels there, and they did not praise him, for his form was like theirs.
[... and again for each heaven down to the first, having to give a password to enter starting the third heaven...]
And again he descended into the firmament where the prince of this world dwells, and he gave the password to those who (were) on the left, and his form (was) like theirs, and they did not praise him there; but in envy they were fighting one another, for there is there a power of evil and envying about trifles. And I saw when he descended and made himself like the angels of the air, that he was like one of them. And he did not give the password, for they were plundering and doing violence to one another.
Ascension of Isaiah chapter 10, verses 7-31
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Online Text
See also the Odes of Solomon in
Other Texts
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  • the Naassene hymn
  • the hymn of the Pearl
  • the Mandean
  • the Manichean
  • the Apocalypse of Adam
  • the Second Logos of the Great Seth
And the one choosen below, The Paraphrase of Shem:
"What Derdekeas revealed to me, Shem, according to the will of the Majesty."
...
[8] And the voice of the Word was heard saying through the Majesty to the unbegotten Spirit,
"Behold, the power has been completed. He who was revealed by me appeared in the Spirit. Again I shall appear. I am Derdekeas, the son of the incorruptible, infinite Light."
...
[12] my likeness, the son of the Majesty, is from my infinite Thought, since I am for him a universal likeness which does not lie, (and) I am above every truth and origin of the word. His appearance is in my beautiful garment of light which is the voice of the immeasurable Thought... For by the will of the great Light I came forth from the exalted Spirit down to the cloud of the Hymen without my universal garment... And my likeness was covered with the light of my garment
...
[15] Therefore I appeared that I might get an opportunity to go down to the nether world, to the light of the Spirit which was burdened, that I might protect him from the evil of the burden.
...
[17] I went into the middle region and put on the light that was in it,
...
[18] Then, by the will of the Majesty, I took off my garment of light. I put on another garment of fire which has no form, which is from the mind of the power, which was separated, and which was prepared for me, according to my will, in the middle region. For the middle region covered it with a dark power in order that I might come and put it on. ... I went down to chaos to save the whole light from it. For without the power of darkness I could not oppose Nature.
...
[26] Return henceforth, O Shem, and rejoice [greatly] over your race and Faith, for without body and necessity it is protected from every body of Darkness, bearing witness to the holy things of the greatness which was revealed to them in their thought by my will.... And likewise what I shall say to you concerning everything, I shall reveal to you completely that you may reveal them to those who will be upon the earth the second time.
...
 [32] This is the paraphrase: – For you did not remember that it is from the firmament that your race has been protected. – Elorchaios is the name of the great Light, the place from which I have come, the Word which has no equal. And the likeness is my honored garment. And Derdekeas is the name of his Word in the voice of the Light.
 ...
[36] It is I who opened the eternal gates which were shut from the beginning. To those who long for the best of life, and those who are worthy of the repose, he revealed them. I granted perception to those who perceive. I disclose to them all the thoughts and the teaching of the righteous ones. And I did not become their enemy at all. But when I had endured the wrath of the world, I was victorious. There was not one of them who knew me. The gates of fire and endless smoke opened against me. All the winds rose up against me. The thunderings and the lightning-flashes for a time will rise up against me. And they will bring their wrath upon me. And on account of me according to the flesh, they will rule over them according to kind."
the Paraphrase of Shem Online English Translation
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On his ascension back to the higher realms, Derdekeas will put on a garment of glory, to be exalted for what he has done.
"The attack of Darkness and the subsequent bondage and salvation of the light of the Spirit are similar to the struggle between Darkness and Primal Man in the Manichaean myth. In both cases, Darkness is associated with fire, wind and water. The armor of Primal Man reminds one of the garments that Derdekeas wears during his descent through the spheres down to chaos. The role of Derdekeas combines some aspects of Primal Man and the Living Spirit in the Manichaean myth."
Frederik Wisse
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The Descent of Attis:
"from that creator we distinguish Attis, the cause which descends even unto matter, and we believe that Attis or Gallus is a god of generative powers.
...
But when he passed beyond this limit and came even to the lowest region, the myth said that he had descended into the cave, and had wedded the nymph. And the nymph is to be interpreted as the dampness of matter; though the myth does not here mean matter itself, but the lowest immaterial cause which subsists prior to matter.
...
And this shows that in all things the conversion to the higher is more effective than the propensity to the lower. This is what the myth aims to teach us when it says that the Mother of the Gods exhorted Attis not to leave her or to love another. But he went further, and descended even to the lowest limits of matter.
...
And Attis encircles the heavens like a tiara, and thence sets out as though to descend to earth
...
Attis then was declared to be an original cause and a god, the direct creator of the material world, who descends to the lowest limits and is checked by the creative motion of the sun so soon as that god reaches the exactly limited circuit of the universe, which is called the equinox because of its effect in equalising night and day."
Julian the Apostate Orations V
We also have Inanna’s (or Ishtar) Descent to the Underworld" given on pages 66-75 of The Literature of Ancient Sumer.
See World History Encyclopaedia Online Traduction by M. Jastrow
Not quite 'redeemer' but Gods were often coming down to earth from heaven to give miraculous aid to people.
"There is a swamp not far from there, once habitable land but now the haunt of diving-birds and marsh-loving coots. Jupiter went there, disguised as a mortal, and Mercury, the descendant of Atlas, setting aside his wings, went with his father, carrying the caduceus..."
Ovid Metamorphoses 8:626
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A Dying & Rising Savior
Swimming in this ancient Jewish cosmology and an Hellenic world of Mystery Religions, for many, but not all, Jesus was also an agent of salvation through a myth of death and resurrection, as the name suggests (Jesus means 'Yahweh saves' in Hebrew).
This sacrifice that implies a death & rebirth has a lot in common with those of the Ancient Mysteries.
Dying & Rising in Ancient Mysteries
"Like the grain, Kore returns mythically to the land of the living from her yearly sojourn in the realm of Hades.
Osiris exists in the realm of the dead as the ruler of that realm, and the "grain Osiris" proclaims the growth or rebirth of grain and of Osiris. When Lucius is initiated into the mysteries of Isis, according to Apuleius, he undergoes a nocturnal death experience by passing through the realm of death, the realm of Osiris, and emerging in the morning, dressed like the rising sun, to celebrate his initiation after the manner of a birthday.
Archeological monuments show the Mithraic bull also anticipating new life, and heads of grain grow from the dying bull. The Mithraic inscriptions from Santa Prisca include references to one that "is piously reborn and created by sweet things." Similar references to rebirth are to be found in Apuleius, in the inscription of 376 C.E. on the tnitrobolium and criobolium, and in the Mithras Liturgy.
Attis too provides a hint of new life after his death: his body does not decay, his hair continues to grow, and his little finger (his penis?) remains in motion. During the spring the death of Attis is observed on the Day of Blood, and new life may be celebrated in the Hilaria."
M. Meyer The Ancient Mysteries
Dying & Rising Divinities
Divinities who are born, suffer death-like experience, and
are subsequently reborn, in either a literal or symbolic sense:
  • Aboriginal mythology
    • Julunggul
    • Wawalag
  • Akkadian mythology
    • Tammuz
    • Ishtar
  • Arabian mythology
    • Phoenix
  • Aztec mythology
    • Quetzalcoatl
    • Xipe Totec
  • Celtic mythology
    • Cernunnos
  • Dacian mythology
    • Zalmoxis
  • Egyptian mythology
    • Isis
    • Osiris
  • Etruscan mythology
    • Atunis
  • Greek mythology
    • Adonis
    • Cronus
    • Cybele
    • Dionysus
    • Orpheus
    • Persephone
  • Hindu mythology
    • Trimurti
      • Brahma
      • Vishnu
      • Siva
  • Khoikhoi mythology
    • Heitsi
  • Native American mythology
    • Kaknu
  • Norse mythology
    • Odin
    • Balder
    • Gullveig
  • Roman mythology
    • Aeneas
    • Bacchus
    • Proserpina
  • Slavic mythology
    • Veles
    • Jarilo
  • Sumerian mythology
    • Damuzi
    • Inanna
  • Phrygian mythology
    • Attis
  • Christian mythology
    • Jesus
However, this savior trait was not shared by all of them:
Betrayed & Doubts in Gethsemane
Trial by the Sanhedrin
Pontius Pilate or any Roman
Any Jewish Mob, Beating, Barabbas...
Jesus's Impassible Behavior & Words on the Cross...
An Earthquake, Dark Sky, Empty Tomb...

See Tab 'No Passion' in
The Life of Jesus
Epistles vs Acts

How
By Visiting the Heavens
During his conversion, Paul tells us he visited the 3rd heaven.
"I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of it I do not know, but God knows. And I know that this man-whether in the body or out of it I do not know, but God knows- was caught up to Paradise. The things he heard were too sacred for words, things that man is not permitted to tell."
2 Corinthians 12.2-4
Many Jews (if not most) were believing that the heavens existed and were split in several layers. The clouds were the midway point between the heavens and earth and were populated by many different beings, including angels, demons, creatures in 'human forms', cities, fire & ice, armies and chariots, a "prison house of the angels", prisoners hanging and awaiting judgment, mountains and rivers, trees...
Each layer is different and God sits in the last one. People on earth could travel to these heavens or have visions of events taking place there.
Sources: Book of Enoch, Book of Daniel, Apocalypse of Elijah, Book of Zechariah, Apocalypse of Zephaniah, Martyrdom of Isaiah, Ascension of Isaiah...
"And a spirit took me and brought me up into the fifth heaven. And I saw angels who are called "lords." And the diadem was set upon them in the Holy Spirit, and the throne of each of them was sevenfold more brilliant than the light of the rising sun. And they were dwelling in the temples of salvation and singing hymns to the ineffable God.
...
I saw a soul which five thousand angels punished and guarded. They took it to the East and they brought it to the West. They beat its back with flaming whips and they gave it a hundred fiery lashes for each one daily. I was afraid and I cast myself upon my face so that my joints dissolved. The angel helped me. He said unto me, "Be strong, O one who will triumph, and prevail so that thou wilt triumph over the accuser and thou wilt come up from Hades." And after I arose I said, "Who is this whom they are punishing?" He said unto me, "This is a soul which was found in its lawlessness." And before it attained to repenting it was visited, and taken out of its body. Truly, I, Zephaniah, saw these things in my vision.
But I went with the angel of the Lord, and I looked in front of me and I saw gates. Then when I approached them I discovered that they were bronze gates. The angel touched them and they opened before him. I entered with him and found its whole square like a beautiful city, and I walked in its midst. Then the angel of the Lord transformed himself beside me in that place.
...
Then I arose and stood, and I saw a great angel standing before me with his face shining like the rays of the sun in its glory since his face is like that which is perfected in its glory. And he was girded as if a golden girdle were upon his breast. His feet were like bronze which is melted in a fire. And when I saw him, I rejoiced, for I thought that the Lord Almighty had come to visit me. I fell upon my face, and I worshiped him. He said to me, "Take heed. Worship me not. I am not the Lord Almighty, but am the great angel, Eremiel, who is over the abyss and Hades, the one in which all of the souls are imprisoned from the end of the Flood, which came upon the earth, until this day."
...
Then the great angel came to me with the golden trumpet in his hand, and he blew it up unto heaven. Heaven opened from the place where the sun rises to where it sets, from the north to the south.
...
And I saw others with their hair on them. I said, "Then there is hair and body in this place?"
He said, "Yes, the Lord gives body and hair to them as he desires.
...
I said, "O Lord, why left thou me not until I saw them all?"
He said unto me, "I have not authority to show them unto thee until the Lord Almighty riseth up in his wrath to destroy the earth and the heavens. They will see and be disturbed, and they will all cry out, saying, "All flesh which is ascribed to Thee we will give unto Thee on the day of the Lord." Who will stand in His presence when He riseth in His wrath [to destroy] the earth [and the heavens] Every tree which groweth upon the earth will be plucked up with its roots and fall down...."
Apocalypse of Zephaniah ~1st century BC to 1st century CE
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6th/5th cent. BC Book of Zechariah Heaven: a world of Fire & Ice Book of Enoch. 1st cent. BC Apocalypse of Elijah
By Visions & Re-Interpreting Scriptures
Paul claims his gospel not from historical events or human teachings but from God's revelation. Jesus Christ was a mystery that God was revealing to them through visions and interpretation of the sacred writings.
Rom. 1:1-2, 16:25-26, 1 Pet. 1:10-12, 1 Cor. 12:28, 15:3-4, 2 Cor. 1:22, Col. 1:26-27, 2:2-3, Eph. 3:5, Titus 1:3...
"the gospel he [God] promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son,"
Romans 1:1-2
"...according to the revelation of the mystery, kept in silence for long ages but now revealed, and made known through prophetic writings at the command of God"
Romans 16:25-26
"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received [from God],
that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, [see Isaiah 53]
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures" [see Hosea 6:2 & Jonah]
1 Corinthians 15:3-4
"Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,"
1 Corinthians 1:1
"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,"
2 Corinthians 1:1
"...our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant..."
2 Corinthians 3:6
"...we will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us..."
2 Corinthians 10:13
"I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness"
Colossians 1:25
"On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel."
1 Thessalonians 2:4
"he [God] has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,"
Titus 1:3
...
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See "Resurrection Visions" in
The Life of Jesus
Epistles vs Acts
By Being Possessed by Christ
First Christians interpreted experiences to indicate that external personae entered them to dwell in them and acted through them, which is the ordinary possessionist perspective.
"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me"
Galatians 2:20
"(God) had called me through his grace, and was pleased to reveal his Son to me,"
Galatians 1:16
"since you desire proof that Christ is speaking in me"
2 Corinthians 13:3
"And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ."
1 John 20
"the prophets...trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow."
1 Peter 1:10
By Baptism & Eucharist
In the earliest known religious writings in 2,500 BCE, the Egyptian Pyramid Texts, as in ancient Greece, or the Jewish, Babylonian, Mayan, Norse or Japanese cultures, water has both a revivifying and purifying initiatory ritual role.
Baptism linked Christian initiates with Christ in the spiritual realm, and with his mythical act of death and resurrection, conferring a new birth upon them:
"and you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him"
Colossians 2:12
But they never linked it with something their messiah would have done or said. The dramatic tale of baptism of Jesus in the Jordan river in the Gospels is entirely ignored along with John the Baptist.

Lord's Supper was commonly used for the cultic meal in mysteries. Almost all of them had one. Such a meal signified the union of the initiates with the god of the cult's worship, and a sharing in his nature and saving act. Isis, Dionysus or Mithra after he slained the bull, were looked as having personaly established the rite:
"For I received from the Lord what also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was delivered up took bread..."
1 Corinthians 11:23
See the tab "Sacramental Meal" at
The Life of Jesus
Epistles vs Acts
By Showing Interest to the HJ
Mainstream scholars recognize that the first Christians showed no Interest in the HJ.
How can it be explained?
See in home page, A Critical Bug in Mainstream Theory
The Argument from Silence
Earl Doherty review of The Birth of Christianity.
By the words of those who knew the HJ
There is no Apostolic tradition going back to Jesus (contrary to what will come after in the Acts).
"I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin.
I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it;
rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ."
Galatians 1.12
"But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man"
Galatians 1.15-16
By Teaching Common Doctrines
A 1st Century World of Competing & Contradictory Expressions
"A form of Christian faith later declared heretical, Gnosticism, preceded the establishment of orthodox beliefs and churches in whole areas like northern Syria and Egypt. Indeed, the sheer variety of Christian expression and competitiveness in the first century, as revealed in documents both inside and outside the New Testament, is inexplicable if it all proceeded from a single missionary movement beginning from a single source. We find a profusion of radically different rituals, doctrines and interpretations of Jesus and his redeeming role; some even have a Jesus who does not undergo death and resurrection. Paul meets rivals at every turn who are interfering with his work, whose views he is trying to combat. The "false apostles" he rails against in 2 Corinthians 10 and 11 are "proclaiming another Jesus" and they are certainly not from Peter's group (See Supplementary Article No. 1: Apollos of Alexandria and the Early Christian Apostolate).

A Widely Diverse Set of Expressions
Within the Christ cult itself, there existed a widely diverse set of expressions, varied interpretations of a divine Son and what he had done, what he represented, what he offered. If the Christ cult began at Jerusalem as a response to the events of Jesus' death and perceived resurrection, giving rise to a missionary movement which spread outward from that place,
Earl Doherty

No single point of origin
""...why such an immediate fragmentation would have taken place, why the Christian movement began as "fluid and amorphous" (James Robinson in Trajectories Through Early Christianity).
Out of a record of multiplicity, Christian scholars have deduced a single founder and point of origin which is based on a later stage: the Gospel story, formed by the postulated reconvergence of the original diverging strands.
But no document records this initial phenomenon of differing "responses" to the historical man, this break-up of Jesus into his component parts. Given a record whose earliest manifestation is nothing but diversity, common sense requires us to assume the likelihood that this was in fact the incipient state, and that the new faith arose in many different places with many different expressions. Some elements, such as the teachings, would have had no connection to a Jesus in their early stages. Most of this diversity was later to be drawn together and recast under a composite new figure, courtesy of the evangelists."
Earl Doherty

By Slow Progress to Rome
The Anormal Fast Spread of Christianity
The apostles of the Christ cult would have carried the message declaring Jesus Son of God and Savior of the world, to half the empire in an amazingly short time. Within a handful of years of Jesus' supposed death we know of Christian communities all over the eastern Mediterranean: Rome, Alexandria, Antioch (the three largest cities in the Roman Empire), Corinth, Ephesus... Many of them involving at least some Jewish adherents.
How Rome became Christian?
"One ought not to condemn the Romans, but to praise their faith; because without seeing any signs or miracles and without seeing any of the apostles, they nevertheless accepted faith in Christ, although according to a Jewish rite."
Ambrosiaster commentary on the Pauline epistles, wtitten at Rome in the latter 4th century.
Rome had Jewish Christians no later than the 40s. At the very least, Paul in Romans speaks of a congregation of the Christ that has been established in the capital of the empire "for many years" (Romans 15:23).
These Christians may have been numerous and troublesome enough to be expelled by Claudius as early as the 40s. In Romans 16:3-16, Paul greets 25 Christians by name in Rome and there are many more brothren and sisters, including several who were 'in Christ before me'.
Most of the Christian communities Paul worked existed before he got there and his letters do not support either the picture Acts paints of intense missionary activity on the part of the Jerusalem group around Peter and James.
Earl Doherty
By a Gradual Elevation

What Scholars have postulated
According to secular scholars, Jesus was simply an ordinary human man, a humble (if somewhat charismatic) Jewish preacher, who really said little of what has been imputed to him, who performed no real miracles, and who of course did not rise from the dead -All of which might explain why he attracted no great attention and could have his life ignored as unimportant by his later followers.
Then, during the 25 years following his death, there was a gradual focus on Jesus’ death and away from his teachings and the sense of belonging to a school. Jesus became a divine, spiritual presence. This coalescing cult produced hymns, prayers, complex theological constructions around the significance of that death. It gradually elevated the man to cosmic status and imagined that he had been raised from the dead.
What the records say
But here scholars are facing an insurmountable dilemma.
Such a divinization on the scale that Jesus underwent would have been unprecedented, and there is no more unlikely milieu for this to have happened in than a Jewish one. Nor is this divinization gradual, a graph line which ascends as his reputation grows, as the things he did in his life took on magnified stature and interpretation. Rather, at the earliest we can see any evidence for it [and it could be a couple of years after Jesus' death for Paul], Jesus is already at the highest point, cast in an entirely mythological picture: fully divine, pre-existent before the creation of the world, moving in the celestial spheres and grappling with the demonic forces. Those deeds of his life which should have contributed to such an elevation are nowhere in evidence.
What, then, is the explanation for how such a unimportant life and personality could have given rise to the vast range of response the scholars postulate, to the cosmic theology about him, to the conviction that he had risen from the dead, to the unstoppable movement which early Christianity seems to have been?
Earl Doherty Jesus Puzzle Postscript and Book Review: Who Wrote the New Testament?
How such a cosmic, unprecedented deification of the teaching of Jesus could have taken place?
"excessive...far-fetched...unimaginable...
The resulting Christ myth [the Epistles records] strikes us as an uncalled-for overreaction...
one of the most difficult challenges confronting the historian"
B. Mack A Myth of Innocence
"if you move from Jesus in the tiny hamlets of Jewish Lower Galilee to Paul in the great metropolises of the pagan Roman Empire, the leap seems unimaginably great and miraculously inexplicable."
J.D. Crossan The Birth of Christianity [p.416]

The Language of Myth
Scholars have long asked questions like that
"Why do the hymns use the language of myth to speak of Jesus of Nazareth who was not a mythic figure but a concrete historical person?"
Elizabeth Schlüsser-Fiorenza Wisdom Mythology and the Christological Hymns of the New Testament" in Aspects of Wisdom in Judaism and Early Christianity, p.34
The very earliest expression about Jesus we find in the Christian record presents him solely as a cosmic figure:
All such presentations of Jesus are said to be ways various circles adopted of "interpreting" the man Jesus of Nazareth-according to sacred scripture and current philosophical and mythical concepts. But it would help if any of these early writers gave us even a hint that such an intention was anywhere in their minds.
How are we to understand an "interpretation" when the thing supposedly being interpreted is never mentioned?
Earl Doherty Jesus Puzzle Postscript
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In the 2nd Century
A Catholic Church in Majority
"In the second century, the firt kind of Christianity to set up shop and hang out the shingle in most of the major segments of the Mediterranean world, was not what we know as catholic orthodoxy at all, but rather one or another variety of so-called heresy. On this or that frontier of Christian expansion, "Christianity" simply meant Marcionism, Ebionism, Encratism, Gnosticism. The resultant picture, of course, was antipodal to the traditional version of Eusebius."
R. Price Deconstructing Jesus
In Egypt In Antioch In Edessa
"In Egypt, the first attested workers for Christ there were the Gnostics Valentinus, Basilides, Apelles, Carpocrates, and his son Isidore. Phlegon preserves a letter attributed to Hadrian noting that all Christian priests in Egypt worshipped Serapis too! The leading gospels in Egypt, the Gospels according to the Hebrews and according to the Egyptians, as far as we can tell from their extent fragments, were Gnostic or heretical in color...
The discovery in 1945 of the Nag Hammadi library, a cache of mainly Gnostic gospels, epistles, tracts, and revelation, which revealed an astonishing diversity of Christian beliefs and origins. Evidences show these documents must have been taken from the monastic library of the Brotherhood of Saint Pachomius, the first known Christian monastery. Apparently, when the monks received the Easter Letter from Athanasius in 367 C.E., which contains the first known listing of the canonical twenty-seven New Testament books, warning the faithful to read no others, the brethen must have decided to hide their cherished "heretical" gospels, lest they fall into the hands of the ecclesiastical book burners."
R. Price Deconstructing Jesus
See in home page, The Dark Side of Christianity
A Massive Destruction
Similar picture in western Syria, particularly in Antioch, a major center of Christian mission activity.
"The first missions after the ones described in Galatians then Acts we know of in western Syria were those of the Gnostics Satornilus/Saturninus, Cerdo, and Menander. It is in this region also that we find the orthodox bishop Serapion in 190 C.E., condemning the widespread usage of the local favorite Gospel of Peter, which he deemed docetic and heretical.
When we get to the letters of Ignatius, we must infer that Ignatius' desperate pleading for the firm control by, and absolute obedience to, the bishop in each church denotes a power struggle to a flood of "heresies" (docetic and judaizing) which only an ironhanded authoritarianism could hope to squash.
Similarly, the Epistle of Polycarp laments that "the great majority" embrace Docetism."
R. Price Deconstructing Jesus
So in Antioch in the time of Ignatius is is likely that his followers were a minority compared with the two heretical communities which he fought. While C.C. Richardson has described the docetism of Ignatius opponents thus:
"This docetism implies an absolute denial of the Lord's humanity, a refusal to admit that he was a man (Smyrn. 5), and hence an overthrowing of his whole life and ministry (Eph. 7, Smyrn. 1 and 5, Trall. 9)."
The Christianity of Ignatius of Antioch (1935)
As late as the end of the second century the unorthodox called Catholic Christians by the name of their bishop, just as if he were the teacher of some novel heretical group.
"Walter Bauer (1877-1960) showed how the Chronicle of Edessa records as events of note the births or arrivals of Marcion, Bardesanes, and Mani before it ever gets around to mentioning the establishment of a church building by the first representative of orthodoxy.
Justin Martyr and heresiologists tell us the embarrassing fact that the name "Christian" in Edessa was the exclusive property of Marcionites, and that the apparently late-arriving orthodox had to be satisfied with being called "Palutians" after the first orthodox bishop Palut... A note from contemporary Greater Armenia makes clear that "heresy" was in the vast majority in the region."...
Helmut Koester has supplemented Bauer's argument here by locating the Thomas tradition (heretic too) in eastern Syria."
R. Price Deconstructing Jesus
We can deduct that the famous fake correspondence between King Abgarus of Edessa and Jesus must have originated as a spurious pedigree for apostolic orthodoxy in Edessa.
Paulinism against Catholicism
In the second century, the most important strand of Christianity (Marcion, Valentinian Gnosticism ...) which will be declared 'heretic', was claiming that Paul was their principal source of inspiration.
"Much of what passes for 'historical' interpretation of Paul and for 'objective' analysis of his letters can be traced to the second century heresiologists. If the apostle were so unequivocally anti-Gnostic,
  • How could the Gnostics claim him as their great Pneumatic teacher?
  • How could they say they are following his example when they offer secret teaching of wisdom and Gnosis 'to the initiates?'
  • How could they claim his resurrection theology as the source for their own, citing his words as decisive evidence against the ecclesiastical doctrine of bodily resurrection?"
Elaine Pagels The Gnostic Gospels 1989
On the other side, some members of the branch of Christianity that will become the orthodox Roman Catholic church regarded Paul as the great apostate and an arch enemy:
Everything in the attitude of Tertullian or Irenaeus, confirms the view that the Pauline writings arose outside of what became the orthodox Church tradition, but that that tradition found it convenient to appropriate them. So it becomes apparent that the Paul retained for Christianity was a domesticated Paul, Paul rendered more comfortable, an ecclesiasticized Paul.
At the same time, the influence of Paul on subsequent Christianity has been incalculable.
Not for nothing was he hailed a century ago as 'the second founder of Christianity'.
Adapted from E. Pagels The Gnostic Gospels
One of the goal of the "Acts of the Apostles" was to attach Paul. See Gospels page at:
By Rewriting
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