From Christ to Jesus
A Study on the Origin of Christianity
Unknown to all Jewish, Roman and Greek Authors
Besides the Gospels, the two first clear references to Jesus as a human man in recent history are:
  • The supposed letters of Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, around 107 CE* during his journey to Rome to die a martyr's death in the brutal arena:
    "Close your ears, then, if anyone preaches to you without speaking of Jesus Christ.
    Christ was of David's line.
    He was the son of Mary,
    who was really born, ate and drink,
    was really persecuted under Pontius Pilate,
    was really crucified..."
    Epistle to the Trallians 9:1f
    * In reality, there is very little chance that Ignatius could have composed these letters, since he was escorted by Romans as someone sentenced to death. They must not be authentic and written several years after.
  • Followed by the Roman aristocrat Tacitus in Rome in 115 CE, who may simply be repeating newly-developed Christian belief in an historical Jesus in the Rome of his day:
    "The founder of that name was Christus, who, in the reign of Tiberius, was punished as a criminal by the procurator, Pontius Pilate".
    The lack of any reliable source that he would have used is confirmed by many scholars:
    "It should be clear in any event that Tacitus is basing his comment about Jesus on hearsay rather than, say, detailed historical research"
    B. Ehrman Did Jesus Exist?
    Plus, the case for the interpolation is strong. See the tab 'Tacitus' in 'Debating possible references to a HJ'.
The figure of Jesus of Nazareth is notably missing from all Non-Christian records:
  • All Roman and Greek writers:
    Pliny the Elder, Seneca, Epictetus, Martial, Juvenal...
    It is also absent from Pliny the Younger, Suetonius and Plutarch even though they wrote about Christianity.
  • All Jewish writers:
    • Philo of Alexandria 20 BC-50 CE who nevertheless
      • visited Jerusalem and Palestine,
      • wrote about unusual sects like the Therapeutae and the Essenes,
      • was very familiar with the midrash Halakah Palestinian,
      • wrote about political conflicts between the Jews and Pontius Pilate in Judea.
    • Justus of Tiberias 35 CE-100 CE despite Jesus would have performed his ministry and miracles in his neighborhood.
      Unfortunately, one of the most important record for the quest on the HJ has not escaped the mark of the (Christian) time. But Photios (archbishop of Constantinople) laments in the ninth century:
      "he does not even mention the coming of Christ, the events of His life, or the miracles performed by Him."
    • Josephus 37 CE-100 CE although he described John the Baptist and four messianic figures.
      This study is making the case that the references of Jesus in the Antiquity of the Jews 94 CE (The Testimonium Flavianum) are an interpolation. Something many scholars acknowledge:
      "Whether or not Jesus lived has to be decided on other kinds of evidence from this"
      B. Ehrman Did Jesus Exist?
At the same time, we shouldn't lose sight that according to the Gospels, Jesus was the most famous preacher of its time:
"The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee."
Mark 1:27-28
"Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him."
Matthew 4:23-25
Greek Authors Roman Authors Jewish Authors
The lack of Jesus, a supposedly so charismatic Jewish preacher who died under such circumstances and gave birth to a new religion, in so many documents where he should or could have been mentioned already tells us that either
  • Jesus was a nobody
  • or he did not exist
Missing from many Christian Texts
What is even more surprising is that the figure of Jesus of Nazareth is lacking from many Christian records!
The Didache is entirely silent about an historical Jesus as:
  • the source of the ethical teaching contained in the "Two Ways" section (ch. 1 & 2)
  • the standard by which the itinerant prophets' authority and teachings are to be measured (ch. 11)
  • the one who will arrive at the Parousia (ch. 16)
  • the institutor of the community's thanksgiving meal (ch 9 & 10)
The only mention of Jesus comes in the eucharistic prayers of chapters 9 and 10, where he seems no more than a spiritual conduit to God and a revealer...
A Revealer
Jesus is only mentioned 5 times. All of them come from the eucharistic prayer of chapter 9 and 10. He is a spiritual conduit to God and a revealer of sacred knowledge
"the life and knowledge thou hast made known to us through thy servant (or child) Jesus"
In other words, a version of the intermediary Son.
Eucharist (although not Sacramental)
"First, concerning the cup:
We thank thee, our Father, for the holy vine of David Thy servant, which You madest known to us through Jesus Thy Servant; to Thee be the glory for ever.
And concerning the broken bread:
We thank Thee, our Father, for the life and knowledge which You madest known to us through Jesus Thy Servant; to Thee be the glory for ever. Even as this broken bread was scattered over the hills, and was gathered together and became one, so let Thy Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into Thy kingdom; for Thine is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ for ever...
But let no one eat or drink of your Eucharist, unless they have been baptized into the name of the Lord; for concerning this also the Lord has said, "Give not that which is holy to the dogs."
Didache 9
The last saying is attributed to Jesus in the Gospel (Mt 7:6) while it must be regarded as attributed to God here. Indeed, the "name" is tied unambiguously to the Father right after:
"Thou, Almighty Master, didst create all things for Thy name's sake, and didst give food and drink unto men for enjoyment, that they might render thanks to Thee;"
Didache 10:4
Another saying is attributed to the Lord:
"But every Lord's day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving ... For this is that which was spoken by the Lord: "In every place and time offer to me a pure sacrifice; for I am a great King, says the Lord, and my name is wonderful among the nations."
Didache 14:1-3
But this time it alludes to the Old Testament Malachi 1:6-14.
Death & Resurrection
"The prayer of thanksgiving (eucharist) for the community meal are significant because they do not contain any reference to the death of Jesus. Accustomed as we are to the memorial supper of the Christ cult and the stories of the last supper in the synoptic gospels, it has been very difficult to imagine early Christians taking meals together for any reason other than to celebrate the death of Jesus according to the Christ myth. But here in the Didache a very formalistic set of prayers is assigned to the cup and the breaking of bread without the slightest association with the death and resurrection of Jesus."
B. Mack
Baptism
He is part of the baptismal formula:
"...baptize into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in living water. "
Didache 7:1
The Lord’s Prayer
"Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, as in Heaven so also upon earth; give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debt as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into trial, but deliver us from the Evil One, for thine is the power and the glory for ever."
Didache 8.2
Interestingly, we have evidence here that it is coming from the Lord, meaning God, while it will be later on attributed to Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospels of Matthew & Luke.
Son of Man
"be ready, for you know not the hour in which our Lord will come.
...For in the last days false prophets and corrupters shall be multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and love shall be turned into hate; for when lawlessness increases, they shall hate and persecute and betray one another, and then shall appear the world-deceiver as Son of God, and shall do signs and wonders, and the earth shall be delivered into his hands, and he shall do iniquitous things which have never yet come to pass since the beginning.
Then shall the creation of men come into the fire of trial, and many shall be made to stumble and shall perish; but those who endure in their faith shall be saved from under the curse itself.
And then shall appear the signs of the truth: first, the sign of an out spreading in heaven, then the sign of the sound of the trumpet. And third, the resurrection of the dead -- yet not of all, but as it is said: "The Lord shall come and all His saints with Him." Then shall the world see the Lord coming upon the clouds of heaven."
Didache 16
Like in the Epistles, you have no idea that this would be a 'second' coming.
Apostolic Tradition going back to Jesus
No appeal to any authority or correctness of doctrine going back to Jesus or any originating phase of the movement. The document as a whole is thoroughly theocentric - centering on God not Jesus. Everything is done in the name of "the lord" meaning God.
Didache at Early Christian Writings
Didache at Wikipedia
Odes of Solomon
The Shepherd of Hermas
A Series of Revelations to Hermas by Angelic and other Celestial Figures
One of them is the angel of repentance, the "shepherd", which gives the writings its name. The book is divided in three divisions: 5 Visions, 12 commandments and 10 Parables. The genre is apocalyptic. The author's central concern is the question of sin after baptism: is forgiveness available to Christians for sins committed following their conversion?
This Son of God is a highly mystical figure devoid of human features and is sometimes equated with the Holy Spirit or the Jewish Law. A key passage in the Fifth Parable indicates that this writer has no concept of a life on earth. This is an allegorical parable which has the Son "cleansing the sins of the people" before his "show[ing] them the ways of life and [giving] them the law which he received from his Father." Since "giving them the law" is elsewhere assigned to the angel Michael, who is also equated with the "Son," no human biography of Jesus can possibly be present in this writer's mind. Moreover, there is a complete silence on a death and resurrection anywhere in this lengthy work.
Hermas treats the "church", the body of believers, as a mystical entity. It is God himself who has created the church (Vision 1, 1:6), including its pre-existent prototype in heaven. The writer can speak of "apostles" but never associate them with an historical figure who appointed them. Instead, "apostles and teachers preach the name of the Son of God" (Parable 9, 16:5), in the same way that Paul and other Christian prophets preach the divine Christ.
The central section of the Shepherd discusses a great list of moral rules, some resembling the teachings of the Gospels, but no attribution is made to Jesus.
The writer is rooted in Hellenistic-Jewish mythology with its picture of a heaven in which different forces form part of the workings of divinity. The Son is one of many figures in a class photo which includes the Holy Spirit and angels of several ranks, and these are occasionally allowed to merge into one another.
"the Savior is described basically in terms of an angelology which has coalesced with the categories of Son and Spirit"
Charles Talbert
E. Doherty
The Shepherd of Hermas at Early Christian Writings
Theophilus, Tatian & Athenagoras
Minucius Felix
In Octavius, he goes on to ridicule the whole idea of gods procreating themselves, or those who are credulous enough to believe in miracles performed by gods and
"Why, I pray, are gods not born today, if such have ever been born?"
Octavius (23)
Even among the main historicists like Justin Martyr, it seems there was at the beginning no HJ, since, during his conversion, his instructor taught him:
"But Christ-if has indeed been born, and exists anywhere- is unknown"
Dialogue with Trypho 8:6
A Man of the Indefinite Past
1 Clement
Sayings
Barnabas
SayingsWonders
No John the Baptist
Even as late as the end of the first century, the writer of 1 Clement is silent on John when he says (17:1):
"Let us take pattern by those who went about in sheepskins and goatskins heralding the Messiah's coming; that is to say, Elijah, Elisha and Ezekiel among the prophets, and other famous names besides."
Those other famous names he goes on to enumerate are all from the Old Testament.
According to B. Ehrman:
"The author of 1 Clement, not only assumes that Jesus lived but that much of his life was well known. Among the many things he says about the historical Jesus are the following"
  • spoke 2.1
  • sufferings 2.1
  • 7.4
  • 12.7
  • 13 1-2
  • 16.2
  • 32.2
  • 33.7
  • 46.8 -> Matt 26:24 and Luke 17:2
  • 49.1
  • 49.6
"Here again we have an independent witness not just to the life of Jesus as a historical figure but to some of his teachings and deeds. Like all sources that mention Jesus from outside the NT, the author of 1 Clement had no doubt about his real existence and no reason to defend it. Everyone knew he existed"
Did Jesus Exist p.104-105
Like all the writers of the Epistles, the author of 1 Clement certainly thought his Jesus existed. This is not the problem. What we question is if he knew Jesus was a man who lived recently in Galilee and died in Jerusalem. But this data that would allow such identification is nowhere in 1 Clement. There is no HJ here. And since Mr Ehrman is so sure of himself, I also add that everyone knew at that time there was no HJ.
Barnabas
It does clearly give two pieces of information about Jesus, that he taught the people of Israel and had worked wonders, although no examples are given.
"If we study our six texts [Hermas, Didache, 1 Clement, Barnabas, Hebrews, Revelation] on their own terms, without assuming that they have the Gospels and Acts as their background, the most natural interpretation of what they say, and do not say, about the earthly Jesus, is that it was not a contemporary that now appeared to them as raised to Heaven, but rather, as seems definitely to be the case in Paul and in 1 Clement, a figure of the distant past - though, to be sure, this is never said explicitly.
We therefore now have an explanation of the remarkable lack of information about the historical, earthly Jesus, not only in Paul, but in all the earliest Christian texts outside the Gospels and Acts. Jesus' death, burial and rising are 'according to the scriptures' and there is no indication that they were looked upon as recent events at the time when the apostles had seen Jesus in Heaven."
Alvar Ellegård Jesus One Hundred Years Before Christ p.68
"In the second century, the first 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 Egypt, the first attested workers for Christ 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 brethren 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 Targeted Destruction in chapter 6. Debating Possible References to a HJ
In Antioch
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 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)
In Edessa
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 deduce that the famous fake correspondence between King Abgarus of Edessa and Jesus must have originated as a spurious pedigree for apostolic orthodoxy in Edessa.
A Catholic Church at odds with PaulinismPaulinism vs. 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:
  • Church father Tertullian (who became heretic himself after his Montanist work) called Paul "the apostle of the heretics" adv. Marc. 3.5
  • Paulinism is attacked in the Clementine Homiliae and Recognitiones
  • Irenaeus claims in Against Heresies, 180 CE that:
    "Those who are called Ebionites... use the Gospel according to Matthew only, and repudiate the Apostle Paul, maintaining that he was an apostate from the law."
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 Rewriting History in Acts.
No more Gnosticism
According to the Westar Institute, “the category of Gnosticism needs to be dismantled” because it “no longer works” to describe any ancient religion or sect. Consequently, “the idea that such a thing as ‘Gnosticism’ even existed is simply off the table.”
Naturally, all these Pagan, Jewish and anti-Jewish sects and movements still existed at that time; they just cannot be grouped in a Gnostic category.
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
“Early Christianity was an enormously diverse affair. Different groups had different understandings of God, Christ, salvation, the creation, the afterlife, and most everything else. And each group thought that it was right and the others were wrong. Only one group won.”
B. Ehrman
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,
  • Why would the writer of Hebrews (maybe in Egypt) have deviated so radically to portray its Son as the heavenly High Priest whose blood sacrifice, offered in the heavenly sanctuary, is the higher world counterpart of the Day of Atonement sacrifice performed by the high priest in the sanctuary on earth?
  • How and why the Johannine Community developped such a different and unique christology?
  • Why does the Odes of Solomon never speak the name Jesus nor make any reference to either the crucifixion or resurrection?
  • In the Shepherd of Hermas, why is the name Jesus and Christ never used?
    Why is there no sign of death or resurrection?
    Why are the list of moral rules never assigned to Jesus?
  • The Gnostic Savior is derived in part from a philosophical concept current in the early centuries of our era, which spoke of a 'Primal Man' or 'Heavenly Man'. This being descended the heavens to effect salvation. But again, no historical Jesus of Nazareth lies in the background."
Earl Doherty
A Single and Miraculous Point of Origin?
Similarly, in Who Wrote the New Testament? The Making of the Christian Myth, B. Mack explodes the idea of a single, miraculous point of origin for Christianity. Instead he portrayed a multitude of perspectives in the tradition history behind the Gospels. The New Testament grew out of a motley and often incompatible array of writings representing different groups at different times. They all had:
"their own histories, views, attitudes and mix of peoples... Each writing has a different view of Jesus, a particular attitude toward Judaism, its own concept of the Kingdom of God, a peculiar notion of salvation, and so on."
As all these writings and the views they represented were brought together, they had a uniformity of thought imposed on them; the result was the myth of origins which Christianity has accepted about itself for almost 2000 years.
Burton Mack himself is not a mythicist as he thinks Jesus was an obscure itinerant Cynic, whose sayings are found in the Q source. But by contrasting the Christ Cult with the Jesus Movement, he is also a voice crying out in the wilderness, preparing the way for the mythicist.
Adapted from a post of Peter Kirby and Earl Doherty's review of Who Wrote the New Testament? The Making of the Christian Myth
Notice that in Deconstructing Jesus, Robert Price follows B.Mack's monumental essay outline and shows us how these unrelated traditions have finally merged into the patchwork savior of Christian dogma.
"...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."
Earl Doherty
 
The Jewish Mysteries of the Messiah

"0 truly sacred mysteries! 0 pure light!
In the blaze of the torches I have a vision of heaven and of God.
I become holy by initiation. The Lord reveals the mysteries..."
Church Father Clement of Alexandria Exhortation to the Greeks

"We thank Thee, holy Father, for Thy holy name which You didst cause to tabernacle in our hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality, which You modest known to us through Jesus Thy Servant; to Thee be the glory for ever.
Thou, Master almighty, didst create all things for Thy name's sake; You gavest food and drink to men for enjoyment, that they might give thanks to Thee; but to us You didst freely give spiritual food and drink and life eternal through Thy Servant.
Before all things we thank Thee that You are mighty; to Thee be the glory for ever. Remember, Lord, Thy Church, to deliver it from all evil and to make it perfect in Thy love, and gather it from the four winds, sanctified for Thy kingdom which Thou have prepared for it; for Thine is the power and the glory for ever. Let grace come, and let this world pass away.
Hosanna to the God (Son) of David!"
Didache ch. 10


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