Examining the Meaning of the Resurrection, Part III: Where Were the Disciples When They Saw?

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on 16 June 2011 3 Comments
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Question

Have you come across a book called The Jesus Mysteries?  I think it makes a very good case for the possibility that Jesus as a man never actually existed.  For one thing it is surprising that such a remarkable person has no mention at all in any writing of his time. (Of course, he would not have been called Jesus, which is a Greek name, more likely Joshua.  If he was real why was he not given his true Aramaic name?)  Second, it would not be surprising if one (the writer of Mark’s gospel) was writing a myth, that he would set it a few decades in the past so that it would not be so easy to refute.  Third, it would account for the other gospels being different, as each elaborated a further fiction.  Fourth, it would entirely account for the references back to the Old Testament prophesies, as the story was written around them.  It does appear that Saul (aka Paul) had set out to replace Judaism with a religion to which others in the Roman Empire could also belong.  I realize that after a lifetime of biblical study, you may find it hard to accept this possibility.  Perhaps that could be the big secret that the Vatican has hidden all these years?

Answer

Dear Nick,

I am quite familiar with The Jesus Mysteries.  In fact I have a signed endorsement on the back cover at least of the first edition.  I have no difficulty accepting truth from any source.  I do not believe that defensiveness for my version of truth is ever appropriate and it reveals not strength of character but weakness.  Having said that, I do not believe that the authors of that book, Freke and Gandy, made their case and indeed I regard that book as a rather shallow, if, nonetheless, exciting piece of work.

This book suggests that the Jesus story is a composition based on Egyptian images.  Jesus is given a Greek name because the gospels are written in Greek.  His Aramaic name would be Joshua and his Hebrew name Yeshuah.

If we take what we know of secular history and superimpose the authentic writings of Paul upon it, two things happen.  First, we can date the life of Jesus rather accurately between 4 BCE and 30 CE and we can see that Paul conferred with Peter and Jesus’ brother within less than a decade after the death of Jesus.  There is hardly enough time to create the vast mythology that Freke and Gandy postulate.

There is no doubt that layers of mythology have been laid onto the historical Jesus in the interpretive process.  The Virgin Birth and the Cosmic Ascension are but two small bits of that.  There is, however, little doubt that a person named Jesus of Nazareth lived in history and that he had a major impact on lives in the first century.

Freke and Gandy are not the first to offer this theory.  I find their argument totally unconvincing.

~John Shelby Spong

 

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