Jesus Was Not...
Many things we know may not be so. Sometimes we know more about what was not than what was. All knowledge is informative and some of it is formative to who we are. Let’s look at what elements history tells us would have formed “Jesus” and who he might actually have been.
Jesus was not his name because he grew up Jewish so the Hebrew version of his name would have mostly likely been -- Yeshua Bar Yehosef or Yeshua Nasraya – which translate to us today as ‘Jesus, son of Joseph’ or ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ When the King James Bible was compiled in 1611, the letter ‘J’ was still not in the English language so King Iames followed up his bestseller called ‘Daemonologie’ (and about necromancy, divination, werewolves, vampires, sorcery, and the persecution of witches) with the now iconically famous King Iames 1611 Bible, which has a large American following that claims it is the ‘inerrant Word of God.’
Jesus was not the first messiah. Cyrus the Great was given that title by the Jews in the Old Testament. Isaiah 45:1 “to his anointed, to Cyrus.” Messiah/mashiah means “the anointed.” It comes from the root “mashah.” Christ comes from the Greek Khistos which also means “anointed.” The Egyptians depicted anointing rituals on the city and temple walls. Nefertiti was anointed. Egyptian kings anointed gods. The Hebrew priests and temples were anointed with a ‘holy’ oil that likewise made them also ‘holy.’ Chrism (the oil of catechumens) and the oil of the sick are still used in Christianity today.
Jesus was not the first son of God. In the pantheon of gods across the globe and history, deified progeny (children) abound. Beware of the ‘bulls’ of Zeus. The Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten, the world’s first acclaimed monotheist, took this ‘god progeny’ one step further than most Egyptian monarchs. In the famous ‘Hymn to Aten,’ Akhenaten claims to be the ‘son’ of Ra - the One Sun God. Alexander the Great went to the very remote temple at the oasis at Siwa, in far western Egypt today, in order to inquiry if he was the son of the sun god Ra. Yes, the priest said he was. Octavian, Augustus (supreme) Caesar put ‘Divi filius’ on one of his Roman coins in order to claim his sonhood to his adopted father (and true grand-uncle) and the newly deified god Julius Caesar. Roman’s knew Julius Caesar became a god because a comet, that was visible by day, appeared in the sky after he died. August’s two sons were also on the back of the coin. Augustus had another coin with his face on the front and Divus Iulius (Julius) on the back with a depiction on sun rays and the comet that appeared over the Roman Empire during the (funeral) games played in honor of Julius Caesar after his death. These coins would have been very common in the newly minted Roman Empire.
Jesus was not necessarily a carpenter. The word used in the Bible is not that specific. It means craftsman. Sorry Josh McDowell.
Jesus was not the first crucified. Alexander the Great crucified people on the island of Trye, after he made it no longer and island, in the 330s BCE. Jesus did hang out and chill in the vicinity of Tyre – Mark 7:24.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Tyre_(332_BC)
Jesus was not the first blood sacrifice - a cow, a goat, a ram, a dove, and a pigeon were in Genesis 15.
https://www.drawforgod.com/trying-to-understand-genesis-15/. Holy cow — it doesn’t matter where you look in ancient history cows are always number one. Don’t take that from me, ask the Jews that left Egypt.
Jesus was not the first itinerate preacher killed by Herod Antipas. John the Baptist, Jesus’s “cousin,” probably gets this honor.
https://www.learnreligions.com/herod-antipas-co-conspirator-in-jesus-death-701060
Jesus WAS a bodhisattva -- a buddha. Enlightened to a road for escaping suffering in this life and the afterlife, Iesus gathered disciples with public lectures. Gautama (the Buddha but really just a buddha) used a deer park and Yeshua used a mountain. Laozi said follow the natural way – Dao – your natural self. Jesus said “I am the way.” Confucius said that societal suffering will end from finding one’s place within their human communities. Jesus said, “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12:50)
If Jesus was God, and or the son of God, then Jesus WAS an avatar, like Krishna to the lord/god Vishnu. Yup… …like in the movie.
Jesus WAS a Sufi, a wool wearing mystic with a perceived direct and personal connection to God. Though Sufis formally came into being after the death of Muhammad, their name means wool. Jesus would have worn lenin and wool. When he was on trial and killed, much was said and done about what Jesus wore and/or was forced to wear. Those vestments were wool, especially if they were a high priest grade rob.
https://christianevidence.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/What-Did-Jesus-Wear.pdf
Jesus WAS a free thinker. Hillel, a possible role-model for Jesus and his innovative populist views, is famous for many quotes that Jesus seems to have mirrored. Jesus was a free thinker but he had a clear guide in addition to any influences he picked up from with the Essenes — those are the people of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/portrait/essenes.html#:~:text=Who%20were%20the%20Essenes%3F,the%20Temple%20was%20being%20run.
Hillel "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And being only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”
Examples, and all of this text below, is sourced from:
https://humanjourney.us/ideas-that-shaped-our-modern-world-section/historical-jesus/
“Similarities between the sayings of Hillel and those spoken by Jesus in the New Testament have been noted by scholars. Here are examples:
One of the famous Talmudic stories tells that the Pharisee Shammai – a fundamentalist and opposed to Hillel’s views – was visited by a pagan who promised to convert to Judaism if the Rabbi could teach him everything that was in the Torah while he stood on one leg.
Shammai dismissed him angrily, but when the joker went to Hillel, Hillel replied: “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.”
The same idea is found spoken by Jesus in Matthew 7:12 when he says “do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
Hillel is quoted as saying, “Pass not judgment upon thy neighbor until thou hast put thyself in his place.” Which is again familiar to New Testament readers where, in Luke 6:37, Jesus says : “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.”
Hillel also said: “Whoever would make a name loses the name… whoever makes use of the crown perishes.” And according to Luke 7:33 Jesus said: “Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.”.
Hillel and his group believed in the Resurrection – for they believed that Elijah had ascended to Heaven – and were flexible in their interpretation of the Law. They accepted Gentile converts, taught that one should “love peace, seek peace, love mankind and thus lead them to the law.””