27.8.06
Past The Mission
I have finished reading a book called "The Authentic Gospel of Jesus", by Geza Vermas, the first professor of Jewish studies at Oxford. Probably the foremost world authority on the Dead Sea scrolls, he has also written at great length about the historical Jesus.
Everyone's got their own idea of who Jesus was or is. My idea always was that Jesus was not God, that he was the Son of God, send by God to be Preacher to the world, to die as the ultimate sacrificial lamb of the Law of Moses, to bring humans back to the communion they should enjoy with God. Now, my whole conception of Jesus has shifted, partly because, or thanks to, this book.
It seems that Jesus was one of these prophets of Galilee, an rigourous observer of the Torah, calling his fellow Jews, and not the Gentiles, to get right with God, and observe the Torah in a heartfelt manner, instead of just seeing the legal or technical aspect of it. According to Prof. Vermas, it seems that Jesus was unaware that he'd end up dying on a cross, that his message was to get ready for the coming of Kingdom of God, the end of times or whatever this concept meant to him.
Prof. Vermas uses the knowledge he has of the time in which Jesus lived and he examines each of the words Jesus is reported to have uttered and analyses them, judging them genuine, probably genuine, probably invented by the Gospel authors, and surely invented by the authors.
No doubt that hardline Christians will find this serious book insulting. Honest researchers of the Truth will be disturbed and challenged like I was. But it is sometimes necessary to get shocked sane.
The God I worship wants me to gain knowledge and not have a blind faith that blurs my vision but makes me feel safe! The Jesus I admire and try to follow is not the wimp worshipped with his asexual mother by the Catholics!
The Jesus I admire and try to follow was an ancient Jewish prophet, healer and miracle-worker. I believe he didn't think he would die and that his words would be shared with the non-Jews. However, I personally believe that God used him as a sacrifice and as the opening door for all of us who are not Jews but have come to know the God of Israel.
Read a review of the book, published in the UK newspaper The Guardian.
Everyone's got their own idea of who Jesus was or is. My idea always was that Jesus was not God, that he was the Son of God, send by God to be Preacher to the world, to die as the ultimate sacrificial lamb of the Law of Moses, to bring humans back to the communion they should enjoy with God. Now, my whole conception of Jesus has shifted, partly because, or thanks to, this book.
It seems that Jesus was one of these prophets of Galilee, an rigourous observer of the Torah, calling his fellow Jews, and not the Gentiles, to get right with God, and observe the Torah in a heartfelt manner, instead of just seeing the legal or technical aspect of it. According to Prof. Vermas, it seems that Jesus was unaware that he'd end up dying on a cross, that his message was to get ready for the coming of Kingdom of God, the end of times or whatever this concept meant to him.
Prof. Vermas uses the knowledge he has of the time in which Jesus lived and he examines each of the words Jesus is reported to have uttered and analyses them, judging them genuine, probably genuine, probably invented by the Gospel authors, and surely invented by the authors.
No doubt that hardline Christians will find this serious book insulting. Honest researchers of the Truth will be disturbed and challenged like I was. But it is sometimes necessary to get shocked sane.
The God I worship wants me to gain knowledge and not have a blind faith that blurs my vision but makes me feel safe! The Jesus I admire and try to follow is not the wimp worshipped with his asexual mother by the Catholics!
The Jesus I admire and try to follow was an ancient Jewish prophet, healer and miracle-worker. I believe he didn't think he would die and that his words would be shared with the non-Jews. However, I personally believe that God used him as a sacrifice and as the opening door for all of us who are not Jews but have come to know the God of Israel.
Read a review of the book, published in the UK newspaper The Guardian.
# poster: Mormon(s) of another kind at 03:11 
