The Last Christian: The Story Of The Christ

The Gospels are a combination of historical fact with theological reflection on the meaning and purpose of Christ's life and death. They also look back to show how Christ's suffering and death followed the prophecies of the Old Testament in order to demonstrate that he was the long-expected Messiah. The Gospel accounts of the Passion are very simple; other accounts of Christ's suffering and death have embellished the story with additional details. The historical evidence for the Crucifixion supports the bare facts of Jesus' death on the Cross, but little else.

At this time there appeared Jesus, a wise man, for he was a doer of astounding deeds, a teacher of people who receive the truth gladly. He won a following both among many Jews and among many of Greek origin. When Pilate, because of an accusation made by our leaders, condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him previously did not cease to do so. Up until this very day the tribe of Christians named after him has not died out. Testimonium Flavium, as edited in R. Joseph Hoffmann, Gerald A.

Larue, Jesus in History and Myth, Christus, from whom their name [Christians] is derived, was executed at the hands of the procurator Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius Some accounts of the Passion use elements from Old Testament passages to provide additional material:. One of the most widely known of these applications is the phrase Bestul, Texts of the Passion: Latin Devotional Literature and Medieval Society, Several passages from the Book of Isaiah also provided details that have been added into the Passion story. It wasn't just the Old Testament material that was used to augment the Passion story.

Gospels not included in scripture, such as the Gospel of Nicodemus, provided additional material. Ephraem, for example, added many physical details of the Passion They, indeed, stretched out His limbs and outraged Him with mockeries. A man whom He had formed wielded the scourge.

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He who sustains all creatures with His might submitted His back to their stripes. John's description of the arrest in the garden states only that the band of soldiers with the tribune and the leaders of the Jews took Jesus and bound him John In some of the late medieval treatises on the Passion, this description is elaborated with the additional detail that Christ's hands were tied so tightly that blood burst from his fingernails.

His naked breast gleamed white, his bloody side grew red, his stretched out innards grew dry, the light of his eyes grew faint, his long arms grew stiff, his marble legs hung down, a stream of holy blood moistened his pierced feet. Emmerich believed she had seen Christ's suffering - and her visions added to the Gospel version of the story. So for example, where the Gospels merely refer to Jesus being flogged, Emmerich adds much detail:. What the Gospels state matter-of-factly and without narrative elaboration is luridly expanded by Emmerich: First they used "a species of thorny stick covered with knots and splinters.

The blows from these sticks tore His flesh to pieces; his blood spouted out Then she describes the use of scourges "composed of small chains, or straps covered with iron hooks, which penetrated to the bone and tore off large pieces of flesh at every blow" p. Emmerich's visions paint a very negative portrait of the Jews, and give them a much greater role in the suffering of Jesus than is found in the Bible. The Seven Last Words formed the basis of a famous composition by Haydn. Composed in , it was first performed on Good Friday in Cadiz, Spain. Each of the work's seven sections is based on one of Jesus' final utterances.

Haydn described the piece as These Sonatas are composed on, and appropriate to, the Words that Christ our Saviour spoke on the Cross Each Sonata, or rather each setting of the text, is expressed only by instrumental music, but in such a way that it creates the most profound impression on even the most inexperienced listener.

Dr Rowan Williams , Archbishop of Canterbury, reflects on the completion of Jesus' purpose in his death. The Stations of the Cross are numbered stages in the events of the Passion, from the condemnation of Jesus to the placing of his body in the tomb. The Stations of the Cross are often found in churches as a series of statues or other works of art placed along the walls or on pillars.

Christians can use the Stations of the Cross as the basis for a structured meditation on the last hours of Christ's life. The Via Crucis Way of the Cross takes the faithful on a journey through the final stages of the Passion, as explained in this Roman Catholic guidance note:. In the Via Crucis, various strands of Christian piety coalesce: The Five Precious or Sacred Wounds are the wounds in the hands, feet and side of Christ that were inflicted at the Crucifixion.

These wounds have been the subject of spiritual devotion, mostly among Roman Catholics, for many centuries. A number of churches are dedicated to the Five Precious Wounds, and many prayers have been written on the theme. Some altars are decorated with five crosses - one in the centre and one at each corner - to represent the Five Precious Wounds.

In mediaeval times it was calculated that Jesus received a total of 5, injuries during the Passion. The actual date of the Crucifixion is not known, but the evidence narrows it down to dates with the following properties:. Other dates that have been suggested include 7th April 30, 3rd April 33 and 30th April 28 AD, but some recent articles have argued that 18 March 29 AD is the most likely date. From quite early the Passion was chanted in a dramatic way, with the reader representing the different voices in the story: Very often the words of Christ were chanted while the rest was spoken.

The texts were originally chanted by a single person, but from around the 13th century different voices took the different parts. As music became more sophisticated various forms of Passion were developed, ranging from straight narratives with music through to oratorios anchored to a greater or lesser extent in the text of scripture.

The earliest play so far is one found at the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino in Italy. Two 13th century German passion plays are known, and Passion plays were more popular during that century and the one that followed. Passion plays often give a detailed portrayal of Christ's physical suffering and many of them include explicit dramatisations of the beating and execution of Christ.

There were at least two reasons for this: Secondly, making the action as realistic as possible demonstrated to the audience that the death of Christ was a real historical event. The most famous Passion play is the one that has been staged at Oberammergau in Upper Bavaria in Germany since The villagers of Oberammergau had promised God that if he saved them from a plague epidemic they would commemorate it by staging a dramatic representation of Christ's suffering, death and resurrection every ten years.

The Oberammergau Passion play is particularly notable for involving the participation of the most of the villagers, with over people in the cast. The Passion is one of the most common subjects in art. Paintings of the Crucifixion were much in demand for church use. Among the most famous paintings is the Isenheim altarpiece by Mathias Grunewald. The painting of the Crucifixion is gruelling in both its detailed treatment of the physical anguish of Jesus, and the visual language used.

The Crucifix as a sculpted cross with the figure of Jesus dates from the 10th century the Gero Cross of Cologne Cathedral. In many churches a Crucifix stands on the choir screen, in the arch between the nave and the chancel.

These are often known as 'roods' and the screen as a 'rood screen'. Rood comes from the Saxon word for a crucifix. In this radio programme, Paul Morrison, a naturalist, explores the symbolism of flowers and plants in the crucifixion story. He goes in search of the plant the soldiers may have used to make Jesus' crown of thorns. Many of the details in accounts of the Passion derive from other texts, such as the 14th century German text Christi Leiden in Einer Vision Geschaut which covers the event in horrific detail. Such treatments of the Passion were common in mediaeval texts.

Those who wrote texts like this didn't want to sensationalise the story but to emphasise that Jesus Christ was as fully human as he was divine by showing that the Son of God had suffered the most extreme torture that could be inflicted on a human being. The texts also provided vivid word pictures that would help those so inclined to meditate on the suffering of Christ and, in mind and spirit, to enter into the experience to the extent of imagining themselves actually there.

Bernard of Clairvaux died taught that meditation on the Passion was the way to achieve spiritual perfection. Why, O my soul, were you not there to be pierced by a sword of bitter sorrow when you could not bear the piercing of the side of your Saviour with a lance? Why could you not bear to see the nails violate the hands and feet of your creator?

Would that I with happy Joseph might have taken down my Lord from the cross, wrapped him in spiced grave-clothes, and laid him in the tomb. The second is that I may feel in my heart, as much as possible, that excessive love with which you, O Son of God, were inflamed in willingly enduring such suffering for us sinners. Professor Terry Eagleton, cultural theorist, literary critic and Catholic, talks about suffering in the light of the Passion story.

He argues that an emphasis on self-denial misses the point of Christianity. The Passion story has often been used to justify Christian anti-Semitism with cruel, tragic and shaming results. Mary Gordon points out that the Passion is To be a Christian is to face the responsibility for one's own most treasured sacred texts being used to justify the deaths of innocents.

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And the gospel versions of the story clearly suggest that even if the Jews did not actually kill Jesus, some Jewish officials played a significant part in getting the Roman governor to sentence Jesus to death. Some people claim that the Bible states that the Jews cursed themselves as Christ-killers. They base this on a passage in St. For, that bread and a cup of water are placed with certain incantations in the mystic rites of one who is being initiated, you either know or can learn.

The devil is the inspirer of the heretics whose work it is to pervert the truth, who with idolatrous mysteries endeavours to imitate the realities of the divine sacraments. Some he himself sprinkles as though in token of faith and loyalty; he promises forgiveness of sins through baptism; and if my memory does not fail me marks his own soldiers with the sign of Mithra on their foreheads, commemorates an offering of bread, introduces a mock resurrection, and with the sword opens the way to the crown.

Moreover has he not forbidden a second marriage to the supreme priest? He maintains also his virgins and his celibates. According to Ehrman, these writers were ideologically motivated to portray Christianity and Mithraism as similar because they wanted to persuade pagan officials that Christianity was not so different from other religious traditions, so that these officials would realize that there was no reason to single Christians out for persecution. In late antiquity , early Christians frequently adapted pagan iconography to suit Christian purposes.

Early Christians also identified Jesus with the Greek hero Orpheus , [] who was said to have tamed wild beasts with the music of his lyre. Early Christians found it hard to criticize Asclepius because, while their usual tactics were to denounce the absurdity of believing in gods who were merely personifications of nature and to accuse pagan gods of being immoral, [] neither of these could be applied to Asclepius, who was never portrayed as a personification of nature and whose stories were inscrutably moral. In some depictions from late antiquity, Jesus was shown with the halo of the sun god Sol Invictus.

Christians also may have adapted the iconography of the Egyptian goddess Isis nursing her son Horus and applied it to the Virgin Mary nursing her son Jesus. Byzantine mosaic of Jesus with his head surrounded by a halo c. Sixth-century AD icon of the enthroned Virgin and Child with saints and angels, and the Hand of God above, from Saint Catherine's Monastery , possibly the earliest iconic image of the subject to survive.

The Bible never states when Jesus was born, [] [] [] but, by late antiquity, Christians had begun celebrating his birth on 25 December. Aspects of Jesus's life as recorded in the gospels bear some similarities to various other figures, both historical and mythological.

Classical mythology is filled with stories of miraculous births of various kinds, [] [] [] [] but, in most cases of divine offspring from classical mythology, the father is a god who engages in literal sexual intercourse with the mother, a mortal woman, [] [] causing her to give birth to a son who is literally half god and half man. Another comparable story from Greek mythology describes the conception of the hero Perseus.

David Litwa, the authors of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke consciously attempt to avoid portraying Jesus's conception as anything resembling pagan accounts of divine parentage; [] the author of the Gospel of Luke tells a similar story about the conception of John the Baptist in effort to emphasize the Jewish character of Jesus's birth. Folklorist Alan Dundes has argued that Jesus fits all but five of the twenty-two narrative patterns in the Rank-Raglan mythotype , [] [] and therefore more closely matches the archetype than many of the heroes traditionally cited to support it, such as Jason , Bellerophon , Pelops , Asclepius , Joseph , Elijah , and Siegfried.

Wills states that the "hero paradigm in some form does apply to the earliest lives of Jesus", albeit not to the extreme extent that Dundes has argued. The late nineteenth-century Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer wrote extensively about the existence of a "dying-and rising god" archetype in his monumental study of comparative religion The Golden Bough the first edition of which was published in [] [] as well as in later works.

Then, in the middle of the twentieth century, the complete, unabridged, original Sumerian text of Inanna's Descent was finally translated, [] [] revealing that, instead of ending with Dumuzid's resurrection as had long been assumed, the text actually ended with Dumuzid's death.

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Frazer and others also saw Tammuz's Greek equivalent Adonis as a "dying-and-rising god", [] [] [] despite the fact that he is never described as rising from the dead in any extant Greco-Roman writings [] and the only possible allusions to his supposed resurrection come from late, highly ambiguous statements made by Christian authors. In the late twentieth century, scholars began to severely criticize the designation of "dying-and-rising god" altogether. Smith concluded in Mircea Eliade 's Encyclopedia of Religion that "The category of dying and rising gods, once a major topic of scholarly investigation, must now be understood to have been largely a misnomer based on imaginative reconstructions and exceedingly late or highly ambiguous texts.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Jesus has been compared to a broad variety of figures from various mythological traditions within the Mediterranean Basin , including in rows from left to right Dionysus , Mithras , Sol Invictus , Osiris , Asclepius , Attis , and Adonis. Jesus , Historicity of Jesus , and Historical Jesus.

Mithras rising from the rock National Museum of Romanian History. Mithras born from the rock c. Christian statue of Jesus as the " Good Shepherd " c. Late Roman copy of a fifth-century BC Greek statue showing Hermes , the god of travelers, carrying a ram over his shoulders in his role as Kriophoros the "Ram-Bearer". Rank-Raglan mythotype and Hero. Price , a former fundamentalist apologist turned atheist who says the existence of Jesus cannot be ruled out, but is less probable than non-existence, agrees that his perspective runs against the views of the majority of scholars.

I have to say that I do not know any respectable critical scholar who says that any more. Evidence and Argument or Mythicist Myths? Moreover, it has not been produced by anyone or anything with any reasonable relationship to critical scholarship. It belongs to the fantasy lives of people who used to be fundamentalist Christians. They did not believe in critical scholarship then, and they do not do so now.

JESUS CHRIST AND THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH

I cannot find any evidence that any of them have adequate professional qualifications. The point I shall argue below is that, the agreed evidentiary practices of the historians of Yeshua, despite their best efforts, have not been those of sound historical practice". In a later euhemerized retelling of the myth of Pentheus from the third century BC, however, the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus states that Dionysus crossed the Hellespont and "defeated the Thracian forces in battle. Lycurgus, whom he took prisoner, he blinded, tortured in every conceivable way and finally crucified.

Migne, Patrologiae Cursus Completus: Series Graeca , The Historical Reliability of the Gospels.

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On the Historicity of Jesus: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian. The irreligious assault on the historicity of Jesus". Retrieved 17 June Ehrman 22 March Burridge; Graham Gould Jesus Now and Then. Akenson 29 September The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds. University of Chicago Press.

The Cambridge Companion to Jesus. Jesus as a Figure in History: Westminster John Knox Press. Jesus in History, Thought, and Culture: Entries A - J. Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence. That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be, since both Josephus and Tacitus The Historical Jesus in Context.

The Oxford classical dictionary. The Cambridge History of Judaism: Aasgaard, Reidar [], The Childhood of Jesus: