- Aviad Kleinburger describes Jesus as a Jew who viewed
himself as the mortal son of two natural parents, but who
also believed that he was the messiah. He was closely connected
to the Jewish belief system, as it was interpreted by that
religion's Essene sect. He was apparently born in Nazareth;
the ascription of his birthplace to the city of Bethlehem,
an ascription made by two of the authors of the New Testament,
was for the purposes of tailoring their belief in Jesus
being the Messiah so that it would suit the writings of
the Prophet Micah who prophesied that the Messiah will originate
from Bethlehem. Although this false ascription was indeed
premeditated, it was, no doubt, based on the premise that
the main contention, that relating to Jesus' messianic claim,
was undeniably true; fabricating the place of birth was
a marginal matter but one that was necessary in order for
the people to believe in the truth, which is, as has been
said, the fact that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. If in
order to disseminate this kernel of truth it is necessary
to include some or other marginal technical detail to reinforce
the credibility of the tidings relating to the messiah,
that marginal detail relating to his birthplace cannot become
a stumbling block. Jesus saw himself as God's messenger,
exclusively for the Jewish People; decidedly not an emissary
of any other nations. This is testified to in Jesus' own
words when he says: "Do not go the way of the gentile,
and to the City of the Samaritans do not come close. Go
instead to the lost flock, which are from the House of Israel".
This approach is given radical expression in the episode
where Jesus encounters the "Canaanite Woman" who
met him in the Valley of Tzur and Sidon and who asked Jesus
to save her ailing daughter; Jesus refused saying that he
was sent only to mission to the "lost flock who are
from the House of Israel". The woman went back to Jesus
and pleaded in front of him, to which Jesus responded "it
is not good to take away the bread of the children and throw
it to the waiting puppy dogs." In this way Jesus gave
vent to his feelings and attitude towards those who were
not of the Jewish race, viewing them as no better thdogs.
Eventually however he did indeed give in to the woman's
request, but this he did only after she made a declaration
saying that "let the puppy dogs eat from the crumbs
that fall from their master's table", and only after
she thereby acknowledged Jesus' declared qualitative distinction
between Jew and gentile. When Jesus was dying, after being
crucified, he felt lonely and forsaken, and he even said
this much during the last moments of his life. All the aforementioned
go to show that Jesus viewed himself as Jewish, as mortal,
and as a messiah whose messianic mission was confined exclusively
to his People. Peter, the disciple of Jesus who was personally
acquainted with him, was interested in widening the small
circle of his master's admirers. He was confronted with
the problem of how to relate to those who were not Jewish
but were desirous of joining this Jesuit community without
at the same time willing to be bound by the Jewish commandments.
Of these commandments circumcision was thought to be the
biggest obstacle to attracting would- be adherents especially
since the Greeks at that time viewed it almost as badly
as they did castration. Therefore, Peter independently came
to the decision, that because the number of Jewish adherents
to the Christian sect was so severely limited, and because
he was desirous of overcoming the problem of being such
a small minority, he had to actively attract non- Jews to
his community. Going against the express wishes of Jesus,
who saw in Christianity an offspring of Judaism and whose
followers were therefore bound, as was Jesus himself by
the laws relating to permitted and forbidden foods (kashruth),
Peter directed his flock to eat and drink freely with the
non- Jewish candidates for Christian conversion, without
paying strict attention to the intricacies of kashruth observance.
Consistent with this decision, Peter laid down the rule
that any gentile who had joined his new religion was not
bound by the laws of kashruth, even if Jews at that time
and even if Jesus' own following did regard themselves as
bound by these laws. Only those members of the Christian
community who were originally Jewish were duty- bound by
the laws relating to kashruth. Jesus was crucified at the
age of 33. A very short time after the crucifixion, Paul,
who had never met Jesus but who had studied his teachings
under the tutelage of Jesus' close disciples, joined the
Christian movement. Paul was executed in the city of Rome
in 64 C. E., 31 years after Jesus' crucifixion. During the
decades preceding his death, Paul led his Christian flock
down the path of nullification of the observance of a great
number of commandments and even applied this nullification
to those adherents who were practitioners of the Jewish
faith before joining his community. This latter move was
a deviation from the path set by Peter. While attempting
to appeal to the non- Jewish community, Paul had, at the
same time, to acknowledge the obvious fact that Jesus did
not come to contradict the words of the prophets; those
same prophets, [certainly according to the interpretation
of the Essene sect whose views Jesus had accepted and had
adopted- Y. C], who had prophesied that God's salvation
would come to one People, the Jewish People, and not to
the gentiles of the world. Paul [according to his own understanding-
Y. C] then concluded that because the Jews refused to listen
to Jesus' teachings, they had transgressed the covenant
that was entered into between God, the forefathers and their
physical offspring - causing the prophecy relating to the
redemption to be transferred from the "Jew by flesh"
to the "Jew by spirit"- the latter of whom was
defined as someone who accepted Jesus' doctrinal beliefs.
Following this logic Paul could have easily nullified all
of the Holy Scriptures, but such a radical step was at this
stage unnecessary for attracting a wide following to his
community, and Paul instead stuck to the Scriptures as did,
quite obviously, Jesus himself. In this way Paul avoided
the creation of a religion that was completely severed from
that envisaged by Jesus, and he contented himself with those
amendments that were absolutely necessary for the expansion
of the community of followers of the Jesus the Messiah .
(Savior= Christus, since the word "Savior" in
Greek is literally translated as "Christus").
By adopting this new line of thought Paul was able to exert
pressure on those who had already become adherents to this
faith to work tirelessly to enlist other followers to the
cause; and in fact Paul directed his Christian following
to preach salvation to all the nations of the world. Just
as the basic laws adhered to by Jesus and his early Christian
following had undergone changes, so too the myth relating
to Jesus' resurrection was also added in an effort to make
Christian doctrine palatable to those tribes who dwelled
within the borders of Judea, and amongst whom the myth of
a god who had died and who had subsequently been resurrected
was widespread at that time. Adding another myth in terms
of which Jesus was proclaimed the son of God conformed well
to the myth of resurrection which was so widespread amongst
the masses making it easier to attract people who were not
Jewish to this new Christian sect. It is possible to link
the myth about Jesus having been resurrected, which myth
was believed by his earliest group of followers, with the
myth of his being the actual son of God- a myth that Jesus
himself never officially ascribed to- by seeing this innovation
as effectively accommodating the powerful desire of the
early Christians to enlarge their community. They could
then pick their followers not just from amongst the Jews-
who had never displayed much enthusiasm in the first place-
but more importantly from those gentiles who believed in
the myth specifically of a god who had died and who had
subsequently been resurrected. Historically the time was
ripe for intellectuals and middle class individuals who
belonged to a pagan culture to join any type of community
that preached belief in one God instead of a multitude of
deities; these pagan believers could no longer continue
to truly and wholeheartedly believe in idols. In order to
entice this population, which indeed joined the ranks of
Christianity during the course of the second century C.
E., it was necessary to prove that Christianity was the
"genuine continuation" of Judaism- known by all
to be an ancient longstanding religion. This was done through
the orchestration of changes to the original message of
Judaism as it was accepted by Jesus, and by rendering Jesus'
and his world, whose roots were deeply entrenched in the
provincial experiences of a Jew living in the Land of Israel
into philosophical and cosmopolitan constructs that were
commonplace in the Hellenic- Roman world. These changes
were put in place in order to successfully transmit Jesus'
gospel. Doubtless those people responsible for these reforms
believed that they were conveying the essence of the doctrinal
beliefs, while considering the finer points of the religion
to be less important. They therefore altered those myths
that related to Jesus and his preaching. Both the intellectuals
and others were seeking, during the course of the second
century, an additional element of religiosity that would
provide them with the feeling of being personally connected
to the Divine, and which would offer more spiritual explanations
for their religious experiences than had been offered in
the pagan world. Members of the Christian community were
able to satisfy these seekers who were at the time part
of the pagan community. The job was made easy after the
demand to observe the commandments was dropped, and after
the Jewish religion which was always geared towards the
performance of specific acts, something which is hard to
carry out, was changed into a religion where the only thing
required was pure intention, which is much easier to acquire
and to carry out than intricate Jewish commandments. The
early Christians even changed Plato's teachings arguing
that Plato himself had recognized the truth of Christianity.
There are two possibexplanations for this perversion; either
it did not bother them that during Plato's time Christianity
had not yet come into existence, or they did not take pains
to clarify this point to themselves, since they were so
awestruck by Christianity that they needed to prove its
worth over and above that of Hellenistic culture. Nonetheless
Christianity like Judaism, believed, and built myths upon
this basic belief, that there is only one truth and that
there is only one God. This declaration prepared the groundwork
for Christianity becoming the religion of the Roman Empire
which owed its allegiance to one individual Caesar. Within
a setting where various nations were forced to coexist,
the regime demanded loyalty to one Caesar who ruled over
the (most important and discovered parts of the) world,
rather than to a multitude of rulers as was reflected in
the case of paganism which posited a belief in the existence
of a multitude of deities. Christianity took precedence
over Judaism for the simple reason that Judaism was a national
religion, belonging exclusively to the Jewish People. Early
Christianity tailored its content and mythology to enable
itself to deal with the possibility of expansion so that
it would suit all the various nations that made up Imperial
Rome. On the hand then, it rallied behind the idea of one
God, but on the other hand it eschewed the nationalism that
was an inherent part of the materialistic Jewish People
who had established themselves on narrow ethnic grounds.
Christianity became the religion that was accessible to
all nations, without at the same time making any demands
on its newfound adherents to abandon their nationality or
ethnic background that made them different to their co-religionist.
The Roman Caesar who intended in the future to convert to
Christianity did not need to become Jewish in the national
sense of the word in order to fully accept upon himself
the yoke of Christianity. He could hold on to his Roman
identity. The path of Christianity diverged from that of
Judaism in the sense that it no longer cleaved onto the
"corporeal Jewish People", but rather spread itself
among the nations who, after evincing a belief in Jesus
turned into the "spiritual Jewish People'; a "spiritual
nation" included- and could even include today - any
member of any nation, without the necessity of those nations
relinquishing their nationality. A change in the content
of Christian mythology already occurred during Paul's lifetime.
The whole reform process was brought to fruition within
a few decades relatively shortly after Jesus' crucifixion.
By the year 312 C. E the time was ripe for the Christians
to exploit an historic opportunity for which they had prepared
themselves by deliberately instituting bendable changes
into their mythology. That year Constantine stood alongside
the walls of the City of Rome in order to conquer it and
to proclaim himself Caesar. At the same time, inside the
city, Magentas, Constantine's enemy, arose, also claiming
entitlement to the Emperor's throne. The pagan fortune tellers
were predicting that Constantine would have a difficult
battle ahead of him and therefore Magentas, discarding the
option of secluding himself within the city walls and inflicting
a battle of attrition upon Constantine's camp, chose rather
to leave his safe abode, and to enter into open battle.
Constantine, for his part chose to detach himself from the
Roman deities who, as mentioned, were predicting his downfall
and rather to cling to a different belief, one that was
totally independent of these fortune tellers. He went out
to battle, then under the protection of the cross. After
emerging victorious he adopted Christianity, a religion,
about which he knew very little. In this way Christianity
became the religion of the Caesar and, by definition, of
his empire. This expansion was unprecedented, and would
never have occurred had changes to the mythology, that originated
with the Early Christians, not been effected. From this
point in time and onwards Christianity was disseminated
throughout the empire. In this day and age there is no great
importance to the fact that these myths underwent change.
Nowadays Christianity has become so rooted in many countries
of the world, that the changes that were effected to the
mythology have no bearing whatsoever and were only important
in making Christianity attractive to the early fourth century
inhabitants of Imperial Rome. Relating to Christianity in
the Modern Period, Bultmann claims that one needs to view
those myths that are associated with Christianity through
the lens of the modern world, a world that is governed by
science and the scientific approach. The modern world requires
proof of anything before it can be accepted. Under these
required conditions, he opines, Christian mythology can
be viewed only in terms of allegory and symbolism. Bultmann
documents those elements that are common to both Christianity
and Hellenistic culture and discovers that these two ideologies
share many basic features. In this way Bultmann demonstrates-
even if he had no intention of doing so- to what extent
Christianity bent itself backwards in order that its myths
and its ideology articulated through its mythology suit
the outlook of the Hellenist world, and to what extent Christianity
adapted itself in order that it gain widespread acceptance
in a world that during the era of Early Christianity was
dominated by Hellenist culture-this filled the gap caused
by Judaism's refusal to similarly institute such modifications.
Bultmann maintains that both Christianity and Greek philosophy
look forward to a happiness that comes about only after
death, a contentment that is the result of a feeling of
liberation. In both Christian and Greek mythology, only
after entering the next world is it possible for man to
uncover his best and truest qualities. Both ideologies view
the world of the living as imperfect, and advocate a quest,
a craving, and a longing (for something better). The difference
between these two ideologies, in his opinion, lies in their
opposing conceptions of human nature. According to Plato,
human nature is a fixed attribute, invulnerable to change,
so that the passing of time has no effect upon it. Contrarily,
in Christian thought, man is a creature of his times in
the sense that it is his past that has shaped him, and it
is his future that will cause him to confront new challenges
where buried beneath them are the recipes for an internal
makeover to his whole nature; the future, for every man
is quite different from the past in that it is able to recreate
the personality of every single individual. This aspect
of the Christian dogma provides its believers with encouraging
expectations as to the future that will be meted out to
them. Viewed from this standpoint, a Hellenist man who converts
to Christianity is provided, during the transition period,
and because of the transition itself, with the hope of a
future that is different, especially when it comes to how
his personality will eventually develop, from the future
that Hellenist culture, to which that convert had previously
belonged, had in store for him. In addition to what has
been said by Bultmann, mention must also be made of the
fact that since Christianity includes in its basic tenets
the idea of Divine loving kindness, and teaches that Jesus'
suffering came to atone for the sins of his believers, the
Christian adherent is filled with the expectation that God's
loving kindness will better his lot. This expectation was
an incentive created by Early Christianity- an incentive
for the Greco-Roman population to join the ranks of Christianity.
Moreover one who believed in Jesus, even if he died a mortal
death was promised that in the future he would live once
again. The true Christian believer never really dies. This
type of belief did not only bode well for the prospects
of attracting new Christians to the cause but also secured
the chances for ancient Christianity to expand. It is possible
to link the appendages and modifications that were described
above and which were applied to Christian mythology with
the conscious treof the early Christians to seek expansion,
a trend that these pioneering Christians bequeathed to the
generations that followed them, and which has lasted until
the present-day. It is possible, then, that a switch has
taken place between the real story of Jesus' life and the
mission he set himself, on the one hand, and the stories
that have emerged from Christian mythology that was created
a short time after his crucifixion, on the other. On one
end of the spectrum stands Jesus, a man who had no desire
whatsoever to gather round him a following that consisted
of any nation that was not Jewish, and who had never sought
to establish a religion that was separate from his own Judaism.
Occupying the other end is Peter, Paul and the other apostles
and leaders of Christianity who had created a cultural religion
that had separated itself from Judaism. This switch in thinking
had as its aims the widespread distribution of Christian
ideology, and it more than succeeded. The changes made to
the original myths played a key role in this success story.
