Does Church Father Papias Prove the Gospels Existed in the First Century?

Does Church Father Papias Prove the Gospels Existed in the First Century?


Hot off the presses! A brand-new article on the value of Church father Papias, adapted from "Who Was Jesus?" Enjoy!

As always, feel free to like, share and comment - and to post wherever you see a discussion of Papias as providing evidence for the gospels in the first century.

What about the Mesha Stele, Tel Dan Stele and Black Obelisk?

What about the Mesha Stele, Tel Dan Stele and Black Obelisk?

The Mesha Stele, Tel Dan Stele and Black Obelisk are among the artifacts used by Bible-thumpers to claim that the Good Book is confirmed as "history." While the brief mentions of "Israel," "David" or other king of Israel in these artifacts may serve to establish that Israel existed and that certain biblical kings were real, they do not prove that major, supernatural events of the Bible actually happened on Earth at any time in history....

Does the Old Testament foster corruption?

I have posted two new articles on Examiner.com -

Jimmy Carter: 'Stop abusing women in the name of God'

and

Does the Old Testament foster corruption?

Please go read my articles, subscribe, favorite, share and social bookmark, using Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon and so on!

Do You Hate Yourself?

Do you hate yourself?

Harassing, slandering, libeling, stalking, abusing, killing or otherwise harming a human being or other living creature in the name of religion, God, Allah, Jesus, the Bible, the Koran or some other religious idea or artifact is evil, period. There simply is no excuse, no justification and no rationale that makes these abuses and transgressions righteous and moral. You are committing evil, and you will suffer for it at some point, by your own conscience at the very least.

You are also sullying and defaming whatever ideology you are defending by making it human-hating and life-destroying. Regardless of what you have been taught, your ideology is not more important than the human being you are debasing, denigrating and demeaning. No religion or ideology feels pain - not even a god feels pain - but human beings certainly do. You are causing pain to a living, breathing being over something that does not feel pain. Have you not heard, "As you sow, so shall you reap?"

Your ideology is only as worthy as it treats the individual human being. Nay, as it treats even animals. As Abraham Lincoln once said:

"I care not for a man's religion whose dog or cat are not the better for it."

In any event, if you find yourself merely tempted to abuse another human being or other living creature in the name of your religion, God, son of God and/or prophet, you have already stained and shamed your ideology by your thoughts of violence and hatred.

Think twice or however many times you need to remove these hateful and violent thoughts against your fellow human being. If your ideology teaches anger and hatred towards human beings, it is unworthy of following. You are full of self-hatred, as you hate your fellow human being, because you have been taught that human beings in general are "wretched sinners," and you are one of them. Your ideology is not godly or divine. It is ugly, vicious and evil. And it is making you all of those things. Throw it away as the garbage it has become. Join the human race and practice love, tolerance, patience and acceptance of your fellow human beings and other living creatures.

The Bible is Myth?!

In November 2008, PBS will air a TV special claiming that the biblical patriarch Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were not historical persons but were "myths." The documentary will also declare the fabulous Israelite Exodus to be mythical, rather than representing a miraculous "historical" event.

To readers of my work posted online since 1995, and encapsulated in my books, beginning with The Christ Conspiracy, all of this cage-rattling will be old hat. In that book, I laid out the case that Abraham and Sarah are remakes of the Indian deities Brahma and Sarasvati, while Moses is likewise a mythical character based on older gods. In Christ Con, I also show that the Exodus represents not a supernatural event that truly happened on Earth but for which absolutely no evidence has been found. Rather, it too falls in the realm of mythology.

As this article about the PBS documentary relates, the evidence does indeed show that the Bible was composed during and after the so-called Babylonian Captivity of the 6th century BCE. Certain parts of it are older, of course, as some of the most fantastic stories could undoubtedly be found in the libraries in Babylon and Egypt. As I also demonstrated in The Christ Conspiracy almost 10 years ago, the Bible was not composed by the individuals claimed to be its authors, neither the Old Testament nor the New.

The fact that the Nova producer in this article found the concept "extremely shocking" that monotheism was developed over a period of centuries is a reflection of the woeful state of education in comparative religion and mythology. As readers of my work will also know, monotheism did not come to a historical Moses's head via a bolt of lightning from the Almighty but was indeed devised over hundreds of years by a number of cultures, including the Indian and Egyptian, beginning centuries to millennia prior to the purported existence of Moses.

In my books, which include Suns of God and Who Was Jesus?, I also name several other Old Testament patriarchs as mythical characters, including and especially Joshua, who is essentially an old sun god turned into a "real person" and who was later rehashed as "Jesus." Indeed, I do not stop with the Old Testament but further put forth the case for some of the major players in the New Testament to be mythical characters as well, including and especially Jesus Christ. In this regard, it should be noted that there is no credible and valid scientific evidence for the existence of Jesus Christ as a historical person, and everything points to him being as mythical a figure as Hercules.

We can only hope that PBS and Nova will jump on this bandwagon as well, sooner than later.

Holy Moses! PBS documentary suggests Exodus not real

Hal Boedeker | Sentinel Television Critic
July 21, 2008

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Abraham didn't exist? The Exodus didn't happen?

The Bible's Buried Secrets, a new PBS documentary, is likely to cause a furor.

"It challenges the Bible's stories if you want to read them literally, and that will disturb many people," says archaeologist William Dever, who specializes in Israel's history. "But it explains how and why these stories ever came to be told in the first place, and how and why they were written down."

The Nova program will premiere Nov. 18. PBS presented a clip and a panel discussion at the summer tour of the Television Critics Association.

The program says the Bible was written in the sixth century BC and that hundreds of authors contributed.

"At least the first five books of the Bible come together during the Babylonian exile," says producer Gary Glassman.

The program challenges long-held beliefs. Abraham, Sarah and their offspring probably didn't exist, says Carol Meyers, a religion professor at Duke University.

"These stories are unlikely to represent real historical events, but rather there's some kernel of ancient experience in there which has survived and which helps give identity to the people at the time the Bible finally took shape centuries and centuries later," Meyers says.

There's no archaeological evidence of the Exodus, either, she says, but "it doesn't mean that there's no kernel of truth to it."

Nova series producer Paula Apsell says she found it "extremely shocking" to learn that monotheism was a process that took hundreds of years.

"I was always brought up to believe that the minute Abraham and the patriarchs came on the scene, the Israelites accepted one God and there was just always one God and that was it," Apsell says. "I think people are going to really be stunned by that."

Another shocker: The program contradicts the biblical view that the Israelites came from somewhere else into the land of Canaan. "The film shows that they were Canaanites," Apsell says.

Oldest New Testament Out of Egypt into Cyberspace

In a move reflective of the power of technology, the oldest New Testament Bible will be placed online for all the world to examine. Of course, this is great news for students of Bible manuscripts. One fascinating fact about this archaeological gem is its origin in Egypt.

The New Testament manuscript in question is the Codex Sinaiticus, distinguished from earlier manuscripts by virtue of its completeness, containing all the canonical texts along with the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas, the former of which has been shown to have a provenance of Alexandria, Egypt. Along with the Codex Vaticanus, the CS is the oldest intact manuscript, dating to around 350 AD/CE.

Importantly, the Codex Sinaiticus was discovered and evidently written in Egypt, a locale vastly overlooked in studies of Christian origins. It is my contention, in fact, that without factoring in Egyptian religion and mythology, the study of Christian origins will always be incomplete and faulty, because it is unquestionably out of Egypt that Christ was called, so to speak, as a mythical rehash largely of the Egyptian gods Osiris and Horus.

"Out of Egypt have I called my son."
--The Gospel of Matthew (2:15)

In reality, the Sinai Peninsula, where this text was found in the oldest Christian monastery, St. Catherine's, was the only established land route to Israel, possessing numerous important Egyptian sites, including a massive fortress and temple to Horus at Tharo/Tharu. In this location, countless thousands of travelers passed between the two nations over a period of several millennia. Indeed, much interchange between cultures occurred in this very region. It is no wonder, therefore, that this site would be a sacred hot spot for the establishment of what turns out to be a Jewish-Egyptian hybrid, i.e., Christianity.

In my forthcoming book Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection, I demonstrate the correspondences between the Egyptian and Christian religions in well-documented detail, using primary source material as well as the works of highly credentialed scholars in relevant fields. Those who are interested in a preview of my book Christ in Egypt may wish to read my "Companion Guide to ZEITGEIST, Part 1," which contains a number of chapters from CIE.

Oldest New Testament Bible heads into cyberspace
By Dave Graham Mon Jul 21, 12:50 PM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - More than 1,600 years after it was written in Greek, one of the oldest copies of the Bible will become globally accessible online for the first time this week.

From Thursday, sections of the Codex Sinaiticus, which contains the oldest complete New Testament, will be available on the Internet, said the University of Leipzig, one of the four curators of the ancient text worldwide.

High resolution images of the Gospel of Mark, several Old Testament books, and notes on the work made over centuries will appear on www.codex-sinaiticus.net as a first step towards publishing the entire manuscript online by next July.

Ulrich Johannes Schneider, director of Leipzig University Library, which holds part of the manuscript, said the publication of the Codex online would allow anyone to study a work of "fundamental" importance to Christians.

"A manuscript is going onto the net which is like nothing else online to date," Schneider said. "It's also an enrichment of the virtual world -- and a bit of a change from YouTube."

Selected translations will be available in English and German for those not conversant in ancient Greek, he added.

Dating from around 350, the document is believed by experts to be the oldest known copy of the Bible, along with the Codex Vaticanus, another ancient version of the Bible, Schneider said....

The project, launched in cooperation with the Russian National Library, the British Library and Saint Catherine's Monastery, also details the condition of the Bible, believed to have been written by early Christians in Egypt.

"I think it's just fantastic that thanks to technology we can now make the oldest cultural artifacts -- ones that were once so precious you couldn't show them to anyone -- accessible to everyone, in really high quality," said Schneider.

(editing by Ron Popeski)

Adulterer Gingrich Destined for Hell

In yet another display of unmitigated arrogance, while giving the commencement speech at recently deceased fundmentalist minister Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, American politico Newt Gingrich called for an attack on "radical secularism." Gingrich's hypocritical "holier-than-thou" stance is particularly amusing in light of the fact that he is a twice-divorced, known adulterer.

In his pretentions of being a moral cop, possible presidential candidate Gingrich peppered his speech with quotes from the Bible, presumably leaving out the following scriptures:

... take heed to yourselves, and let none be faithless to the wife of his youth. For I hate divorce, says the LORD the God of Israel, and covering one's garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So take heed to yourselves and do not be faithless. (Mal 2:15)

And Pharisees came up to [Jesus] and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?" He answered, "Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder." They said to him, "Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?" He said to them, "For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery." (Mat 19:3-9)

According to the New Testament, Jesus was squarely against divorce, as well as remarriage, calling the latter "adultery." Since Gingrich is by biblical default and admission an adulterer, let us look at biblical scriptures concerning adultery and adulterers:

You shall not commit adultery. (Exd 20:14)

If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death. (Lev 20:10)

Neither shall you commit adultery. (Deu 5:18)

He who commits adultery has no sense; he who does it destroys himself. (Pro 6:32 )

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.... It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say to you that every one who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery." (Mat 5:27-32)

And Jesus said, "You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness..." (Mat 19:18)

While Jesus upholds the proscription against adultery found in the 10 Commandments, the gospels do not record Christ as assigning the death penalty as a punishment for adultery, as does the Old Testament. In fact, Jesus is depicted as stopping the stoning of a woman on the charge of adultery, uttering the famous words, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." (Jn 8:17)

So egregious is the sin of adultery, however, that St. Paul lumps adulterers in with "the immoral...idolaters... sexual perverts... thieves... the greedy... drunkards... revilers [and] robbers." According to the New Testament, none of these individuals "will inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor 6:10)

Thus, it would seem Newt Gingrich is destined for Hell!

In his Liberty-University speech, Gingrich also remarked:

"A growing culture of radical secularism declares that the nation cannot profess the truths on which it was founded... We are told that our public schools can no longer invoke the creator, nor proclaim the natural law nor profess the God-given quality of human rights.

"In hostility to American history, the radical secularists insist that religious belief is inherently divisive and that public debate can only proceed on secular terms....

"Too often, the courts have been biased against religious believers. This anti-religious bias must end..."

In reality, not only is religion divisive, but the a priori assumption by religionists that God exists, as depicted in the Bible and other "holy texts," is utterly dishonest and is at the root of many of the world's problems. The honest debate should be not whether or not "God" is to be allowed in public schools but whether or not the anthropomorphic god as portrayed in the Bible even exists.

The fact is that the majority of individuals in the United States consider themselves to be religious, including judges and legislators, and there have been no professed atheists on the Supreme Court since its inception. Fortunately for Newt Gingrich, however, the courts have been biased against fervent believers in the Old Testament punishment for adultery, i.e., stoning. Gingrich had better hope for his own sake, therefore, that the wall of separation between church and state remains high and unbreachable.

A Truly Sacred Scripture

Scripture:

1. a. A sacred writing or book.
b. A passage from such a writing or book.
2. The sacred writings of the Bible. Often used in the plural. Also called Holy Scriptures.
3. A statement regarded as authoritative.

What is a sacred or holy scripture? Hundreds of millions of people around the world hold sacred the Bible, the Koran, the Dhammapada, the Vedas, Puranas and many other texts that are considered to be "divinely inspired" in some way or another. Countless people claim that there is a single god somewhere "out there" who directly inspired these texts, which are therefore infallible, since this god "himself" is infallible. Others see these texts as manmade and containing errors, although they may also possess much divinely inspired wisdom. Still others consider these so-called scriptures to be entirely contrived by human beings and a reflection of human understanding, rather than divine inspiration.

What is the truth? Is a book that contains endless stories of warfare and slaughter against infidels or unbelieving nations and individuals really "holy writ?" One which dictates that there are "chosen people" who are superior to others, who may thus be unreservedly dominated and exploited? Or that human beings are revolting "sinners" who can only achieve grace by believing in a "Son of God" who was hideously tortured and murdered "for our sins?" Is this sort of "scripture" truly the most appropriate and intelligent writing the God of the cosmos could come up with?

Let us briefly examine some of what these "holy scriptures" say:

"For you are a people holy to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the peoples that are on the face of the earth." Deuteronomy 7:6

"You shall suck the milk of nations, you shall suck the breast of kings; and you shall know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." Isaiah 60:16

"Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but with a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's foes will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy." Matthew 10:34-37

"For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: all this is but the beginning of the sufferings." Matthew 24:7-8

"This Book is not to be doubted.... As for the unbelievers, it is the same whether or not you forewarn them; they will not have faith. God has set a seal upon their hearts and ears; their sight is dimmed and grievous punishment awaits them." Koran 2:2-6

"God's curse be upon the infidels! Evil is that for which they have bartered away their souls. To deny God's own revelation, grudging that He should reveal His bounty to whom He chooses from among His servants! They have incurred God's most inexorable wrath. An ignominious punishment awaits the unbelievers." Koran 2:92-6

Phew! That's a whole lotta spewing. Now, of course, this collection represents only a small fraction of what is contained in those "holy texts." And, of course, there is some "good" stuff to balance it...slightly. But, again, is this type of sentiment - which permeates not only the so-called scriptures but also the ideologies themselves, oozing out of believers like some supercilious and smug sludge, heartlessly hurled at all who do not believe likewise - really the best and holiest concept in the cosmos, such that it merits the distinction of being deemed "divinely inspired" and representing the "infallible Word of God?"

Or could there be something much more enlightened that deserves to be held up in a higher sacrosanct position?

"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

The American Constitution may well be the "holiest of holies." It is not "infallible," nor does it address religion specifically, except for this particularly pithy amendment that is not only wholly relevant but also holy in its implications for securing liberty from religious imposition of all kinds:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

These remarks do not suggest that the constitutions of other nations are necessarily inferior or that the U.S. is flawless, but at least in this well-considered and well-written scripture - as defined by the third definition: "A statement regarded as authoritative" - there is a chance for humanity to be truly free and to reach its best.

If we were to fling open the doors of nations around the world and allow free movement in either direction, which way would most of the traffic flow? Would most people up and run towards "Oppressivestan," under the dominion of so-called holy law, or towards "Libertyland," governed by such a constitution? Think about it.

(This essay is updated and included in my book The Gospel According to Acharya S.)