The book- The Jesus Discovery- claims that Jesus rose to become the most senior Rabbi of his time, thus explaining how he was able to exert such influence and why his teachings became such a concern to the authorities.
Author Dr Adam Bradford, who works as a GP, drew his conclusions after studying and comparing the original Greek and Hebrew scriptures, as well as using human psychology to analyse the behaviour towards Jesus as depicted in the Bible.
Biblical scholar Dr Bradford said: "Jesus's high ranking position as a Jew seems to have been written out of history but in fact it makes more sense of the Bible.
'If Jesus was the son of a poor itinerant carpenter with some radical ideas nobody would have been that concerned about what he said.
'But, because Jesus was trained up to become the most educated Jew of his time it gave him the chance to exert extraordinary influence and let him get away with acts that normal Jews would have been imprisoned or chastised for.
'For example, when Jesus turned the money changers out of the temple there is no mention in the Bible of the police guards getting involved or there being a backlash. The money changers were an essential part of gaining revenue for the Temple so if Jesus was an ordinary Jew he would have been arrested or physically attacked.
'Christ enjoyed social privileges that would not have been available to an uneducated itinerant carpenter. Not only was he able to clear the official Temple market on two occasions without interference but he was also able to teach unhindered in the Temple courts and synagogues.
Throughout the Bible he is addressed with formal titles of Rabbi and Doctor of the Law- the highest position in Jewish society, even by his enemies.'
To find out more about the life of Jesus as an historical figure, Dr Bradford- who runs an NHS practice in inner-city London - first decided to try and discover more about Christ's father, Joseph.
In the English translation of the Bible Joseph has always been described as a 'just man'. Dr Bradford discovered that the word 'man' has been added and is not in the original Greek text at all. He also found that the origins of the word translated into 'just' more accurately translates to describe Joseph's position in society- most likely as a scholar who helped teach the Torah and was involved in the judiciary.
Further to this, Dr Bradford re-examined Joseph's position as a carpenter. Again, he concluded there had been a mistranslation and that the Greek word 'tekton'- which describes Joseph's work- more accurately means master builder or architect.
Dr Bradford claims this would explain why Jesus, who would have been brought up in his father's trade, made so many references to building in his teachings.
Crucially, Dr Bradford says that it is Joseph's position as an architect that would have first Christ brought him into contact with the Temple authorities.
In about 22BC, King Herod ordered that a gigantic Jewish temple should be built in Jerusalem, the remains of which makes up the Wailing Wall. Because only Jewish priests could build the sacred parts of the building, Herod conscripted ten thousand skilled craftsmen to assist and instruct one thousand Jewish priests in the skills of master craftsmen.
Dr Bradford said: 'Statistically, given that ten thousand skilled craftsmen were employed there is every likelihood that Joseph, who was a devout Jew, was one of these 'tektons', skilled at working with large structures of stone and wood..
'Three times a year, Joseph would have taken Jesus to the major Jewish festivals in Jerusalem and pointed out various aspects of the Temple's construction that he had overseen.
'When Jesus got lost at the age of 12 during one of his family's visits to a festival and was found at the Temple he said to his parents: 'Didn't you know I had to be in my father's house. I believe this has a double meaning referring to the fact Joseph helped build the temple as well as to God.' The priests who Joseph had trained would have looked after the boy Jesus for the five days until his parents found him.
It is from this point, when Jesus was 12 years of age, that very little is known of his life until he was 30 years old.
via Jesus was son of an architect, book claims - Telegraph.
That's funny. He said "my father's house" and meant the house his actual father build. The whole divinity thing may have been a misunderstanding. Follow the gourd! ... if he even existed at all, that is.
6 comments:
The 'whole divinity thing' was no misunderstanding - it was what got him killed.
But he was a real person with a mum and an adoptive dad. He must have been educated to have got the respect the authorities gave him.I checked the site and there is an mp3 link to a lecture on this at www.templehouse-publishing.com
Slightly different take to the traditional chair maker line...
Thanks Tim. What is the evidence that makes you say he was a real person?
Frodo was real too because why else would Gandalf have chosen him as the bearer of the One Ring?
I've found only stories written down more than 100 years after Jesus supposedly lived.
OK, so Jesus was a fiction. One Josephus mentions twice. If so, who came up with his teaching - still recognised to be on the genius level. Maybe some geniuses got together, wrote it all down, then decided to ascribe it to a dead carpenter who never existed rather than take the credit themselves. Kind of noble...
Yeah, Tim, sure... Can one be dead if one never existed? And this notion of nobility on the part of these supposed geniuses... Actually, I think it would be far easier to accept the existence of an actual Jesus than a group of noble geniuses.
You know, the Bible is full of good advice, but it's also full of a lot of ambiguous BS that makes it easy for some people to use to control -- and sometimes even destroy -- other people. That's not the work of geniuses, or at least not "noble" geniuses, and certainly not the work of the omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent god of whom the Bible speaks. It is the work of men, with all the fingerprints of men. If all of these men were "inspired" by the same omniscient, omnipotent god, the inconsistencies we find in the Bible would not exist. Even more damning: If He knows everything, why "inspire" men to put together a book that has since been used to do so many terrible things? It doesn't add up.
So did Jesus exist? I don't know. On one hand we have a handful of references to him in texts that would not be considered reliable (after all, he'd been gone a long time before texts about him were written), and on the other we have a lot of texts of cultures predating his supposed birth describing a figure like him in their own mythology. Christianity is replete with "imported" doctrines and traditions; why should I feel like the notion of Jesus is any different?
Sam: 'Actually, I think it would be far easier to accept the existence of an actual Jesus than a group of noble geniuses.'
I agree. So I start from what there is - a collection of sayings + narratives of conversations which date back to the first century (University of Manchester library). I take those sayings at face value rather than start by presuming their inaccuracy. First, there are literally thousands of 2nd century MSS copies. That shows they were a big deal to folk back then. Second, those thousands of copies have very high comparative textual accuracy, which shows they are pretty reliable copies of the originals. Third, they contain sayings on the genius level (eg getting a probable prostitute off being stoned to death on a charge of adultery - 'those without sin can cast the first stone'. That is a brilliant line by anyone's standards. (I am looking at this from a Jewish perspective, btw). Forth, the texts imply that this person was offering internal 'spiritual' change, not external conformity to a set of rules - radical stuff back then. Finally they say that after being executed he was seen alive 3 days later. If that is true it is worth looking at, if not, forget it. Cheers, Tim
There are many genius lines in the many copies of the plays of Shakespeare and also many historical facts, yet King Lear was not a real person, he is a fictional character based on one or more real characters. Same with Romeo and Juliet.
Your example is an excellent one, however. The periscope adulterae story does not even appear until the late 4th or 5th century (around 550 AD) in the Codex Bezae, found in a monastary at Lyons, France in 1562 by Genevan Beza according to one source.
John 7:53-8:11 is not found in any of the many suviving earlier Gospel manuscripts. If it happened 550 years earlier, why is there no record of it in John until then?
It is a shame so much of our history is now lost.
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