THE
BOOK OF BOOKs
pray
for his return and that he will reign for a while
Jesus
is one of the most fascinating personalities in human history. The
One with the most spin-off, penetrating history, science and
philosophy, but also manifesting in real life, when government
officials refuse to marry gay-couples. Or feeding the homeless in his
name.
Jesus
died young, like soldiers die young, dying on the cross, aged 33 or
34. Surprisingly very little is known of his life, except for the
last three years, when he accepted followers and students to be is
his apostles. They, like Maria Magdalen, were eye-witness or spoke to
those who saw Jesus perform miracles, turn water into wine, walk on
water, debate in synagogues and attack the money-lenders and
temporarely destroying a central banking system. Every pilgrim, every
visiting Jew had to pay religious fees or made gifts to the Temple.
Water, used for a cleansing bath before entering, had to be paid for
as well. Deep down and around Jerusalem an age-old irrigation system
is still operative.
Visitors
came from all around the Roman Empire and beyond.
An
empire where all types of coins were in use and they stayed in use a
long time. The money-lenders were the intermediairy in exchanging all
kind of Roman and other coins into shekels, the locally used currency
(in modern Israel uses the shekel again.) Imagine the aftermath of
the anger of the Messiah, all the coins, the silver and the gold,
shattered around. It is not strange, that Jesus was not arrested at
this point and simply could walk away. Everybody, Roman guards,
priests, visitors and of course the money-changers were crawling
around on the floor chasing coins.
The
Bible begins with the Gospels of Matthew, Marc, Luke and John (not
John of Patmos, author of the Book of Revelation). For centuries
these 4 gospels were the basic info about Jesus' life and death.
Several major archeological finds have delivered (parts of) scrolls
and codexes, that contained proto- or early christian writings. Some
texts were exactly identical with the Torah and the Bible. What also
came to light were (parts of) several, unknown, gospels. Sensational
was the finding of the Gospel of Mary Magdalen, Thomas and even
Judas. Shock-waves, where theologians and clergy, still have to deal
with.
There
are even non-biblical accounts of Jesus. The Jewish/Roman historian
Josephus mentions Jesus' crucifixtion.
What
all the documents have in common, that they speak mostly of his
reigning years, when the Spirit got hold of him the way. Jesus could
have walked away any moment, but he did not. Was it his choise? The
Qu'ran gives a complete different picture of the punishment of the
Sun of God. Some-one else took his place at the Cross. It may be
heresy, but I don't feel this to be Jesus-like. Walking away from the
scene, smiling.
We
hardly know anything of the first 30 years of his life. We suppose,
that he was born in Bethlehem and fled to Egypt, because Herod
ordered the “Slaughter of the Innocent.”
All
newborns up to 2 years, Herodes' soldiers killed. A desperate attempt
by a desperate King, who wanted to kill his, prophesied, successor.
Joseph and Mary were warned and fled, to Egypt. Here they stayed for
several years. We may assume that Jesus came into contact the
Egiptian mystery-religion and sunworship. There are some stories of
his youth in Nazareth, where his father worked as a carpenter.
In
one of those tales, a friend of Jesus falls of a roof and is killed.
The parents accuse Jesus and claim that he pushed their child to his
death.
The
young Jesus brings his friend back from death. The boy assures his
parents, that Jesus had nothing to do with his death. He performs
“small” and innocent miracles. He transforms mud-birds into real
ones. “Remember me.”, Jesus shouts, when they fly away.
Jesus
must have been considered a prodigy but he disappears about 12 years
of age, to return when he was thrirty and baptised by John.
Where
has he been during these “lost years”?
India?
Maybe even Tibet?
Some
Bible-scolars think to have proven resemblances between the Lord
Buddha's teachings and those of Jesus. In the folklore of Kasjmir and
the Punjab stories circulate about the visits of Isa, Jesus. Even his
grave is supposed to be in Srinagar.
What
I am trying to say, that twice, in his short life, the Messiah
disappeared out of sight. He was influenced, so I presume, by
Egyptian's mystery religions and probably Hinduism and (Tibetan)
Buddhism. Jesus may have tried to produce a synthesis, between the
most dominant religions of his age. It was too far-reached, to
revolutionary. Like the attempt of Akhenaton to introduce monotheisme
in Egypt.
The
message of Jesus is still a revolutionary one. Maybe, in this time of
religious fundamentalism, tensions and violence, his pledge for love,
humility and understanding will be heard, understood and transformed
into reality.