Criticism of Jesus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (January 2007) |
 |
This article or section may require restructuring to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please discuss this issue on the talk page. This article has been tagged since November 2006. |
Jesus, the central figure of Christianity, is believed by Christians to have been sinless yet there has been criticism of his character as portrayed in the Gospels.
Contents |
[edit] Historical criticisms of Jesus's character
 |
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Historicity of Jesus. (Discuss) |
In the apocryphal Christian work the Acts of Pilate, Annas and Caiaphas claimed that the majority of the Jews believed that Jesus was born of fornication. [1]
Celsus accused Jesus of having "invented his birth from a virgin," and upbraids Jesus with being "born in a certain Jewish village, of a poor woman of the country, who gained her subsistence by spinning, and who was turned out of doors by her husband, a carpenter by trade, because she was convicted of adultery; that after being driven away by her husband, and wandering about for a time, she disgracefully gave birth to Jesus, an illegitimate child"[2] Celsus wrote that the father was "a certain soldier named Panthera."[3] After his birth, Celsus writes that Jesus "having hired himself out as a servant in Egypt on account of his poverty, and having there acquired some miraculous powers, on which the Egyptians greatly pride themselves, returned to his own country, highly elated on account of them, and by means of these proclaimed himself a God."[2]
Tertullian, a contemporary of Celsus, mentions the charge of Jesus being the son of a prostitute in the closing of De Spectaculis.[4][5]
The Talmudic tradition believed that a man who is referred to as Ben-Stada (whom Talmudic commentators equate with the "son of Pandira") "on account of his poverty was hired out to go to Egypt; that while there he acquired certain (magical) powers which Egyptians pride themselves on possessing." According to the Talmud, Ben-Stada learned magic in Egypt and performed his miracles by means of it.[6] Furthermore, it goes on to state that Ben-Stada cut the magic formulas into his skin.[7]
Other stories are preserved in various versions of the Toledoth Yeshu.[8] For example, that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was raped by a Roman soldier named Panthera, Pantera, or Pandira. Mary became pregnant as a result, and she claimed that she was carrying the son of God in order to hide the rape.[9]
A parchment under that title asserts that when Jesus was expelled from the circle of scholars, he is said to have returned secretly from Galilee to Jerusalem, where he inserted a parchment containing the "declared name of God" ("Shem ha-Meforash"), which was guarded in the Temple, into his skin, carried it away, and then, taking it out of his skin, he performed his miracles by its means. This magic formula then had to be recovered from him, and Judah the Gardener (a personage of the "Toledot" corresponding to Judas Iscariot) offered to do it; he and Jesus then engaged in an aerial battle (borrowed from the legend of Simon Magus), in which Judah remained victor and Jesus fled.Template:Das Leben Jesu, S. Krauss, 1903, see Wagenseil and Vienna manuscript varients of Toldoth Jesu.
[edit] Philosophical criticisms of Jesus's character
[edit] Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche criticized Jesus's life by saying that Jesus promoted a "slavelike mentality" that opposed and prevented the pursuit of the human ideal.
[edit] Thomas Paine
 |
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2007) |
In his treatise entitled The Age of Reason, Thomas Paine stated
It is not then the existence or the non-existence, of the persons that I trouble myself about; it is the fable of Jesus Christ, as told in the New Testament, and the wild and visionary doctrine raised thereon, against which I contend. The story, taking it as it is told, is blasphemously obscene. It gives an account of a young woman engaged to be married, and while under this engagement, she is, to speak plain language, debauched by a ghost, under the impious pretence, (Luke i. 35,) that "the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee." Notwithstanding which, Joseph afterwards marries her, cohabits with her as his wife, and in his turn rivals the ghost. This is putting the story into intelligible language, and when told in this manner, there is not a priest but must be ashamed to own it.[10]
However, many Christians would say that Mary was not "debauched" (or, in other words, seduced), as the conception of Jesus Christ was not made from a sexual connection with anyone, neither human nor divine. Regarding the commentary on Mary's betrothal at the time and Joseph "cohabitating" with her, many Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians assert that Mary's marriage was an arranged marriage (arranged solely for the sake of guardianship), and that she had never planned to, and never did, consummate her arranged marriage to Joseph.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Acts of Pilate, Chapter 2.
- ^ a b Origen (late 2nd century). "28", Contra Celsus 1.
- ^ Origen (late 2nd century). "28", Contra Celsus 1.
- ^ Schäfer, Peter (2002). Mirror of His Beauty: Feminine Images of God from the Bible to the Early Kabbalah. Princeton University, 280. ISBN 0691090688.
- ^ though some translations have "hireling", see: Tertullianus, Septimius Florens (between 197-202). The Shows, or De Spectaculis.
- ^ Talmud Shab. 104b
- ^ Tosef., Shab. xi. 4; Yer. Shab. 13d
- ^ Toledoth Yeshu
- ^ From the first paragraph of the section entitled "Rape": There was an ancient legend from the Jewish side that Mary was the victim of a rape....http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/history/virginmary_4.shtml
- ^ Paine, Thomas (1795). The Age of Reason, Part 2 Chapter 2.
|
||||||||||||||
