Introduction to the Subject

      This is a non-religious, academic study, intended for believers and non-believers alike.  The author explains how the Christian beliefs originated and evolved (from 2000 BCE to 400 CE). He employs the historical, analytical, and rational approach. In the past eighteen years, the author read and researched (he searched with powerful computer programs) numerous ancient writings and the writings of hundreds of scholars. The results of his research he published in the book titled The Origins of Christianity and the Bible. Check out the book's Table of Contents. It will give you an idea of what the books is about.  Check out its  Bibliography. It will give you an idea of the author's source of information. To read brief samples of this book, scroll to the bottom of this page and click on the appropriate links. 

The importance of this subject:

    Christian religious education is not for Christians only. Everyone needs to know about the Christian beliefs, because everyone's life is impacted by those beliefs. Here is how. Christianity has dominated Europe for almost 1700 years and has dominated America (North and South America) for about 400 years. The history of Europe is marked by religious wars (between the European nations) and religious persecutions. For three hundred years European Christians carried crusades against the Muslims. Presently, there is a serious conflict between Judeo-Christianity and Islam, and this conflict involves many nations. The war against Al-Qaida is a religious war (at least, this is what Al-Qaida claims it is). The war against Al-Qaida has led us into the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. The conflict between Al-Qaida and the Judeo-Christians will continue in some form or another for  many decades to come. Judeo-Christian beliefs impact your life in more ways than you can imagine. American Christians make laws and declare wars on the basis of their religious convictions. Therefore, it behooves you to learn about the Christian religion.

    Who Was Jesus?

        Here are some questions that must be asked: Was Jesus a Jew, or was he a Christian? Did he teach Christianity at the Temple of Jerusalem? Could he have taught Christianity at the Temple? Would the Zealots have allowed him to do so? Were the Zealots tolerant of other religions?  

    Paul wrote, “... {Jesus} who knew no sin.” (2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV) Paul did not meet Jesus. So, how did he know that Jesus never sinned? Did Jesus tell him in a vision, “Paul, I am sinless!”...? Did Jesus declare to the people of Jerusalem that he was sinless? How did Paul know that Jesus knew no sin? Furthermore, did the gospel writers witness Jesus? If so, why didn't they tell us who they were and how they came to know Jesus and hear his teachings? There are hundreds of questions like these, which are waiting to be answered. You will not find the answers to these questions in church.

     To understand who Jesus was, one needs to learn about his setting: the religious, political, and social setting of Palestine before, during, and after Jesus' lifetime. Such learning necessitates the study of various ancient writings of the Hellenistic Era (300 BCE to 100 CE) and of the Roman Era (ca. 100 BCE - 330 CE). Such study encompasses the writings of Josephus and Philo Judaeus, the writings of Roman historians and Greek philosophers, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha, certain Gnostic writings, and various writings of the early Christian Church Fathers. By comparing the New Testament to such writings, one can see a rather complete picture of Jesus. Andrew Benson has done this homework for your sake, and he has placed the results of that homework in one book, so you can examine it.

A brief introduction to the setting of Jesus.

    At 63 BCE the Romans began to rule Palestine through their appointed kings. Those kings inevitably and unavoidably interfered with the religious customs of the Jews. For example, they took the prerogative to appoint the high priests of Judaism. Their actions and policies brought about discord, which caused the Jews to riot in various occasions.

    Another matter that brought about discord was that the Romans brought Gentiles (governors, military leaders, and soldiers) to Jerusalem. Josephus mentions an incident where a Roman soldier exposed his genitals to a crowd of Jews and made an obscene gesture. This insult caused a Jewish riot.  Jerusalem was the holy city of the Jews. Isaiah wrote, “O Jerusalem, the holy city; for the uncircumcised and the unclean shall enter you no more.” (Isaiah 52:1 NRSV) The "uncircumcised and the unclean" Roman soldiers defiled the holy city of God. The zealous Jews (= the Zealots, the Sicarii, the Essenes, the zealous Pharisees, and the Jewish Christians) were offended by the presence of Gentiles, who trampled the sacred grounds of Jerusalem. They wanted to expel all Gentiles from Jerusalem.

     Another matter that brought about discord was that the Romans obliged the Jews to honor Caesar. The Jews had to offer sacrifices in their Temple, not to Caesar, but on behalf of Caesar. The zealous Jews were offended by the fact that Caesar was worshipped as god in various places of the Roman Empire.  The Jews wanted to preserve the sanctity of the Temple and honor only God. So they revolted against Caesar and sought to establish the Kingdom of God.

     Form about 6 CE to 66 CE, the Jews rioted in numerous occasions in Jerusalem and in various locations of Palestine, especially in Galilee. Josephus wrote, “... the Galileans are accustomed to war from their infancy.” In retaliation, the Romans crucified thousands of zealous Jews (one of them was Jesus). This chronic turmoil led to the Great War of the Jews, which resulted in the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem, in 70 CE. It also resulted in the destruction of the the Sadducees, Pharisees,  the Essenes, and the Jewish Christians (who were closely related to the Pharisees and the Essenes). The Romans outlawed the Pharisees, the Essenes, and the Zealots (and in effect they outlawed the Jewish Christians). After the Jewish War, the Jews stopped calling themselves “Pharisees.” Two decades later, the Pharisees renamed themselves "Rabbinic Jews."
    The political government of Israel was run by the Sadducees, the priestly sect. The Sadducees were the enemies of the Zealots (and the enemies of Jesus). Josephus reported that towards the end of the War the rebels slaughtered the Sadducees: “The Idumeans also strove with these men {the rebels} ... they ... cut the throats of the high priests, that so no part of a religious regard to God might be preserved; they thence proceeded to destroy utterly the least remains of a political government ...” (Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, book 7, cha. 8 par.1, (267). This was the end of the Sadducee sect. (The Sadducees did not believe in eternal life. Notice, that the Jews who believed in eternal life cut the throats of the Jews, the Sadducees, who did not believe in eternal life.) Towards the end of the rebellion, the rebels managed to wipe out the Sadducees, but a short time later, they themselves were wiped out by the Romans.
    Those were the days when the Jews, more than ever, expected the establishment of the Kingdom of God. They expected God to send his angles to save them from the Romans. The historical Jesus was part of that intense milieu. He was a zealous Jewish rabbi, who preached about the Kingdom of God and sanctioned with his teachings the Jewish resistance against the Romans and against the Sadducees. Jesus condemned the Sadducees and the Herodians - the friends of Herod, who served the interests of the Romans. John the Baptist condemned Herod and faced a similar fate as Jesus. The historical Jesus was a product of his environment. He did not establish a new religion. (Scholars, preachers, and laypersons must understand this: No religion other than Judaism could have existed in Jerusalem. There was no such thing as "freedom of religion" in those days in Jerusalem. This is a very important subject, which is explained with evidence in this book.) 

    Christians claim that Jesus established Christianity, and by that they mean Hellenistic Christianity (the New Testament is a Hellenistic document: it was written in Greek by Hellenistic Jews - like Paul). But historical evidence shows that Jesus was not a Hellenist. He did not converse or preach in Greek. He was a Jewish nationalist, the leader of a Jewish sect in Jerusalem. He was not persecuted by the Jews for his religion. He was turned into the Romans by the Jewish leaders, the Sadducees, for stirring  the people against the Romans and against  the Sadducees and the Herodians and claiming to be the Messiah: the King of the Jews. Mark wrote, "The inscription of the charge against him read, 'The King of the Jews.' " (Mark 15:26 NRSV) This designation points out the real reason he was crucified. The Romans executed anyone who claimed to be the Messiah of the Jews, that is, the King of the Jews.  The following verse indicates that Jesus was known as “the Messiah”: “Pilate said to them {the Jews}, ‘ Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?’ ” (Matthew 27:22 NRSV) The Jews who called Jesus “the Messiah,” did not, in any way, view him as the savior of souls or the savior of mankind, and certainly not a god. The Messiah whom the Jews awaited was to be their  king. "Messiah" was, in a way, synonymous with "king." The following verse explains the title Messiah: “... saying that he himself is the Messiah, a king.” (Luke 23:2 NRSV) The robber on the cross acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah: “One of the criminals who were hanged there {on the cross} kept deriding him {Jesus} and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ ” (Luke 23:39 NRSV) Jesus claimed he was the Messiah, that is, he claimed he was the king of the Jews. Pilate, too, acknowledged Jesus as the King of the Jews: “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” (Mark 15:9 NASB) He ordered the superscription: “And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.” (Luke 23:38 KJV) Jesus was crucified as "king of the Jews." Again, this designation points out the real reason he was crucified.

    Any Jew who opposed the Sadducees, opposed the Romans, because the Romans authorized the Sadducees to govern the Jews on internal Jewish matters. The Pharisees, generally, opposed the Sadducees and the Romans. The gospel writers did not want to portray  the real Jesus: a friend of the Pharisees and an opponent of the Sadducees and the Romans, because the Romans would have outlawed Hellenistic Christianity. For the same reason they assigned a new meaning to the title "Messiah." Notice that Paul, in his letters, never admitted being or having been a Pharisee (the word Pharisee does not appear in any of Paul's letters), because the Romans would have prohibited his preaching. (Notice also that Paul did not preach the historical Jesus, because the historical Jesus opposed the Romans and their puppets.) During of the Great Jewish War, the Romans outlawed the Pharisees (and the rest of the Jewish sects that fought against them). Consequently, for about 20 years after the War there was no Pharisee sect. When the Pharisee survivors reorganized themselves, at about 90 CE, in Jamnia, they renamed themselves "Rabbinic Jews." This shows that the Romans were the ones who dismantled the Pharisees. Jesus was crucified by the same power that dismantled the Pharisees.

    Jesus was not just a religious figure. One cannot separate him from the politics of his time. Religion and politics have always been united in Jewish history, from the times of Moses and up to today. Moses was not just a religious figure. He was a political and military leader. He conducted wars. The prophets of the Old Testament assisted the kings and military leaders of Israel, by providing them with revelations and guidance from God. The prophets were involved in politics. Jeremiah, supposedly, predicted that Nebuchadnezzar will conquer Jerusalem. (Even today, religious leaders, like Pat Robertson, are preaching on how to conduct the wars and the policy in the Middle-east. The function of religion has been the same ever since the times of Moses.) Jesus was not much different from Moses and the prophets. The picture of Jesus in the gospels is incomplete and in some instances misleading. The part that has been hushed or misrepresented is the political aspect of his preaching. And this aspect becomes evident when one studies the Jewish history during Jesus' turbulent times. When one understands why the Romans crucified the Zealots, he can understand why the Romans crucified Jesus. (This is a very important subject, and is explained in detail in the book.)

    The religion of Paul was Hellenistic Christianity, which was an aberrant form of Judaism. Paul never called himself a Christian. Paul's religion was vehemently rejected in Jerusalem. Hellenistic Christians could not have possibly existed in Jerusalem before 70 CE. (During the times of Jesus and Paul there was a strong sentiment  against Hellenism in Jerusalem. Anti-Hellenism fueled the revolts against the Romans and the Sadducees, who were Hellenists.) Jesus' religion was zealous Judaism (a mix of Pharisaism and Essenism). It is called Jewish Christianity (a modern term), as a matter of identification. Also, Jesus did not introduce salvation and eternal life (for more info, read the short chapter that follows). The above statements sound strange, only because the facts about early Christianity are not commonly known. They are not taught in churches (where the vast majority of people learn about Christianity). Andrew Benson explains the religious/political history of Palestine during the first century, with copious documentation.

 (Note: Words and phrases within large braces { } within biblical quotations are furnished by the author to explain such quotations.) 

 Jesus Did Not Introduce Salvation and Eternal Life

Christians believe, “… the Son of Man {: Jesus} came … to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45 NIV) They believe Jesus’ sacrificial death brought salvation and eternal life to the world: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16 NRSV) The truth is that centuries before Jesus was born, God made salvation available to every Jew and Jewish proselyte who obeyed the Law. Joel wrote, “Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord {Heb. Yahweh} shall be saved;” (Joel 2:32 NRSV) Every Jew who calls on the name  "Yahweh" (not on the name "Jesus") shall be saved. The Psalmist wrote, “Our God is a God of salvation, and to God, the Lord {Heb. Yahweh}, belongs escape from death.” (Psalm 68:20 NRSV) Yahweh offered salvation and “escape from death” to the Jews who feared him: “Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him …” (Psalm 85:9 NRSV)  Isaiah wrote, “Israel has been saved by the LORD {Heb. Yahweh} with an everlasting salvation;” (Isaiah 45:17 NASB) According to Isaiah, Yahweh established an everlasting salvation plan for Jews. Salvation was available only to those who obeyed the Law: “Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek your statutes. … I hope for your salvation, O Lord, and I fulfill your commandments.” (Psalm 119:155, 166 NRSV) These verses were written centuries before Jesus.

             The author of Daniel wrote, “And many of them who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life ...” (Daniel 12:2 KJV) This verse was written for the Jews long before the times of Jesus. The Jews believed that those who obeyed the Law “will awake … to everlasting life.” Long before the times of Jesus, God provided salvation and eternal life to the Jews. Before his death, Jesus said, “... salvation is {available} from the Jews.” (John 4:22 NASB) Before his death, salvation was available from the Jews to Jews and those who became Jews through circumcision. This implies that his death did not bring salvation.
            In the second century BCE, during the Maccabean revolt, certain young Jewish men, who were being tortured by King Antiochus’ executioner, told the executioner, “... the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws. … But for you {Gentiles/sinners} there will be no resurrection to life!” (2 Maccabees 7:9, 14 RSV) At the time of King Antiochus IV, righteous Jews anticipated to rise from the dead. The mother of those young martyrs told her sons, “But doubtless the Creator of the world ... will ... give you breath and life again, as you now regard not your own selves for his laws’ sake.” (2 Maccabees 7:23 KJV) The mother of those martyrs loved Judaism because it offered eternal life: “She loved religion {Judaism} more, the religion that preserves them for eternal life according to God’s promise.” (4 Maccabees 15:3 NRSV) The above verses indicate clearly that God made salvation and eternal life available to the Jews and to proselytes to Judaism, long before Christianity came around. He promised eternal life only to those who obeyed his Law.
            Philo Judaeus (Philo of Alexandria) was a contemporary of Jesus. He did not know Jesus or Christianity. He was an Alexandrian Jew. He wrote, “… the true everlasting life, as the law says, is to live in obedience to and worship of God;” [2] Philo believed that God promised the Jews and the proselytes to Judaism (those who practiced the Law) eternal life. He wrote, “… those who think fit to show themselves obedient to the sacred commands {of God} shall live for ever and ever as in a light which is never darkened …” [3]
            Josephus wrote that the Pharisees believed that God offered them eternal life: “They {the Pharisees} also, believe, that souls have an immortal vigor in them, and that under the earth there will be rewards and punishments, according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life; and the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison, but the former will have power to revive and live again.” [4] The Pharisaic sect held these beliefs long before the times of Jesus.
            The Wisdom of Solomon is an intertestamental book, which was finished in the 5^th decade of this era (before 50 CE). It was written by a Hellenistic Diaspora Jew, for Hellenistic Diaspora Jews. It explains, “The souls of the just {= those who obey the Law} are in the hands of God ... In the eyes of the fools it seemed as though they died ... but they {the just} are in peace ... it is immortality that awaits them ... they are richly rewarded.” (Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-5) According to this writer, God rewarded righteousness with eternal life. He wrote, “For righteousness is immortal.” (Wisdom of Solomon 1:15 KJV) God rewards righteousness with immortality. What is righteousness? According to Deuteronomy, righteousness is obedience to the Law: “And it will be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us.” (Deuteronomy 6:25 KJV) Obedience to the Law brings immortality.
            Jews and proselytes who practiced the Law did not need Jesus’ “sacrificial” death, to earn eternal life. Eternal life was available to them before the arrival of Jesus. Jesus told his fellow Jews, “Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life.” (John 5:39 KJV) This verse shows that while Jesus was alive, the Jews believed that God had made eternal life available to them. Jesus taught what other Jews taught. He taught that to earn eternal life, one must obey the Law: “... there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what will I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him ... You know the commandments, Do not commit adultery ...” (Mark 10:17-19 KJV) Jesus told him to obey the Law.
            The reality is, Jesus’ death did not bring eternal life, neither to the Jews, nor to the proselytes, because eternal life was already available to them. Also, Jesus’ death did not bring eternal life to Gentiles. Jesus did not die on the cross for Gentiles because he did not minister to Gentiles. “But He {Jesus} answered and said, ‘I was sent {to minister} only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’ ” (Matthew 15:24 NASB) He instructed his disciples to avoid ministering to Gentiles: “These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ ” (Matthew 10:5-6 NRSV) Jesus ministered to Jews only: “Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision.” (Romans 15:8 KJV) “The circumcision” is a metaphor for “the Jews.”

Who Was Jesus? Was He God?

    No one who is mentally healthy and able to make rational decisions would want to go to Hell and suffer agonizing pains forever. Why, then, hundreds of millions of people, such as Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Unitarians, Muslims, and others, who are sane, and who believe in God, have rejected the belief Jesus is God? Is it because they are ignorant of what the New Testament says about Jesus? Or is it because they lack faith? The answer is, ... Neither one! They know what the New Testament says and they have faith in God. Besides, one does not need faith to ascertain Jesus' identify. One needs historical and biblical knowledge. Anyone with an open mind (the willingness to learn) can learn how to ascertain Jesus' identity.  Here are a few pointers.

The Short Answer:

    John wrote, “God is spirit {Gr. πνεῦμα ὁ θεός}.” (John 4:24 NRSV) Luke wrote, “for a spirit does not have flesh and bones …” (Luke 24:39 NASB) Since God is spirit and spirit does not have flesh and bones, and since Jesus has flesh and bones, then Jesus is not God. (Jesus ascended to Heaven with the carnal body: the body which the Romans crucified.)

 The Long Answer:

Introduction to the term "god"

        If you check your dictionary you will find that the term "God" (with capital letter "G") is a name that refers to "the supreme being, the all-powerful all-knowing creator of the universe," and that the term "god" (with small letter "g") is a noun that refers to "one of many supernatural male beings." Today we are able to make this distinction because our way of writing allows for it. But the writers of the New Testament were not able to make such distinction because their way of writing did not allow for it. All the letters of the language in which they wrote (the Koine Greek) were the same: capital. Now they had one way available to them for distinguishing "God" from "a god" and that was by using the definite article "ὁ." For example,  ὁ θεός   in most instances means "God," and θεός in most instance means "a god." But one cannot depend on the definite article. For example, in the following case ὁ θεὸς  instead of "God," it means "Satan": "... the god {Gr. ὁ θεὸς} of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers" (2 Corinthians 4:4 NRSV) Also, several New Testament writers were not well versed in the Koine Greek language, because the New Testament writers were not Greeks; they were Diaspora Jews. Greek was a secondary language to them. So they did not follow the grammatical rules, and therefore, they were not consistent with the use of the definite article "ὁ," and thus, sometimes is difficult to determine their beliefs from their use of this article. Also, unlike the Old Testament writers who used the name "Yahweh" (Jehovah) to identify the Supreme Being, the New Testament writers did not use such a name. They used the generic terms "Lord," "Father," "Almighty," and "god," to refer to God.

         In some instances some New Testament writers used the term "god" to refer to Jesus. Since those writers were not grammatically adept and since they had no choice between capital and small letters, the question arises,  Did they believe Jesus is "God," or "a god"?  In order to answer this question one must understand what the term "god" meant in the ancient times, and especially during the times of Paul. This is a big subject (explained in the book) but, briefly, here are a few examples, which will elucidate the meaning of this term.

         In the ancient times the term "god" meant "spirit" and "angel." Clement of Alexandria wrote, “Aristotle’s disciple, the celebrated Theophrastus of Eresus {born ca. 371 died 286 BCE}, suspects ... that God is spirit.” (Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks, cha. V, par. 58.) Clement also wrote, “For the Stoics say that God is spirit by nature.” (Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, 5, 14.) The writer of the Gospel of John wrote, “God is spirit {Gr. πνεῦμα ὁ θεός}.” (John 4:24 NRSV) Angels were called "gods" and "spirits" because they have the same nature as God: “Are not all angels spirits ...?” (Hebrews 1:14 NRSV) Even Satan was called "a god," because Satan was a fallen angel. Paul used the term "god" to refer to Satan: "... the god {Gr. ὁ θεὸς} of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers" (2 Corinthians 4:4 NRSV)

     Here are some examples from the Old Testament where angels are called "gods." Psalm 82 reads, “God presides in the great assembly; he gives judgment among the gods {Heb. elohim}.” (Psalms 82:1 NIV) The "gods" mentioned in this verse are the angels of God. In the following verse God says, “I said You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High.” (Psalms 82:6 NASB)  In other words, God says, "I said you are angels ..."

 To further understand the meaning of the term "god" compare the following two renderings of Psalms 8:5 by two major translations of the Bible (the New American Standard Version and the King James Version):

Here are two  renderings of another verse by two different reputable translations (both renderings are valid):

“For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.” (Psalms 97:9 NRSV) In other words, "you are exalted above all spirits" or "you are exalted above all the angels."

    According to 1 Peter, after Jesus died, he became a spirit: "He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit ..." (1 Peter 3:18 NRSV) Paul wrote, “... the last Adam {Jesus} became a life-giving spirit.” (1 Corinthians 15:45 NRSV) According to these and other New Testament verses, Jesus rose as a spirit, and spirits were called "gods." (Notice, some New Testament writers or editors wrote that Jesus rose physically, while others wrote that he rose spiritually. This issue is discussed in the book.) The writers who believed that Jesus rose spiritually called him "a god" (because the risen Christ had a spiritual body, an angelic body). There is a big difference between "a god" and "God": "a god" is a noun, whereas "God" is a name. The Christian belief "Jesus is God" is based on interpretation. In the fourth century CE such interpretation caused ecclesiastical controversies, divisions, and feuds.

Mark Did not Believe Jesus is God

    Mark believed that Jesus had limited power. He wrote, “{Jesus said,} But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give.” (Mark 10:40 KJV) “He {Jesus} entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice.” (Mark 7:24 NRSV) The expressions “did not want … Yet he could not escape” reveal that Jesus had limited power. Jesus did not have the power to make himself inconspicuous. He was not omnipotent. Mark would not have written this verse, had he believed that Jesus was omnipotent. The same applies to the following instance: “He {Jesus} could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them.” (Mark 6:5 NIV) Jesus’ power was limited because he could not always perform miracles. He was not omnipotent. Only God is omnipotent. According to Matthew, God has no limitations [1]: “... but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26 KJV) Also, Mark believed that Jesus had limited knowledge. He wrote, “{Jesus said,} But of that day and that hour no man knows, no, not the angels who are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” (Mark 13:32 KJV) Jesus did not know the day of his return. Only God is omniscient (has unlimited knowledge). Therefore, Mark believed that Jesus is not God.

The Early Church Fathers Did Not Believe Jesus is Equal to God

    The Church Father Tertullian is one out of many early Church Fathers who believed the the Father is greater than the Son. Tertullian was born about 155 or 160 and died 220 to 230 CE. He wrote ca. 213 CE. The following quotation shows that Tertullian believed that God, the Father, was superior to Jesus: “... the Son differs from the Father ... it is not by division that He is different, but by distinction; because the Father is not the same as the Son, since they differ one from the other in the mode of their being. For the Father is the entire substance, but the Son is a derivation and portion of the whole, as He Himself acknowledges: ‘My Father is greater than I.’ In the Psalm {Psalm 7:5} His inferiority is described as being ‘a little lower than the angels.’ Thus the Father is distinct from the Son, being greater than the Son, inasmuch as He who begets is one, and He who is begotten is another; He, too, who sends is one, and He who is sent is another; and He, again, who makes is one, and He through whom the thing is made is another.” [1]

The Irrationality of the Trinity Doctrine

The author of the letter of James believed that God remains constant, invariable, never changing: “… {God} the Father … with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17 NRSV) If God is invariable and if God is three persons united into one, then the bond that unites those persons must be likewise: invariable. But Mark indicated that the bond between the Father and the Son was severed during Jesus’ crucifixion: “… Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ ” (Mark 15:34 NRSV) When Jesus said this, there was no Trinity. This verse debunks the idea that God is an eternal trinity.
    Jesus was confident and strong when he pursued with a whip the money changers at the Temple, but he became emotionally weak before his crucifixion. He told God, “ ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup {the crucifixion} from me; …’ Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.” (Luke 22:42-44 NRSV) These verses debunk the belief that Jesus is God  because with God “there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17 NRSV) Jesus' strength varied. He became weak, whereas God cannot become weak. God is never changing: “… {God} the Father … with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17 NRSV)
            God’s title is “the Father”: “I {God} will be a Father {to the righteous men} and they will be my sons. And they all will be called sons of the living God, and every angel and every spirit will know ... that these are my sons, and that I {God} am their Father ...” (Jubilees 1:24-25) All righteous men are sons of God. Paul wrote to the Galatians, “You are all sons of God ...” (Galatians 3:26 NIV) Jesus was a righteous man, and therefore, he, too, was a son of God.  Like the rest of the Jews, Jesus referred to God as “Father.” The appellation “Father” is a title of superiority. A father is greater than his son. Jesus said, “My Father ... is greater than all.” (John 10:29 NASB) The word “all” includes Jesus. He also said, “... the Father is greater than I. … I do as the Father has commanded me.” (John 14:28, 31 NRSV) God commanded Jesus. There is no verse in the New Testament which says or hints that Jesus commanded God. Had Jesus been equal to God, he would have referred to him as “Brother.” He would have said, “… Brother, forgive them as I forgave them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)
            When a strong substance is united with a weak substance it becomes weak. The Father is greater, therefore the Son is lesser. If they unite, the Father becomes lesser. The Father is invisible spirit whereas the Son has a body of visible flesh. Figuratively speaking, the Father is an apple, whereas the Son is an orange. They are dissimilar. They can't be one. No matter which way we approach the idea that God is Trinity, we end up with the same result: it is an impossible concept.
        Today’s Christians believe that before Jesus incarnated he was a spirit in Heaven; he was “fully God.” When he came down on earth he “incarnated”: he united his spirit with flesh. He acquired a second nature. He added to his spiritual nature the carnal nature and thus from “fully God” he became “fully God and fully man” … (whatever that means!). “He became” means “he changed.” (Nonetheless, the writer of Hebrews wrote, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8 NIV) )The point is that Jesus was transformed: he changed. But God does not change. Also, Malachi says that God does not change: “For I the Lord do not change;” (Malachi 3:6 NRSV) James wrote that God does not change: “… {God} the Father … with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17 NRSV) Jesus is not equal to the Father because the Father has one nature (spiritual) whereas Jesus has two natures (carnal and spiritual). “God is spirit {Gr. πνεῦμα ὁ θεός}.” (John 4:24 NRSV) God has a heavenly body while Jesus has an earthly body. And Paul wrote, “There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is another.” (1 Corinthians 15:40 NRSV) What Paul is saying here is: earthly bodies have inferior glory, whereas heavenly bodies have superior glory. Flesh is not strong:  “... the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mark 14:38 NRSV) Jesus cannot have an earthly body with inferior glory and be equal to God.
      Christians fail to realize that God cannot incarnate into a man because man is a beast: “So I decided, as regards to men, to dissociate them from the divine beings and to face the fact that they are beasts.” (Ecclesiastes 3:18 TANAKH) God cannot turn himself into a man because man amounts to nothing: “Man has no superiority over the beast, since both amount to nothing.” (Ecclesiastes 3:19b TANAKH) Man’s nature is earthly. Paul wrote, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” (Colossians 3:5 NIV) Man’s earthly nature is sinful. “What is man, that he should be clean? and he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?” (Job 15:14 KJV) Therefore, God cannot incarnate into a man, into an inferior nature, a sinful nature. Besides, God does not change. If God changes he will cease being perfect, because perfection does not allow for variation. God is eternally perfect. Justin Martyr, the 2nd century Christian Church Father and leading theologian (ca. 150 CE) wrote, “ ‘But what do you call God?’ said he. ‘That which always maintains the same nature, and in the same manner, and is the cause of all other things--that, indeed, is God.’ ” ^[1] (Justin Martyr did not believe Jesus is God.) Since God “maintains the same nature and in the same manner” and Jesus added a second nature to his original one, then Jesus cannot qualify as God.
            The Mormons recognized this problem, so they attempted to resolve it as follows: Joseph Smith wrote, “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s.” [2] James Talmage, another leading Mormon, wrote, “Therefore we know that both the Father and the Son are in form and stature perfect men; each of them possesses a tangible body, infinitely pure and perfect . . . a body of flesh and bones.” [3] In trying to solve the problem, the Mormons made it worse. Here is the problem with the Mormon solution: if the carnal bodies of the Father and the Son have no sexual organs and no sex hormones, then the Father and the Son are not “in form and stature perfect men.” And if they do have sexual organs and sex hormones, then they have carnal desires: “passions of flesh.” And Paul wrote, “… the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and {therefore} we were by nature children of wrath …” (Ephesians 2:2 NRSV) Since the Father and the Son cannot be “children of wrath,” they cannot have “a body of flesh and bones.” Furthermore, the nature of the flesh is contrary to the nature of spirit: “For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other …” (Galatians 5:17 NRSV) Also, a human body does not have an “infinitely pure and perfect” shape (as James Talmage proposed) because it has a limited presence: its presence is limited to a specific location. Whereas, omnipresence, according to the Bible, is found only in spirit. Therefore, perfection can be found only in spirit. And since perfection does not allow for variation, God cannot be anything but spirit.
            The Mormons forgot something else: Jesus’ body saw corruption: it changed. It was mortally wounded and it decomposed for “three days” in the grave. Since Jesus died, his soul separated from his decomposed body. (Tertullian wrote, “death is defined to be nothing else than the separation of body and soul.” [4]) Jesus cannot be equal to the Father, because his soul separated from his carnal body, and his body decomposed for three days, whereas the Father’s soul has never separated from his carnal body (the Mormons believe God has such a body), and his carnal body has never decomposed. God is invariable: “… {God} the Father … with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17 NRSV)
            Let us assume that the Mormon belief (that the Father and the Son have carnal bodies) is correct. Then, what about the Holy Spirit? Luke wrote, “… and the Holy Spirit descended upon him {upon Jesus} in bodily form like a dove {Gr. σωματικῷ εἴδει ὡς περιστερὰν}.” (Luke 3:22 NRSV) The phrase “in bodily form” indicates that the Holy Spirit, too, incarnated. The Church Father Tertullian wrote, “… the Gospel of John ... declares that the Spirit descended in the body of a dove, and sat upon the Lord. When the said Spirit was in this condition, He was as truly a dove as He was also a spirit; nor did He destroy His own proper substance by the assumption of an extraneous substance {animal flesh}. But you ask what becomes of the dove’s body, after the return of the Spirit back to heaven ... ?” (Tertullian, On the Flesh of Christ, cha. 3.)
            The Mormons did not take into consideration the following: “And the Word became flesh …” (John 1:14 NRSV) Before Jesus incarnated, he was a spirit. Before Jesus incarnated, he could not have been equal to the Father because the Father had a carnal body. Also the Holy Spirit could not have been equal to the Father, because it was a spirit. The Mormon solution fails to show that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are equal to the Father.
            Saint Augustine used a different approach. He explained that Jesus is equal to the Father “according to substance; therefore the substance of both is the same.” He wrote, “… confess the Son Homo-ousios, ‘of one substance with the Father.’ ” [6] But Saint Augustine forgot that the Father has no “substance,” because he is spirit (a soul). Substance is “a kind of matter, a physical reality that can be touched and felt.” God is spirit, and therefore he cannot be touched or felt with our hands.
    In order to be truly equal, the three members of the Trinity must be identical. However, had they been identical they would have not been identifiable. We are able to identify the members of the Trinity by their differences: different names, different functions, and different ranks. For example, the Father ranks higher because he dispatches the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Father ranks higher because he is unapproachable by man, whereas the Son is approachable by man. The Son is the mediator to the Father, but not the mediator to the Holy Spirit. This indicates that the Father is superior to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.  Also, one can blaspheme God or Jesus, but one cannot blaspheme the Holy Spirit (see Mark 3:28–29), therefore the Holy spirit is different from the Father and Jesus. Since God is prefect, then he cannot have three different qualities, because perfection does not allow for variation: “… {God} the Father … with whom there is no variation …” (James 1:17 NRSV) Anything that is different from perfect is imperfect. Jesus is different from the Father. The Father is superior because he knows things that Jesus does not know: “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Mark 13:32 NRSV) When two persons are different, they are not equal. In some way, one is superior to the other.  There is no way of getting around this rule.
    Since it takes three persons to make the Trinity complete, then each person of the Trinity must be incomplete. In other words, the Trinity is greater than any of its members because the sum is greater than its parts.
            People learn in school that 1+1+1= 3. But in church they are told 1+1+1= 1. How can three distinct persons be one being? Some Christians admit that the Trinity does not make sense. M. R. DeHaan, a renowned Christian apologist, wrote, “The Trinity, that is, three persons in one, is a mystery which is revealed in the Bible, but cannot be understood by the human mind. Since man is finite, and God infinite, this is one of those things which must be accepted by faith, even though it cannot be reasoned out. The Trinity cannot be explained, but it must be believed ...” [7] Saint Augustine says that one must believe before he can understand: “… believe and understand, for the Prophet says, “Unless ye believe ye shall not understand” Do ye not comprehend? Be enlarged. Hear the Apostle: “Be ye, enlarged, bear not the yoke with unbelievers.” They who will not believe this before they comprehend {it} are unbelievers. And because they have determined to be unbelievers, they will remain in their ignorance. Let them believe then that they may understand.” [8] Believers are told to submit to the judgment of their spiritual leaders without questioning a doctrine, which their leaders themselves do not understand and cannot explain. And this doctrine was established by shedding the blood of those who questioned it and refused to accept it.
            Christians justify the concept of Trinity by saying that human beings are finite and liable both to sin and err.  And for this reason, the finite mind of man cannot understand the concept of Trinity. The reality is, when one believes in things he does not understand, he believes superstition.

God's Nature Cannot Blend with Man's Nature

 
          Christians claim that Jesus was simultaneously fully human and fully God. Is this possible? Certainly Jesus could not have had a mind with two qualities: human and divine. The human quality would have prompted him to do one thing and the divine quality would have prompted him to do another, and thus he would have been double-minded. The Bible condemns double-mindedness: “I hate the double-minded …” (Psalm 119:113 NRSV) “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:8 KJV) In the Old Testament, God said to mankind, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord." (Isaiah 55:8 NRSV) The thoughts and the ways of man are unlike and even contrary to the thoughts and the ways of God. The thoughts of God are good, whereas the thoughts of man are evil: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5 KJV) Ecclesiastes wrote, “Follow the inclination of your heart … but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.” (Ecclesiastes 11:9 NRSV) Therefore, the thoughts and the inclinations of God cannot mix with the evil thoughts and inclinations of man. The inclinations of God are good whereas the inclinations of man are evil. It is impossible for Jesus’ mind to have had contrary qualities.

    In what way, then, Jesus was simultaneously human and God? Was he, then, the mind of God clothed with a human body? Is it possible for God's mind to unite with human flesh? Human flesh has natural passions and desires (sex hormones), just like animal flesh. Justin Martyr said, “He pre-existed, and submitted to be born a man of like passions with us, having a body …” (Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, cha. 48.) As Justin Martyr explains, Jesus had a beastly flesh. Ecclesiastes explains, “So I decided, as regards to men, to dissociate them from the divine beings and to face the fact that they are beasts. … Man has no superiority over the beast, since both amount to nothing.” (Ecclesiastes 3:18-19b TANAKH) God’s infinite and perfect mind cannot unite with the body of a beast, which amounts to nothing. God cannot be clothed with human flesh, which has glands which produce testosterone, which stirs up passions and desires. Such flesh prompts evil: "... flesh and blood devise evil." (Sirach 17:31 NRSV) Human flesh is lustful. Lust sometimes begins in the flesh. For example, sometimes men experience involuntary sexual arousals. Such arousals prompt their mind to lust. Paul explains how this works: "... nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me." (Romans 7:18-20, NRSV) As Paul wrote, "nothing good dwells" in the flesh. "Sin dwells within" the flesh. Flesh has carnal desires and passions, which, according to the Bible, induce a person to sin. "... fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul." (1 Peter 2:11 NASB) Paul explains, "For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh;" (Galatians 5:17 NRSV) Flesh is sinful.  It is impossible to live in the flesh without sinning.  It is impossible to live in the flesh without sinning because, “… flesh and blood devise evil.” (Sirach 17:31 NRSV) In other words, in order for God to become fully a man and live as a real man, he has to sin. The Old Testament says that all men, without exception, sin: “... there is no man who does not sin ...” (1 Kings 8:46 NRSV) Since God cannot sin, he cannot become man. The scriptures state clearly “... there is no man who does not sin ...” and, according to the Bible, Christians cannot annul this scripture, because Jesus said, "... the scripture cannot be annulled ..." (John 10:35 NRSV)

The author of Hebrews explains, that Jesus became a man in every way: “For this reason he {Jesus} had to be made like his brothers in every way…” (Hebrews 2:17 NIV) Jesus had a beastly flesh. He had a penis and he had erections just like any other man. Since Jesus was a man in every way, he sinned. And for this reason he was baptized by John the Baptist. The historical Jesus (the real Jesus, not the fictional Jesus) was baptized for the remission of his sins.

    Luke did not believe Jesus is God, because he indicated that Jesus' strength was limited. He wrote, “An angel from heaven appeared to him {Jesus} and strengthened him.” (Luke 22:43 NIV) God does not need strength. He has unlimited strength. Since Jesus lacked in strength, he was not God.

     Jesus was born of a woman, and he was born under the Law: "... God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law," (Galatians 4:4 NRSV) The phrase “under the law” means, that Jesus was subject to the Law of the Old Testament. And the Old Testament says, “How can one born of woman be pure?” (Job 25:4 NRSV) Therefore, at the time of his birth, Jesus was impure. In the birth account of Jesus, Luke wrote, “When the time came for their purification {the purification of Mary and Jesus} according to the law of Moses, they brought him {baby Jesus} up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.” (Luke 2:22 NRSV) Mary and the new-born Jesus were impure until the purification ritual was performed on their behalf at the Temple. Since Jesus was born impure, he cannot be God, because God does not need to be purified; he is eternally pure.  There is no way of getting around Job 25:4, 1 Kings 8:46, Isaiah 55:8, and Ecclesiastes 3:18-19. These (and other) verses preclude Jesus from having been pure and sinless. (This is one reason that the Jews, who believe in the Old Testament, cannot accept Jesus as God.)  

He who is not omnipresent is not God

    According to certain verses of the Bible, God is omnipresent (continuously and simultaneously present throughout the whole universe). In the Gospel of John,  Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven.” (John 6:51 NASB) Since Jesus had to "come down out of heaven," he was not simultaneously present throughout the whole universe. In the Gospel of John, Jesus said, “You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ ” (John 14:28 NRSV) He who is omnipresent does not "go away" or "come to" anyone, because he is everywhere. Since the author of the Gospel of John did not believe that Jesus is omnipresent, he did not believe Jesus is God. (Muslims, Jews, and Jehovah's Witnesses understand this concept. The Christians don't. And this misunderstanding has caused the Christians to persecute the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Jews and it has stirred the Christians repeatedly to go to war against the Muslims. For this reason, this subject is very important.) Here is another example.“Now if He {Jesus} were on earth, He would not be a priest at all … ” (Hebrews 8:4-6 NASB) The expression “if he were on earth” indicates that the writer of Hebrews believed that Jesus was not omnipresent. (For a continued discussion of the subject Who Was Jesus? Was He God?  click here.) 

About the Concept of Omnipresence

 Jews and Christians claim that God is spirit (intangible, insubstantial), and that God never changes, and that God is omnipresent and omnipotent. This definition is fine. But they fall into a fallacy when they add that God is a person and therefore he has a body. If God has a body then he cannot be omnipresent because his presence is limited by the shape of his body. If God wears a body like a garment from time to time (to appear to humans), then he cannot be unchanging, because he alters himself from omnipresent to locally present.
    Some believe that God has a “spiritual body.” A “spiritual body” is an oxymoron. “Spiritual” means “insubstantial,” and “body” implies “substance.” God cannot be an “insubstantial substance.” In order for God to be omnipresent and unchanging he cannot have or can never acquire a body. A body has substance. And all substance has shape. It has the shape of atoms, or the shape of subatomic particles. Shape limits presence. Notice that the New Testament writers visualized God with a shape: “… Jesus standing at the right hand of God. … the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ ” (Acts 7:55 NIV) “… he {Jesus} sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” (Hebrews 1:3 NIV) “… who sat down {i.e. on a seat} at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven …” (Hebrews 8:1 NIV) “... a throne was set in heaven, and one {God} sat on the throne.” (Revelation 4:2 KJV) These descriptions depict God with a local presence. The following verse says that God “will dwell with” his people: “... Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them ...” (Revelation 21:3 KJV) This verse tells us that God is locally present. So do the following expressions: “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus ...” (2 Timothy 4:1 NRSV) “And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD ...” (Genesis 4:16 KJV) The expressions “in the presence” or “out of the presence” indicate that the god of Judaism, exists in a specific place. As for the god of Christianity he is three distinct persons (the Trinity): the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each person of the Trinity occupies his own space; otherwise he would not be distinct from the other two persons. Three locally present persons (the three persons of the Trinity) cannot constitute an omnipresent entity. (This is why there can only be one God and he cannot be a person. As we will examine further on, God can only be a power.)
    The following passage says that God forbade the unclean from coming into his presence. God commanded, “… while he is in a state of uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from my presence: I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 22:3 NRSV) The idea that God does not dwell in the realm of sin and in the realm of sinful persons is incompatible with the idea that God is omnipresent.
    Some people claim that they feel the presence of God when they walk into a holy place (i.e. a temple or a church) or when they enter the company of spirited worshippers, believers. What they feel is the result of their thinking. The “presence of God” is a figure of speech which describes one’s feelings.

END

The historical approach to understanding the Bible

    Here is a brief historical overview of how the Judaic beliefs evolved. (This subject is discussed in detail in the book.)

    Abraham is called "the Father of the Jews," because he established the fundamental ritual of Judaism: circumcision. Judaism originated with circumcision. This tells us that before Abraham, Judaism did not exist. Abraham was a religious reformer: he reformed the religion of his ancestors (the Sumerians) and established Judaism. Abraham did not believe in the Ten Commandments. He did not observe the Sabbath. Several hundred years after him, Moses reformed the religion of Abraham by introducing most of the Ten Commandments (such as observing the Sabbath) and a few other laws. Moses did not teach about Heaven (about life in Paradise), Hell, or Satan, because he did not believe in such concepts. Such concepts were introduced to Judaism during the exilic era (597 to 538 BCE) and the post-exilic era. Obviously, the religion of Judaism evolved.

    Here is something of interest and of importance. During the era of the judges (before King Saul) God accepted human sacrifices:
Notice the story of Abraham. Abraham attempted to sacrifice his son Isaac to God. This is a clue that in early Judaism the Hebrews and later the Israelites offered human sacrifices to their god. Jephthah lived after Moses, in the period of the judges, perhaps about a century before King Saul. Jephthah was a man of God: “Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah … ” (Judges 11:29 NRSV) He promised to God a human sacrifice, if God would grant him victory. “And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord, and said, ‘If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the Lord’s, to be offered up by me as a burnt offering.’ ” (Judges 11:30-31 NRSV) God accepted Jephthah’s vow and granted him victory: “So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them; and the LORD gave them into his hand.” (Judges 11:32 NRSV) God willed for Jephthah’s daughter (his firstborn) to come out of the house to meet him: “And Jephthah came to Mizpeh to his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tumbrels and with dances: and she was his only child {i.e. firstborn}; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.” (Judges 11:34 KJV) So Jephthah sacrificed (burned on an altar) his firstborn to God: “{he} did with her according to the vow he had made.” (Judges 11:39 NRSV) God accepted human sacrifice. This is a clue, that during the times of Jephthah (a little more than a century before Solomon) the Israelites, on special occasions, offered their children as sacrifice to God. And since they ate the sacrifices, they practiced cannibalism. As the writer of Baruch explains, “Under the whole heaven there has not been done the like of what he has done in Jerusalem … Some of us ate the flesh of their sons and others the flesh of their daughters.” (Baruch 2:2-3 NRSV) This is evidence that  during the time of Jephthah the following verses of Leviticus, which prohibit human sacrifice, did not exist: “You shall not give any of your offspring to sacrifice them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God:” (Leviticus 18:21 NRSV) “Say further to the people of Israel: Any of the people of Israel, or of the aliens who reside in Israel, who give any of their offspring to Molech shall be put to death; the people of the land shall stone them to death.” (Leviticus 20:2 NRSV) Moses did not write these verses because the phrases “Say … to the people of Israel … aliens who reside in Israel” refer to a situation which existed in Canaan after the lifetime of Moses. (Scholars believe that a considerable part of Leviticus was written between the 7th and the 5th centuries BCE.) Also, Moses did not write the above verse because during his time the Israelites did not worship Molech. The worship of Molech (scholars are not sure about the term “Molech,” whether it refers to a god or to a cultic practice or it is a dysphemism) appears to have been established among the Israelites by Solomon, who lived more than two centuries after Moses: “Then Solomon built a high place for … Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem.” (1 Kings 11:7 NRSV) The fact that a century after Moses’ time Jephthah sacrificed his daughter and God approved of such sacrifice, raises big questions about Moses and the type of religion he established. Micah wrote, “Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” (Micah 6:7 NRSV) It appears that some Israelites sacrificed their children, intermittently, from the times of Jephthah to the times of King Josiah. Josiah abolished the human sacrifices to Molech: “He {King Josiah} defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, so that no one would make a son or a daughter pass through fire as an offering to Molech.” (2 Kings 23:10 NRSV)
    After the times of Moses, the Law was augmented. That is, Judaism continued to evolve. Here are some examples (these are just samples of what is presented in the book). In the 8th century BCE, King Hezekiah revised the Mosaic law, which commanded the Israelites to eat the Passover at home:

 Later on, in the 7th century BCE, at the time of King Josiah, there was another reformation of Judaism: the high priest Hilkiah introduced the book of Deuteronomy, which contains additional reforms (click for more). As Judaism evolved, prophets or scribes wrote new books to accommodate the new beliefs. A few decades after the end of the Babylonian exile the high priest and scribe, Ezra (click for more)  edited the books of the Law. Here is one change he introduced:

Notice that Ezra ignored the fact that the statute, which prohibited the eating of fat was a "perpetual statute."   This goes to show that no belief is perpetual (everlasting). 

     During the Greek-Roman era, Judaism went through further reformations (the Judaic beliefs changed again). In 323 BCE the Greeks (through the conquests of Alexander the Great) occupied Israel. In the following 150 years the Greeks influenced the Jews. The Jews fell in love with the Hellenistic culture. Judaism became to some degree Hellenized. At about 167 BCE the Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes abolished Judaism in Palestine and imposed Hellenism and the worship of the Greek god Zeus. The Samaritans complied eagerly, but the Maccabees (who were Judean Jews) with the help of the Hasidim (those who were zealous for the Law) revolted. After a successful revolt and liberation from the Greeks they established Maccabean Judaism (pious/conservative, anti-Hellenistic, zealous Judaism) in Judea. 

   Here is another example of how the Law (Judaism) evolved. Before the times of Antiochus IV Epiphanes the Jews did not fight on the Sabbath because God commanded: “Remain every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day {on the Sabbath}.” (Exodus 16:29 NASB) This law was modified during the times of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, to allow fighting on the Sabbath: “And all {the Jewish soldiers of Mattathias} said to their neighbors: ‘If we all do as our kindred {our fellow Jews} have done {i.e. rest on the Sabbath} and refuse to fight {on the Sabbath} with the Gentiles for our lives and for our ordinances, they will quickly destroy us from the earth.’ So they made this decision that day: ‘Let us fight against anyone who comes to attack us on the Sabbath day; let us not all die as our kindred died in their hiding places.’ ” (1 Maccabees 2:40-41 NRSV) Mattathias, the father of the Maccabees, is the hero of Judaism. Yet, he broke God's Law. This shows that the laws of God are flexible. One can break them in exceptional situations. Jesus walked in the footsteps of the Maccabees. Like the Maccabees, in some exceptional, justifiable, situations Jesus broke the Sabbath. When the Jews questioned him, "He {Jesus} said to them, 'Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.' " (Matthew 12:11-12 NRSV) Here is an alternative version of that incident: "Then he said to them, 'If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a Sabbath day?' " (Luke 14:5 NRSV) 

        In 63 BCE, the Romans (under General Pompeii) conquered and occupied Israel and granted religious freedom to the Jews. The Romans assimilated the Hellenistic culture and promoted it in the nations they conquered. The pious/zealous Jews of Judea, Galilee, and Qumran (the Hasidim) loathed Hellenism. Towards the turn of the century (about the time Jesus was born)  the Judean, Galilean, and Qumran Jews (Qumran is in Judea) yearned for total religious freedom and aspired to eliminate Hellenism from Palestine, which was promoted by the Romans. (Even though the conservative Jews were anti-Hellenistic, they were not able to truly eliminate Hellenism, because Hellenism had been embedded in their culture since the times of Alexander the Great.) The Romans had given the Jews a certain amount of religious freedom. But the zealous Jews stretched the limits of that freedom. Through protests and minor rebellions the Jewish rebels pressured the Romans, who repeatedly, for about six decades (during the 1st century CE), cracked down on the rebels, but with some restrain. (The chief priests, most of whom were wealthy Sadducees and some Pharisees, collaborated with the Romans. They disapproved of the revolts of the zealous Jews.) In 66 CE the zealous Jews resorted to an all out rebellion (which lasted seven years: until 73 CE) against the Romans and against the wealthy Hellenistic chief priests (mostly Sadducees and a few wealthy Pharisees), and attempted to establish their dream: "the Kingdom of God" (about which, Jesus preached). The Romans destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem (in 70 CE) and "shut down" zealous Judaism. Except for a few city walls, they razed the city of Jerusalem to the ground. Zealous Judaism ceased to exist. (Zealous Judaism was the Judaism, first, of the Maccabees, and later, (in the 1 century CE), of the Zealots, the Essenes, the common Pharisees, of John the Baptist, of Jesus and the Jewish Christians.) After the Great War of the Jews, new forms of Judaism (such as, Rabbinic Judaism) took the place of zealous Judaism (the Judaism of Jesus).

The types of Judaism in the times of Jesus and Paul

    To understand the historical Jesus it is important to distinguish the main types of Judaism in the times of Jesus and Paul. (The following table is a sketchy illustration, which needs explanations and qualifications. The data of this table are explained in the book.)

    Some scholars use the term "Palestinian Judaism." This term, is correct when applied to Judaism prior to the Hellenistic era. During the Hellenistic Era Palestine included Judea, Galilee, Decapolis, Philistia, Nabataea, and Samaria. The Judaism of those areas cannot be placed in one category. Even though the Samaritans used the Pentateuch, Samaritan Judaism was Hellenistic. It was similar to Diaspora Judaism. It was unlike Judean Judaism (the Judaism of the Pharisees, the Essenes, the Zealots, and the Jewish Christians). The Judean Jews had excommunicated the Samaritans, and considered them Gentiles. The Maccabees (who were Judeans) destroyed the Samaritan temple, at Gerizim, which had been dedicated to Zeus. The Samaritans belong to the category of Diaspora Judaism. It is from Diaspora Judaism that Hellenistic Christianity evolved. Today's Christianity evolved from Hellenistic Christianity.  

(These subjects are discussed in detail in the book and documented with numerous ancient quotations.)

Some differences between the followers of Jesus and the followers of Paul

   There is much to be said about the Jewish Christians. They are obscure and greatly misunderstood by today's Christians. (The book presents several pieces of historical evidence -quotations from ancient writings- which elucidate the Jewish Christians.) Briefly, they were Jesus' original followers in Jerusalem. They were part of Second Temple Judaism. They were against Paul. They are the "Judaizers" (mentioned by Paul in Galatians) who opposed Paul in the synagogue/church of Galatia. (The subject of the "Judaizers" is examined in depth in the book.) They were "zealous for the Law." They practiced the Law almost "to the letter," and blended with the Zealots, the common Pharisees, and the Essenes (the lower economic class of Jews: the "poor," about whom Jesus preached in the Sermon of the Mountain). The following passage of Philo illustrates the mindset of the zealous Jews: “But the single nation of the Jews … was suspected by him {the Roman Emperor Gaius Caligula 37-41 CE} of wishing to counteract his desires, since it {the nation of Jews} was accustomed to embrace voluntary death as an entrance to immortality, for the sake of not permitting any of their national or hereditary customs {the Law} to be destroyed, even if it were of the most trivial character (click for more), because, as is the case in a house, it often happens that by the removal of one small part, even those parts which appeared to be solidly established fall down, being relaxed and brought to decay by the removal of that one {trivial} thing .” [Philo, On the Embassy to Gaius, par. XVI, (117)]  Such Jews were the Essenes, the Pharisees, the Zealots, the followers of John the Baptist, Jesus, and the Jewish Christians: strict adherents to the Law: conservative Jews. (They were the lower economic class of Jews.) During the Great War of 66 to 73 CE, they fought against the Romans to establish the Kingdom of God: “… the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed ... It will crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it will stand forever.” (Daniel 2:44 NRSV) Some of them fought the Romans after the destruction of the Temple (70 CE) until 73 CE.

    Up to 52 CE James, the brother of Jesus, was the leader of the Jewish Christians. He was a priest at the Temple of Jerusalem. The Jewish Christians prayed directly to God (not through Jesus). They used the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. They spoke Aramaic. They wrote the Gospel of the Hebrews (in Aramaic), which did not survive.  (The following table Christianity in the times of Paul, is a sketchy illustration, which needs explanations. The data of this table are explained in detail in the book.)

Christianity in the times of Paul

1

The Historical Jesus versus the Spiritual Jesus

  Biblical historians have deciphered the historical Jesus from the New Testament and from various pieces of evidence which appear in various ancient writings. (This book explains, with documentation -quotations from ancient writings- the differences between the historical Jesus and the spiritual Jesus.) It is important to understand that the historical Jesus was a Jew: a person of Hebrew descent whose religion was zealous Judaism: a mixture of Pharisaism and Essenism. Jesus was not a Christian, because he was circumcised, he was  dedicated at the Temple, he performed the Bar Mitzvah at the age of twelve, and he observed the rituals of the Law. He did not break the Law or abolish it. His disagreements with the Pharisees (mentioned in the gospels) were nothing out of the ordinary in the contemporary Judaic milieu. (After the destruction of the Temple - 70 CE- Judaism changed tremendously -the sacrifices ceased-, yet no one can say that after 70 CE the Jews did not uphold the Law. Ezra instructed the Jews to eat fat, yet no one claimed the Ezra abolished the Law.) Just like Ezra, Jesus did not abolish the Law. According to the writer of Acts, Stephen prophesied, “Jesus of Nazareth … will change the customs which Moses delivered us …” (Acts 6:14 KJV) The verb "will change" signifies an action in the future. Stephen did not say "Jesus has changed the customs which Moses delivered us." Also, Stephen said this after the death of the historical Jesus. This verse shows that the historical Jesus did not change the customs of Moses.

    Jesus worshipped God with the Jews of Judea, and taught Judaism at the Temple and in Jewish synagogues. He did not teach Christianity. No one was allowed to teach Hellenistic Christianity in Jerusalem. When Stephen and, later, Paul attempted to preach something other than conservative Judaism, Stephen was stoned by the Jews, and Paul was about to stoned, when the Romans saved him. The Jews did not crucify Jesus. The public supported Jesus. The Sadducees (who were Hellenists) turned Jesus over to the Romans, because he led a messianic uprising against the Romans and was not qualified as the Messiah of the Jews. The Sadducees were collaborators with the Romans, and desired to forestall the wrath of the Romans. So, they turned Jesus over to the Romans, who crucified him.

    The story of Jesus was turned into a legend among the Diaspora Jews. The historical Jesus was turned into the spiritual Jesus. The Judean Jews persecuted the followers of the spiritual Jesus. The historical Jesus was part of the late Second Temple Judaism of Judea. The religion of Jesus, zealous Judaism, ceased functioning with the destruction of the Temple, and his sect (the Jewish Christians) disappeared from history after the Bar Kokhba revolt ca. 132-135 CE.

    Paul was a Hellenistic Diaspora Jew, who, according to the book of Acts and his letters, preached, as a rule, in liberal Diaspora synagogues: he preached to Hellenistic Diaspora Jews, proselytes, and God-fearers (Gentiles who attended liberal Diaspora synagogues). Understanding the two opposing types of Christianity and the two different types of Judaism, is crucial in understanding the origins and the evolution of the Judaic and Christian beliefs.

Did the New Testament Writers Believe Jesus Is God?

Today, the fundamental issue which divides Christians and Jews is the Christian claim that God is three persons (a Trinity). This division did not exist in the first century. Jews and Hellenistic Christians believed in the same god. They both believed that the Holy Spirit was merely the Power of God, not a person. The Old Testament Jews believed that the Holy Spirit was the Power of God. The Holy Spirit entered into Samson and gave him strength: “The Spirit of the LORD came upon him {Samson} mightily …” (Judges 14:6 NASB) Also, the Holy Spirit entered King David and caused him to prophesy.

Here are some facts one must know concerning the Trinity Doctrine:

1. Moses did not believe that God is three persons, because he did not teach this.

2. The Jewish prophets did not believe that God is three persons, because they did not teach this.

3. Jesus taught what Moses and the prophets taught. He was not accused of preaching that God is three persons (click for more)  or of preaching that he was a god (click for more).

3. Paul was persecuted by the Jews many times. He was not accused nor stoned by the Jews for preaching that God is three persons.

4. None of New Testament writers wrote that God is three persons and the verses which mention the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (1 John 5:7-8) in the King James version were inserted in the New Testament text by Latin manuscript editors. The New Revised Standard Version reads: "There are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree." (1 John 5:7-8 NRSV)

5. There is no historical or biblical record, where a first century Jew accused a Christian of preaching that God is three persons.

How did the division over the identity of God between Jews and Christians arise? There are many historical and biblical facts to consider, but here are just a few to start with (this is an abbreviated discussion; a full discussion is presented in the book):  

The Invisible God versus the Visible Jesus

    Jesus lived for about 41 years (not 33, as commonly thought) in Israel, and thousands of Israelites saw him. The writer of Acts wrote, “God ... granted that He {Jesus} become visible ...” (Acts 10:40 NASB) This is a biblical fact; Jesus became visible. Compare this biblical fact to the following New Testament claims: “No one has seen God at any time.” (John 1:18 NIV) “No one has ever seen God.” (1 John 4:12 NIV) “...{God} who ... dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see.” (1 Timothy 6:16 NASB) The New Testament writers believed that Jesus became visible, whereas God (the Father) is eternally invisible.

    The Christian Church Father, Tertullian wrote, “We {Christians} in like manner say that the Father of Christ is invisible, for we know that it was the Son who was seen {became visible} in ancient times (whenever any appearance {in the Old Testament} was vouchsafed to men in the name of God) as the image of (the Father) Himself.” Tertullian, The Five Books Against Marcion, book 5, cha. 19. Tertullian believed that the appearances of God in Old Testament, were appearances of Jesus, who represented God.

    Since the New Testament writers believed that God is eternally invisible and that Jesus became visible, this is a clue that they did not believe Jesus is God.

    But what about the Holy Spirit? Is the Holy Spirit God? Christians believe that God is a trinity, which consists of three equal persons (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit). Did the New Testament writers believe the Holy Spirit is God? Here is what Matthew wrote about the Holy Spirit: “After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he {Jesus} saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him.” (Matthew 3:16 NIV) Jesus had human eyes and with those eyes he saw the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was visible to human eyes and it looked like a dove: “Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him;” (Mark 1:10 NASB) John the Baptist, too, saw the Holy Spirit: “Then John gave this testimony: ‘I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him.’ ” (John 1:32 NIV) According to Mark and John the Holy Spirit became visible, whereas God is invisible.

Let's sort things out:

God is invisible: “No man has seen God at any time.” (John 1:18 KJV)

The Father is invisible: “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God;” (John 6:46 NASB)

The Son became visible: “God ... granted that He {Jesus} become visible ...” (Acts 10:40 NASB)

The Holy Spirit became visible: “... I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove ...” (John 1:32 NIV)

Here is the formula: Since only God is invisible and only the Father is invisible, then only the Father is God. This is what the New Testament writers believed.

   People learn in school that 1+1+1= 3. But in church they are told 1+1+1= 1. How can three distinct beings (persons) be one being? Some Christians admit that the Trinity does not make sense. M. R. DeHaan, a renowned Christian apologist, wrote, “The Trinity, that is, three persons in one, is a mystery which is revealed in the Bible, but cannot be understood by the human mind. Since man is finite, and God infinite, this is one of those things which must be accepted by faith, even though it cannot be reasoned out. The Trinity cannot be explained, but it must be believed ...”(DeHaan, M. R., Five Hundred Eight Answers to Bible Questions, p. 168.)

    Saint Augustine says that one must believe before he can understand: “… believe and understand, for the Prophet says, “Unless ye believe ye shall not understand” Do ye not comprehend? Be enlarged. Hear the Apostle: “Be ye, enlarged, bear not the yoke with unbelievers.” They who will not believe this before they comprehend {it} are unbelievers. And because they have determined to be unbelievers, they will remain in their ignorance. Let them believe then that they may understand.”(St. Aurelius Augustine, Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament, Sermon XC. [CXL Ben.].)  Believers are told to submit to the judgment of their spiritual leaders without questioning a doctrine, which their leaders themselves do not understand and cannot explain. And this doctrine was established by shedding the blood of those who questioned it and refused to accept it. Christians justify the concept of Trinity by saying that human beings are finite and liable both to sin and err.  And for this reason, the finite mind of man cannot understand the concept of Trinity. The reality is, when one believes in things he does not understand, he believes superstition.

    Paul wrote to the Colossians "He {Jesus} is the image of the invisible God ..." (Colossians 1:15 NRSV) The expression “in the image of God” conveys  resemblance not equality. Man, too, is "in the image of God": “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; ” (Genesis 1:27 NASB) Man resembles God. Man is not God. Resemblance does not confer equality.

 Consider also this: Diaspora Jews referred to God as "the Father." Those Jews believed God is one person. They believed only the Father is God. Had Paul preached Jesus is God, he would have been forbidden from preaching in Diaspora synagogues. “… he {Paul} began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’ … But Saul {Paul} kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ.” (Acts 9:20, 22 NASB) Paul proved that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, not God. The terms “Son of God,” “Messiah” and “Christ” were synonymous terms, which were commonly used in Israel in those days. The Jews used the terms “Son of God” and “Christ” to refer to their awaited Messiah, whom they expected to be a mere man. (About the meaning of "Son of God" and "Christ" click on the link higher up on this page, to read the chapter explaining these terms.) The Jews held this belief (the the Messiah will be a mere man) before the times of Jesus, and still do. Apollos, the co-worker of Paul, vigorously proved, in public debate with the Jews, that Jesus was the Christ, the one they had been waiting for: “For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.” (Acts 18:24 NASB) Paul and Apollos tried to convince the Diaspora Jews that Jesus was the Messiah, the man, they had been waiting for. Had they attempted to prove to them that Jesus is God those Jews would not have debated with them. They would have stoned them.

    The Diaspora Jews were not debating with the early Hellenistic Christians  whether Jesus is God or not. This was not an issue. They debated only whether Jesus was the Christ, the man they had been waiting for. The second century Church Father Justin Martyr wrote,  “And this the Jews who possessed the books of the prophets did not understand, and therefore did not recognize Christ even when He came, but even hate us who say that He has come, and who prove that, as was predicted, He was crucified by them.” Justin Marty, First Apology, Cha. XXXVI. Justin's expression "but even hate us who say that He has come" suggests that Christians and Jews of the second century (at least, the ones that Justin Martyr knew) argued whether the Messiah had come. Justin Martyr makes no mention that they argued whether the Messiah was man or God.

    The Hellenistic Christian idea, that the Messiah was to suffer and die, completely contradicted Jewish expectation. The Diaspora Jews rejected Jesus as their awaited Messiah because he had been hanged (crucified). Paul and Apollos defended Jesus as the Messiah against the Jewish objection that “… he that is hanged is accursed of God.” (Deuteronomy 21:23 NRSV) Those Jews could not accept a Messiah who had been “accursed of God.”  Paul acknowledged that Jesus was accursed: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us …” (Galatians 3:13 NASB) Since Paul believed that Jesus “became a curse” he did not believe that Jesus was God because it is impossible for God to become a curse (God is eternally perfect, never diminishing, never changing, that means, never becoming anything else, such as a man - perfection does not allow variation- and man varies from God).

Some Differences between Jesus and God

    Compare Jesus to God, by comparing their sayings. In the Old Testament God repeatedly and clearly declared, “I am God,”  “I am your God,”  or “I am … LORD … God.”  God wanted people to know that he is God. Jesus never said “I am God,” or “I am your God,”  or “I am LORD God.” Here is what Jesus said: “... a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, ‘Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.’ ” (Mark 10:17-18). Jesus objected to being called “good” because only God is “good.” Jesus’ response reveals that he did not consider himself God. According to John, Jesus, referring to his Father, said “the one … who alone is God”: “How can you believe when you … do not seek the glory that comes from the one {the Father} who alone is God?” (John 5:44 NRSV) John could not have explained his belief any clearer, that only Jesus' Father is God.  John believed that the Father was Jesus’ god: “{Jesus said} I ascend to my Father, and your Father; to my God and your God.” (John 20:17 KJV)  He who says, “I ascend to my God and your God” cannot be God. John believed that the Father is greater than Jesus. He wrote that Jesus said, “My Father ... is greater than all.” (John 10:29 NASB) The word “all” includes Jesus because Jesus did not exempt himself. This verse nullifies the Trinitarian claim that Jesus is equal to the Father.

    Many Christians claim that Jesus called himself equal to God in the following verse: “{Jesus said:} I and my Father are one {Gr. en}.” (John 10:30 KJV) They claim that Jesus meant he is one nature with God. The historical Jesus could not have said this, because of what he said at the time of his death: “At three o'clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ {Other ancient authorities read [made me a reproach]} ” (Mark 15:34 NRSV) This verse shows that Jesus and the Father were not one. In John 10:30, the writer of the Gospel of John put words in the mouth of Jesus (these words do not appear in any other gospel).

John 10:30 in Greek reads: "εγω και ο πατηρ εν εσμεν."  Here, the Greek word “one” {Gr. en} does not refer to “nature.” To have referred to “nature” the Greek text would have read “miaν” (“nature” in Greek is female gender: “η jusiV”) instead of “en,” which is neuter gender. Also, the Greek word “en” does not refer to a person, and in this instance it cannot refer to a person, because Jesus and God are two persons. So, “en” means “one” as in “united.” In other words, "united in spirit." The writer of the Gospel of John believed that Jesus was “united” with God, because he had constant communion with God. John used the same word “en,” in reference to Jesus’ disciples. He wrote that Jesus prayed that his disciples would become “en,” “one” as he was “one” with his Father. Jesus asked the Father, “... that they {the disciples} may be one {Gr. en}, even as we are one {Gr.  en}.” (John 17:22 KJV) Obviously, his disciples did not need to become one nature. They were one nature: they were all human beings. Jesus asked the Father to unite his disciples because of the shock they were about to face (his arrest and crucifixion): “Holy Father, keep ... those whom you have given me that they may be one, as we are {one}.” (John 17:11 KJV) Jesus and his Father were united in spirit. Jesus prayed to God that his disciples may become united in spirit as he was with God. Cicero makes this concept clear: “Pythagoras requires of ideal friendship, that several {friends} are united in one.” Paul, too, makes this concept clear: “But anyone united to the Lord becomes one {Gr.  en} spirit with him.” (1 Corinthians 6:17 NRSV) When a believer unites with Jesus, he does not become Jesus, or equal to Jesus, but “one in spirit” with Jesus.  He achieves a spiritual communion with Jesus. The following Essene passage further clarifies this concept: “... through the submission of his soul to all God’s ordinances ...  a covenant of eternal Communion {with God}.” (1QS 3:8-9, 12 ) This “eternal Communion” was a spiritual union with God, like the union that Jesus claimed to have with God: “I and my Father are one.”

    John believed that Jesus was the envoy of God: “{Jesus said}... He who believes in me, believes not in me but in him {God} who sent me.” (John 12:44 RSV) Jesus directed the credit to God, who sent him. The disciples believed in the one who sent Jesus: in God. Jesus did not claim to be God. He only claimed to be the Messiah. He told His disciples that he was the “Christ”: “… One is your Leader, that is, Christ {Gr. ο Χριστός: the Messiah, the Anointed one}.” (Matthew 23:10 NASB)
      There is no verse in the New Testament wherein Jesus claimed to be God. (The author explains in his book numerous sayings of Jesus by placing them in the context of extra-biblical writings of that era.) Jesus often called himself the “Son of Man”: “... but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head ...” (Matthew 8:20 NASB) The term “Son of Man” can be applied to Jesus but cannot be applied to God. God cannot be a “son of man” because, as the Old Testament says, “God is not a man … nor a son of man ...” (Numbers 23:19 NIV) God cannot change himself into a man because, according to the Bible, man is a beast:  “So I decided, as regards to men, to dissociate them from the divine beings and to face the fact that they are beasts.” (Ecclesiastes 3:18 TANAKH) God cannot turn himself into a man because man amounts to nothing: “Man has no superiority over the beast, since both amount to nothing.” (Ecclesiastes 3:19b TANAKH) God cannot be like a man because man’s heart is naturally evil: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5 KJV) “… and the LORD said in his heart … the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth {i.e. from birth};” (Genesis 8:21 KJV) Man’s nature is earthly. Paul wrote, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” (Colossians 3:5 NIV) Man's nature is sinful  and it is inferior to the nature of God. Therefore, God cannot incarnate into a man, and thus take on an inferior nature, a sinful nature. Better yet, God does not change, because in doing so he will give up his perfection, he will become less than perfect. Perfection does not allow for variation. God is eternally perfect. Justin Martyr, the second century Christian Church Father and leading theologian (ca. 150 CE) wrote, “ ‘But what do you call God?’ said he. ‘That which always maintains the same nature, and in the same manner, and is the cause of all other things--that, indeed, is God.’ So I answered him.’ ” Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, cha. 56.  God does not change his nature to become a man. Therefore, Jesus is not God. (This is a serious statement, because Jesus is the foundation of today's Christian Church.) This is what Paul believed. (see Did Paul Believe that Jesus is God?) He believed that the Archangel of God (Jesus) incarnated himself into a man. (For more information, click on the links listed below. This is a great subject, which cannot be explained without going into details.)

The situation in the times before the Council of Nicaea

   Since no one has ever seen God whereas thousands of Israelites saw Jesus, and since God wants people to know he is God whereas Jesus never claimed that he was God, and since Jesus only resembles God, then how did the Christians come to believe that Jesus is God? This subject is discussed in the pages whose links are listed below. But here is some elementary information.

    To truly grasp this subject, one must learn the difference between the Jewish Christians (the followers of the historical Jesus in Judea) and the Hellenistic Christians (the followers of Paul, the Christians of the Diaspora). Jesus was turned into God not by the Jewish Christians, but by the Hellenistic Christians. His deification was a gradual process, which began in the second century and was finished in the fourth century.  

    Hellenistic Christianity (the Christianity of Paul) was never part of  Judean Judaism. Not one letter of the New Testament was addressed to the Jerusalem synagogue, or to a disciple of Jesus. Hellenistic Christianity was part of Diaspora Judaism in the first century CE and even in the beginning of the second century. Hellenistic Christianity and Diaspora Judaism were sister religions that got along fine and shared the same homes (synagogues/churches) for their meetings. The Hellenistic Christians spread their gospel to the liberal Diaspora Jewish synagogues around the Roman Empire (to the Hellenized Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, who attended the liberal Diaspora synagogues). There were  few exceptions where the Hellenistic Christians had separate churches from Jewish synagogues. The Hellenistic Christians interpreted the Old Testament in the same manner as the Hellenistic Diaspora Jews, with the exception that they added Jesus as the awaited Messiah. They devised new interpretations of the Old Testament to fit Jesus into the Old Testament. Whenever the Hellenistic Christians came in contact with the Judean Jews or conservative Diaspora Jews there was conflict over the interpretations of the Old Testament. The second-century Christian Church Father Irenaeus wrote, “... had they {the Judean Jews} been cognizant of our future existence, and that we {Hellenistic Christians} should use these proofs {quotations interpreted allegorically} from the Scriptures {the Scriptures of the Jews}, would themselves never have hesitated to burn their own Scriptures, which do declare that all other nations partake of [eternal] life, and {which Scriptures} show that they {the Jews} who boast ... as being ... the people of Israel, are disinherited from the grace of God.” (Ireneaus, Against Heresies, Book 3, cha. 21, par. 1.)  The Hellenistic Christians interpreted the Old Testament so as to show that the Judean Jews and the conservative Jews of the Diaspora were disinherited by God. Furthermore, Ireneaus wrote that God hardened the hearts of the Jews and blinded their eyes, “... in order that the prophecy of Isaiah regarding them {the Jews} may be fulfilled, saying, Make the heart of this people gross and make their ears dull, and blind their eyes.” (Ireneaus, Against Heresies, Book 3, cha. 21, par. 1.) According to Irenaeus, God doomed the Jews (the Judean Jews and the conservative Diaspora Jews) to Hell because they failed to acknowledge the interpretations of the Hellenistic Christians. In a way, the Hellenistic Christians took the Holy Book of the Jews and turned it into the magic box of mysteries (a treasure chest of allegorical sayings). They used interpretation as the key to unlock the mysteries of the Bible. No matter what a verse of Isaiah or Jeremiah said, Hellenistic Christians could interpret it to mean whatever they wanted it to mean. However, their arbitrary interpretations backfired on them: soon they began to fight between themselves as to which interpretation was correct. Hellenistic Christianity splintered into various sects, which fought each other, mainly over biblical interpretations and over the identity of Jesus. As time went on the sects multiplied. Each sect claimed that their interpretation was inspired by the Holy Spirit. Who was to determine the genuine interpretation? This is where the rule “might makes right” came handy. In the times of Emperor Constantine the Great (4th century CE) the denomination with the greatest political power took the upper hand and with the help of Emperor Constantine imposed their interpretations on the Christian priests and the believers of the Byzantine Empire. (For further discussion click on the links below.)

To read some sample-chapters go to How Judaism Evolved into Christianity

Note: The book contains over 2,500 footnotes (quotations and references), which explain or document the facts presented. Those footnotes are not included in the excerpts presented in this web site.

Recommended and parallel web sites:
1. A Gateway to the Research of the Jesus Seminar. The Jesus Seminar Forum is an introduction to the research of the Jesus Seminar of  the Westar Institute & a bridge to Jesus scholarship on line. The ultimate goal of this website is that of the Jesus Seminar itself: to bring the quest of the historical Jesus of Nazareth to the center of a global forum.
2. The Fathers of the Church This web site presents online the writings of various Christian Church fathers. Those writings are very important in learning how the Christian beliefs originated and how they developed.
3. WIKIPEDIA the Free Encyclopedia (Article: New Testament.) This page contains introductory information on the New Testament, covering subjects such as, Authorship, Date of composition, Canonization, Views on New Testament authority, etc. These subjects are covered in the book "The Origins of Christianity and the Bible," in the same manner but in greater depth.
4. Top 25 Things to Research Concerning Christianity.  This page provides a large number of links to books and pages that discuss historical and archeological facts pertaining to the Bible and Christianity.

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 Abridged Table of Contents

 I. The Origins of the Old Testament

            1.  The Development of the Early Text
            2. The Importance of Dating the Old Testament Books
            3. The Origins and Development Moses' Law
            4.  Literary Sources of the Old Testament
            5. The Miracles of Exodus Explained

            6. The Links between the  Greeks and the Israelites

            7. Greek Stories and Their Parallels in the Old Testament

            8. The Jewish Calendar from Adam to Moses

II. The History of God

            9. The History of God From Abraham to Moses
            10. The History of God from Moses to 586 BCE

            11. Similarities between God and Other Ancient Near Eastern Gods

            12. The Body of God, according to the Old Testament

            13. The Mind of God, according to the Old Testament

III. The Development of the Judeo-Christian Doctrines after 586 BCE

            14. Zoroaster: The Man who Changed the Course of Judeo-Christianity
            15. The Origins of Satan and Predestination
            16. The Origins of the Belief in Eternal Life
            17. How Zoroaster Influenced the Greeks and the Essenes

IV. The Melting Pot that Brewed Christianity

            18.The Cultural Background of Christianity
            19. Alexandrian Judaism: the Precursor of Christianity

            20. How the Intertestamental Books Influenced the New Testament Writers
            21.  Zoroaster's Influence on the New Testament Writers

            22. The Essene Influence on the New Testament Writers

            23. Plato's Influence on the New Testament Writers

            24. The Greek Mystery Religions and Their Influence on Christianity
            25. How Philo Laid the Foundations of Christianity
            26. How Philo Fashioned the Word of God
            27. Pre-Christian Stories that Molded the Story of Jesus

V. The Birth of Christianity

            28. The Jewish Christians: the Original Followers of Jesus

            29. Dissension between the Jewish and Hellenist Christians
            30. How the Hellenist Christians Separated from the Jewish Christians
            31. How the Hellenist Christians Misquoted the Old Testament
            32. How the Hellenist Christians Evolved into Gentile Christians

VI. Concerning the Historical Jesus

    Jesus' Teachings Compared to Those of His Contemporary Jewish Rabbis

            35. What Kind of Messiah Did Jesus Claim to Be?

                35.1 What Did “Son of God” Mean in Those Days?
                               King of the Jews = Son of God.
                35.2 Why Did the Romans Crucify Jesus?

            36. While Jesus Was Alive, Did His Family and His Disciples Believe He Was God?

            37. After Jesus Died, Did His Disciples Believe He Was God?

            38. Did Mark Believe Jesus Was God?

            39. How Jesus' Beliefs Reveal His Nature

VII. How Jesus Was Turned into God

            40. How Men Were Turned into Gods
            41. How the Image of Jesus Evolved in the Synoptic Gospels
            42. The Jesus of Paul
             43. The Jesus of John
            44. How the Early Church Fathers Viewed Jesus

            45. The Origins of the Trinity Doctrine
            46. How the 4th Century Church Fathers Declared Jesus Equal to God

VIII. An Inquiry in the Testimony for Jesus
IX. Various Biblical Discrepancies
X. The Unfulfilled Prophecies                                                    

    To see the complete Table of Contents click here:  Complete Table of Contents

   To see the complete Bibliography click here: Bibliography

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