Theos-Talk Archives (October 2000 Message tt00219)

It was common in the late nineteenthcentury among the 
intelligentsia to dispute the physical existence of Jesus. I've read 
similar material from Swami Vivekananda and so on, that Christ 
was a complilation of various mystery traditions. 

However, if you consider the writings and arguments of the Jews 
and Pagans around the time of early Christianity, there is no 
record to my knowledge of anyone disputing the physical 
existence of Jesus as a serious argument. If anyone knows of 
this please let me know...

Some have identified Him with Essene Prophet of 
Righteousness as did GRS Mead.

To me Jesus had a physical manifestation and the early Logia 
and teachings are evidence in themselves of this, there is also 
the output of Greek material as well as Coptic and evidence of 
the Essene and Nazorean communities . 

It's interesting that Apollonius is compared to Jesus. To me they 
were separate entities in separate worlds, but having 
similarities. The differences would be that Jesus was in an 
Aramaic cultural context and should beappreciated in that 
setting. while Apollonius was Hellenistic and should be 
appreciated in that context. 

I also doubt very much that there has been a successful union 
between the Hellenistic world and the Judaic Aramaean world. 
Attempts were made to translate what Jesus said from Aramaic 
to Greek and so on, but these were only "attempts". Even the 
verb structure of Aramaic and Greek are desparate and mutually 
exceptional, so no truly accurate translation can occur because 
the two systems are based on totally different conceptions of 
reality.

- Art