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What He Meant
Modified 1 Jan 2003
Meaning of the Metaphor "Kingdom of Heaven"
So what did Jesus teach? I leave it to you to verify this for yourself, since it is not hard to find copies of The Gospel of Thomas. This Gospel has been preserved from ancient times in the dry desert of Egypt, and was only discovered in 1945. It was part of the library of a group of desert "Saints" (the same word is "Essene"). There is only one copy of the Gospel of Thomas and it is written in Coptic, the language of Ancient Egypt. Say what you will about the corruption of the traditional New Testament, caused by pious fraud and mistranslation over the millenia--this copy of the Gospels comes straight to us from Ancient Times. The Gospel of Thomas could equally well be called "The Sayings of Jesus." There are no miracles, no Messiah complex, no Sermon on the Mount (but the Beatitudes are all there), no entry into Jerusalem, no Crucifixion, and no Resurrection. Indeed, there is nothing internal to the book which would date the time of Christ. He may very well be the "Teacher of Righteousness" of the Judaic Essenes, who lived about 100 BCE.Most of his teaching consists in parables and metaphors about reaching a state of "the X of Y" where X is a word usually translated as "kingdom" but could also be translated "realm" and Y is a word for "sky" usually translated as "heaven." Translating ancient metaphors is a tricky business. We have to put ourselves back into that time, and try to imagine how people of that time would understand this metaphor.
From the time of Aristotle (300 BCE) to the time of Galileo (1600 CE), nearly 2000 years, the worldview, the background of all thought, was that of Aristotle and Ptolemy. It made a large distinction between the heavens (i.e. stars, the moon, the sun, and the planets) and earth. Earth was made of four elements, earth, air, fire, and water, and was mutable and perishable. The heavenly bodies were made of a fifth element (quintessence) which was immutable, imperishable and eternal. Thus, the correct translation of this metaphor is "realm of the imperishable," or "realm of the quintessence."
Given that meaning, it makes perfectly good sense to say "The realm of the quintessence is within," a saying found both in the Book of Thomas and the canonical gospels. Fundamentalists are sometimes rather taken aback when I point that out to them. And, it makes perfectly good sense to try to enter the realm of the quintessence while one is still alive. Although Yoshua clearly believes in an afterlife, he gives no details. But he does make it clear that the search for the realm of the imperishable must be done in this life, if the seeker is to find ONE. And that is exactly what the Saints were doing.
Desert Saints
Like mystics of all ages and all cultures, they found it necessary to withdraw from the world, to obtain solitude, for years at a time. The Yogis found solitude in the forest, the Taoist mystics found it in the mountains, and the Saints found it first in the desert, and later on remote islands off the coast of Ireland and Scotland. It is clear to me, someone who has experienced the illumination of fire, that this is what Yoshua bar Josuf had himself experienced, and this is what he wanted his followers to find.The illumination of fire gives one a vision of life and history as a whole, with a single divine purpose running through it. This is what makes one whole (holy). Clearly, this was the original meaning of "holy," which has a common root with holistic, holographic, whole, hale and heal. Both men and women withdrew from the Saturnalia of the Roman empire to become pure and holy, and sometimes they returned as great witnesses to their experiences.
Martyr As Witness
The word "martyr" means "witness." This is something the legalistic Romans could understand. They had no science, but they had law, and they knew the value of a good witness. Since Christianity was periodically persecuted, these pure and holy witnesses to illumination were often put to death. But they went fearlessly, which really impressed the materialistic Romans. Such people were called Saints. The more Saints the Romans created, the more Romans became Christians.Early Christianity
During the period of persecution, Christianity was also organizing itself as a religion, with priests and bishops. Peter went to Rome, as did Paul, while Thomas is alleged to have gone to India. James evangelized in Jerusalem among the Jews. So, there was a formal, hierarchical organization being developed, i.e. the church, but there were also the Saints, who were completely outside any such organization, yet, who provided the main impetus for the growth of Christianity. One of the strengths of the early church is that it was open to men and women, rich and poor, and it practised charity. It also opened the first orphanages, the first hospitals, and the first hostels. Even in the middle ages, pilgrims and travelers of all kinds stayed at monasteries along the way, which continued to be the centers of learning and even of innovation, until the rebirth of trade and of cities and of a middle class.The first wave of pagan barbarians rolled over the Western Roman Empire, but stopped short of Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, possibly because of a Celtic war-lord whose name was "bear," i.e. "Artos" thus giving rise to the Arthurian legends, all of which first appeared in the Celtic Fringe in the 8th and 9th Centuries. The monasteries there created a brief golden age, an age of marvelous manuscripts and fine jewelry. For about a century, they were the only people in Europe who could read and write, both Greek and Latin, and who still had a taste for the classics in those languages, and still had libraries and scriptoria. Thus, they made copies, which wound up all over Europe. It was also a culture rich in Saints, some of whom began to evangelize Anglo-Saxon England, Frankish Gaul, and Lombardian Italy. This is how the Irish saved civilization, as described in Thomas Cahill's marvelous little book, How The Irish Saved Civilization.
One of the last of these Hibernian scholars was Alcuin of York, who started a school and scriptorium for Charlemagne, which was never extinguished, and eventually became one of the first European universities. Most of the ancient books that have come down through the middle ages are Carolingian copies, the first to separate words with a space, and the first to use the Carolingian minuscule, father of "lower case." It is a wonder the Ancients could read their inscriptions, since they were all upper case, all the words were jammed together, and they were very fond of allusions and abbreviations, just as today we are very fond of acronyms.
How Did Sunday School Christianity Arise?
By pious fraud and forgery. The Popes themselves know this. And some Popes have admitted as much. In her book, The Christ Conspiracy, Acharya S introduces us to a vast, little known literature by people who challenge every part of Sunday School tradition. According to the skeptics, the Bible has been under more or less continuous revision from about 170-180 CE (when the oldest parts of the New Testament were written down, according to her) down to the dawn of printing in the 15th Century. The skeptics doubt the huge drama of the passion of Christ, because historians of the time, such as Josephus, make no mention of it (actually there is a mention of the crucifixion of Christ, but Acharya assumes this is a later interpolation. It does not occur in all copies.). Nor do they think the life of Jesus could possibly be set in Galilee of around 30 CE, because Galilee at that time was a rich Roman province, with great cities under construction that are not even mentioned in the Bible. Nor could he have been from Nazarus, which did not exist in 1 CE, or 30 CE. In addition, the early church fathers, such as Justin Martyr and Marcion make no mention of the four canonical gospels, so they could hardly have been written in the First Century CE. In the letters of Paul, he makes absolutely no mention of the teachings of Jesus. He quotes no parable, no beatitude, none of the teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven. Indeed, no book in the New Testament makes any mention of any other book in the New Testament. Acharya and many skeptics conclude that the Jesus legend is pure myth, and has no historical basis.At the very least, Acharya and other skeptics should teach us to doubt Sunday School tradition. That is why I confine myself to modern philological and archaeological discoveries that were not transmitted through the Church. Thus, I think the catacomb art is interesting for what it shows and what it does not show. And, the archaeology done under the Altar of St. Peters in Rome during WW II is also very interesting (see The Bones of St. Peter in the bibliography). Neither supports the extreme position of Acharya. Under the altar a First Century tomb was discovered, near Nero's Circus. The bones of a robust man of 70, missing feet and head, were found, wrapped in purple cloth veined with threads of pure gold, hidden inside what has been called "the graffitti wall," a part of a small, disguised church, with a baptistery, in the middle of a pagan cemetery. Why not the head? Another church in Rome claims that relic. Why no feet? If Peter really was crucified upside down by Nero, the easiest way to get him down would be to chop off the feet. This suggests that at least some Church traditions are not a fraud.
Whether Yoshua bar Josuf was crucified or not is debatable. It isn't mentioned in the Book of Thomas. It would be an unusual punishment for heresy. Usually, the Jews stoned heretics to death, as they eventually did to James. In the Koran it says Yoshua was not crucified. The Jews keep a record of the several hundred would-be or accused messiahs between 100 BCE and 100 CE, and it includes one Joshu bar Josuf, whose mother was Mary, who was stoned to death. We find no crucifixes in the catacombs, nor any Last Supper, much less a Last Judgement. The earliest crucifix in Christian Art is a crude and obscure figure on the door of the church of Santa Sabina in Rome, dating to the 5th Century CE. What we see in catacomb art is not the crucifix, but Christ in Orisen, which is the T gesture, standing with arms wide open. Do that to a person, and they will come give you a hug. Do that to the world, alone on a hilltop at dawn, and gain a wonderful epiphany of the wonder and beauty of the world, despite the pain and struggle. So, it could very well be that the T gesture came first, and was eventually given historicity by the process of myth-making, followed by ignorant Centuries which took these myths literally.
The oldest copies of the New Testament that have survived are the Vatican Codex, and the Sinai Codex, both dating from the 4th Century CE. There seems such a distance between the "Sayings of Yoshua" and even the short version of Mark that one suspects many decades or even centuries had to pass, decades of syncretism and mythologizing. It is not unusual for religions to begin with the mystical teachings of the founder to a small circle of disciples. As the religion develops it is not unusual for it to absorb elements from other religions over the centuries (syncretism) and to incorporate fantastic fairy tales, which may incorporate some symbolic truth (mythology).
The Books of the New Testament as we have it were selected from a vast variety of "gospels" at the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, under pressure from Emperor Constantine, who brought Christianity out of the catacombs and built it fine basilicas. He was even prepared to break all sorts of taboos to do so. For instance, the Basilica of St. Peter was constructed over a pagan cemetery (which is still down there!), just so the altar could be placed directly over the tomb of St. Peter.
Constantine meddled in religion primarily for state reasons. He needed an all-embracing (Katholos) state religion to end divisive strife, and to make the Roman Empire more defensible. In this he succeeded, so that at least the Eastern part of the Empire survived for another thousand years.
Conclusion
So, are we to reject the Bible altogether? Did these miraculous events really happen? Was Christ resurrected? Did Paul have a transcendental vision on his way to Damascus, wherein he beheld the risen Christ? This might explain the eventual success of Christianity.Here is a second possibility. Yoshua experienced the illumination of fire, and his teachings on the way to enter the "realm of the imperishable" (Kingdom of Heaven) worked. Those followers who gave up worldly concerns and went off into the desert as Seekers of the illumination of fire often succeeded, and when they returned to the world (or when the world came to them), they were not only holy and wise, but they also had "miraculous" powers, such as healing, or walking on water. The miracles of one age are the science of the next. The age of faith passes, and the age of spiritual science begins.
What I Believe In
The only things I believe in are personal experiences and scientific method, which I have applied to civilization, mind, soul, divinity and the meaning of life. I am not religious at all, since that requires taking things on faith. My motto is "Take Nothing On Faith." Psychical and mystical research replace religion. Why accept anything on faith, when we have reproducible scientific knowledge? The issues discussed in this chapter are pure intellectual puzzles, like those about the historical basis of the Iliad or the Odyssey or Moses.The god of the Christians is no more alive for me than Jove or Mithra. One thing I am sure of. The popular legend of Jesus is false, as is the legend of Moses, and the legend of Mohammed. It is possible that the Moses of legend was Ah-Moses (son of Ah), who drove the Hyksos back to Palestine and defeated them at Sharuhen (the Vale of Sharon). It was the semitic Hyksos who were the tyrants, and the Egyptians who were the slaves. Ah-Moses liberated his people, true enough. But his people were the Egyptians. This event happened in 1550 BCE, about the same time as the volcanic eruption of Santorini, which could easily account for all of the 10 plagues which are part of the legend of Moses.
Religious fervor is the root of all evil in the world, the background of all wars. The history of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism is made irrelevant by the rise of scientific method, and its application to psychical phenomena, beginning in 1892 by the British Society for Psychical Research. The scientific study of mysticism and symbolic messages from the depths of Self has only begun...well begun by William James the philosopher and by C. G. Jung the psychoanalyst.
A Resurrected Christ?
Current evidence may change, and my speculations could easily be proven false. That wouldn't bother me. I rely on Ian Stevenson and Raymond Moody, not on the Bible or Koran. Current evidence leaves open the possibility that Yoshua was crucified and then transubstantiated. Here is my current reasoning. There was a first Century tomb under the Tropaion which is under the altar of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The bones of a robust 70 year old man, wrapped in purple cloth with threads of gold was found hidden in the graffitti wall, part of the Tropaion, an early church hidden in a pagan cemetery. The head and feet are missing. Another church in Rome claims the head of St. Peter. The missing feet suggest that Peter might have been crucified upside down in Nero's circus, which was nearby. The easiest way to get him down would be to chop off the feet. If he chose to be crucified upside down, then surely Yoshua was also crucified. Countless would-be messiahs rose and fell between 100 BCE and 100 CE, 256 by Jewish count. All were forgotten except Yoshua. Why? Maybe he was transubstantiated in a flash of energy, leaving the faint traces of scorched fiber on the very top micro-fibrils of the Shroud of Turin, which form the image. Could the Shroud of Turin be authentic? At this point in time, it could be. The Carbon 14 tests did not take into account the microbial film on all the fibers. The same laboratories have an average error of 1200 years when asked to date ancient linen from mummies of known age, presumably for the same reason.It is interesting that the transubstantiated Yoshua was often not immediately recognized by friends and disciples. How exactly does a pure energy body look? I don't know. Perhaps it glows in some strange way. But these visions could not be apparitions, which are always recognized. Of course, further scientific tests could easily show the Shroud of Turin to be a fraud, and a peculiarly cruel one. Someone was definitely crucified, scourged and made to wear a crown of thorns. And given the spear thrust in the flank. And then wrapped in that linen.
There is one more thing. And that is the "titulus," the placard nailed to the cross identifying the person being crucified. Helen, the mother of Emperor Constantine, went to Jerusalem in the 4th Century CE and returned with the cross, and divided up various parts of it which wound up in different places. About one fourth of the titulus was discovered in the house of St. Helen, which still exists in Rome. Modern scholars have clearly shown that this ancient piece of wood contains a portion of the phrase "Jesus Christ King of the Jews," written from right to left, in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, in that order. Certainly, it is not a modern forgery, or a medieval forgery, which would not write the Greek and the Latin from right to left. Furthermore, it has been dated to about 30 CE by the style of writing. This is an excellent method of dating, since the way certain letters were formed or the use of certain words or phrases changes over time. I am not an expert in this specialized technique, but the people who are experts say this piece of the titulus was carved about 30 CE.
The Real Mohammed
Based on a PBS special, which made much use of American Muslims, I conclude that Mohammed was a true prophet, and that true Islam is a pretty good religion, and would never lead to the events of 9/11. The Islamic fanatics have been taught lies. True religion flourishes best where there is religious freedom. We have that in America. It does not exist in Saudi Arabia and many other Muslim countries.Mohammed lived in a time and place of rampant tribal warfare and endless feuds. He put an end to that. As he lay dying, he told his followers to love one another and stop the feuds. In his own lifetime, he only fought in self-defense or when Muslims were being persecuted. Before the Meccans were converted to Islam, he led his followers from Medina to Mecca as pilgrims, unarmed, and politely asked if his pilgrims could visit the Kaaba. This was a very brave thing to do, under the circumstances! And it swayed the Meccans. When later the two towns did have a war, the Meccans threw down their arms and fled up into the surrounding mountains. Mohammed had his followers destroy the idols set up around the Kaaba, but he continued the ancient practice of the Hajj, the once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca. His night journey to Jerusalem and to heaven sounds like an out-of-body experience in his sleep, not unlike some of those of Robert Monroe.
One of the greatest things Mohammed did was to insist that he was no god and should not be worshipped. Thus, Islam became a true monotheistic religion, which cannot be said about Christianity.
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