A New Account of Christian Origins / pt. 20
Below is my summary of the birth and development of Christianity in the first three centuries. Of course, just about everything regarding the points below differs from the ‘received tradition’:
• I begin ca. 100 BCE rather than at the turn of the era;
• I propose a different prophet than Jesus of Nazareth (namely, Yeshu ha-Notsri);
• for me neither Paul nor Marcion existed—nor did the earliest Church Fathers until Justin Martyr;
• the ‘Pauline epistles’ came after the canonical gospels, not before;
• the canonical gospels themselves are products of the middle decades of the second century.
The tenets above are fleshed out in slightly greater detail in the 22 points below, each provided with a link (sometimes two). Incidentally, an entirely separate introduction to my views of Christian origins can be found in the ‘Detering Commentaries.’ That series of 38 posts has background on pre-Christian religion going back to the Bronze Age and is valuable in understanding the ancient origins of gnosticism.
Let me just say that all science is provisional. The points above and below are, of course, all subject to adjustment and ongoing evidence…
And don’t worry—there is no exam! 😉
(1) John (Yochanan or Yehonathan) the Hasmonean was a renegade Pharisee of royal lineage.
(2) Ca. 86 BCE, when Alexander Janneus began an intense pogrom against the Pharisees, the young John fled to Egypt with his mentor, Joshua ben Perachiah.
(3) While in exile in Alexandria, John came under Buddhist influence. He abandoned his Jewish religion and became a gnostic, one who believes that the goal of man is to find understanding, “enlightenment.”
(4) John returned to Palestine after the death of Janneus (76 BCE) and went to Samaria, where he had more freedom to preach. He taught his subversive new religion which essentially entailed the overthrow of Judaism.
(5) For his followers, the gnosticism/Buddhism of Yeshu was considered arcane, ‘higher’ wisdom. In Hebrew, the higher wisdom was associated with the Semitic root NTsR (BDB 666) = “secret things” (Isa 48:6), also: “watch, guard, keep, protect.” This Semitic root has an august and ancient pedigree going back even to Akkadian times (ca. 2000 BCE), when such higher wisdom was already venerated, and when secret gnosis was symbolized by “Water.”
(6) Perhaps already during his ministry, and certainly after John’s execution by the Pharisaic Sanhedrin (ca. 65 BCE), the gnostic followers of John dubbed him “John the Baptist.” For them, the acquisition of gnosis ( = enlightenment) was symbolized by dipping into water (baptism).
(7) The prophet was also known as “Yeshua” (“Savior”) for showing the way to Truth, and ha-Notsri (< NTsR), “the One with Secret Wisdom.” Thus, Yeshu ha-Notsri = Jesus the Nazarene = John the Baptist.
(8) The early Jesus followers considered themselves “those with secret wisdom”—Mandeans ( < manda = “knowledge”). They called their teachers/leaders Natsraiia (Nazarenes < NTsR), holy “Keepers of secret knowledge” (Drower, Mandaic Dictionary p. 306). This meaning was known to the markan evangelist, who at 1:24 defines “Nazarene” for the reader: “the holy one of God.” The Mandeans derive from the early gnostic followers of Yeshu haNotsri.
(9) The original theology of Christianity was a philosophy of gnosis: understanding saves.
(10) The (originally Hebrew) Natsarenes embraced a severe, world-denying, ascetic, and encratite way of life directed at personal spiritual liberation through gnosis. Aspects of this are found both in the Dead Sea Sect (in which Yeshu is implicated—though negatively) and in the Therapeutae of Alexandria.
(11) Simon Magus (the “Standing One” and the “Great Power”) was probably a personification of the spiritual Jesus that indwells the saint (Stage II christology).
(12) The ascetic way to gnosis was too difficult for ordinary people who wished to accommodate to family life, to society, and to the ethos of gentile Hellenism. Thus a cultural and religious split developed in the Christian fellowships: Hellenists vs. Hebrews (Acts 6:1-6).
(13) About 100 CE Christians were already in Asia Minor in considerable numbers (cf. Pliny’s letter to Trajan). Their theology had developed from the pure gnostic liberation (Stage I) into a theology where the spirit of God, Jesus (“Savior”) enters into the saint and ensures salvation (Stage II). The long deceased prophet John was now venerated as the Christ, “the anointed one,” messiah. The prophet was, however, emphatically not divine (cf. the Gospel of Barnabas). Anyone could possess “the Jesus,” and thus there were many “Jesuses.”
(14) The ‘Hellenists’ revolted against the Hebrews towards the middle of the second century. They invented a wonder-working savior, Jesus of Nazareth. With this savior they overthrew the old gnostic theology. The “Hellenists” replaced the gnostic search for enlightenment with the doctrine of belief in Jesus of Nazareth as the only Son of God, in whom all must believe in order to be saved.
(15) The first Hellenist gospel, the Gospel of Mark, is adoptionist: Jesus receives the spirit of God at baptism (Mk 1:10; Stage II). Due to his ability to work miracles, the markan Jesus is a fusion of the human and divine.
(16) In GMk Jesus hails from Capernaum (Mk 3:31; 9:33; etc). “Nazareth” is not mentioned once in this gospel—except for an interpolation at Mk 1:9 (points 18 & 19 below). Clues that Capernaum was the first home of Jesus are also detected in the writings of Irenaeus, Tertullian, and in the so-called Gospel of Marcion.
(17) The Hellenists rejected the concept of the gnostic Natsarene, “the holy keeper of secret knowledge” (point 8 above). They redefined “Natsarene” (with Semitic tsade) by making it an inhabitant of a mythical town called “Nazareth” (with the non-compatible Greek zeta). Their savior, Jesus, now came from Nazareth (Mt 2:23).
(18) However, Jesus hailing from Nazareth caused problems. The first was that it now conflicted with the older tradition of the messiah son of David hailing from Bethlehem. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke awkwardly finesse this at Mt 2:23 (it is written that “he shall be called a Nazoraios”) and Lk 2:1 (the ahistorical census of Emperor Augustus).
(19) A second problem was that Jesus hailed from Capernaum (and not Nazareth) in the older Markan text, in which Jesus’ family is “at home” in Capernaum (Mk 2:1) and a great deal of Jesus’ activity takes place by the Sea of Galilee. Matthew solved the dilemma by having Jesus’ family move (relocate its hometown) from Nazareth to Capernaum (Mt 4:13) and he also introduces a curse on Capernaum (Mt 11:23, echoed at Lk 10:15). The Capernaum-Nazareth tension also underlies Lk 4:16–24. Finally, the Catholics interpolated “Nazareth” into the verse Mk 1:9. The Catholics (i.e., “Hellenist Christians”) introduced all these Nazareth complications in order to reject the original gnostic theology of the term “Natsarene” (cf. points 7 & 17 above). This is the true incipience of the village called Nazareth in the Gospels and in the Christian tradition.
(20) The new gospels, which were non-gnostic, were so astonishing to the Christian fellowships that they immediately caused a split: Catholics vs. gnostics. The latter were dubbed “Marcionites”—those who believe in a God above/beyond the world (that is: immaterialists, gnostics).
(21) In order to propagate their new theology of belief in the saving cross of Jesus of Nazareth, the Catholics penned the epistles of “Paul.” They made Paul into a figure whose activity took place during the apostolic generation.
(22) There was a ‘Watch and Wait’ period in the second half of II CE, when the canonical gospels and Pauline epistles were penned. This was a period of great creativity and also of indecision, when no one was certain (a) how history would play out, (b) which gospel would be favored, or (c) which version of the new “Jesus” would be successful. And there were several different Jesuses to choose from: [1] the (now heretical) gnostic Jesus who is purely a spirit; [2] the (adoptionist) human Jesus of GMk, who receives the power of God; [3] the divine Son of God born of the Virgin Mary, in GMt and GLk; and [4] the divine Son of God pre-existent from the beginning of the world, in GJn.
With the Muratorian Canon (probably ca. 200 CE), the Catholics codified for the first time approved vs. rejected writings. That process of selection and elimination continued for many centuries. In the 20th century long-lost gnostic writings (e.g. the Nag Hammadi library) came to light, leading to the need for a fundamentally new appraisal of Christian origins.