The Christ and the Nazarene

The Colorado River along State Hwy. 128 - Utah

Likened unto Jesus

“Jesus said, ‘If you bring forth what is within you,
what you bring forth will save you.If you do not
bring forth what is within you, what you do not
bring forth will destroy you.’”

 ~Gospel of Thomas 70 

I was raised to believe “Christ” was title for just one person, Jesus.... the third member of the Godhead or Trinity.  Many gnostics expand the concept of the Christ to include all of us and their scripture speaks to the Christ-within.

This view radically changes the focal point of what I know of the ministry of Jesus.  I have long believed the value of scripture is not its historical accuracies but the spiritual allegory we are required to identify, decipher, and study.

In this light, Jesus becomes the archetypical man... showing us the way to transcend sin and mortality.  He is the one to emulate as his disciples .  In fact, the name Thomas, a beloved disciple,  quite literally means Twin... or the Twin in Christ.  We should all strive to be his Twin.  We share his ability and divinity in every way.  This is what I believe and it is a belief firmly based on faith.

What we know of Jesus is a complex mix of often conflicting opinion intermingled with very scant fact.  While there is significant variation even among the gospel accounts, I find the non-biblical references the most interesting.  While I wouldn't say any of this proves anything, it does open the door for wider interpretation of what can be called, The Jesus Myths.

The first secular reference of Jesus, The Testimonium Flavianum, attributed to the renowned Jewish historian Josephus, wasn’t penned until approximately 94 A.D.  Currently, the most widely held scholarly opinion is that the Testimonium Flavianum is only partially authentic and that those words and phrases that correspond with standard Christian formulae are additions from a Christian copyist.

The first scriptural reference to Jesus being divine didn’t appear until the 2nd century.  All earlier Christian texts that we know of make no mention of his Godhood.  These texts were not selected for inclusion in our current Bible but many were tremendously popular in pre-catholic Christendom.

There are striking similarities between the Jesus stories and those of the earlier Mystery religions that flourished throughout the Greco-Roman world; predating Christianity by centuries. You see, there were several figures prior to Jesus who shared many of his traits... and while you may recognize their names, under the mystery religions, they really shouldn’t be associated too strictly with their classical mythologies.

Horus, Attis, Krishna, Dionysus, Mithras... in various tellings of the Mysteries, they shared as many as 30 direct correlations to the Jesus story.  Here are 6 that many will find most interesting:

1. They are the son of God and Savior of all mankind.
2. Their father is a god and their mother a mortal virgin.
3. They are born in a stable before shepherds on or near the Winter Solstice.
4. They die on or near the Spring Equinox for the sins of the world.
5. After death, they descend into hell and rise again on the third day.
6. They preach the sacrament of communion of their sacred body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.

I do believe, like many early Christian Gnostics, that the Jesus stories are a Jewish repackaging of earlier Mystery religions.  These religions were so influential and popularized at the time, they would have been familiar to any number of the literally hundreds of preachers roaming the Judean countryside fitting Jesus' description.  By their very nature, the mysteries encouraged variation and creative retelling.  Personally, I choose believe Christian scripture is, both literally and allegorically, attempting to describe one preacher in particular.  The preacher we know to today as Jesus.  I don't believe such a broad understanding should in any way detract from the teachings attributed to him.

Like many early Gnostic Christians, I also believe Jesus did not do for us what we could do for ourselves.  The Christ is a spiritual act and acknowledgement and I believe the scriptures speak to the Christ within us all.  The remission of sin and the transcending of mortal existence into immortality is our work.  It is something we must do for ourselves, each of us individually.  Whether I call him Lord, prophet, brother, man, or friend, Jesus the Nazarene pointed the way.

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:

no man cometh unto the Father, but [by] me.”

~ John 14:6