If the words of Jesus were accurate, the Son of Man would have returned to Earth in astronomical grandeur at least nineteen centuries ago. These are Jesus’ alleged words from Mark 13:24-27, 30 (NIV):
But in those days, following that distress, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven… I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
Albert Schweitzer (1911) propounded the view that Jesus was a first century apocalypticist; Jesus expected the imminent and supernatural coming of the Kingdom of God, to be ruled by the Son of Man, in the first century. Jesus' apocalypticism is on display in Matthew 4:17; 16:28; 24:34 and Mark 1:15; 9:1; 13:30; 14:62. Schweitzer’s position that Jesus was wrong about the end of the world, raised great ire but it was one of the most important books of the twentieth century (Borg 1997).
Professor Bart Ehrman (1999) from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, supports Schweitzer’s main tenet that Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet, who expected the world to end in the first century. Jesus joined Jeremiah and a string of other Jewish prophets in predicting the end of the world; his message was definitely not out of place in first century Palestine. Many of Jesus’ teachings and statements make a lot more sense when you view them, within the context of his apocalypticism. In Matthew 8:22 Jesus says, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead”, and in Matthew 6:19-20 he tells people not to save any money; this makes no sense in a normal society but if you believe the world is about to end imminently, such preachments make relative sense. The fact that Jesus aligned himself with John the Baptist (an apocalyptic teacher who believed the end of the world was looming) as opposed to the Essenes (monastic communities), Pharisees (Torah absolutists) or Sadducees (the temple cult) also makes more sense within the apocalyptic context (Ehrman 1999).
Jesus frequently debated the interpretation of the Law of Moses (Jewish Law) but he never advocated abandoning it; Jesus was a Jew that believed in Yahweh. In Matthew 5:17-18 Jesus states,
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
Evidently, Earth has not disappeared; therefore Christians that follow the teachings of Jesus should be observing the Jewish Law. In fact, whilst Jesus disagreed with the Pharisees about how to interpret several Jewish laws, he actually commanded his followers to obey a stricter version of selected laws; stricter than the Pharisees. The Law of Moses said don’t murder, Jesus said don't be angry with your brother or you'll be subject to judgment (Matthew 5:21-22); the Law of Moses said not to commit adultery, Jesus said you’ll go to hell for simply looking at a woman lustfully (Matthew 5:27-30); the law of Moses says that divorce requires a certificate, Jesus said that adultery is a requirement for divorce and that if a man marries a divorced woman, he is an adulterer (Matthew 5:31-32). The importance of the Jewish Law to Jesus is further highlighted in Matthew 19:16-24; when a rich man asked Jesus what he must do to receive eternal life, Jesus’ immediate instructions were to obey the commandments. This is not a moot point, the teachings of Jesus unambiguously advocate that Christians are to follow the Jewish Law.
- Matt 6:20 - Pursue spiritual capitalism as opposed to financial capitalism.
- Matt 10:34 - Jesus came to turn families against each other.
- Mark 9:43 - If a body part causes you to sin cut it off.
- Luke 6:29 - If someone is stealing from you let them.
- Luke 6:30 - If anyone asks you for anything, just give it to them no matter what it is.
- Luke 12:51 - Jesus’ purpose on Earth was not to bring peace but division.
- Luke 14:26 - Hate your life, mother, father, wife, and siblings.
- John 6:27 - Don’t work for food you can eat (such food spoils).
Our prime source of knowledge about Jesus; the gospels, were created in the following order: Mark (68-73 C.E.), Matthew (70-100 C.E.), Luke (80-100 C.E.) and John (90-110 C.E.); they recorded events 35-77 years after the fact (Brown 1997). Considering that Jesus died around 33 C.E. this is a substantial time gap before pen was put to paper.
The story of John 7:53-8:11 about the woman caught in adultery is one of Jesus’ defining moments. When the angry mob was about to stone the adulteress to death, Jesus stepped in instructing only the sinless people to throw stones. The mob disperses and Jesus tells the woman that he doesn’t condemn her, and that she was free to withdraw and sin no more. The problem, is that this story was not in any of the early versions of John! “In fact, it was not originally part of any of the Gospels. It was added by later scribes” (Ehrman 2005, 64). This glaring example of scribes altering scripture to serve the movement’s purposes is disturbing; unfortunately, professional scribes did not begin copying the texts until the fourth century (Metzger & Ehrman, 2005).
The original manuscripts of Mark (i.e. the ones that were first written) never contained Mark 16:9-20. In Mark, Jesus died on the cross asking God why he had forsaken him and is buried, some women visit his tomb whereby a young man announces that Jesus has risen, the women then flee from the tomb and the gospel ends. Travel 22-42 years down the track arriving at the gospel of John and there are remarkable differences. In John, there are two angels at the tomb, Jesus appears and talks to Mary, Jesus appears in a room that has locked doors, the Holy Spirit is available, sins can be forgiven by the disciples, the disciples touch Jesus’ wounds, Jesus does other miraculous signs in front of the disciples, there is a supernatural fishing trip, Jesus tells Simon Peter to take care of his sheep (which means followers), and does so many other things that the author says there would not be enough books in the whole world to write them down. The evolution of the gospel stories can be observed if they are read chronologically (Mark, Matthew, Luke then John) and objectively in one sitting.
Who was at Jesus' tomb when it was first visited?
- Mark 16:5 - One Young Man
- Matthew 28:5 - One Angel
- Luke 24:4 - Two men
- John 20:12 - Two angels
Did the women tell anyone about what they saw?
- Mark 16:8 - No
- Matthew 28:8 - Yes
- Luke 24:9 - Yes
- John 20:18 - Yes
Where did Jesus first appear to the disciples?
- Mark 16:12 - Appeared to two disciples in the country (in later manuscripts).
- Matt 28:16-17 - On a mountain in Galilee.
- Luke 24:13 - Appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
- John 20:19 - In a locked room.
Miracles were not solely confined to Jesus’ activities in Palestine; in the Greco-Roman world, miracles, sorcerers and demons, were commonplace in the minds of the people. Miracles in particular proved extremely popular, a small sampling includes: Hercules healed the sick and raised the dead; Asclepius healed the blind using his fingers and an eye salve, he also healed the lame, epileptic, paralyzed and raised the dead; Isis healed the sick and raised her son Horus from the dead making him immortal; Pythagoras cured the sick by singing; King Pyrrhus healed spleen problems with his touch; Vespasian cured a blind man; Apollonius of Tyana healed the lame, blind, paralyzed and exorcized demons; Asclepiades raised a girl who was thought to be dead, after examining the corpse he stated that the she was still alive; Aphrodite calmed a storm for her followers when their ship was at risk of sinking; Augustus Caesar had the power to calm torrential storms; Poseidon travelled on top of water with sea beasts; and Dionysus changed water into wine (Cotter 1999). Curiously, in our post-Enlightenment world, such events no longer take place.
Jesus was an apocalyptic Jew from the first century who fervently believed that the world was about to end over nineteen centuries ago. He was wrong.
- Borg, M.J. 1997. Jesus at 2000. Boulder: Westview Press.
- Brown, R.E. 1997. An Introduction to the New Testament. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- Cotter, W. 1999. Miracles In Greco-Roman Antiquity. London: Routledge.
- Ehrman, B.D. 1999. Jesus - Apocalyptic Prophet Of The New Millennium. New York: Oxford University Press.
- —. 2005. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
- Metzger, B. M., & Ehrman, B. D. 2005. The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
- Schweitzer, A. 1911. The Quest Of The Historical Jesus. London: Adam And Charles Black.