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What was Jesus like?


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I posted something in another thread but i realised it was not really relevant there so ill start a new thread.

If you believe Jesus existed who do you think he was? What about him was true and what did he really want to achieve?

Here are some of my thoughts.

Jesus most likely started out as one of the many street prophets/performers of that time and place. A lot of his show was not original but he had many great bits of his own. In his act he included a more appealing view on a god and afterlife. He also had magic tricks. He had those things just to attract more people and bolster his show but he really wanted to tell people about love, frienship, compassion, virtue... things he genuinely believed in.

He became very popular and masses gathered to see him. He was now much more than other street prophets and it was no longer really a show, it was teachings. At that point he gathered apostols and gave himself an awesome backstory.

He was very smart. But also wise and determined. He could have eluded death for a longer time but he sacrificed himself because he knew if he died when and like he did it would make a big impact, he would be a legend and there would be a much greater chance people followed him after his death. This was a gamble because he could not influence anything any more but he gave his apostols guidelines.

Maybe i give him too much credit. His life story is incredibly distorted and filled with too many myths and outright lies created both by him and many people after him so we will never really be able to fully figure out what kind of a person he was, what he did and what he wanted. But i believe in what i said above and that he was a good and great man.

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I think that most of the backstory and magic tricks were invented later about him, long after he died. But during his lifetime he tried to start an uprising against the Romans and that's why they crucified him.

But if you're asking what he looked like, then he was blonde with blue eyes obviously.

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I believe Jesus existed - as all but the looniest historians do - but that it is difficult to separate 'Historie' from 'Geschichte' apart from a few details: a man named Jesus was crucified by the Romans in Jerusalem during the early 1st century CE.

You believe Jesus the biblical figure, son of god etc existed or a man named jesus, who happened to be crucified?

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You believe Jesus the biblical figure, son of god etc existed or a man named jesus, who happened to be crucified?

Either way, this person was "a [Jewish] man named Jesus [who] was crucified by the Romans in Jerusalem during the early 1st century CE," which are the only historically reliable things we can attest. But it's a lost cause trying to re-create an "historical Jesus," as the "Geschichte" within the biblical narratives greatly influences our notions of the "Historie" behind the biblical narratives for most, including skeptics of any ascribed mythological status of Jesus.
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I think that most of the backstory and magic tricks were invented later about him, long after he died. But during his lifetime he tried to start an uprising against the Romans and that's why they crucified him.

I considered that too. That he may not have been doing magic tricks or claimed his backstory that way himself.

Yes, no matter what anyone claims it was all sort of political too. I recall something about him being refered to as "King of the Jews".

Maybe he would not have prefered to die and if things went differently could he establish some enlightened rule? But his story would not echo so much then.

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Either way, this person was "a [Jewish] man named Jesus [who] was crucified by the Romans in Jerusalem during the early 1st century CE," which are the only historically reliable things we can attest. But it's a lost cause trying to re-create an "historical Jesus," as the "Geschichte" within the biblical narratives greatly influences our notions of the "Historie" behind the biblical narratives for most, including skeptics of any ascribed mythological status of Jesus.

I dont think you can just say 'either way'. There is a distinct difference between the 'bible jesus' and the 'jesus just a man'.

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I think that most of the backstory and magic tricks were invented later about him, long after he died.

Well, there was a buckload of prophets, miracle-makers and just complete hoaxes at the time, in the Middle-East.

For instance, this guy: http://en.wikipedia....lonius_of_tyana

So, "later" might mean a couple of decades or a century. Still, it's quite probable the historical Jesus dealt with some kinds of wonders to impress the masses, just as he was, to an extent, into mysticism and reforming Judaism.

As for what he really was like, I'd say 5 feet 2 to 3, probably.

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I dont think you can just say 'either way'. There is a distinct difference between the 'bible jesus' and the 'jesus just a man'.

I can say either way, because 'bible jesus' was "a [Jewish] man named Jesus [who] was crucified by the Romans in Jerusalem during the early 1st century CE" and 'jesus just a man' was "a [Jewish] man named Jesus [who] was crucified by the Romans in Jerusalem during the early 1st century CE," and that is what I believe about Jesus. Furthermore 'bible jesus' and 'jesus just a man' is a false dichotomy.
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I dont think you can just say 'either way'. There is a distinct difference between the 'bible jesus' and the 'jesus just a man'.

It's not as clear cut as these two choices. Jesus is acknowledged as a prophet and, yes, just a man and no more, in Islam as well. I believe this is just as relevant to the discussion as the Christian identity of Jesus.

eta: Though there may be a "distinct difference" between these two views, there wasn't an independent, separate Jesus walking around. One was/is perceived as the other.

Isa, known as Jesus in the New Testament, is considered to be a Messenger of God and the Masih (Messiah) in Islam[1] who was sent to guide the Children of Israel with a new scripture, the Injīl or Gospel.[2] The belief in Jesus (and all other messengers of God) is required in Islam. The Quran mentions Jesus by name twenty-five times, while it only mentions Muhammad by name four times as Muhammad and once as Ahmad; making it a total of five times.

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The quest for the "historical Jesus" has devolved into something of an entertaining debacle; there simply isn't enough reliable historical first-hand sources to give us anything remotely resembling a reliably accurate picture of his life, other than that he lived and was crucified by the Roman authorities. The vast majority of the "sources" we do have are too far removed from first hand experiences and so obviously biased (in very different, contradictory ways). It's kind of like asking what historical evidence there is for Aeneis; it's impossible to seperate myth from whatever kernel of reality exists.

But if you accept the cultural view that the mythology of Jesus, much like the mythology of an Aeneis, has been written and rewritten to serve various agendas consistent with a pre-modern, pre-"scientific" understanding of history, then the study of how the elements of the Jesus story have changed over the years based upon the concerns and goals of the propagators of the story, becomes quite intelligible and quite entertaining. Reza Aslan's new book "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth" is a new and entertaining book in this style (although Aslan also does stake out a position on the "historical" Jesus as well. His "No God But God" does something similar with Muhammad and the origins of Islam.) Thomas Sheehan has a Stanford lectures series on "The Historical Jesus" that you can also download for free, and is very instructive about the basics of historical Biblical scholarship.

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