Evaluating Jesus’ Teaching

(Essay #22, at 2-11-26)

Introduction to this Essay

“All the world’s major religions contain both factual errors and poetic wisdom…
And so do Homer’s Odessey, Melville’s Moby Dick, & Aesop’s Fables.”
— J.X. Mason 

Our series of Essays on the “Old Religions” includes one Essay on Taoism + Zen, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam; plus three Essays on Christianity.  In these Essays, we try to demonstrate each Religion’s Strengths and Shortcomings. 

We’ve also added an Essay titled, “Smaller Religions & Modern Cults,” where we look at 62 of these Cults and Small Religions, including the Amish, The Celestine Prophecy, Falun Gong, the Gaia Movement, the Moonies, “New Age,” Opus Dei, Positive Thinking, QAnon, and Scientology. 

Every spiritual movement arises in response to the challenges of its time. Our own Secular-Spiritual Path — Nature’s Path of Continuing Creation: Finding Life’s Purpose and Meaning — in Nature, Science & History (without any myths or miracle stories), is no exception: it is written to find life’s meaning and purpose in Nature, Reason, and Science; without any myths and miracle stories.

Today, we consider the Old Religions to be outdated scientifically and morally.  We will search out each one’s inconsistencies with science, history, and human character.  We will also point out each Old Religion’s shortcomings relative to modern morality, tolerance, and the rule of law.  We will uncover their primitive attitudes toward women, death, purity, creativity, health, war, slavery, and the purpose of life.

What should then be done with the famous texts of the Old Religions?  The best course would be to leave the outdated and incorrect verses in place, while color-coding or labeling each one with the words “mythical,” “outdated,” or “metaphor only.”  Annotations and/or footnotes could be added to explain the metaphorical significance of each myth.

In addition to our three Essays on Christianity, we have 5 additional Essays, each of which evaluates one of the major world religions: Taoism & Zen, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Smaller Religions & Modern Cults.  Each of these Essays looks at the subject of the religion’s Strengths and Shortcomings.

Why Religions Arise

> The main reason for the rise of a religion is human suffering and dissatisfaction with life. Humans endure hunger, war, natural disaster, oppression, crime, disease, old age, and inevitable death.

> In addition, humans suffer from the psychological traits of fear, worry, and desire – the urge, regardless of their life conditions — to want “more” and “better.”

> Our natural human curiosity, and our innate desire to solve, discover, create, & invent, lead us to seek explanations for natural phenomena (e.g., lightning) we don’t understand.  

Possible Responses to Human Suffering & Curiosity 

A.  Practical Real-World Solutions:

Achieve a better life here and now through revolution or conquest. 
Achieve a better future through creativity and technology.
Achieve rescue by a better king, an enlightened country, or an international agency.
Achieve higher morality, justice, & prosperity through individual reform.
Achieve higher morality, justice, & prosperity through social and political reform.

  B. Mental-spiritual Solutions – Invent a Supernatural Religion:

Envisioning gifts from a supernatural being, and/or
Envisioning rescue by a messiah (could be a ‘practical solution’), and/or
Envisioning a promised second life in a supernatural heaven, and/or
Offering an escape – mental or social withdrawal — from conditions here on Earth.

The various “solutions” in A and B above boil down into the “two F’s” and “one F & one R:”

List A = “Fight and/or Fix.”
List B = “Flee and/or Rescue.”

A group of co-located, socially and ethnically unified people who are distressed may well invest in an organized movement to seek betterment through items from Lists A and B above. A political revolution is an example of an organized movement that primarily draws from List A. Religions are examples of movements that primarily draw from List B.

The Religion taught by Jesus drew mostly on items from our “List A” (Fight or Fix), namely individual moral/attitudinal reform and socio-political reform – from List A: “Fight and/or Fix.” The later religions taught about Jesus draw mostly from “List B,” (Flee and/or Rescue), namely Mental-spiritual Solutions and/or rescued into heaven.

There are 2 Christianities, & We’ve Written 3 Essays About Them. 

The Essay you are reading now, Evaluating Jesus’ Teaching, is about The Religion taught by Jesus (which we also call the Religion of Jesus).  It consists of what Jesus-on-Earth actually did (his example) and what he actually said (his preaching). Only this first Christianity — the Religion of Jesus — contains Jesus’ authentic guidance for living.

Of our three Essays on Christianity, the first Essay (this Essay) is far more important for Students of Nature’s Continuing Creation, because it is the real story of a significant advance in human social thought.

The Religion Taught by Jesus: as a human, Jesus taught wisdom to other humans.

Next, we have the Religion preached about Jesus by his believers after his death. We cover this in our second Essay, Early Christianity: From Jesus’ Death to 312 C.E. This is the largely mythical Christianity created around a supernatural, sensationalized, deified figure of Jesus after the human being named Jesus had died. When we read the Gospels, Epistles, and the bishops’ treatises in the order they were written, we can see how the preaching of Jesus, the earthly prophet, is transformed into a fictional and magical religion centered on the “Son of God,” who rises from the dead. This deification process, whereby a human founder of a religion is transformed by subsequent writers into a divine being, is common in the history of religions. We will discuss this process in greater detail in our second Essay. The resulting religion is Early Christianity, as promulgated by the Roman Catholic Church starting from the rule of Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, who converted to Christianity in the year 312, and made Roman Catholic Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire. 

The Religion About Jesus — writers attribute miraculous powers to Jesus; and eventually say he is Part of God.

Our third Essay, Medieval Catholicism, then the Protestant Reformation, considers Christianity from the year of Roman Emperor Constantine’s conversion in 312 CE, to the year 1660. In 1517, the Protestant Reformation began when Martin Luther nailed his “95 Theses” for reform to a church door in Wittenberg, Germany.

The supernatural religion created about the person Jesus, discussed in the next Essay, offers a key additional feature: a second life in the supernatural paradise called heaven for persons who would declare a true belief in Jesus as the Son of God and Savior. This feature, a mental-spiritual solution from our List B, “Flee or Rescue,” was added when the long-expected Messiah (whether Jesus or another) failed to appear and never freed Judea from Roman rule.

The new Christianity about Jesus taught after Jesus’ death – Roman Catholic Christianity (and Eastern Orthodox Christianity) — provided an “easier, softer way” to enter heaven in case the disciplines of moral reform and good works prove to be too hard.  One needed only to sincerely accept official Christian doctrine, be baptized, and be confirmed as a true believer in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  As we shall see, during the early Middle Ages, this additional feature became dominant in Roman Catholic Christianity. 

There should never be a supernatural, unscientific, sacred version of the book, Nature’s Path of Continuing Creation.  This book of Essays should be kept consistent with science and with actual historical events.  — J.X. Mason

The Religion Taught by Jesus

We will look at the Religion Taught by Jesus first, in this Essay.  We’ll leave the supernatural, fantastical Religion Preached about Jesus for discussion in the second Essay.  The third Essay discusses modern Catholic and Protestant Christianity.

Social Conditions Leading to Jesus’ Teachings

Before looking at what Jesus did and what Jesus said, it is helpful to know the social, political, and religious conditions of his time.

Male-dominated, Old Desert (Abrahamic) Religions

Going back thousands of years, to the time of the ancient Semitic Tribes, the Middle East has been inhabited by male-dominated cultures.  All three Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – are paternalistic.

Perhaps this is because arable land was limited and bordered by the desert. Crops did not grow without irrigation, and there were few bountiful harvests to celebrate.  In these conditions, life was a struggle, and Nature was seen as the enemy of man. Ethnic tribes (including the Israelites) continually went to war to gain and occupy the limited arable lands.

Religiously, it was difficult for people in the Middle East to attribute spiritual or creative power to Nature. Gentle, beneficent power could not be attributed to trees, animals, and brooks.  Rather, a stern and masculine Warrior-Father-God was needed to destroy enemy tribes, rescue people, and lead them out of the desert to a “promised land.”

Political Repression

In the time of Jesus, Palestine included Galilee in the north and Judea in the south.  The Romans had conquered Palestine sixty-three years before Jesus’ birth.  The Hebrew people suffered under harsh Roman Rule. Taxes were high, and crucifixion was a common punishment.  Crucifixion and/or impalement were used by Persians, Carthaginians, and Macedonians. The Romans used Crucifixion to punish slaves, pirates, and enemies of the state. It was considered the most shameful and disgraceful way to die. ¹

Resistance to Roman Rule

The people of Jesus’ time and place desperately wanted relief from harsh Roman rule. They wanted a way out of a stratified class structure where the Pharisees had all the social status and wealth, and the common people were locked into poverty. They wanted hope for a future free of hunger and disease.

When oppressed populations are under such [high] stress, they tend to produce predictions of an apocalypse – cataclysmic overthrow of the old political and social order, a Final Judgment conducted by a God-anointed (God-appointed) emissary, and a new Kingdom on Earth led by God’s agent in which all people live in righteous and prosperous peace according to God’s law.  ²

Considerable apocalyptic literature had previously been written by Jewish prophets in the Old Testament books of Joel, Zechariah, and Isaiah, when Israel was ruled by foreign powers before the rise of the Romans. 

Between 167 and 160 BCE, the Jewish Maccabees actually revolted against rule by one of the pre-Roman Hellenistic states descended from Alexander the Great’s conquests.

In Jesus’ time, several new Jewish preachers continued to predict an apocalypse in which a God-anointed Messiah would overthrow the Roman Rule of Emperor Augustus and his Governor in Judea, Pontius Pilate. The Messiah would conduct God’s judgment on every person, and then usher in a Jewish theocracy in which the Israelites would live on Earth in peace, with righteous obedience to Jewish law, and economic prosperity. ³

Jesus was also an apocalyptic preacher, but with a new and important emphasis, as we shall see below.

Of course, by the time Pontius Pilate ordered Jesus crucified at age 33, no apocalypse had yet taken place. The religious-political movement for Jewish independence continued, however, culminating in the Great Revolt, or First Jewish-Roman War, which began in 66 CE, thirty-odd years after Jesus’ death.  By 70 CE, the Romans had put down this revolt and destroyed the Second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

Social Stratification in Judea

At the time of Jesus, Jewish society was highly stratified, with vast differences between the rich and the poor. Jesus was concerned about the extreme division into classes based on wealth and influence. 

The influential classes were also divided into antagonistic religious factions. The main camps were the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Zealots, but there were also less influential sects.

The Sadducees were a sect or group of Jews that was active in Judea between the second century BCE through the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. The writer Josephus identified this sect with the upper echelon of Judean society. The Sadducees fulfilled various political, social, and religious roles, including maintaining the Temple. The Romans had co-opted the Jewish upper classes – including the Sadducees and the Temple Priests — using them as administrators, traders, and tax collectors. ⁴

The Pharisees (“Separatists”) party emerged largely out of the group of scribes and sages. The Pharisees preserved the Pharisaical oral law in the form of the Talmud. After the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 C.E., they would become the foundation of modern Rabbinic Judaism. From the Pharisees’ perspective, the Sadducees sought to alter the Jewish understanding of the Torah to a more Greek-influenced interpretation. ⁵

 The Zealots were a political movement in 1st-century Second Temple Judaism which sought to incite the people of Judea Province to rebel against the Roman Empire and expel it from the Holy Land by force of arms, most notably during the First Jewish–Roman War (66-70 CE). “Zealotry” was the term used by Josephus to mean a “fourth sect” or “fourth Jewish philosophy” during this period.   

These social divisions led to further unrest and abiding resentment of Roman rule.  As a result, the first century BCE and first century CE saw a number of charismatic religious leaders emerge, including Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus‘ teaching reveals a profound concern for the divisions within Jewish society, which he believed were unjust. Clearly, Jesus acted as a human prophet in the Jewish Tradition – preaching a return to morality and justice, and renewal of the Covenant with God.

Formalistic, Rule-bound Judaism

In Jesus’ time, the Jewish religion was bogged down in minute rules about food and personal “purity.” These rules helped make society almost a caste system, with “untouchables at the bottom.

Example of a Jewish Purity Rule: In Jesus’ time (and for Orthodox Jews today), highly observant women are required to submerge themselves in a “purifying” pool of water called the mikveh each month after menstruating has ceased, and after childbirth.  Both sexes must perform mikveh after contact with a corpse or grave, eating meat from an animal that died of natural causes, by bride and groom before their wedding day, and before certain Jewish holidays. ⁶

Jesus preached against the rule-bound religious over-regulation of Jewish life. His message was in part a popularization of Judaism. Jesus wanted to extend the Word of God from the priests and the corrupt aristocracy out to the common people. Detailed purity rules worked to separate the “clean” upper classes from the “unclean” lower classes.  By simplifying or eliminating many of these rules, Jesus wanted to popularize and democratize the faith. This theme was in line with what earlier Hebrew prophets had done down through the ages.

Note: Interestingly, Lao Tzu, (“Laozi”), the Buddha, and Jesus all reacted against rules and formalism. They all objected to the lack of social mobility, economic progress, and social openness in their societies.  — J.X. Mason

Forerunners of Jesus

Today, the great majority of modern Christians emphasize the Godly uniqueness of Jesus’ life. “After all, there was only One Son of God,” they say. However, almost all of Jesus’ behavior patterns (as well as his preached doctrines), were common all over the Mediterranean during the span of Jesus life.

Let’s look at people who were forerunners of Jesus, people who provided role models for Jesus’ lifestyle.  We will look at three forerunners: The Greek Cynics, the Jewish Essenes, and Jesus’ mentor, John the Baptist.

a. The Greek Cynics

Jesus’ teaching was greatly influenced by the Cynics – the Greek philosophical movement founded by Diogenes, who lived from 412 to 323 BCE.  In Jesus’ time (i.e., during the reign of Roman Emperor Augustus, first century CE), Greco-Roman Cynicism was re-flourishing.

Jesus was a traveling sage, as were the Greek Cynics, who traveled all over the Mediterranean world. The Cynics begged for their bread, and Jesus was similarly supported by donations of lodging and food from his followers. The Cynics did “street theater” among the ordinary people and were populist preachers in the marketplace.”  ⁷

Scholar Farrand Sayre described the Cynics’ program as follows: “The Cynics sought happiness through freedom…freedom from desires, from fear, anger, grief and other emotions, from religious or moral control, from the authority of the city or state or public officials, from regard for public opinion and freedom also from the care of property, from confinement to any locality and from the care and support of wives and children….the Cynic would not appear anywhere without his wallet [knapsack or hobo’s bundle] staff, and cloak, which must invariably be dirty and ragged and worn so as to leave the right shoulder bare [remark the similarities to Buddhist monks!]  He never wore shoes and his hair and beard were long and unkempt.” ⁸

The Greek Cynics’ behavior is strikingly similar to Jesus’ directions to his own disciples: “He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics.”  (Gospel of Mark 6:8)

The Cynics’ philosophy and behavior have been repeated across many cultures.  As Dominic Crossan writes: “Cynicism is the Greco-Roman form of that universal philosophy of eschatology or “world-negation” (also called “end-of-world” prophesy), one of the greater fundamental options of the human spirit.” ⁹

b. The Essenes

Many of the patterns in Jesus’ life were also present in the lives of the Essenes – a sect of ascetic Jews that was prevalent in the Middle East between approximately 200 years before Christ and 100 years after Christ.  Like Jesus, the Essenes were opposed to the dominance, bureaucracy, and corruption of the Pharisees and Sadducees. ¹⁰

The Jewish historian Josephus (writing around 80 C.E.) described the Essenes as living in communal life dedicated to voluntary poverty, simple dress, daily immersion, and abstinence from worldly pleasures, including (for some groups) celibacy. They devoted themselves to charity and benevolence, forbade the expression of anger, studied the books of the elders, and preserved secrets, during the time of Christ.” They shared similar mystic, messianic, and ascetic beliefs. Josephus records that thousands of Essenes lived throughout Roman Judea. ¹¹

Josephus also says the Essenes controlled their tempers and served as channels of peace. The Essenes chose not to own slaves, but to serve one another, and as a result of communal ownership, they did not engage in trading.

Note the similarities between how Jesus and his disciples lived and worshipped, and how the Essenes lived and worshipped.  There is no clear evidence that Jesus and his disciples considered themselves to be Essenes, but they appear to have been heavily influenced by the Essenes’ practices and beliefs.

The ascetic (simple and self-denying) lifestyle of the Essenes would set an example for Christian monks and nuns, centuries after Jesus’ death.  The word “monastic comes from the Greek word “monos,” meaning alone, and the earliest Christian monks lived alone, as hermits. The first Christian monastery was established in 346 in Egypt (according to “Early Christian Monasticism” by the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance).  The path of asceticism draws many religious people, and most large, established religions have a monastic path within them. ¹²

The Practice of Continuing Natural Creation opposes withdrawal from the world as exemplified by the Cynics and the Essenes.  We teach engagement with the world.  Engagement and effort produce Progress – physical, cultural, technological, scientific, and cultural Progress.

c. John the Baptist

One of the important apocalyptic preachers in first-century Palestine was John the Baptist, whose preaching preceded that of Jesus by several years.   

John the Baptist was an apocalyptic prophet who warned that an avenging God would soon come and “overwhelm you with holy spirit and fire!” (Matthew 3:7-12; Luke 3:7-9 and 16b-17). John was trying to assemble a population of baptized (purified) people sufficiently large so that they would feel able to destroy Roman power and bring on the apocalypse, knowing that they could and would be saved by God. ¹³

The gospels speak of Jesus being baptized by John, and nearly all scholars understand Jesus to have been a disciple of John the Baptist during Jesus’ early ministry.

Baptism:  “Water has been seen as a purifying substance throughout human history.  In our own Practice of Continuing Creation, water has a symbolic role as the medium and sustainer of all Earthly life.” — The Reverend Becky Edmiston-Lange.  “Note how Baptism harks back to the older Jewish “rule” prescribing the mikvah bath, described above.” — J.X. Mason

However, in the 1970s, many scholars, including Dominic Crossan, believed Jesus broke away from John the Baptist’s vision.  We will discuss this more fully later in this Essay.

According to scripture, John the Baptist was arrested and put to death in 28 or 29 CE by the appointed ruler of Galilee, Herod Antipas, who objected to John’s calls for a new Jewish State. ¹⁴

The Religion Taught by Jesus – What He Did and Preached

Having discussed the social conditions leading to Jesus’ teaching, having looked at three of the philosophical and religious movements that provided models for Jesus’ work, and having discussed John the Baptist, we turn to the actual content of Jesus’ own Teaching.

The Teaching of Jesus consists of two things:

1. What Jesus the man actually did (his historical example) and
2. What Jesus actually said (the words he actually spoke).

We will look at these two subjects in separate sections below.

What Jesus Did – The Events and Patterns of His Life

Jesus traveled and preached. He was baptized by his mentor, John the Baptist.  Jesus was crucified by the Roman rulers of Judea because they perceived he was a threat to Roman rule.

“In its first stage, Christianity begins not as a religion, it begins rather as the movement of people around a single charismatic teacher or preacher… I would call him a holy man who attracted a crowd of disciples who followed him and his various wanderings… as he did his teachings.” — Professor Shaye I.D. Cohen ¹⁵

Jesus was probably illiterate. The Gospel of Mark (and only the Gospel of Mark) says Jesus had been a carpenter.  Nearly all artisans working at that time, including carpenters, were illiterate. Therefore, the story in the New Testament about his arguing complex theology with the priests is very likely false. ¹⁶ In any case, Jesus was a powerful and charismatic speaker in the tradition of many previous prophets throughout Jewish history. Below is a list of the most important real, historical events and patterns in Jesus’ life:

• Baptized by John the Baptist.
• Traveled and preached across Galilee, Samaria, and Judea.
• Spoke in sayings that often seem cryptic, or which may have inner meanings.
• Talked about the coming of God’s Heavenly Domain, a.k.a. The Kingdom of God.
• Rejected anger and hate; advocated turning the other cheek.
• Accompanied by 12 Disciples.
• Possibly Celibate; possibly had a relationship with Mary of Magdalene.
• Left his family (parents and brother) behind and instructed his disciples to do the same.
• Adopted voluntary poverty.
• Broke social taboos – e.g., ate meals with tax collectors and prostitutes.
• Welcomed all people.
• Communally shared food but dined well with his disciples.
• Gave freely to the poor.
• Likely held his possessions in common (The Book of Acts says early Christian communities held possessions in common).
• Crucified by Judea’s Roman rulers, as recorded by the Hebrew historian Josephus and the Roman historian Tacitus.

Note that this list does not include miracle healings and resuscitations of the dead, because those are not actual events. They are magical, mythical events.  Our next Essay will discuss the process by which those supernatural tales were added to the Gospels.

What Jesus Said – The Words He Actually Spoke

Now we turn from the physical patterns of Jesus’ life to his preaching – to “What Jesus Said.”

While most contemporary Christians believe that all Jesus’ sayings in the Bible were actually said by him, modern Bible scholarship shows otherwise.  To know the Religion Taught by Jesus, we must first separate Jesus’ own words from the words written after Jesus’ death and falsely ascribed to him.  ¹⁷

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Jesus Seminar, a group of about 150 scholars from major American and European universities, labored to identify Jesus’ actual sayings, using 200 years of prior scholarship, knowledge of all the original languages, and textual analysis techniques. 

They asked questions such as “Is the verse in more than one gospel?” and “Is it true to in Jesus ‘folksy,’ spoken-Aramaic style?” The Jesus Seminar’s method is fully described in their introduction to their book named “The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say”; and summarized in Professor Bart Ehrman’s book, How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee, pages 88-98. ¹⁸

After intensive analysis, the Jesus Seminar Scholars divided all the quotations attributed to Jesus into four categories: (See: The Five Gospels, p. 36):

1. Jesus undoubtedly said this.
2. Jesus probably said something like this.
3. Jesus did not say this, but the ideas contained in it are close to his own.
4. Jesus did not say this; it represents the perspective or content of a later or different tradition.

The Seminar Scholars concluded that 82% of the verses ascribed to Jesus in the gospels were not actually spoken by him.  Most of Jesus’ sayings in the New Testament were added later, decades and even centuries after Jesus’ death. ¹⁹ The Gospel of John fared even worse than the synoptic gospels (i.e., Mark, Matthew, and Luke). The Seminar Scholars concluded that nearly all the sayings attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of John were never actually said by Jesus. ²⁰ The reason why Jesus’ sayings in John vary widely from Jesus’ sayings in the Synoptic Gospels is that John was written after the other Gospels. John’s author modified Jesus’ sayings to reflect the new supernatural theology that had been created around Jesus about 100 years after his death.

Note: We list the dates of the major events after Jesus’ death, including the writing of the Books of the New Testament, in the Timeline at the end of our Essay, Early Christianity: from Jesus’ Death to 312 C.E. On average, the Jesus-sayings in the Synoptic Gospels (i.e., Matthew, Mark, and Luke), were originally written down between 50 CE and 80 CE, while the Gospel of John was written 90-100 CE.

1. Jesus Never Called Himself ‘God’ or ‘Son of God’ in the Synoptic Gospels.

Note: The Synoptic Gospels are Matthew, Mark and Luke. They are synoptic (‘synthesize the same things’) because they include many of the same stories, often in similar sequence, and sometimes in identical wording. The Gospel of John is quite different and has a more sophisticated, abstract theology.  Scholars think that The Gospel of John was written decades later than the Synoptic Gospels.

As biblical scholar Dr. Bart Ehrman wrote (in his major and highly respected book of 2014, How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee), “Jesus did not spend his ministry declaring himself to be divine; and that nearly all respected biblical scholars agree.” ²¹ 

The Patterns of Nature’s Continuing Creation tell us that the Growing, Organizing, Direction of the Universe is an interacting set of processes, not a person, not a disembodied, supernatural mind. Nor do we think that the Processes ever “decide” to fully inhabit a human being or take human form as an “angel.” However, some humans do have closer connections to Nature’s Continuing Creation than others, and in some of these cases, the connection becomes apparent to everyone around them. We understand that Jesus, Lao Tsu, the Buddha, St. Francis of Assisi, and many other spiritual and secular-spiritual leaders were humans of this kind.  

The Synoptic Gospels have Jesus performing miracles, but this does not imply that Jesus was divine.  In the Old Testament, the Prophets Elijah and Elisha also performed fantastic miracles – including healing the sick and raising the dead – through the power of God, and in the New Testament, so did the Apostles Peter and Paul, and none of them were considered “divine.” ²². Modern scholars regard the miracle stories about Jesus as tales that were added later and part of the mythical exaltation of Jesus from a human into Christ, and Nature’s Path of Continuing Creation agrees with them.

2. Jesus never called himself the “Messiah” in the Synoptic Gospels.

Jesus’ disciples call Jesus both “Messiah” and “Son of God” in the Gospel of Matthew, (e.g., Matthew 16:16). Of course, that is not the same as Jesus calling himself by those titles.

After Jesus rises from the dead, he does say that he has fulfilled “the promise of the Messiah.” However, modern scholars (and our book, Nature’s Path of Continuing Creation) set aside Jesus’ alleged after-death sayings because they are fictional: people do not rise from the dead. The rising from the dead story (Resurrection) is an important step in the process of portraying Jesus as divine, as we discuss in our next Essay, Early Christianity: From Jesus’ Death to 312 C.E. 

3. Jesus never called himself “Son of Man” in the Synoptic Gospels, although he sometimes implied it.
In any case, it is unclear what Jesus meant by the phrase “Son of Man.”

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus does say that the Son of Man would “Lead the Apocalypse and the Last Judgment: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.  All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.” (Matthew 25:31-33)

Still, Two Questions Remain:

a. Although Jesus did not explicitly call himself God, Son of God, Son of Man, or Messiah, did Jesus believe that he was any of those four things?
b. What did Jesus (and others) mean by “Son of Man”?  What did they mean by “Messiah?”

4. What Did Jewish People Mean by “Son of Man?” & “Messiah?”

The Torah and later books of the Old Testament are very imprecise about these expressions.

• “Son of Man” most likely meant “a man of Israel,” a human whom God adopts as his right-hand man, a human who comes from heaven, and/or becomes an angel of heaven.
• “Messiah” has usually meant a human general who overthrows the foreign rulers of Israel and sits next to God.

In the New Testament, sometimes “Son of Man” and “Messiah” can be taken as near-synonyms. Or, sometimes, “Son of Man” meant the fighting General, while “Messiah” meant the God-chosen human (or angel) who governed the Kingdom of God after the General had won the battles.

We do know that most or all of Jesus’ Disciples believed him to be the “Messiah,” however broadly or narrowly they defined that title. For example, in Luke 9: 18-20, Jesus asks Peter who Peter thinks Jesus is.  Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”  But we don’t know if the Disciples thought that Messiah meant the same thing as the “Son of Man.” In the end, of course, Jesus was arrested, prosecuted, and crucified not for leading a revolt, not for claiming he was the King of the Jews, but simply for heralding an apocalypse that would have ended Roman Rule. Or perhaps Pontius Pilate had learned that Jesus secretly expected to become the Leader of a near-future Kingdom of God on Earth from the testimony (whether true or false) of Judas Iscariot. We will never know. 

Dr. Ehrman has concluded that Jesus did expect to be the Messiah, whom Jesus regarded as a different person than the Son of Man. Jesus believed that he, as Messiah, would be the God-chosen human King chosen to rule the earthly Kingdom of God after the Last Judgment. Ehrman supports this argument by citing Matthew 19:27-28, in which Jesus tells his 12 apostles that they will “sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Matthew 19:27-28)

Note: Further Reading on ‘Son of Man‘ & ‘Messiah‘

For readers who are interested in the confused imprecision of these definitions, below are some additional bullet points.  We have indented and bullet-pointed these pieces of evidence because they are not central to our book about Nature’s Path of Continuing Creation. In particular, non-Christians may regard these issues as minor and could elect to skim over them.

> In the Old Testament, Son of Man is a translation of the Hebrew phrase Ben Adam, literally meaning “Son of Adam.” Therefore, “Son of Adam” simply means “Human Man” or possibly “Man of Israel.” ²³

The Common English Bible translates Matthew 9:6 as referring to Jesus as the “Human One” rather than the “Son of Man.” “Human Man” or “Man of Israel” is clearly what God means by Son of Man when he repeatedly addresses the Prophet Ezekiel as Son of Man in the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel; and what the angel Gabriel means when he calls Daniel Son of Man in the Book of Daniel, Chapter 8:17.

> On the other hand, Daniel 8:7 in the Old Testament portrays the Son of Man “coming out of the clouds,” as if he were not a man but an angel.

> The word Messiah is not present in the Torah (the first five Books of the Old Testament), it appears in the Age of the Prophets. There, The Messiah was a human – a King or a High Priest — who would lead a violent overthrow of whatever foreign power was oppressing the Jews at the time (i.e., the Romans in Jesus’ time).  This is still the concept of the Messiah in most of Judaism today. ²⁴

> Dr. Ehrman also writes that by the time of Jesus, the “Son of Man” concept of Man had evolved since the Old Testament. It had become a title most Jews regarded as an alternative title for Messiah. ²⁵

> Jesus often speaks of the Son of Man – the figure who will overthrow the old order and conduct the Great Judgment. But when Jesus speaks of the Son of Man he seems to be describing someone other than himself. (e.g., Mark 8:38)

> But maybe Jesus was just being cryptic. Perhaps he really thought he was the Son of Man, but never openly disclosed his true beliefs for fear of Roman arrest, crucifixion, and the end of his ministry.

> Another question: When he spoke, did Jesus mean that “The Son of Man” is the same as “The Messiah?”  The answer is not at all clear.

> In the New Testament’s Gospel of Mark, Jesus preaches that the Son of Man will lead the imminent Apocalypse and Judgment, using God’s divine power (Mark 13:26, and 14:62).

> Jesus also says the Son of Man will be killed, and then will rise after three days. (Mark 8:31). Ehrman argues that Jesus, having no idea that he would rise from the dead, was not talking about himself as the Son of Man.  Instead, Jesus thought the Son of Man would be someone other than himself.  ²⁶

> Besides, Jesus was a pacifist (“love thine enemies”) – so it would be out of character for Jesus to raise and army, wield violent divine power, or apply Judgment as would the Son of Man.

Our Provisional Conclusions about Jesus’ Titles   

1. We hold that Nature’s Continuing Creation does not directly intervene in human lives, but rather affects our lives through biological, cultural, and technological evolution.  We think there is no such thing as an Angel or a God-Human (such as a ‘Son of God’). There are only humans, some of whom are very religious and/or very spiritual or secular-spiritual.  

2. We can never know Jesus’ thoughts, only his spoken words. We know Jesus never said he was God or the Son of God. Those titles were bestowed on Jesus by Christian writers decades after Jesus’ death, and even decades after the Synoptic Gospels were written. 

3. Jesus also never directly said he was the Son of Man or the Messiah, although some of his sayings perhaps imply that he thought he was the Son of Man. We don’t know whether or not Jesus thought the Son of Man was the same person as the Messiah.  And we don’t know if Jesus thought he himself was the Messiah, or the Son of Man, or both.  

4. All this conflicting evidence about titles is inconclusive. But none of this tangled confusion is central to our purpose in Nature’s Path of Continuing Creation.  What matters is what Jesus taught people about how to prepare themselves for and how to be in the coming Kingdom of God. This was, in fact, the main thrust of Jesus’ teaching:  He taught the correct morals, behaviors, attitudes, and emotions required of people who would be chosen to live in the Kingdom of God.

The “Kingdom of God“ or “God’s Heavenly Domain”

How did Jesus describe “The Kingdom of God?” What must the people of his time do to be included in it, and how should they behave after its arrival?  How would it be brought about?

How Would the Kingdom of God on Earth Be Brought About?

John the Baptist (1st century BC to AD 30) thought that only God could bring about an end to suffering and oppression under the Romans.  And God, being all-powerful, would surely go further than a military victory followed by a new Jewish government. There would be a two-step process.  First, a powerful general would defeat the Romans militarily.  Second, God would replace Roman rule and all the social ills of the time with a perfect society and government which John the Baptist and Jesus both called The Kingdom of God.

For many years, scholars understood that Jesus agreed with John the Baptist’s view. Both Jesus and John the Baptist preached that people must get ready for the Kingdom of God through confession and repentance. Only the reformed would get to enter the Kingdom of God. These scholars, including Bart D. Ehrman (who published How Jesus Became God in 2014), say that the Gospels clearly show that Jesus preached about an immanent Judgment followed by the Kingdom of God on Earth right up until his death.

Meanwhile, the militant Zealots of Jesus’ day thought that military rebellion could overthrow the Romans and replace it with a Jewish state. The rebellion would be led by a great Jewish general – a messiah – chosen and anointed by God. The Zealots would try out their method several decades after Jesus’ death, in the Great Revolt of 66 to 70 CE. They would fail.

A New “Kingdom of God”… in the Minds & Hearts of Believers.

After the militant army of Jewish Zealots was defeated in the year 70 AD, and it looked like a military overthrow of the Romans was not in the cards, early Christian writers started to argue that Jesus “must have” been preaching internal spiritual reform, not political reform!

Starting in the 1970s, modern scholars – including most of the 150 scholars involved with the Jesus Seminar — concluded that it was really only John the Baptist, and not Jesus, who preached a violent overthrow of Roman rule. Today, scholars (including Dr. Ehrman) say that Jesus’ idea of a spiritual, internal Kingdom of God was recognized only after Jesus had died, and after the Temple in Jerusalem had fallen to the Romans in 70 CE. The Jesus Seminar Scholars concluded that Jesus broke with John’s military view and really preached that the Kingdom of God must be spiritually attained by each individual believer here on Earth. Only then would the Son of Man be able to use God’s power to conduct the Last Judgment and complete God’s Kingdom on Earth.  ²⁷

As J.D. Crossan writes, “It is not enough to await a future kingdom; one must enter a present one here and now,” and “…it may well have been John’s own execution that led Jesus to understand a God who did not and would not operate through imminent apocalyptic restoration.” The Practice of Nature’s Continuing Creation agrees with this conclusion. ²⁸ 

“Jesus conceived of God’s rule as all around him but difficult to discern. God was so real for [Jesus] that he could not distinguish God’s present activity from any future activity.  He had a poetic sense of time in which the future and the present merged, simply melted together, in the intensity of his vision.”  — R. F. Funk, R.W. Hoover, et al. ²⁹

Jesus himself told the Pharisees: “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation.”(Luke 17:20.) “It will not come by watching for it.  It will not be said, ‘Look here!’ Or ‘Look there!’  Rather, [the Father‘s] imperial rule is spread out upon the earth, and people don’t see it.” (Gospel of Thomas, 113). ³⁰ And, “Heaven’s imperial rule is like some trader looking for beautiful pearls. When that merchant finds one priceless pearl, he sells everything he owns and buys it.” (Matthew 13:45-46.)

Of course, Jesus might have said those things to the Pharisees to hide his true views from the Romans. It’s possible Jesus was hiding his vision of a political overthrow of the Romans in order to avoid arrest by the Romans.  However, most modern scholars believe that Jesus was sincere about the need to seek the Kingdom of God from within.   

Nature’s Practice of Continuing Creation Concludes: 

Jesus went beyond John the Baptist and preached that the Kingdom of God would be realized by and through both military action and the new spiritual reform of individuals.  In other words, Jesus preached that the Kingdom of God is within each of us. This new doctrine was revolutionary in Jesus’ time and place.  Both (a) direct military intervention directed by God and achieved on the ground by the Son of Man, and (b) social and individual reform would be required to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth. The Son of Man would not intervene unless individuals reformed; and individuals would not be part of the Kingdom of God unless they passed Final Judgment by being morally and spiritually reformed.  

Note how Jesus’ path to the Kingdom of God is very similar to the Buddha’s 8-fold path to achieve Nirvana and also parallels the teaching of Lao Tzu.  But the Christian Kingdom of God is a social outcome, whereas Buddhist Nirvana is an individual, personal outcome.  

Note also that this interpretation of The Kingdom of God is an example of Path #B-4 on our list of Solutions to Social Ills, on the first page of this Essay, namely: “Escape: mental or social withdrawal — from conditions here on Earth.” 

         Nature’s Continuing Creation does see the teaching of Jesus as a central and revolutionary spiritual advance in Middle Eastern theology.

The Kingdom of God as Seen by Writers After Jesus’ Death

After Jesus was put to death, the scriptures do make it clear that his followers continued to believe that the apocalypse was imminent and that Jesus himself would return from Heaven to lead it and conduct Judgment. ³¹. Then, after several decades had passed, Christians realized Jesus’s teaching could be applied by believers who were now living without an expectation of an immediate apocalypse. Christian writers (including the author of the Gospel of John) began to say that Jesus himself never really expected an imminent apocalypse. Rather, they wrote that Jesus had always been preaching about attaining an inner, spiritual Kingdom of God.

Modern scholars such as Crossan, Ehrman, Funk & Hoover et. al. argue that the great majority of New Testament passages were written long after Jesus’ death and do not reflect Jesus’ own preaching. They write that these passages were added to keep Christianity alive in the face of Jesus’ failure to return from the grave to lead the apocalypse, Judgment, and the Kingdom of God.  ³² In particular, New Testament Books such as the Gospel of John and Acts (both believed to have been written as late 55 to 70 years after Jesus’ death) put forward a new vision of the Kingdom of God. In the new vision, the Kingdom of God can and should be achieved by individuals and congregations, here on Earth, and without expectation of an imminent Last Judgment. Jesus is said to have rebuked His disciples over their dream of an Earthly reign, and He declared: “My kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36 & Acts 1:6-8) So, the Kingdom of God was re-envisioned — from a Theocracy on Earth to Life after Death in Heaven.

   “Fortunately for the Gospel writers, Jesus’ sayings were always vague enough to permit reinterpretation.” — J.X. Mason

The Jesus Seminar Scholars write that the Gospel of John’s particular vision of the Kingdom of God was made Roman Catholic doctrine, and has been a key element of Christianity after Jesus for the last 1900 years. We discuss this doctrine more in our Essay, Early Christianity: From Jesus’ Death to 312 C.E.

Today, most Christians continue to hold the view that rigorous spiritual reform is needed, today, in the lives of all Christians in order to enter Heaven after their individual deaths.  Most modern Christians expect the Apocalypse and the Last Judgement to happen sometime in the future, likely in the distant future.

What Would the Kingdom of God Be Like?

Jesus taught that in The Kingdom of God, (sometimes translated as God’s Heavenly Domain or God’s Imperial Rule), all individuals and institutions would whole-heartedly follow God’s law. They would live in peace, health, harmony, happiness, and brotherly love. The Kingdom of God “is people under divine rule…[it] is what the world would be like if God were directly and immediately in charge.” — Dominic Crossan.  ³³

How does a Person Find the “Kingdom of God Within?”
… By Complete Conversion of the Person’s Character!

People would find the Kingdom by learning a new way to believe and live that manifests God’s power and presence within their own lives. In this view, Jesus’ Domain of Heaven is present here and now; in us and all around us.  It could be brought to fruition by the moral and spiritual awakening of individuals and demonstrated by a great outward extension of universal brotherly love and radical sharing. This would then be accompanied by the arrival of The Son of Man, the Judgment, and the Kingdom of God.

To realize the Kingdom of God, Jesus preached that people were to give away their possessions, turn the other cheek to their enemies, love their neighbors, and extend love and compassion outward to people beyond the normal social circles, and even beyond the boundaries of tribe and nation. It was a doctrine of radical economic re-distribution, radical social leveling, non-violence (even when directly attacked), and intense social sharing and love. Jesus said that if people would begin to do these things sincerely, the Kingdom of Heaven would grow and flower as a giant mustard tree does from the tiny mustard seed. (Matthew 13:31) Below, we will look in more detail at the steps required to achieve Jesus’ Kingdom of God.

To achieve the Kingdom of God, Jesus said that each person’s character must be changed.  This is a central message of the Sermon on the Mount. (Matthew, chapters 5,8, & 7) The Way of Continuing Creation holds that this amounts to a change in human nature itself, something that may be impossible to do… without genetic re-engineering. 

Biblical Scholar Henry Bamford Parkes interprets Jesus to say that “The Kingdom of God – a good and just society – cannot come about by passing and enforcing laws. Neither of the real-world cures for injustice – military/political revolution nor the gradual accretion of law are going to bring about the Kingdom of God.  Human attitude and behavior must be changed.”  ³⁴

In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3-12), Jesus taught The Eight Beatitudes:

> Blessed are the dispirited: for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 5:3)
> Blessed are those who mourn: for they will be comforted. (5:4)
> Blessed are the meek: for they will inherit the earth. (5:5)
> Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they will be filled. (5:6)
> Blessed are the merciful: for they will be shown mercy. (5:7)
> Blessed are the pure in heart: for they will see God. (5:8)
> Blessed are the peacemakers: for they will be called children of God. (5:9)
> Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 5:10)

Six of the Eight Beatitudes are character traits.  (“Mourning” and “being persecuted” are not character traits.) The remaining six Beatitudes are the spiritual character traits that people need to be part of the Kingdom of God.

The Way of Nature’s Continuing Creation says: Human nature can’t be changed as radically as Jesus preached, because of the competitive, selfish, and predatory side of our biology.  Humans, like most animals, have two inherently conflicting biological drives: (a) To cooperate with other individuals so that our group can achieve synergy, and (b) to compete with the other individuals in our group for dominance and reproductive rights. Because of our dual nature, we must establish checks on the dark side of our human nature. These checks include splitting up political power, compromising, securing individual rights against a tyranny of the majority, maintaining the rule of law, and preserving family units. Only this realistic and practical view of human nature is consistent with science and history.  — JXM

Our Practice also says: In Taoism, (which many of us consider to be second only to our own Nature’s Path of Continuing Creation), the dual nature of humankind is acknowledged and represented by Yin & Yang.  Yin & Yang are present in each person, and also in world politics as a whole. Charity is the ultimate expression of Yin, and War is the ultimate expression of Yang. (See our Essay, Evaluating Taoism & Zen).  

The real-world political economy is a combination of Yin & Yang; of Competition & Cooperation. Their inter-weaving creates social institutions such as the Free-market Economy and the Rule of Law, both of which are continually evolving.  Note that this combination makes the Path of Continuing Creation far more conducive to Free Enterprise and Market Economies than does Christianity. Christianity, with its doctrine of Radical Sharing, is more conducive to communal living and communism.  (“Communism: The best system ever devised for making people equally poor.”) See our Essay, Radical Sharing & Universal Love Don’t Work.

How Jesus Taught People to Realize the Kingdom of God “Within.“

a. Cease Striving, Cease Worrying, and Trust in God to Provide

Scholar Dominic Crossan describes Jesus as rejecting the values and conventions of society. He writes that Jesus called for people to turn away from normal life and transcend their “disappointment, anger, sorrow, pain, and sense of abandonment.” In calling for this, Jesus is part of a grand tradition that includes “mystics, libertarians, utopians, ascetics, anarchists, and nihilists.” [Paraphrased from J.D. Crossan, Jesus, A Revolutionary Biography, pp. 52-53. [/note]

Jesus said: “I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.  Consider the ravens: They do not sow, nor do they reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them.  And how much more valuable you are than birds!  Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to your life?  Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?  Consider how the wildflowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.” (Luke 22:27) 

Our own Nature-based Practice says:  There is almost nothing in Jesus’ teachings of a practical nature. Unlike the Mormons and the Muslims, the Religion Taught by Jesus does not help people navigate the everyday life of getting food, shelter, medical aid, or finding a job. And Jesus says little about child-rearing or supporting a family.  — J.X. Mason

b. Pay Less Attention to Jewish Rituals and Purity Laws

Jesus directed his followers to break down the social barriers between rich and poor, powerful and weak. His followers should also take down many of the ritualistic barriers of Jewish law, welcoming outsiders and the “unclean.”

“In the Bible, leprosy is not only a disease; it is also a state of impurity (Leviticus 13:1-46)… A person who contracts leprosy-impurity must undergo purification rituals… to be pronounced ‘clean.’”  Yet Jesus willingly touched lepers in order to heal them.  ³⁵

The Practice of Continuing Creation says that some of the purity laws, such as washing one’s hands before eating, make perfect sense in the modern world; and not knowing if or how leprosy could be transmitted, it was probably wise, in those days, not to touch them.  Today, the cleanliness that really matters is the reasonable elimination of dirt, germs, and harmful substances from one’s body, clothes, home, and workplace. Clothes, personal surroundings, and possessions need only be unostentatious, not wasteful, and not harmful to the biosphere.   

c. Extend Love Beyond Family & Tribe;  Achieve “Universal,” or “Radical Love”

Moses’ commandment “Do Not Kill,” really meant, “Do not Kill Members of Any of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.” After Moses proclaimed the Ten Commandments, killing a member of the Twelve Tribes became murdering a member of the Twelve Tribes.  In other words, the Twelve Tribes were now unified into one; and war between them was outlawed.

Before Jesus’ teaching, the moral precept of Judaism had been Moses’ implicit doctrine, “love the members of your twelve tribes as thyself.”  For Moses, it was okay to kill enemies such as the Philistines (located in what is now called the “Gaza Strip,” occupied by modern Palestinians, west of modern Israel, on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea). 

But Jesus preached “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” and his parable of the Good Samaritan shows he meant this to apply to “foreigners,” people of other tribes and religions, as well as to other Jews living just down the street.  We can call this doctrine “Universal Love” or “Radical Love of All Humanity,” to go along with “Radical Sharing” and “Radical Leveling.” (See our Essay, Radical Sharing & Universal Love Don’t Work.)

Why is there this difference between the doctrines of Moses and Jesus?  Because They had different goals. Moses was engaged in nation-building, while Jesus enlarged the scope from nation-building to “humanity-building.” When Jesus touched lepers, he was not only breaking down Jewish purity law, he was extending the boundary of love and caring beyond family, beyond tribe, to include all of humanity.

Another example is the parable of the Good Samaritan – because, in the time of Jesus, the Samaritans were very much denigrated.  When Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your energy, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27, category 3), a man asked him, “Who is my neighbor”?  Jesus replied with the parable of the Good Samaritan.  In this story, it was a Good Samaritan — a non-Judean and very much an outsider — who stops to care for a robbed and beaten man lying in the road. (Luke 10:30-35).

Until Jesus, Judaism had always been a tribal religion of the Jewish people.  But Christianity is not tribal, it is universal.  Almost immediately after Jesus’ death, the Apostles took Jesus’ message to non-Jewish areas of the Mediterranean.  What caused this dramatic shift? The History of Continuing Creation tells us that Jesus was physically located in a time and a place that was a true cultural crossroads, trade route, and ethnic melting pot.  There were cross-currents of Greek, Roman, Jewish, Babylonian, Persian, Phoenician, and Egyptian civilizations.  Jesus could see that all people – even the generally loathed Samaritans — were oppressed by the Romans, and all were the same “in the eyes of God.”

However, Our Spiritual Practice agrees with Christopher Hitchens, who has written that Christianity is wrong when it tries to make love compulsory; when it says that we must love. Saying we must love our neighbors as ourselves is something we can’t actually do.  We always fall short, and we can always be found guilty.  It is as impossible as saying that we must love God while at the same time fearing God.  If we fail in this twin duty of love and fear, we are seen as wretched sinners and we are “condemned.” ³⁶ The Path of Continuing Creation affirms that Love is a Virtue, not a Moral obligation; with the exception that it is a moral duty to love the members of one’s immediate family if they are supportive and kind. And above all, to love one’s children. 

An Interesting Sidenote:  A few modern writers suggest Jesus may have learned his compassion in India. This argument says that the Three Wise Men were Buddhists from India.  They arrived in Palestine not when Jesus was a newborn, but when Jesus was a young teenager. Perhaps they did this because they saw Jesus as the newly reincarnated Dalai Lama.  They then took Jesus back with them to India, using the well-traveled Spice route or Silk route.  In India, Jesus supposedly studied Buddhism and then preached it there until he returned to Palestine at around the age of thirty.  The argument continues that Jesus did not die on the cross, but rather was resuscitated at the last minute by his followers. (Hence the empty tomb.) Then, Jesus, now a fugitive from Roman law, escaped by returning to India, where he preached until he died a natural death as an old man. Today, there is, in fact, a ‘tribe’ in Kashmir who claim descent from “Issa” (Jesus) and who have records of his preaching for many years in the pacifist, sharing tradition.  There is even a tomb there that is said to hold Jesus’ remains, along with his alleged footprints carved in stone, complete with the marks of nails. (See, “Was Jesus a Buddhist Monk,”?  BBC Documentary, 12/1/2011.)  While this is an interesting tale, the evidence seems flimsy to Co-Creators in Nature’s Continuing Creation.  In any case, it does not change the content of Jesus’ teaching in Palestine, which remains the basis for Christianity.

The Practice of Nature’s Continuing Creation (NCC) says:  It is well and good to extend brotherly love.  However, brotherly love cannot be fully extended. That would be inconsistent with human biology, which tells us that love within the family is stronger than universal love for all humans, and for good reason – the maximum protection for our own vulnerable children. 

Moreover, it is not realistic to love people from other cultures to the extent we love people of our own culture. Socio-biology tells us that “birds of a feather flock together.” Doing so has evolutionary value for the group.  ³⁷ Every individual is embedded in concentric circles of belonging – oneself at the center, the family as the next first ring out from the center, and then the larger and larger circles of neighborhood, interest group, nationality, and profession. The bond of love to our individual family is the strongest.  No religion, not even the Christianity Taught by Jesus, is going to change that.

But the Path Continuing Natural Creation also says: Love may be more expansive than resources are.  As a practical matter, however, our giving of love is limited by our resources of time, energy, and wealth. To have a strong effect, the resources we devote to sending out love must be husbanded and concentrated. Thus, we spend (or should spend) much more time and effort showering love on our family and close friends than we do on strangers living on the other side of the world.

d. Practice Love that’s Even More Radical: “Love Your Enemies”

Yet, Jesus went still further. He not only teaches his followers to love their neighbors but also to love their enemies:

      “Love your enemies… when someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other as well.”  — Matthew 5:38-42

The Pattern of Continuing Creation says:  Love your enemies?  Here, Jesus can perhaps be said to introduce the idea of non-violent political action into the Western World, even though Jesus seems more interested in establishing a spiritual realm than a political one.  Non-violent political action had startling success in India’s struggle for independence and in the American Civil Rights Movement.  However, the civil rights movement was possible and successful only because the earlier Northern victory in the Civil War prepared the legal and cultural ground in which the civil rights movement could take root and grow.  War is inherent in biology:  plants have been at war with insects for millions of years.  In our own bodies, the white cells of our immune systems make war against invading microbes.  In human history, we have clearly had morally justified wars, including the American Civil War and World War II against Nazism and fascism. 

e. Jesus’ Universal Love Led to the Idea of Universal Human Rights

Jesus’ doctrine of Universal Love has had one particular result that is vital to The Progress of civilization.  It prepared the way for the idea of Universal Human Rights. In the intellectual forge of the Enlightenment, the “iron” of Universal Love was forged into the “steel” of Universal Human Rights.  Among these are the rights to “Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness, the Right to Equality before the Law, and the Right to Equal Opportunity.  Plus — the Universal Freedoms of Speech, Press, and Religion.

f. Our Practice of NCC Says: Extend Love to Earth’s Biosphere

In another sense, Jesus did not extend brotherly love far enough. Nature’s Continuing Creation says love must be extended to include virtually all species of creatures, and to Earth’s ecological system as a whole. That extension requires the preservation of romantic love, familial love, and brotherly love – all in balance with love for Earth as a living Whole.  Hinduism and Buddhism are correct in their opposition to killing animals.

Without a healthy environment, there will be no families.  Therefore, humans should have families, but only families of limited size. The Three-fold balance of Ethics in the Flow of Continuing Natural Creation includes humanity, but humanity in limited numbers of people.

g. We Should Extend Care & Compassion Beyond Family, Class, & Tribe.

Now we need to move from the discussion of extending Brotherly Love to a discussion of extending Brotherly Care.  Bear in mind that we often can and should extend Brotherly Care even when we cannot extend Love.

The Morality of Continuing Creation requires us to show our neighbors not love but care — justice, opportunity, charity, aid, and sympathetic respect, especially in times of distress. Set aside the Morality of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” and follow the Morality of “Do not unto others as you would not have them do unto you.”  It is not Morality, but Virtue that persuades Followers of Nature’s Continuing Creation to show our neighbors courtesy, kindness, extended charity, and empathy. (See our two Essays, Leading an Ethical, Moral Life and Leading a Virtuous & Honorable Life.)

A number of modern non-Christian societies confine even care and charity largely to members of one’s extended family.  Among Indians and Chinese, it is far more common to give a cousin or niece seed money with which to start a business than it is to give money to feed homeless people in the cities. The Way of Nature’s Growing, Organizing, Direction finds this to be too limiting.

The extension of care outward, beyond family and tribe, is Christianity’s main contribution to our modern civilization.  The Practice of Continuing Creation embraces this Virtue.  However, It is not realistic to care for people in other countries to the same extent that we care for our family, neighbors, and fellow citizens. 

h. To Respect Other Cultures, First Preserve Other Cultures

If it is impractical to love all cultures, we still want to have respect for and tolerance for all cultures. That presupposes that different cultures exist, each with its own right to and means of self-preservation and enrichment.

Our Path Teaches — Absent some fantasy-level of impossible love, which would magically forgive all differences and disagreements, there must be some separation between the cultures in order for them to survive. If they are all mixed up and leveled out, the separate cultures disappear, and we are left with one giant generic “culture.” The best way to keep the cultures separated and distinct is by limiting the number of people on the planet. Only by limiting the number can people accumulate culture, leisure, technology, and secular-spiritual fulfillment.  “Good fences make good neighbors.”

The Path of Continuing Creation Says: Love & Creating Are One

If we realize that Love and Creating are one and the same, we find even deeper meaning. The Bible tells its followers that Love and Creating are the same: In Judeo-Christian mythology, God’s creation of the World is an act of love. Then, in the New Testament, “God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son.” (John 3:16-17)

For Travelers on the Path of Continuing Creation, Creating and Love are also the same.  We create children because we love them; we love our children because we have created them.  It is fulfilling for people to love their work, and work is a process of successively creating. 

God has traditionally been seen as a “noun” – a supernatural person.  But, we see Nature’s Continuing Creation — The Growing, Organizing, Direction of the Universe as the ongoing act of creating and nurturing.  In fact, The Growing, Organizing, Direction, is the Summation of all Creative Actions.  (In our following Essay, we consider how God’s mythical act of “giving” his Son might be seen as an act of creation.)

Jesus Changed the Nature & Character of God

As Jesus preached universal love, he changed the religious vision of God’s basic nature and character.

Judaism envisioned God as a stern, dictatorial father and war-leader. Christianity envisions God as a loving father.  But he is still a father; still paternal, still controlling.

The fundamental question in Judaism had always been, “If God decided to give the power of knowledge and reason to Adam and Eve, why would God not instead act a teacher, counselor and partner rather than a judge and a punisher?” The Path of Continuing Creation would picture The Processes of Nature’s Continuing Creation as a teacher if we were required to imagine “NCC” as a person.

In fact, Jesus’ message is so fully loving that we must see him as preaching what at the time would have been seen as a feminine message from God. After Jesus dies and his followers elevate him to part-and-parcel of God, Jesus’ feminine message becomes the feminine aspect of God.  In the Middle Ages, the ordinary people of Europe had such a need for the feminine aspect of God that the Catholic Church created a vast and powerful worship around the Virgin Mary. (See our Essay, Christianity: From Jesus’ Death to the Puritans.)

In the United States today, it is typical to hear born-again Evangelical Christians say, “When I was a child, I was taught that God was demanding, angry, and vengeful.  But today if know ‘My God is a kind and loving God.’” This is the essential view most Christians have of the difference between the Old and New Testaments.

Followers of Nature’s Continuing Creation concur that the Judaic evolution of God from capricious and vengeful to contract-making and lawgiving is a very important advance in Abrahamic theology.  Christianity continued that evolution, going from “laws” to “love.”  Today, Nature’s Path of Continuing Creation goes still further — from “Love” to “Creating.”  Actually, for us, Love is Creating, and Creating is Love.  

Jesus’ Doctrine of Radical Equality

Jesus also preached that realizing the Kingdom of God would require a change to “Radical Equality.”

Jesus was constantly moving from town to town. Why? Crossan says Jesus could have stayed in one place – particularly in the town of Nazareth, where his family lived, and settled into a family business of preaching and healing, with Jesus and Patron and his friends and relatives as clients. But patronage and clientage were the normal power/social structures of that time and place. Nearly everyone depended on the favor of some wealthy or powerful patron for their livelihood.  Jesus wanted to break that social system and replace it with radical egalitarianism. ³⁸

Jesus’ doctrine of Radical Equality (i.e., Radical Egalitarianism; Radical Leveling) had four parts:

• Level out all social distinctions of rank, so that all humans have equal power.
• Share all resources and goods equally among all humans on Earth.
• Reject all forms of violence, even in self-defense. (“Turn the other cheek”)
• Love every human being equally (“love thy neighbor as thyself”)

Jesus said that if people would begin to do these things sincerely, the Kingdom of Heaven would grow and flower as a giant mustard tree does from the tiny mustard seed. (Matthew 13:31)

Note: Christianity is the largest Old Religion to espouse this five-part radical equality, but not the only one. “One of Confucius’ main rivals, Mozi, argued on behalf of the so-called “Mohists” that human beings should extend their human-heartedness to all regardless of relation. In other words, he anticipated Jesus’ emphasis on agape love, which, seeing no distinction between friend and enemy, seeks to love all equally.  But Confucius, far more concerned about “family values” [as are we Followers of Continuing Creation] than Jesus was, said that “ren” [human heartedness] should be cultivated first and foremost inside the family.” — Stephen Prothero. ³⁹

“For Jesus, the Kingdom of God is a community of radical or unbroken equality in which individuals are in direct contact with one another and with God, unmediated by any brokers or fixed locations.” — Dominic Crossan ⁴⁰

Jesus’ vision of Christianity would be vastly changed under the all-powerful, prescriptive Catholic Church of medieval times, where all contact between believer and God would be brokered by an imperial, bureaucratic, highly formal priesthood, and where the “laity” would not be able to personally read the Bible. This happened mainly because the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great converted to Christianity and infused the church with the military and bureaucratic culture of imperial Rome, as we shall see in our Essay, Early Christianity: From Jesus’ Death to 312 C.E.

There are two parts to Radical Egalitarianism:  Radical Social Equality and Radical Sharing (Economic Equality), and we will talk about both of them.

Jesus Also Preached Radical Social Equality

Jesus not only preached radical social equality in the Kingdom of God, but He also lived it.  It is his message, combined with his actions, that got him crucified.

This would include a radical turning away from one’s family, as Jesus directs in four different Bible verses: Gospel of Thomas 55, Mark 3:31-35, Luke 11:27-28, and Luke 12:51-53.  Here is the passage from Thomas 55:

“Jesus said, ‘Whoever does not hate father and mother cannot be a follower of me, and whoever does not hate brothers and sisters… will not be worthy of me.’” (Gospel of Thomas 55)

For Jesus, extending love and compassion was not sufficient. The existing social hierarchies, including the family hierarchy, must be broken up. Crossan believes that Jesus worked to do away with traditional male dominance, because the family, “since it involves power, invites the abuse of power.”  Jesus’ “ideal group” is, contrary to most human familial reality, an open one equally accessible to all under God.” — Dominic Crossan. ⁴¹

Jesus’ statement, “Blessed are the poor,” (a better translation according to Crossan would be “Blessed are the destitute”) now makes additional sense – for in a fixed and unjust social and economic power system, it is only the destitute who are completely free of corruption. Similarly, it is the “meek” – those who are bereft of all status and power – who shall “inherit the Earth.”

Crossan points out that Jesus’ radical egalitarianism is not unique. It occurs and has occurred often across cultures and historical eras.  He quotes anthropologist James C. Scott, (Protest and Profanation: Agrarian Revolt and the Little Tradition: Theory and Society, (1977): pp. 225-226), who wrote: “The radical vision to which I refer is strikingly uniform despite the enormous variations in peasant cultures [across Europe to Southeast Asia]…a society of brotherhood in which there will be no rich and poor, in which no distinctions of rank and status (save those between believers and non-believers) will exist. …[the] elimination of religious hierarchies in favor of communities of equal believers.  Property is typically, though not always, to be held in common and shared.”

Jesus’ Preached Radical Sharing

Jesus said:

“If you want to be perfect, go, sell your belongings, and give (the proceeds) to the poor…I swear to you, it is very difficult for the rich to enter Heaven’s domain… it’s easier for a camel to squeeze through a needle’s eye than for a wealthy person to get into God’s domain.” (Matthew 19:21-23)

“When someone wants to sue you for your shirt, let that person have your coat along with it…Give to the one who begs from you; and don’t turn away the one who tries to borrow from you.” (Matthew 5:40 & 42)

Jesus’ vision of radical sharing is very reminiscent of communism, where everyone should contribute according to their ability, and yet receive according to their need.

Within the Roman Catholic Church, this concept would generate communistic communities of nuns, priests, and monks after Jesus’ death. Ironically, the monastic rejection of personal wealth enabled the monasteries as a whole to amass great wealth (and power) in Europe during the Middle Ages, because the monks were celibate. Having no children, they had no heirs who could inherit their wealth, and so all wealth remained inside the church.  This may well have been the real reason, sociologically, why the Catholic priesthood insisted on celibacy in the first place.

The Path of Continuing Creation says that Jesus’ radical sharing is unsuited to today’s world, where the engines of free trade, science, and technology create a torrent of products, services, and occupations.  Expanding knowledge, expanding internet access to knowledge, improving diet, health, and trade – all create opportunities for the modern poor to end their poverty. Today, concentrations of family wealth seldom last beyond 100 years, and political power continually changes hands.  In this respect, Jesus’ spiritual path is unsuited for our age.   

Our Path of Continuing Creation Rejects Radical Sharing.

We might want to give some of our money away to strangers, but not all of it. It doesn’t work to give away all our possessions: who would feed our children?  Moreover, if all wealth were equally shared, there would not be enough concentration of wealth to fund advances in science, culture, technology, and knowledge. (See our Essay, “Radical Sharing & Universal Love Don’t Work.”)

> The impracticality of Radical Sharing is probably the reason why so many people have fallen asleep during so many sermons over the centuries. It is likely also the reason why Joel Osteen, pastor of the mega-sized Lakewood Church (which bought, remodeled, and now fills the former stadium of the Houston Rockets professional basketball team with its Sunday services) gives mere lip service to the Bible, and turns all his energies to preaching a feel-good Prosperity Gospel that is unlinked to the actual words of Jesus.

> Of course, Jesus’ doctrine of radical sharing makes more sense because he believed that God’s Heavenly Domain was imminent — either via society’s transformative spiritual awakening or after a just-around-the-corner Apocalypse and Last Judgment.

> In any case, Jesus’ vision was a reflection of the static economy of first-century Judea: the body of regional wealth remained fairly the same from generation to generation. “Those that had, kept; and those that did not have, could not get.”  Jesus likely believed that absent the coming of Heaven’s Domain, the world would always be a world of tribalism, subsistence farming, simple crafts, and trade. He knew nothing of the process of evolution and its constant weaving of competition and cooperation. He could hardly envision the agricultural, democratic, industrial, or technological revolutions that have brought real-world freedom, knowledge, and prosperity to most of the world. 

Instead of giving away all our wealth and contemplating God in a commune, today’s modern Travelers in Continuing Creation would rather retain much of our wealth and use it to lead creative and productive lives, following the examples of Thomas Edison, heart surgeon Michael de Bakey, composer George Gershwin, or General Motors’ chief executive Mary Barra.   

Our own teaching says that a true and practical secular-spiritual doctrine must appeal to the creating side of human nature as well as the caring and sharing side of human nature.  The creating side is linked to achievement, exploration, accumulation, invention, risk-taking, and building – all the elements of Yang, as contrasted to the sharing and nurturing world of Yin. The optimal Secular-Spiritual Path — the Path of Nature’s Continuing Creation — is a creative combination of Yang and Yin.  

Jesus’ Teaching Was Not About Family Values

In the United States today, fundamentalist Protestant Christians are dedicated to “Family Values.”  It is remarkable, then, to read the New Testament and see how often Jesus opposed Family Values.

For Jesus, spreading God’s Imperial Rule (i.e., Heaven’s Domain, the Kingdom of God) was more important than taking care of family responsibilities.  Jesus encouraged people to leave their families and follow him:

> He [Jesus] said to another man, “Follow me.”  But he [the man] replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:59-60)

> Mark 3:31-35 — “Then his mother and his brother came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him…And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” and looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!  Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:31-35.  Matthew 12:48-50)

> Jesus said, “Whoever does not hate father and mother cannot be a follower of me, and whoever does not hate brothers and sisters…will not be worthy of me.”  (Luke 14:26. Thomas 55.)  (However, some expositors suggest that “hate” is too strong a translation of the original meaning. ⁴²

> “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “No one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the Kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.” (Luke 18:29-30)

For Jesus, then, Rome, the Jewish tribes, the priesthood, and even the family were all social power structures that kept people from having a direct relationship with God. He felt that these power structures inevitably lead to unequal distributions of wealth, justice, and freedom.

The Path of Nature’s Continuing Creation says: The words of Jesus calling for abandonment of work, of family, of money are similar to the lives of the Cynics; and to the lives of Buddhist and Christian monks and nuns.  All such abandonments do little to advance the creative engine of the Growing, Organizing, Direction of the Universe. Care and cultivation of children and family life are central to the Pattern and progressive Direction of Nature’s Continuing Creation. 

Jesus Treated Women as Fully Equal to Men

While Jesus gave no explicit teaching on the role of women in the church, he treated every woman he met as a person in her own right. This is a vivid Strength of Jesus’ Teaching. A plain reading of Jesus’ teaching recorded in all three Synoptic Gospels indicates that Jesus forbids any hierarchy in Christian relationships, presumably including both women and men: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you.” (Matthew 20:25–26a; Mark 10:42; Luke 22:25)

Women are prominent in the story of Jesus. He was born of a woman, had numerous interactions with women, and was seen first by women after his resurrection. He commissioned the women to go and tell his disciples that he had risen, which is the essential message of Christianity. ⁴³

The most striking thing about the role of women in the life and teaching of Jesus is the simple fact that they are there. The Judaic culture of the times required women to be excluded from religious preaching among groups of men.  Yet women were present among the followers of Jesus and listened to his teaching.  ⁴⁴

The Gospels describe two miracles of Jesus raising persons from the dead. In both incidents, the dead are restored to women—to the unnamed widow from Nain, her only son (Luke 7:11–17), and to Mary and Martha, their brother Lazarus. (John, 11:1–44.)

Mary of Magdalene

The woman with the largest role during Jesus’ adulthood was Mary Magdalene (i.e., ‘Mary from the village of Magdala,’ on the Sea of Galilee).

According to Mark 16:9, Jesus cast “seven demons” out of Mary Magdalene, who then traveled with Jesus as one of his disciples.  The Gospels say that Mary Magdalene witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.  (A minority of scholars believe that she was Jesus’ wife; because no unmarried woman would have been allowed to accompany a man in the Judaic culture of the times.)

An Imagined Portrait of Saint Mary Magdalene

Within the four Gospels, she is named at least twelve times, more than most of the Twelve Apostles. Luke 8:2 says that she was actually “called Magdalene.” In Aramaic, “Magdala” means “tower” or “elevated, great, magnificent.” ⁴⁵

Though Mary Magdalene is named in each of the four gospels in the New Testament, none of the clear references to her indicate that she was a prostitute or notable for a sinful way of life. ⁴⁶ That bad reputation was given to her during the spinning of Mythological Christianity in the early Middle Ages, which we cover in our Essay, Early Christianity: From Jesus’ Death to 312 C.E.

Mary, Mother of Jesus

The Weave of Nature’s Continuing Creation says:  A major Shortcoming of Christianity (and of Judaism & Islam) is that if a religion insists on personifying God, that personification should not be purely male.  It would be better to have both a male and female personification, as do the Greek and Norse Pantheons, or to be entirely asexual, as is“The Way” in Taosim and in original Buddhism.  As we will discuss in our third Essay, Medieval Christianity, then the Protestant Reformation, Roman Catholic Christianity invented the “Cult of the Virgin Mary“ to satisfy the people’s craving for a female near-deity who could be the object of their devotion. 

Saint Paul reinforced the role of women as shown in the letters (Epistles) he wrote to Christian communities around the Mediterranean after Jesus’ death.  Below are examples taken from Paul’s letters to three different early Christian congregations:

>  “Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.” (Colossians 3:19.)

> “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (Ephesians 5:25.)

> “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into the name of Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:26-29). 

Jesus’ Teachings on Children and Child Rearing

There is little advice on raising children or family life anywhere in the New Testament. The cultures of the time apparently felt these questions were adequately covered by parental instinct and common custom.  However, all children were to be baptized to become “Children of God” and, therefore, able to enter Heaven.

Mark 10:13-16 reads,

“People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them, and blessed them.”

However, this verse from Mark says nothing about the day-to-day duty of parental care. Crossan even says Jesus welcomed children because they were expendable at the whim of their fathers. They could be sold into slavery or forced into cruel marriages to meet a family’s needs.  So, for Jesus, children were simply another class of the oppressed.  ⁴⁷

Christopher Hitchens also argues that the “Lilies of the Field” parable (quoted below) is immoral as a model for raising children because it tells people to “take no thought for tomorrow.”  It teaches that thrift, innovation, and family husbandry “are a sheer waste of time.” ⁴⁸ Here is the parable, from Matthew 6:26-34:

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon, in all his splendor, was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:26-34)

Participants in Nature’s Continuing Creation say:  Jesus’ failure to preach the duty and skills of parental care is consistent with other New Testament verses calling for abandonment of work, family, and money.  (After you give away all your possessions, there is no longer any way to feed your children; if you can even still find them).  

Of course, as we have mentioned before, it is entirely possible that Jesus expected a Last Judgment to be just around the corner. So many of Jesus’ words called for impossibly impractical behaviors like this, it is little wonder that a mythical Religion about Jesus had to be erected around it, to bolster the faith and try to keep people from leaving the Christian flock. 

Also, Science teaches the Participants in Continuing Creation that lilies of the field do, in fact, toil. Their roots push into the earth, sucking up nutrients, and their leaves use energy to perform the miracle of photosynthesis. They gather the sun’s energy and use it to construct magnificent flowers, designed over eons by evolution to attract fertilizing insects that spread the lilies’ pollen and enable them to give birth to new lilies.  

However, Jesus was right when he said that the lily plants live and work without worry. Since the lilies are not self-conscious, they do not strive. Without complex nervous systems, they have no mental “attachment” to their success or failure.  The lilies of the field work hard, but they do it with Zen-like quietude.

Jesus and the Environment

Still, the Lilies of the Field parable (above) does show that Jesus and the writers of the New Testament understood the interconnection between human lives and the lives of plants and animals.  Here are references to additional New Testament verses dealing with this subject — Christianity’s connection with Nature:

> Jesus is born in a stable and sleeps in a feeding trough (a manger). This is a metaphor for humility and connectedness with Nature.  (Luke 2:7)

> At the start of his ministry, Jesus goes out into the wilderness, staying among the wild beasts (Mark 1:13)

> He compares the lives of animals to his own Itinerant life: “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (Luke 9:58)

> In the Lilies of the Valley parable, the birds of the field become a model for Nature’s provision for all creatures – each unto its own ecological niche, and all in balance with each other. “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God.” “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” (Luke 12:6 and Matthew 6:26-26)

> In the parable of the mustard seed, the mustard tree serves as a metaphor for those who make their home in the realm of God (Matthew 13:31-32).

> At the end of his ministry, Jesus enters Jerusalem on the back of a donkey (Mark 11:1-10).

> Jesus is crucified as “The Lamb of God,” giving up his own body for the redemption of creation. It is noted in Paul’s letter to the Hebrews that through Christ’s death, God no longer wanted animals to be killed through sacrifice. (Hebrews 10:8-10, CEV).

> “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God” (Luke 12:6).

> “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them” (Matthew 6:26).

> “Lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest” (John 4:35).

> “The kingdom of God is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all seeds, but once it has grown, it is the greatest of plants” (Matthew 13:31-32).

On the other hand, we know that the Old Testament gives humankind dominion over all Earth’s creatures. This has been used as a religious excuse for humans’ rapacious exploitation of the Earth, leading to the extinction and endangerment of hundreds, perhaps thousands of species. In practice, dominion has become domination.

We also see that many modern-day fundamentalist Christians reject the idea that the biosphere is just as valuable as humanity. (See, https://arcapologetics.org/culture/subdue-earth-bible-says-environment/.) These Christians still hold humanity above nature, because only humans were supposedly “created in God’s image.”  It follows that these Christians still reject the idea of “Deep Ecology, a doctrine which we Followers of The Growing, Organizing, Processes of Nature wholeheartedly support:

“Deep Ecology“ is an ecological and environmental philosophy promoting the inherent worth of living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs, plus a radical restructuring of modern human societies in accordance with such ideas. Deep ecology argues that the natural world is a subtle balance of complex inter-relationships in which the existence of organisms is dependent on the existence of others within ecosystems. Human interference with or destruction of the natural world poses a threat, therefore, not only to humans but to all organisms constituting the natural order.” (See the Wikipedia article, “Deep Ecology,” online, accessed 12-13-17.)

On an optimistic note, the following beautiful verse from Saint Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) tells us that many Christians down through the ages have and still do extend Jesus’ doctrine of universal love outward beyond humans to encompass all the creatures of the Earth, and even to Earth herself and to the Cosmos of all Creation.

Saint Francis of Assisi:

“Praised be you, my Lord, with all your creatures,
especially Sir Brother Sun,
who is the day and through whom you give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor;
and bears a likeness of you, Most High.
Praised be you, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,
in heaven you formed them clear and precious and beautiful.
Praised be you, my Lord, through Brother Wind,
and through the air, cloudy and serene, and every kind of weather
through whom you give sustenance to your creatures.
Praised be you, my Lord, through Sister Water,
who is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.
Praised be you, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
through whom you light the night, and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.”

— (Saint Francis of Assisi, Canticle of the Creatures, in Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, New York-London-Manila, 1999, pp 113-114. Quoted by Pope Francis I in Laudato Si, his Encyclical on The Environment and Human Ecology. See, https://laudatosi.com/watch).

So:  Weighing all the above verses and theological principles, can we say that all the above verses are enough to show that Jesus was an environmentalist?

Co-Creators in Our Nature-based Practice say “Yes and No.” They do show appreciation for the plants and animals of the Earth.  Moses’ rejection of worshiping specific animals (or idols of animals) shows a fledgling understanding of interconnected ecology.  But nothing was really known at the time about our present-day need to preserve the existence of and balance of the living creatures of Earth. Jesus even implies that human lives are more precious than the lives of the lilies (Matthew 6:28-30), which we do not believe is true.  So, while we can extrapolate Jesus’ doctrine of love to cover those concerns, that is insufficient.  We need new and modern secular-spiritual literature that has the preservation of Nature as a principal focus.

An Aside: Noah might be a better exemplar of environmentalism than Jesus because Noah fictionally saved all of Earth’s animals from an environmental disaster – the Great Flood.  Of course, this Great Flood story is so outlandish that it can only be taken metaphorically.  Alas, Noah did not save any plants – the sustainers of life on Earth (via photosynthesis), so one wonders what the animals had to eat when they got off the ark!

As we mentioned earlier, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all Abrahamic “desert” religions. All three of them evolved in a biological environment that is particularly hostile to humans. Consequently, these religions depict God as a person, a power, that is outside of and separate from nature. Life in “the desert” is often seen as God’s punishment: life is harsh because God is harsh, and God is harsh because people are so sinful.

In Beyond Geography, Frederick Jackson Turner, Professor of the history of the American West, argues that the goal of desert people has always been to find a land of “milk and honey,” whether in this life or in heaven.  ⁴⁹

This is very different from “God” as conceived in more plentiful biological environments – in Greece, in Celtic communities, in India, and in Native American communities living east of the Mississippi.  For these cultures, God is integrated into nature, and the religions were often Earth-centered.

An Aside: The science fiction work, The Windup Girl, about a post-hydrocarbon world of engineered foods and endemic plagues, features a new fictional religious doctrine called “niche-theology,” which proclaims that every living creature’s ecological niche is sacred. In the novel, this new faith exalts Noah to a place alongside Jesus. (The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi, won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for science fiction in 2009.)

Jesus and Slavery

Slavery in the Roman Empire was a fact of life. Most people of that time could not imagine a society without slaves. Some people did speak out against the mistreatment of slaves, and there were slave revolts, but no abolitionist movement existed.

Neither Jesus, nor St. Paul, nor any other Biblical figure is recorded as saying anything in opposition to the institution of slavery. Slavery was very much a part of life in Judea, Galilee, the rest of the Roman Empire, and elsewhere during New Testament times. The practice continued in the British Empire until the early 19th century, and it continued in the U.S. until the last half of the 19th century.

In Matthew 18:25, Jesus uses slaves in a parable and has no qualms about recommending that not only a slave but also his wife and family be sold.  In other parables, Jesus recommends that disobedient slaves should be beaten (Luke 12:47) or even killed (Matthew 24:51).

The most famous slave in the New Testament epistles (the Letters to Congregations written after Jesus’ death) is Onesimus, the slave of Philemon. In a short letter, Paul implores Philemon to receive Onesimus as “a beloved brother” (Philemon 16). However, whether Paul intended freedom for Onesimus is a matter of debate because Paul never explicitly requested his freedom. Other New Testament letters forcefully instruct slaves to obey their masters (Ephesians 6:5-8, Colossians 3:22-24, 1st Timothy 6:1-2, 1st Peter 2:18, Titus 2:9-10). Some passages tell masters to treat slaves better—an indication that some Christians treated their slaves poorly (Ephesians 6:9, Colossians 4:1).

Followers of Continuing Creation say — There is no place in today’s spiritual or secular-spiritual texts for a tolerance of slavery.  Slavery must be condemned in every historical time and place, and eliminated and outlawed in every modern time and place. Every verse in old religious texts that tolerates slavery should be color-coded or lined through to show that slavery and bonded servitude are no longer acceptable religious doctrines.

A Last Thought

Life is difficult, and if Christianity works for you, we have no desire to turn you away from it. But if you seek a different path, or if you have questions, consider Our Practice of Nature’s Continuing Creation.

_______________________________
      J.X. Mason   ContinuingCreation.org

APPENDIX A – Timeline of Christianity

Note:  References for much of the following Timeline from: The Birth of Jesus: Two Gospel Narratives, a Crossroads Mini-Course,” Boston College, at  http://www.bc.edu/schools/stm/crossroads/resources/birthofjesus/intro/the_dating_of_thegospels.html]

0-33 CE – Approximate years for the Crucifixion and Death of Jesus.

33-43 CE – “The Apostles spread Christianity to Jewish communities around the Mediterranean. The religion taught by Jesus grew first among the Jews in Judea. Then, the original Twelve Apostles, who accompanied Jesus as a living man, fan out to preach Jesus’ teachings to Jewish communities across the Mediterranean. The book of Acts reports that the early followers continued daily Temple attendance and traditional Jewish home prayer. Other passages in the accepted (canonical) Gospels mention reverence for the Torah (generally translated as “the Law” in English translations of the Bible) and observance of Jewish holy days.

33-100 CE – The “Apostolic Age.” Most of the Gospels are written based on oral retellings that include myths and fantastical stories.  These Gospels are attributed to the Apostles and their contemporaries, but they were usually written by later authors.

40-60 CE — Paul of Tarsus (St. Paul) begins preaching to Gentiles, starting in Antioch, then a major Roman city near today’s border between Turkey and Syria. [7] The new converts did not follow all Jewish Law and refused to be circumcised, [11] as circumcision was considered repulsive in Hellenistic culture (Greek culture from the time of Alexander the Great). [12] At the Council of Jerusalem, Paul (supported by Peter) argued that circumcision was not a necessary practice.[13] The council agreed, but deemed other aspects of “Jewish Law” to be necessary.

50’s CE – the “Q-Document” is written. Scholars believe that a now-lost gospel, dubbed the “Q-document,” was written about 50 C.E. We know that much of Matthew and Luke are based on the earlier Gospel of Mark. However, about 200 nearly identical passages appear in both gospels, Matthew and Luke, but not in Mark.  Scholars conclude these 200 passages must have come from a single earlier, now lost source — the “Q document.”

50-70 CE -The letters of Paul, written to several early Christian congregations between 50 CE and 70 CE, were among the first recorded Christian documents. However, since they do not tell the story of Jesus’ life or attempt to recount Jesus’ sayings, they are not considered “Gospels.”

55-58 CE — In Paul’s Letter (Epistle) to the Romans and the Gospel of John, Jesus the human sage and prophet is re-envisioned as the Son of God, and also as an indivisible part of God himself. Jesus’ original message of moral and spiritual reform is replaced by the doctrine that simply having true faith in Jesus’ correctness and divinity will guarantee a person’s entry into Heaven after death.

63-68 CE — the Apostles James, Peter, and Paul are killed. The deaths of these important church leaders likely encouraged the writing down of narratives about Jesus.

66-70 CE — Roman armies defeat the Zionist army and destroy Jerusalem and its Temple (the Second Temple), effectively ending a four-year Jewish revolt against the Empire.

77-110 CE — The Gospel of Mark probably dates from c. AD 66–70. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke date from around AD 85–90. The Gospel of John was most likely written around AD 90–110 CE. The author of Marik is unknown. This Gospel is judged to be independently authored – it does not draw on any known predecessor documents.70–100 CE – Gnosticism. Groups of Jewish/early Christian believers emphasized personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) above the orthodox teachings, traditions, and authority of religious institutions. Gnosticism generally presents a distinction between a supreme, hidden God and a malevolent lesser divinity (sometimes associated with the Yahweh of the Old Testament) [2] who is responsible for creating the material universe. Consequently, Gnostics considered material existence flawed or evil. They held that the principal element of salvation is direct knowledge of the hidden divinity, attained via mystical or esoteric insight.  Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment.

80s or 90s CE – The Gospels of Matthew and Luke are written, drawing on Mark and the now-lost Q-document as their main sources. Whenever Mathew and Luke agree, but there is no parallel in Mark, Q is the source. (Mark, Matthew, and Luke are together known as the Synoptic)

81-93 CE — The Book of Revelation is written — a nightmarish vision of apocalyptic violence intended to scare people into becoming disciples of Jesus and following the emerging doctrines of the Christian Church.

90-110 CE – The Gospel of John is written (not by John the Baptist or John the Apostle, but by an unknown author.) This Gospel reinforces and provides poetic grandeur for the theology in Paul’s Letter to the Romans. It is very different from Mark, Matthew, and Luke; it has Jesus speaking in long and eloquent lectures.  The Jesus Seminar scholars judge the Gospel of John not to have any sayings actually spoken by Jesus.

100-250 CE — In different parts of the Mediterranean, Jesus’ words are interpreted in different ways, giving rise to arguments between schools of Christian thought, including the Gnostics (100-250 CE), etc.

150 CE – The Gospel of Thomas is written. The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of 114 sayings of Jesus.  About half resemble those found in the Synoptic Gospels, and half are thought to come from Gnostic sources. (Many scholars say the Gospel of Thomas contains oral traditions from around the year 50.)  This gospel was discovered at Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945.

180 CE– Saint Irenaeus, a Bishop in Gaul (present-day France), issues his book Against Heresies – a detailed attack on Gnosticism. (Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

200-300 CE — The 2nd [100-200] and 3rd [200-300] centuries saw a sharp divergence from Christianity’s early roots. There was an explicit rejection of contemporary Judaism and Jewish culture by the end of the 2nd century, with a growing body of anti-Jewish literature.

299-303 CE – Roman Emperor Diocletian persecuted and killed Christians and also Manicheans (followers of a major post-Jesus religion teaching that the universe is a struggle between light and darkness).

305 CE – The Council of Elvira decides that “marriage be altogether prohibited to bishops, priests, and deacons, or to all clerics placed in the ministry, and that they keep away from their wives and not beget children; whoever does this, shall be deprived of the honor of the clerical office.” (Canon 33)

312 CE – Roman Emperor Constantine the Great converts to Christianity.

313 CE – Constantine issues the Edict of Milan, decreeing that Christians are free to practice their religion in the Roman Empire.

312-337 CE — Throughout his rule, Constantine supported the Church financially, built basilicas, granted privileges to clergy (e.g., exemption from certain taxes), promoted Christians to high office, and returned property confiscated during the persecution by the prior Emperor, Diocletian (244-311). Thus, Christianity gets a tremendous boost of money and organizational power. This is the main reason for Christianity’s growth and power, allowing it to become the world’s largest religion today.

325 CE – First Council of Nicaea. Constantine assembles nearly all Catholic Bishops and commands them to erase all major theological disagreements between them. The bishops do reach a consensus on key theological questions, many of which are reflected in the Nicene Creed.

346 CE – The first Christian monastery is established, in Egypt.

354-430 — The life of Saint Augustine, a.k.a. Augustine of Hippo – Famous Catholic theologian. Augustine took the view that if a literal interpretation contradicts science and humans’ God-given reason, the biblical text should be interpreted metaphorically. While each passage of Scripture has a literal sense, this “literal sense” does not always mean the Scriptures are mere history; at times, they are rather an extended metaphor. The Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden was a symbol of the order of creation.  Self-centeredness made Adam and Eve eat of it, thus failing to acknowledge and respect the world as it was created by God, with its hierarchy of beings and values.

380 CE — The Edict of Thessalonica, of Theodosius the First, makes Christianity the state church of the Roman Empire. As Christianity placed its stamp upon the Empire, the Emperor shaped the church for political purposes. (Charles Freeman (2008). A.D. 381 – Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State. ISBN 978-1-59020-171-8.)

405 CE – The 27 Books of the New Testament are canonized (formally adopted) by Pope Innocent I.

300-500 CE — Under Imperial influence, Christianity develops a strong, unified, and episcopal (bishop-governed) structure. It adopts a military-style chain of command, strict doctrine, and tight church law (canon law, ecclesiastical law). Non-orthodox interpretations of Christianity are suppressed as heresies.

451 CE — The Council of Chalcedon reasserts the teachings of the ecumenical Council of Ephesus against two heresies: one that tried to separate Christ’s divine nature from his humanity, and another that tried to portray Christ as solely divine in nature. [see wiki Council of Chalcedon, foots 1, 2, and 3.]

1054 CE — Split between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

1500 CE onward – The Protestant Reformation.

1517 CE – Martin Luther nailed his “95 Theses” to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany. The theses are severe critiques of the Roman Catholic Church, principally objecting to: (1) the ease of priestly forgiveness of sin, (2) the idea of purgatory, and (3) the church’s sale of indulgences promising to ease guilt and punishment after death.

1535-45 CE – Henry VIII Dissolves the Catholic Monasteries in England. The monastic lands (about 25% of England’s landed wealth) passed to the King, who granted much of it to his nobles.  (This was part of the Protestant Reformation in England.)

1545-1648 CE – The Counter-Reformation or The Catholic Reformation. The Catholic Church works on many fronts to reform itself and to counteract the influences of the Protestant Reformation.  It included extensive anti-corruption efforts, spiritual movements, and the creation of new religious orders, such as the Jesuits.  It included an expansion of the “Inquisition” (begun in the 12th century), which “examined” suspected heretics and witches and burned a number of them at the stake.  In Portugal and Spain, Jews and Muslims were forced to convert or emigrate.

1540 CE to the present day — The Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), a religious order of Catholic Priests. It was formed to energetically carry out the goals of the Counter-Reformation.  Jesuits became known for their robust health, intellectual abilities, and advanced academic educations – all useful in arguing against Protestantism and secularism. They are known as the “Soldiers of God.” Jesuits have formed and run many schools and universities. Jesuits have also performed difficult missionary work all over the world, particularly in Mexico, Central, and South America.

1600-1750 CE — the “Puritan” movement within Protestantism seeks to “Purify” the Church of England of “Roman Catholic practices. “Reformed” Churches such as the Presbyterians (particularly in Scotland).

1649-1659 CE – Following a civil war in England, generally between the Puritans and the nobility, and the execution of King Charles I in January 1649, the “Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland” is ruled as a Republic by Parliament and/or by Oliver Cromwell as “Lord Protector of the Republic.”

1660 CE –“The Restoration.” Charles I’s son, Charles II, is crowned King of Great Britain.

1738 CE – Origins of Evangelical Christianity.  Evangelism affirms the centrality of (1) being “born again,” in which an individual experiences personal conversion, (2) the inerrant and literal authority of the Bible as God’s revelation to humanity), and (3) the importance of spreading the Christian message to other people (i.e., “evangelizing”).

1820 CE to present day – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism). Its exaltation doctrine says that mortal families can be reunified after the resurrection, and that spiritual fathers and mothers can, after celestial marriage (“sealing ceremony”), have spirit children in the afterlife and inherit a portion of God’s kingdom.[96][107] The most significant LDS rituals can be performed via proxy in behalf of those who have died, such as baptism for the dead.

1820-1840 CE – American Transcendentalism Movement – An important Forerunner of Continuing Creation. Leaders include Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. A core belief is in the inherent goodness of people and nature. Transcendentalists saw divine experience inherent in the everyday, rather than believing in a distant heaven. Transcendentalists saw physical and spiritual phenomena as part of dynamic processes rather than discrete entities. [ wiki [foots 1,2, and 3.] (See our Essay, “Forerunners to Our Path & Practice.”)

1825 CE to the present – Unitarian Universalism. (See our Essay, “Forerunners to Our Path & Practice.”)

1886 – Discovery of the “Gospel of Peter” in the sands of Egypt.  This non-canonical gospel is widely thought to date from after the composition of the four canonical gospels. Scholars are divided as to the exact date of the text, with Dr. Bart Ehrman placing it in the first half of the 2nd century and considering it to have been compiled based on oral traditions about Jesus, independent of the canonical gospels.

1898 – Discovery of the “Gospel of Mary.  Scholars do not always agree on which of the New Testament people named Mary is the central character of the Gospel of Mary. Stephen J. Shoemaker and F. Stanley Jones have suggested that she may be Mary, the mother of Jesus other scholars say it is likely Mary Magdalene.

1945 CE – Discovery of the Nag Hammadi Library of early Christian and Gnostic texts near the town of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt.  Includes the complete Gospel of Thomas.

1946-56 – Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (a.k.a. the Qumran Cave Scrolls).  These are ancient Jewish and Hebrew manuscripts dating from the 3rd century BCE to 100 CE. They are not Christian documents. Archaeologists have long associated the scrolls with the ancient Jewish sect called the Essenes, although some recent interpretations have challenged this connection and argue that priests in Jerusalem, Zadokites, or other unknown Jewish groups wrote the scrolls.

1962-65 CE – Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (“Vatican II”). An extensive reform of the liturgy. Mass could now be said in native languages, not just in Latin. Gave a larger role in the church to Catholic laypeople. Opened dialogue with other churches.  Introduced the concept of religious freedom.  Allowed prayer with people of other religions.

1970’s – Gospel of Judas. The Gospel of Judas is a non-canonical Gnostic gospel. The content consists of conversations between Jesus and Judas Iscariot. It is widely thought to have been composed in the 2nd century (prior to 180 AD) by Gnostic Christians, rather than the historic Judas himself.  According to the text, Judas is the only one of Jesus’s disciples who accurately understands the words of his master. This Gospel contains few narrative elements; essentially, the Gospel records how Judas was taught by Jesus the true meaning of his message.

2015 CE – Pope Francis’ Laudato si’ Encyclical, (“Praise Be to You: On Care for Our Common Home.”) The pope critiques consumerism and irresponsible commercial and industrial development, laments environmental degradation and global warming, and calls all people of the world to take “swift and unified global action.” [see wiki on Laudato si’; foots 1 and 2]

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Footnotes to this Essay, # 22

1. Nadav Sharon, Judea under Roman Domination: The First Generation of Statelessness and Its Legacy, 2017, SBL Press
2. Tord Olsson, in Apocalypticism in the Mediterranean World and the Near East, David Hellholm, ed. Tubingen: Mohr, Siebeck, 1979; Quoted in John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, 1994, HarperCollins, p. 29.
3. John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, pp. 40-41.
4. Julius Wellhausen, The Pharisees and the Sadducees, 2001, Macon: Mercer University Press. ISBN 978-0-86554-729-2.
5. Oxford History of the Biblical World, Michael D Coogan, Editor, 1999, Oxford University Press, p. 350.
6. “Jewish Practices & Rituals: Mikveh. History and Archaeology,” Encyclopedia Judaica, 2008, Thomson Gale.
7. John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, 1994, Harper Collins, p. 116.
8. Farrand Sayre, The Greek Cynics, 1948, Furst. Also quoted in Crossan’s Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, p. 115.
9. John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, 1994, Harper Collins, p. 117.
10. F.F. Bruce, Second Thoughts on the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1956, Paternoster Press.
11. Flavius Josephus, History of the Jewish War against the Romans, 75 CE.
12. Robert Louis Wilken, The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity, 2012, Yale University Press.
13. Robert L. Webb, John the Baptizer and Prophet: A Socio-historic Study, 1991, Sheffield Academic Press.
14. Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, 1994, Harper, pp. 33-34.
15. Shaye I.D. Cohen, Professor of Judaic Studies, Brown University, “From Jesus to Christ,” on Frontline, PBS, Dec. 2020, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/
16. Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, p. 25
17. R.W. Funk, R.W. Hoover, and The Jesus Seminar, The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say, 1993, Polebridge Press, pp.1-34.
18. Bart D. Ehrman, How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee, 2014, HarperCollins, pp. 88-98.
19. The Five Gospels, p. 5.
20. The Five Gospels, pp. 10-15.
21. Bart Ehrman, How Jesus Became God, p. 88.
22. Bart Ehrman, How Jesus Became God, p. 127.
23. Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, 1994, Harper, pp. 49-50.
24. Tracy R., Rich, www.jewfaq.org/mashiach.htm.
25. Bart Ehrman, How Jesus Became God, pp. 65-66.
26. Bart Ehrman, How Jesus Became God, pp. 106-7.
27. Robert W. Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and The Jesus Seminar, The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? 1993, HarperCollins, p.40.
28. John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, p. 46.
29. R.W. Funk, R.W. Hoover, et al., The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? 1993, HarperCollins, p.40.
30. Gospel of Thomas 113, quoted in The Five Gospels, p. 136.
31. Bart D. Ehrman, How Jesus Became God, p. 111.
32. Funk, Hoover, et al., The Five Gospels, pp. 6-8.
33. Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, p. 55.
34. Henry Bamford Parkes, Gods and Men: The Origins of Western Culture, 1964, Alfred A. Knopf, p. 141.
35. Paula Fredriksen, “Did Jesus Oppose the Purity Laws?”, Bible Review, June 1995, pp 20-25.  Also, see Mark 1:40-45.
36. Christopher Hitchens, quoted in “30 Writers Speak About God,” Dr. J. Pararajasingham, editor, 2011, on YouTube,  http://www.youtube.com/user/JPararajasingham#grid/user/1548E4F5E1B15D46.
37. Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, 2012, Pantheon Books, pp. 190-192.
38. Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, 1994, Harper, pp. 99-100.
39. Stephen Prothero, God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World, 2010, HarperCollins, p. 116.
40. Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, p. 101.
41. Dominick Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, p. 60.
42. John Darby, Synopsis of Luke 14, at https://www.christianity.com/bible/commentary.php?com=drby&b=42&c=14. See also Crossan 58-60.
43. W. Forster, Palestinian Judaism in New Testament Times, 1964, Oliver and Boyd, London, p.124.
44. Stanley Grenz, Women in the Church: A Biblical Theology of Women in Ministry, 1995, InterVarsity, p.71.
45. Marvin Meyer, with Esther de Boer, The Gospels of Mary: The Secret Traditions of Mary Magdalene, the Companion of Jesus, 2004, Harper. Esther de Boer provides an overview of the source texts excerpted in an essay, “Should we all turn and listen to her? — Mary Magdalene in the spotlight”. pp. 74–96.
46. Ken Doyle, “Apostle to the Apostles: The story of Mary Magdalene,” Catholic Times, 11 September 2011.
47. Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, p. 64.
48. Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great, 2007, Twelve Hatchette Book Group, p. 118.
49. Frederick Turner, Beyond Geography: The Western Spirit Against the Wilderness, 1980, Rutgers, pp. vii-273.