This post we about the historical Jesus. Who was he? Did he or his followers create a new religion?
According to historical scholarship [sources: see at the bottom of this post] he practised what corresponds to today’s Orthodox Judaism all his life. His followers were called Netzarim – that is Hebrew [it means offshoot (of a olive tree)] and is a name in the Jewish Bible that is used for Messiah.

During the first century those who practised Judaism were very devoted their religion. Just like King David and all other Jews throughout history they practised Torah (Instruction) – the Instructions of the Creator – with joy! The most prominent university professors in this field Prof. Elisha Qimron , author of the most authoritative treatise on 4Q MMT, demonstrates that all three of the major sects of first century Judaism followed both written and oral Torah.

Louis Feldman (”The Omnipresence of the G*od-Fearers,” Biblical Archaeology Review, 1986.09-10, p. 45, 58ff) observes: “the Jews were apparently extraordinarily successful in winning converts”

Year 7 B.C.E Ribi Yehoshua were born in Bethlehem. His father name was Yoseif and his mothers name was Miriam. His parents were practising Jews.

According to world-recognized authorities in this area Ribi Yehoshua was a Pharisee (a Torah-practising Jewish group - who according to 4Q MMT practised both written and oral Torah). As the earliest church historians, most eminent modern university historians, our web site (http://www.netzarim.co.il) and our Khavruta (Distance Learning) texts confirm, the original teachings of Ribi Yehoshua were not only accepted by most of the Pharisaic Jewish community, he had hoards of Jewish students.

He took care of sick and made it popular to pray in what corresponds to today’s Orthodox synagogues. The genealogically non-priest, Hellenist “Wicked Priest” Temple-Sadducees felt that their power was threaten by Ribi Yehoshua.  They decided to get him crucified by the Romans. The Romans convicted and crucified Ribi Yehoshua year 30 C.E.

Ribi Yehoshua’s followers Netzarim were expelled from Jerusalem 135 C.E: together with all other Jews. The first Christian bishop Markos replaced the fifteenth leader of Netzarim. This Christian bishop didn’t have permission to do this. What the Paul the apostate and later the founder of Christianity did was to take some concepts that Ribi Yehoshua had taught; they distorted the concepts and included them in the religion which they practiced – Hellenism – the religion of the Greeks. (Sources: See Ecclesiastical History (EH IV.v.1-4; EH V.xii.1) )

Anyone educated in this field knows that the only sect of Judaism that had rabbis was the Pharisee and even the Christian NT described him as a rabbi. Parkes, Bagatti, Wilson, Charlesworth; all world-recognized authorities in this area leave no doubt that Ribi Yehoshua was a Pharisee, of the school of Hileil - who was also Pharisee. There is no serious dispute about that among scholars in the field. Ribi Yehoshua taught in “synagogues”; which were a strictly Pharisee institution.

Following the teachings of the Judaic Mâshiakh (Messiah) Ribi Yehoshua – that is doing one’s utmost to practice the 613 commandments of Torah - also brings the inner joy, purpose and happiness of working intimately with him to bring about, and participate in, the Messianic era, enjoying a higher level of communion with ha-Sheim - the Creator - as party to Yirmeyâhu’s (Jeremiah’s) New Covenant.

If you want to learn about the Historical Ribi Yehoshua, whom Orthodox Jews can live with (witness the Netzarim Jews in Raanana, Israel, members in good standing in an Orthodox synagogue), you must start with books like How Jesus Became Christian by Prof. Barrie Wilson (most bookstores) and Who Are The Netzarim? (publ. http://www.schuellerhouse.com) by Israeli Orthodox Jew, Paqid Yirmeyahu Ben-David.

From Anders Branderud
Geir Toshav, Netzarim in Ra’anana in Israel (http://www.netzarim.co.il) whom is followers of Ribi Yehoshua – the Messiah – in Orthodox Judaism

According to depth psychologist C G Jung, the question of the historical reality of Jesus is not of great importance. Although Jung himself believed that Jesus was a minor Jewish prophet, he thought that it could have been better if Jesus had not existed as a historically real person. This is because to Jung the real entity was the unconscious mind, Jesus and his teaching being ‘expressions from the unconscious’, and in that sense it would have been easier for the unconscious to express itself via an imaginary figure rather than having to foist its expression upon a historically real person (who might not adequately represent what had to be expressed).

Gunars

Anders B et al.,

Do you believe in the Trinity ?

Visu labu,

Hello Bruno

Your question about believing in the Trinity is not as simple and sraightforward as it might sound. From the perspective of the contemporary tendency to grant greater recognition to the female gender, the all-male ‘Trinity’ concept appears arguable, also, the depth psychologist C G Jung saw the quaternity as a better, more complete, symbol of totality than the Trinity, the Trinity, in a sense, symbolising a striving towards the quaternity. Also, a trinity, as a composite consisting of three pars, is one of the symbols of the Holy Spirit, and there may well be more such provisos and arguable points.

Personally, I accept the Trinity as symbolising a more complete wholeness than our psyche in its present state of evolution can grasp, and so, in a religious context, have no problems bending my knee before that concept.

Gunars

It is true that the triad is the basic unit in clos packing of circles in a plane. It is also true that the tetrahedron is the basic unit of close packing of spheres in space.  But why stop there?  Why not devise even higher-dimensional close packing units?  After all, God is an infinite being, living in space of infinite dimensions!!!

According to contemporary physics, particles such as electons, protons, etc. are composed of more elementary units, and so the question arises as to what are the most basic building blocks at the foundations of the life process, and in particular the human body. Part of the answer is that the (chemical) reactions in the human body are of the low energy kind, and so there is no need (in the context of the human body and its workings) to take interest in, for example, the high energy ‘atom smashers’.

The subject was approached by the depth psychologist C G Jung, who exchanged ideas and impressions with Wolfgang Pauli, one of the founders of quantum mechanics. Their letters have been collected and published by C A Meier in a book headed ‘Atom and Archetype’, which provides some interesting reading, particularly the writings by Pauli in the Appendixes section.

An interesting work in the above context is Part II of the Collected Works of C G Jung titled ‘Aion’ and subtitled ‘Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self’. It includes a symbolic drawing of the Trinity by a 12th century religious leader and mystic by the name of Joachim of Flora and seems to point to the DNA structure as a fundamental building block of the psyche.

Gunars

If you devolve (or peel) the surface of a cube on a two-dimensional plane, you get the Cristian cross.  If you fold that cross up in three dimensions, you get the surface of a cube.  I wonder if this points toward higher spiritual dimensions in Christianity?

Whether Jesus created a new religion, or St. Paul used Jesus to create a new religion is irrelevant outside the academic circles.  What is relevant is that the new religion was spectacularly successful in winning converts, and in laying the foundations for our way of life that has surpassed everything before it, materially, culturally and spiritually.