Posted on 04/07/2010 7:19:43 AM PDT by Palter
Jesus was the son of a middle-class, highly educated architect, according to a new book, which claims the previous belief that Joseph worked as a carpenter has distorted the Bible's meaning.
The book- The Jesus Discovery- claims that Jesus rose to become the most senior Rabbi of his time, thus explaining how he was able to exert such influence and why his teachings became such a concern to the authorities.
Author Dr Adam Bradford, who works as a GP, drew his conclusions after studying and comparing the original Greek and Hebrew scriptures, as well as using human psychology to analyse the behaviour towards Jesus as depicted in the Bible.
Biblical scholar Dr Bradford said: "Jesus's high ranking position as a Jew seems to have been written out of history but in fact it makes more sense of the Bible.
'If Jesus was the son of a poor itinerant carpenter with some radical ideas nobody would have been that concerned about what he said.
'But, because Jesus was trained up to become the most educated Jew of his time it gave him the chance to exert extraordinary influence and let him get away with acts that normal Jews would have been imprisoned or chastised for.
'For example, when Jesus turned the money changers out of the temple there is no mention in the Bible of the police guards getting involved or there being a backlash. The money changers were an essential part of gaining revenue for the Temple so if Jesus was an ordinary Jew he would have been arrested or physically attacked.
'Christ enjoyed social privileges that would not have been available to an uneducated itinerant carpenter.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I guess you could say that. God did architect the universe.....
Read as "as well as making stuff up to sell a book"
Yeah, that whole "Son of God" things had nothing to do with his ability to influence others.
My theory is that Joseph was a fisherman until the wise men from the East came to the family, gave them a sizable chunk of wealth, and begged them to flee.
Joseph took his family to Egypt, apprenticed himself to a carpenter using the wealth the Eastern Kings gave him, and returned to Galilee where he built boats for the fishermen.
I believe he was a poor man who became a skilled craftsman.
Art Vandelay? ;)
:::rolls eyes:::
John 7:15 — “The Jews therefore marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” This seems to indicate that Jesus was not formally trained. His followers called him Rabbi as a courtesy.
>> If Jesus was the son of a poor itinerant carpenter with some radical ideas nobody would have been that concerned about what he said.
... until the “son of a poor carpenter” starts raising people from the dead. Miracles performed on command tend to draw attention ... even to idnviduals who are otherwise unlikely to be listened to.
SnakeDoc
You beat me to it!!!
My understanding is that the word that has been translated “carpenter” in our English bibles actually means “builder” and that, since most buildings in that time were of stone, he was more likely a stone mason.
Attempts to portray Jesus as anything other than an average Jew from a modest family in a nondescript town is counter to what scripture says.
“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
Ummmmm, Jesus WAS arrested and physically attacked. And I don't believe He had a "high position" either.
I guess that's one definition of "Messiah".
I suppose if you take God out of the equation this guy's thesis makes sense, but that's a mighty big 'if'.
Yes he was.
He was the Son of the Great Architect.
this is horse hockey where’d he go? RISD? MIT? Princeton? Harvard?
In my new book coming out later this Spring, I make the argument that Jesus was Irish.
‘Attempts to portray Jesus as anything other than an average Jew from a modest family in a nondescript town is counter to what scripture says.’
Shrug, if he was poor, a ‘Rabbi’, and such does not change the reason he came to Earth.
You mean my wife is really saying to me "O'Christ" and not "Oh, Christ?"
CS Lewis had interesting things to say about “taking God out of the equation”. If we see Jesus as merely a great teacher, then we are left with nothing but a crazy man who walked around claiming to be God. Who needs such a meshuga for a teacher?? Either Jesus is the Son of God or he is someone best ignored. The middle position — that he was a Great Rabbi — is untenable.
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