Lessons they Never Taught you in Sunday School
The purpose of this study is to explore the aspects of the Christo-Pauline bible, and to focus on things which have traditionally been ignored by the churches, passages and points which your average Wednesday-night college bible study group would carefully avoid mentioning.
What your Sunday School Teacher never told you
This all began one day when I was reading my bible... one with small concordances enscribed on each page.
Concordances in all bibles are biased cross-references, attempts by people to guide you through the scriptures as they see fit, in accordance with their opinions of the meanings of things.
This document is likewise a cross-reference, but one which points out things the others don't.
In the Beginning: Jesus Blessed by Wizards (Matt 2:1)
For all the concern over witchcraft by Fundamentalist Christians today, people seem to have overlooked the fact that the "wise men" who visited and blessed Jesus at his birth were in fact wizards. The word used is the Greek, "magoi" or the Latin "magi", and they were no "kings from the orient", and the Christmas song goes. They were wizards.
Abominations
If you look in the dictionary, the word "magi" means sorcerer, wise man, magician, stargazer, astrologer. "Wizard" means "wise man" (There's no coincidence in the spellings). In biblical times, such people conjured the powers of the stars and followed them... they predicted events, told fortunes, and were believed to tap unearthy powers. For Matthew to claim that they had been attracted by a star above Bethlehem (Matt 2:1) was understandable. But, the fact remains that these were wizards, soothsayers, interpreters of signs and times, one-and-the-same according to G0D in Deuteronomy 18:11. And, these people are flatly called abominations.
From the beginning, Jesus had connections to the world of wizardry. As his career progressed, Jesus conjured up at least one spirit of a dead man, Lazarus, and brought it back into his body. He also communicated with evil spirits in his attempts to draw them out of possesed people. Even if for a good cause, this is the very definition of necromancy, the conjuring of or communicating with spirits in order to cause something to happen. Necromancy is uncatagorically forbidden by G0D in Deuteronomy (2nd Numbers) 18:11. In the same stroke, G0D also forbids those who "observe the times", wise men, soothsayers, interpreters of signs. But, Jesus both observed the times and taught his followers to observe their signs (Matt 16:3, Matt 24:3-33)!
The New Testament:
An Account from 30+ year memoriesBefore continuing, it may be worth pointing out that the New Testament books were written many years after the events they claim to report. St. Paul's letters were the first, written at least 20 years after Jesus's execution. The earliest gospel story is Mark's, written a little over 30 years later. Matthew's was written 35 years later, Luke's was nearly 45 years later, and St. John's was written around 70 years later. There are even later gospels, such as the Gospel of Thomas, but the Christian church has squelched most of these because too many elements in them didn't fit in with dogmas which the early Church had crafted up to that time. In other words -- Politics.
Until their writing, the events the Gospels and Letters describe were "known" only as a matter of memory, for 30 or more years, memory most likely influenced by Church doctrine and politics that had already developed. And, if memories themselves were not influenced, what got finally written down on paper was. And, beyond what got written down on paper, which of these got officially accepted by the Church certainly was.
Let me state now that when I refer to the gospel-writer "St. Matthew", I am including the person(s) who originally wrote the Matthew gospel story, and also the person(s) who translated it into Greek before we lost the original (Aramaic or Hebrew) copies, and all the hand-copiers scribes and person(s) who may have added or removed a bit, here or there, down through the centuries before we arrived at the oldest surviving copy we have today. Same is true for all of the other writers of the New Testament.
Morning Star
"Lucifer" is the Latin word for "Light Bringer", first star of the morning, and was once used in the translation of Isaiah 14:12.
Isaiah 14:12
How you are fallen from heaven, O Morning Star, O Son of Morning Light! ... You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven, above the stars of G0D, I will set my throne on High!"For this passage, the Bible's concordance gave a few references to passages mentioning Satan. Not unexpected. But, then it referred to Revelation 22:16,
Revelation 22:16
I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and I am the bright and Morning Star.I sat looking at the similarities, astonished. Was Jesus a type of Tyre? Then, I read on...
Ascend to Heaven, Brought down to Grave: Vainity of the Heart
In John 3:13, 6:22, and Luke 18:33, just to name a few, Jesus said he would ascend to heaven and take his throne.
ISA 14:13-15
You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven, above the stars of G0D, and will set my throne on High... I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be as the Most High." Yet you will be brought down to the grave, to the sides of the pit.And, Jesus was indeed brought down to the grave for declaring himself G0D and holy king, I noted.
Ezekiel's description of Pharoah's fate read like a foreshadowing, or type, of Jesus at his execution.
Ezekiel 32:5-6
And I will put your flesh upon the hill, and put into the valley your dead body. I will also water with your Blood the land wherein you swam, even to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of you.Jesus was killed atop the hill of Golgotha, Place of Skulls.
Darkness on the Land
Ezekiel 32:7-8
And when I shall put you out, I will cover the heavens, and make the stars of heaven dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over you, and set darkness upon your land, said the Lord G0D.Luke 23:44-45
And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn down the middle.The Earth did Shake
Returning to Isaiah, we find,
Isaiah 14:16
They who see you shall narrowly look at you, saying, "Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that shook kingdoms?"Matt 27:50-51
Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, gave up the ghost. And, the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks fell!As for people looking at Jesus, St. John noted this too:
John 19:37
And again another scripture said, "They shall look at him whom they pierced."A Type Babylon
In fulfilling messianic prophecies, it's common for Paulians to say that although Jesus may not have fulfilled various prophecies while he was alive the first time, that he will do so when he returns for his second try. That came to mind as I read,
Isaiah 14:17
"He who made the world like a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?"I recalled Jesus announcing his plan to bring the terrible tribulation to the world with his army of angels, (Matt 13:40), and through his follower Paul, saying that prisoners should remain prisoners if that is the state in which they were when they were called (1st Corinthians 7:20).
Removed from the Grave: The Abominable Branch
Isaiah 14:18-19
All the kings of the nations, all of them, lie in glory, every one buried in his own house. But you are removed from your grave, the Abominable Branch...Jesus has often been called the "Branch" (John 15:1, Rev 5:5) because the Messiah had traditionally been identified as the "Branch of David" (Jeremiah 23:5). But, although Jesus was adopted (according to Matthew) into the Branch of King David's ancestry, it was the Cursed Branch -- the Abominable Branch that went through through evil kings Jehoiakim and Jechoniah (see Jeremiah 22), whose lines are both cursed and forbidden to succeed on the throne.
And, in Matt 27:64, Jesus's body was removed from its grave by either his alleged resurrection or, possibly, grave robbers (claims of there being guards posted not-withstanding).
Impaled with a Spear
Isaiah 14:19
And as the clothes of those that are slain, who are pierced through with a sword, like those who go down to the stones of the pit; like a carcass trodden under feet.John 19:34
But one of the soldiers pierced his (Jesus's) side with a spear, and out of it squirted blood and water.Slain your People
Isaiah 14:20
You shall join with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, and slain your people; the seed of evildoers shall never be honoured.I noted that Jesus did not join his people in burial. Jesus died without any recorded seed (children), and the only "seed" that did grow from him, the Paulian church, in the years to come, would slay and persecute Jesus's people, the Jews, and many of its own who would not convert or even agree in matters of church doctrine for centuries. And, Jesus's own claim to kingship did contribute to bringing down the wrath of the Romans on Israel.
Trouble with Idols: A Type of Tyre
One of the things that G0D forbids is idols, worship using images gods or even of G0D himself (Exodus 20:4 and Leviticus 26:1). Man, as it is written, was created as an image of G0D (Genesis 1:27). And, so, worshipping a man as G0D is idolatry.
After all, G0D himself says that "G0D is not a man" (in Isaiah 2:22, 14:13, I Samuel 15:29, Numbers 23:19, and Hosea 11:9).
And to those who declare themselves G0D, G0D had already said,
Ezekiel 28:2
...say to the prince of Tyrus, Thus says the Lord G0D; Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am G0D, I sit at the seat of G0D, in the midst of the seas; yet you are a Man, and not G0D, though you claimed your heart to be the heart of G0D:The following passage brought to mind Jesus before Pilate:
Ezekiel 28:9-10
Will you say before him that slays you, "I am G-d"? but you are a man, and no god, in the hand of him who slays you. You shall die the deaths of the uncircumcised, by the hand of Gentiles: for I have spoken it!So, it is not difficult to see why there was opposition to anyone who was declared G0D. But, one of the first things St. Paul did when forming his doctrines was to declare Jesus an idol, an image of G0D (II Corintians 4:4). And, someone, at some point, declared Jesus as G0D.
Ironically, the crucifiction that followed was the indeed the "death of the uncircumcised" (the Romans), a punishment issued by Romans and typically reserved only for their enemies.
Isaiah 53 vs Ezekiel 28
Isaiah 53 and its surrounding chapters describe the suffering of the nation of Israel while its people are in exile in Babylonia. It is personified as the "Suffering Servant" of G0D. But, the prophecy-hungry St. Matthew recognised similaries between its descriptions and what the Early Christo-Paulians could remember of Jesus's execution. And, even though the surrounding chapters in Isaiah specifically state that the Suffering Servant is Israel, St. Matthew went so far as to violate context and cite Isaiah 53 as being a prophecy of Jesus.
Lest this impress the casual reader, keep in mind that not all the passages in Isaiah 53 even remotely match Jesus. In Isaiah 53:9, the Suffering Servant is said to have made his grave with others, and been innocent of violence and deceit. But, Jesus was buried alone, preached a violent slaughter, and taught in parables and secrecy so that some wouldn't understand (Matt 13:36).
The reader should note that the passages in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 and 32 fit the description of Jesus even better than those of Isaiah 53. All these passages have their original historical contexts, but if it's permissible to take them out of context, then this applies accross-the-board to Eze 28, Eze 32, and Isa 14 as well.
Paul's Angel of Light
Hearing Voices and Seeing Lights
Many of the earliest founders of the Christo-Paulian church never knew Jesus personally. St. Paul based his entire position on an encounter he had with voices he heard and bright lights.
In attempting to gain credibility, St. Paul says he was blinded by a big light which he assumed to be the dead Jesus (Acts 9:3). In telling this, St. Luke and St. Paul bear witness against each other:
ACT 9:3-7
And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why persecute me? And he said, Who are you, lord? And the lord said, I am Jesus whom you persecute: it is hard for you to kick against the pricks. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one.Then, when St. Luke reports Paul himself telling this story, Paul contradict's Luke's story:
Acts 22:6-9
And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and came near to Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me. And I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And I answered, Who are you, lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute. And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they did not hear the voice of him who spoke to me.Did Paul's companions hear the voice or not? Apologisers for the New Testament have sanitized the reading by re-translating the word "hear" in Acts 22:9 to read, "understand".
Paul even recognises an Angel of Light as Satan in 2 Cor 11:14. And, an Angel of Light is identified in Isaiah 14 as Tyre, the Morning Star (or Lucifer), who is the enemy of G0D, fallen from heaven for claiming to ascend to heaven. Oddly, Paul, even before he even thinks he knows who his Big Light is, addresses it as "lord".
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