'Jesus's Wife' papyrus fragment not a forgery, scientists say

[leftyladyfrommo]

66. The Gospel of Thomas is about 50AD. He claims he is Jesus twin.

Last edited Sat Apr 12, 2014, 10:33 AM - Edit history (1)

That was only 20 years after Christ's death. The Gospel of John was not too long after that.

The Gospel of Thomas is strictly a "sayings" Gospel and it records only the sayings of Jesus. It does not mention anything about him being God, or being crucified. It is just a list of sayings attributed to Jesus when he was teaching.

The Gospel of John however does refer to Christ as a Messiah with all the stuff that goes along with that. I think that book is dated to about 90AD.

Marvin Meyer, one of the country's foremost authorities on early Christianity who died in 2012, believed that Jesus was a "wisdom teacher." It is form or Rabbi who teaches. It is not the sort of Rabbi that one would find in a synagogue. The Jewish faith has a long tradition of wisdom teachers.

There is so much early information that refers to Christ that I don't think scholars doubt his existence. His brother, James the Just, was the head of the church in Jerusalem. He was a very respected man and other historians mention him. He wore all white, non animal fibers and was a strict vegetarian. That sounds like he had close ties to the desert fathers or the Essenes. I don't think there is any question that John the Baptist actually existed and he and his mother, Elizabeth, had a close relationship with Jesus and his mother.

At least one of the early gospels that I was reading here recently states that John the Baptist was orphaned at an early age. Jesus and his mother went out and spent time with him, teaching him to survive in the desert. John and Elizabeth had gone to the desert when John was an infant to get out of the way of Herod's killing of all the male infants.

There are also a ton of other Gospels out there that weren't included in the official cannon. I don't think you can ignore all of that.

It's really interesting stuff.