Weekend Economists Pull the Easter Rabbit Out of the Hat April 18-20, 2014

[Demeter]

3. Supplements to Eric Zuesse's Christ's Ventriloquist by Edward Jones

http://www.viewzone.com/ventriloquest.html

Crucial new understandings of the "Jesus Puzzle" made possible by present historical and scientific methods and knowledge.

Ogden: "We now not only know that none of the writings of the OT is prophetic witness to Christ, we also know that none of the writings of the NT is apostolic witness to Jesus." This is a historical judgment based on historical evidence determined by an insider of the Guild of NT Studies. Eric Zuesse : "The religion of the NT actually has nothing to do with the person of the historical Jesus." This is a scientific judgment based on scientific evidence determined by an outsider. Hence we now have conclusive evidence, both from the methodologies of historicity and science, that the writings of the NT, Paul's letters, the Gospels, as well as the later writings of the NT, are not sources for knowledge of Jesus.

Our most certain historical evidence can only come from within the Guild of NT Studies, even as our best scientific evidence can only come from outside. No evidence, historical or scientific, is presented to question that we have NT source of apostolic witness to Jesus. Only from within the Guild of NT Studies might a scholar have acquired sufficient competence in its areas of special knowledge, which necessarily applies if one is equipped to fully access the historical evidence necessary to identify this NT source of apostolic witness to Jesus.

As Eric Zuesse's probe demonstrates, full historical details of origins of Jesus traditions during the years 30-65, can only be accessed by historical scholars from within the Guild. E.g., Eric's probe fails to recognize that there were two distinctly different movements of earliest Jesus traditions, each with its own understanding of the significance of Jesus, marked by "an extraordinarily intimate, more precisely adversarial, relationship" (Betz). Both were pre Christian, pre Gospel, partly pre Pauline.

Paul was never a member of the first, the Jerusalem Jesus movement from which is derived our sole source of apostolic witness to Jesus. Paul was persecutor of the second movement, which soon followed the first, a pre Pauline Hellenist movement which introduced the notion that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah whose significance was the salvific effects of his death and resurrection, which abrogated the Torah. This in effect was treason for Temple authorities.

Paul is introduced as a participant in an apparent put down by Temple authorities of some kind or anti Torah demonstration, holding the garment of those casting the stones in the Acts story of the stoning of Stephen, a leader in this Hellenist group. Next we find Paul as persecutor of this group, having his "vision" on the road to Damascus to where the Hellenist group fled, resulting in his conversion to this group from which he received his Christ myth gospel. In taking his Christ myth gospel to the Gentile world first to Antioch, meeting with much success, this had the effect of severing Jesus from his teaching and his Jewish roots. The Gospels were written by followers of Paul's Christ Myth gospel. All of these developments are sufficiently documented in the NT.