Most of the contradictions and confusions we have pointed
out—of which there are many more—have either been ignored by the
conventional scholars, or were unknown before the discoveries of the Nag
Hammadi and the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1940’s, and the archeological
discoveries since. There is no consecutive history to be found in its
wildly discrepant stories. What value it has lies in its esoteric
content, to be gleaned from a deep study, for instance of the Kabbalah,
although much of such content is now available from more accessible
sources.
As Ahmed Osman however is not deeply into esotericism, we
can correct his conclusions from such sources. The most obvious point
is of course the common confusion of Jesus with Christ. Although there
may have been a historical Jesus at some point, the Christ is a
principle that lives within each human being, and may have been awakened
in that Jesus.
H.P.Blavatsky, for instance, concedes a possible physical original when
she says: “Jesus, the Christ-God, is a myth concocted two centuries
after the real Hebrew Jesus died”[xii].
In this case she is referring to Jeshu Ben Pandira, who is mentioned
in many ancient sources. Her pupil, scholar G.R.S. Mead, wrote a book
entitled Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.?[xiii]
wherein he investigates the Talmud stories and other MSS like the later
“Toldoth Jeschu MS”. It says in the latter that Jesus lived about a
century earlier, in the reign of Alexander Jannaeus and his wife Salome
at Lud.
Told
that many scholars dispute this, H.P.B. wrote: ”I say the scholars
are either lying or talking nonsense. Our Masters affirm the
statement. If the story of Jehoshua or Jesus Ben-Pandira is false, then
the whole Talmud, the whole Jewish Canon is false. He was the
disciple of Jehoshua Ben Perahiah, the fifth President of the Sanhedrin
after Ezra who re-wrote the Bible. Compromised in the revolt of
the Pharisees against Jannaeus in 105 B.C., he fled into Egypt
carrying the young Jesus with him. This account is far truer than that
of the New Testament which has no record in history.”
[xiv]
The
maze of references and stories all tend to point to some figure of
around that time who is sometimes seen as a spiritual teacher—like the
Teacher of Righteousness in the Qumran MSS—and sometimes as a kind of
sorcerer or a political fanatic, but whom H.P.B. calls an Initiate.[xv]
Incidentally, there is historical record that this Jannaeus,
when he overcame the Pharisees in 88 B.C.E. mercilessly slaughtered
reportedly 50,000 of them, crucified 800 prisoners, and had the throats
of their wives and children cut in front of them, while another 8000
rabbis fled Judaea. Perhaps the “slaughter of the innocents” was a
distortion of this story, remembering too that initiates were often
called “innocents” or “infants”.[xvi]
Pinehasy/Phineas turns up in various scriptures. In the Old Testament
he appears several times: once as a follower of Joshua, and at least
twice as the avenger for the Lord—although the disproportionately
extreme punishments he inflicts make one wonder how this ”Lord” could
ever be considered worthy of veneration.[xvii]
The Talmudic rabbis later claimed that “Pinhas killed Jesus”[xviii]
and the
Qumran
Essenes identified him as “the Wicked Priest” who persecuted and may
have killed the Teacher of Righteousness.[xix]
Rudolf Steiner forestalls the whole debate by saying that Jeshu ben
Pandira, 100 B.C., was an incarnation of the Bodhisattva Maitreya, sent
to prepare Christ’s Incarnation. But he naturally can give no
evidence of that Incarnation.
Paul is the only contemporary apostle definitely
identifiable as a historical figure, and he clearly states that he never
met Jesus in the flesh: his encounter with Christ, on the road to
Damascus, was a purely spiritual one. The impact of that however was
such that it sent him into the desert for three years to digest it.
From then on, he speaks of dying daily, and “not I, but Christ in me”,
in a way that shows him an Initiate.
Historians, looking back from the perspective of a Christian
culture, regard Akhenaten as “the first monotheist”, even “the first
modern man”, who brought the tradition-bound Egyptian religion down to
earth and introduced naturalistic art into the temples. In fact,
however, he tried to drag down the Egyptian mysteries to the level shown
in what the Jews actually made of their religion.
Although the name Aten was used for the visible disc of the
sun, in truth, Aten—earlier Atum-- was the Egyptian name for the
Absolute, the impersonal principle behind all gods and manifestations,
as was JHVH in its original meaning. This true meaning however was kept
as an esoteric secret, in both cases. This is why there was no image
for Aten in Amarna. But this is also the real reason for the hostility
of the other priests to Akhenaten. They felt he was betraying this
secret by making it exoteric. And Panehesy/Phineas, apparently
understanding only the exoteric version, killed Tutankhamun because he
believed the young pharaoh was no longer upholding the primacy of Aten
as the only god.
Thus
he was making the same mistake as the Hebrews, degrading Aten into a
personal god--hence putting him on the same level in their minds as the
other gods--but at the same time claiming the attribute properly
belonging only to Aten as the Absolute, to be “above” all gods.
Already from the very beginning of the Hebrew story of their involvement
with Egypt,
a false note is struck when it is said that Abraham feared that the
pharaoh would kill him to get his wife, Sarah. Surely he must have
known that no pharaoh would touch another man’s wife. The suspicion
arises that the story is trying to conceal the fact that Abraham lied
in order to get his wife pregnant by the pharaoh and so get a claim
on the throne. In support of this version is the point that even when
the pharaoh discovers the truth, he does not kill him but—evidently
appalled--sends them off with gifts.
Historically the involvement of the Hebrews with Egypt
goes back to the invasion of Egypt
by the Hyksos around 1630 B.C. Although variously described, the Hyksos
seem to have been Semitic, and ruled Egypt
for over a century, until they were driven out and the New
Kingdom
established in 1575 B.C. As we said Akhenaten/Moses left in the Exodus
in 1335 B.C.
We
see thus that there was a long but in the end unsuccessful attempt by
the Hebrews to take over Egypt, and then the story of this was written
up in their scriptures as an elaborate fiction, designed to justify
themselves as a chosen people. Dates, names and places were drastically
altered, and the Egyptians demonized as oppressors. A religion was
established, maintained still today, of which many of the rituals and
festivals are purely a commemoration of these supposed events.
In
time then, these fictional scriptures were taken up by the new Christian
religion as the basis for their claim to have the Messiah—although Jesus
did not even fulfil the Jews’ prerequisites for a Messiah. The Old
Testament was linked onto the New Testament, providing contradictions
and problems ever since. And now two thousand years later, sects of
both religions abound, with a long history of abusing each other.
