The “Jesus” question - So what’s in a Name?

It is often interesting to me that there was a time when I once believed in “Jesus.” I would often profess my “truth” and try to convince others (sometimes adamantly) that I had the greater knowledge. Today I have a very different view which had its beginnings rooted in a very direct traumatic personal experience. I was not “educated” away from my religion of birth nor did I just “fall away” as some who know me might presume.

Today I’m still amazed at what I used to believe to be true and what I now perceive or view as a relative reality. However, I’m even more surprised at how many people of faith (primarily any religion where ‘fundamentalism’ exists) seem to be so fixated only on “their truth” that it is often at the expense of others to a greater or lesser degree. In the case of those who believe in ”Christ” I’m fascinated that most are unaware of the fictional origins of the name “Jesus”; much less do they really know anything about the mystical wisdom of the Jewish teacher who existed over 2000 years ago. And I’m even more surprised when they appear to”know” the truth, but consider it inconsequential because for them it’s a matter of ‘faith alone.’ Where’s the common sense in holding to such belief without a balance or being rooted in common sense? Where’s the innate respect for self and others that derives itself from an inner divine spirituality rather than the inhumanity that is often expressed through egoic behavior and then justified in the outward religiosity?

First let me indicate here that it is widely accepted that the person who today many call by the name of ”Jesus” claim to refer to an individual who did live, was of Jewish birth and actually practiced Judaism in some form as it then existed over two millennia ago. These historical “facts” (at least as they are interpreted presently) are universally agreed upon by many scholars today. What most fail to realize is that the person to whom they are referencing would not even know the name of nor answer to “Jesus.” This is because the common language of the day was Aramaic (a close sister language to Hebrew) and the sacred language was (and still is) Hebrew; and the practice among Jews then, as it is today, would be to give their children Hebrew names.

The location of Israel has always been a pivotal place for travel and commerce and so is very multicultural. As a result, even 2000 years ago you had Roman’s, Greeks and many other foreigners who brought with them their own native languages to the Holy Land. Nevertheless, the name Jesus would not have existed in any spoken or written language of the day as the letter “J” had not yet been invented (it developed about 500 years ago). Without going into great depth on a subject that is so well researched (you can find this information almost anywhere on the internet or in linguistic journals), suffice it to say the English “Jesus” was derived from the Latin “Iesus” which came from the Greek “Iesous” which was a mis-translation of the Hebrew Yeshua. Further the word “Christ” is not even a name but a title that derives from the Greek “Khristos” meaning the anointed one which is a translation of the Hebrew “Moshiach” which also refers to the “anointed one”; although the meaning in Hebrew may be somewhat taken out of context relative to the apparent similar Greek reference.

What you have in today’s world is many people claiming to believe in a ‘Jesus Christ’ which is somehow supposed to refer to a Jewish teacher of 2000 years ago whose probable real name was Yeshua Ben Yosef (or Joshua son of Joseph in modern English). This has created at least two problems. First, we have hundreds of millions of people making the claim to believe in what is really a non-existent name and person (since no such person by that ‘name’ existed). Second, we have Jewish people who don’t recognize or even want to be associated to such a non-Jewish name and so have been distanced from this Hebraic teacher as the “Jewishness” has been stripped away.

So what to do? Well as a Jew, I believe the Jewish people need to take back the Jewish identity and relevant Jewish mystical teachings of Yeshua Ben Yosef. This already appears to be happening although it is a very slow process. Nevertheless I’ve sometimes heard general references in Jewish circles made about this Judaic wisdom teacher of 2000 years ago. As Jews we could and should do more to reclaim his identity in the original Hebraic ‘frame’. The task is challenging because so much of what Yeshua taught does not come to us through Hebrew or even Aramaic writings, but rather Greek text and those were written much later, however, I do believe it is possible given that in addition a few”non-Christian” source texts do exist (mostly apocryphal, but at least they’re not as “Christianized” as the so called ‘canonized’ works).

As for the Christians? Perhaps the real shift here (and it’s a big one) is to accept the fact that Christianity itself was not founded by Yeshua Ben Yosef since he created no “new” religion. But rather that Christianity arose through some supposed followers who came later – particularly Paul (Saul) a Roman citizen who had a ‘vision’ while on the road to Damascus. It could be said that the foundations of modern Christianity are really based in Paul’s writings (as also reinterpreted by later gentile theologians). Yes there is a spattering of Yeshua’s teachings in Christian ideas, but what he taught was, from a certain perspective, esoteric Judaic wisdom (Hebraic mysticism) and this is not found in the “structure” of Christianity as it exists today. You will usually find a deep commonality and understanding among all the various mystical paths and teachers whether they be Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Islam or others, but authentic spiritual mysticism transcends the usual rigid “frame” of religion and is really a subject for another time. Presently I am discussing here the structure of religion which is inherently full of lies and distortions. The name of “Jesus” is one of the most obvious “falsehoods” and because I came from that place, I have a certain personal knowledge and experience from which to ’speak’.

This entry was posted on 15. March 2008 at 10:04 and is filed under Spirituality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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