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Was Jesus Cursed by God for being ‘Hung on a Tree’ for being a Magician?
Writing on how Early Christians found themselves defending Jesus from an accusation that might ring strange today—that he was a magician. The scholar, Prof. Moss, wrote: Then of course there is the resurrection, the most important supernatural event in the Christian Bible. Some theologians argue that the resurrection is a unique event that distinguishes Jesus from other human beings who were either temporarily brought back to life (like Lazarus) or were taken up into heaven alive. While we don’t actually know if ancient audiences cared about the permanency of the resurrection, they were impressed when people could raise the dead. It’s something of which the philosopher Empedocles was apparently capable, and a wandering healer called Apollonius of Tyana could also bring the deceased back to life.
This isn’t to say that all of these men were wizards, but rather that the ability to heal, break the laws of physics, or cheat death wasn’t confined to early Christians. Most interesting of all, no one, not even monotheists like the early Christians, disputed that members of rival groups could do these sorts of things. They just claimed that their own methods and sources of power were superior. In the Gospels, Jesus’ rivals accuse him of being possessed by a demon and use this to explain how he performs exorcisms. There are also mentions of people unaffiliated with Jesus casting out demons in his name. Apparently, you didn’t have to be baptized or a follower of Jesus to utilize his power.
In 1978, Columbia historian Morton Smith published Jesus the Magician, in which he argued that Jesus was one of many ancient magicians and that his ministry is best understood as wonderworking. He argued that while healing the sick, exorcizing demons, turning water into wine, multiplying bread, and walking on water read to us as signs of Jesus’s divine nature, in his own time he sounded like a magician. If you transplanted Jesus to Hogwarts, it seems, he wouldn’t even stand out. There are even examples of early Christian artwork that seem to confirm this theory. Stone reliefs on ancient Christian sarcophagi and the walls of the catacombs beneath Rome regularly show Jesus (and sometimes Peter) healing people while holding or even pointing with something that looks very much like a wand. In actual fact, he’s holding a staff and even though we might also associate that with Tolkien’s wizards, it was more likely a way of connecting Jesus to the biblical prophet Moses. [Was Jesus a Wizard? Is Actually a Serious Scholarly Question— Candida R. Moss is an English public intellectual, journalist, New Testament scholar and historian of Christianity, who is the Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology in the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Birmingham.]
I have already mentioned the late Prof. Morton Smith, work: Jesus the Magician in a past posts, so I will not dwell on that, but turn my attention to what Prof. Moss stated in her article of Christian early art, shows Jesus in several posed, showing wand in hand! However, not only Jesus was seen waving a want, but Moses Too! When Moses struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. In the early Christian art, it is not a staff, but a twig/wand. Jesus from an early age was surrounded by magic of one form or another, take the visit by the three Magi/Magician. See Strong’s Greek: 3097 The New Testament is silent on Jesus after his 12th-year until his 30-year-old. Yet, Jewish tradition has him owing to his poverty taking a job as slave/servant in Egypt. Where he learns the art of Magic, and when he goes home to practice his new-found supernatural abilities. He is later convicted of sorcery and is stoned to death and hung on a tree [See Sanhedrin 43a, verse 20]. Which is confirmed by Acts 5:30; Acts 10:39; 1 Peter 2:24; Acts 13:29 and Galatians 3:13. Paul has the last word on being Hung on a Tree! ”Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” Gal 3:13. What do you say?
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Jero Jones
Article URL : https://breakingnewsandreligion.online/discuss/