Ancient Christianity
Christianity
before Jesus
at
Home2b.nl
Christianity
before Jesus
The difference between a webpage like Home2b.nl
and a book from the bookshop is
that the webpage grows with new insights.
New insights are shared on the internet with
thousands of readers.
I leave out the footnotes and the broader
explanations,
that would be part of the book,
but the essence of my research is here.
Later when my books are being published,
I will add all the extra material that is to be
expected in a well researched volume.
(BC means before the Western counting of years,
AD means a year in the Western calendar.)
The issue of
Christianity before Jesus was also studied in early centuries.
Known scholars are
Lactantius (around 310AD)
and Cyrillus of
Alexandria (around 430AD).
Their studies came to
the conclusion,
that Christianity
originates from both
the
Orpheus religion
and
the
Hermes religion.
They also mention the
Sybillian prophecies.
I could not check
this third option.
About the Orpheus
origins of Christianity I made the webpage:
Orpheus and
ancient Christianity
Ofcourse Christianity
has clearly also roots in the Hebrew religion.
Also in Syria
(Edessa) and the South (the area Arabia, Ethiopia, Nubia)
are roots which I
could not research enough yet.
But more probable the
Jesus movement was an imitation of the John the Baptist movement.
My opinion is that
the New Testament writers as a power group,
were not happy with
their Jesus figure,
and they started
writing in an offensive way about
the John the Baptist
churches in the meanwhile taking
over many of the
important John the Baptist writings
and some of the
ceremonies.
This page gives some short notes on the traces
of knowledge that can be gathered about
Pre-Jesus Christianity.
Pious Christian believers call the first
centuries after Jesus
"the young church" and also "the
first gathering".
They see the first two centuries after the
Jesus movement
as "the pure church".
This is not correct.
In the centuries after Jesus in the years 200
until 362AD
payed heresy-hunters went around to destroy
everything
outside the thinking of the Jesus movement.
The heresy hunters destroyed successfully
believers and buildings and books.
After 362AD the Roman troops crushed upon the
Christian world
with military force. Only the Jesus power
movement,
that is the Roman state religion, remained.
I am not saying that present day Christianity
is wrong.
But I want to present the idea that those
ancient heresy killers
have taken away from me and you choices
in my and your belief what I and you could have
believed.
Also I have the opinion that
parts of my religion
have been taken away forcefully long ago,
like the female aspect of God,
like the woman priest,
and a lot of things I don't even
know,
because it was done away with.
The Messiah and
the Menachem
Authors from inside the Hebrew-Jewish religion
have
pointed out, that Jesus is only sparsely
mentioned,
or better Jesus is not mentioned at all
in contemporary writings.
This indicates that the Jesus
movement was not known around 50AD.
Also scholars and experts in ancient Greek
writings
say the same, Jesus is not mentioned at all
in the thousands of Greek writings of that
time.
Same conclusion.
Also the Syrian writings, very important at the
time,
don't mention the Jesus movement..
On the other hand the Messiah expectation
was very deep rooted and there writings from
100BC until much later..
Several movements at that time around the year
0AD (and even now)
are expecting the rebirth of the Menachem.
We know that the Essenes were also waiting for
the rebirth of their great teacher.
I pointed this out on my page
about the Parakletos.
I also pointed out on this webpage the
existence of a Christian temple
in ancient Egypt around 800BC, of which the
remnants are now drowned
in the artificial lake of the Assuan dam.
Coincidence?
I also pointed out on this webpage that
the Crusaders found around 1100AD
on Mount Carmel an ancient
Christian community
claiming to exist since the year 800BC.
It seems that the Crusaders brought this
community over to Europe.
John the Baptist
The church of John the Baptist is mentioned
in the New Testament. This proofs the
importance of
the John the Baptist movement. It could not be
ignored.
The John the Baptist church was a pre-Jesus
movement
and an after Jesus movement.
In fact it was one of the main churches of that
time period.
Also the New Testament emphasises that John the
Baptist came first.
Many parts of the New Testament are originally
coming
from the John the Baptist church.
In the New Testament John the Baptist
is very much put down as a person lower in rank
than Jesus.
This pattern of putting down is followed in the
New Testament
also for the priestess Mary Magdalene, for the
priestess Helena,
for Simon Magus, for Apollos the pre-Christian
preacher and others.
The John the Baptist church was an
international church,
with female and male priests,
recognizing the female aspect of God.
The wife of John the Baptist was
Anya, or Anna or Anhar.
Well known is that Anna was the
mother of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
So Jesus probably was a grandson
of John the Baptist.
Salome, the daughter of king Herodes, was a
follower of Jesus.
We know from the New Testament and from
Josephus,the famous writer,
that
Salome played an important part in the killing
of John the Baptist.
In the New Testament it is as if that Jesus was
the successor
of John the Baptist.
This is not true.
The first successor of John the Baptist was
Dositheus.
Dositheus has also a group of fowers lateron,
with scriptures and all.
The second successor of John the Baptist was
Simon Magus,
accompanied by his female priestess Helena.
We know that the successor of Simon Magus as
head of
the John the Baptist church was Menander.
In the Western world the John the Baptist
church was much
bigger and powerful then official church
history tells us.
Very likely the large and internationally
organized Mani church
was also a John the Baptist church.
The so-called Christian Church was only a small
minority
until they did sent out the heresy hunters
and later the Roman soldiers.
The church of
the Mandaeans
The church of the
Mandaeans originates from 400BC
and very probably before
that time.
This church was still
exists in Iraq and West-Iran,
and is spreading over
the world out of fear.
John the Baptist is
seen in the Mandaean church
as the greatest of
all.
Also
this Mandaean church has lines towards
the
female aspect of God,
certainly
also by having female and male priests.
Many of the Mandaean
prayers and hymns can be found:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandaeism
Many of the Mandaean
writings:
http://www.gnosis.org/library/mand.htm
The Mandean church was much related with the
Nazoreans.
One of their main cities in Iraq is Nasirija.
The Mandaean church has been of great influence
upon
the present day Christian churches. Reading
their scriptures
feels like coming home in the house of a good
relative.
Saint Augustine was many years a member of the
Mandaean church
and in that line a follower of John the
Baptist.
The Mandeans reckon themselves to originate
from
the ancient Egyptian religion.
Paul the apostle
In the New Testament we find many letters of
Paul.
We also know the story of his sudden and
miraculous
conversion to Christianity.
He saw the Light near Damascus and was blinded
by it.
He had to escape from Damascus in a basket
and stayed three years among the Christians in
Arabia.
In ancient Christianity Light played an
importent role.
There is much reason to think that Paul was
also a pre-Jesus preacher.
His writings were being edited into the New
Testament
changing the essence into the new way of
believing..
2 Corinthians 4:4
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are
lost:
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds
of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who
is the image of God, should shine unto them.
"The god of this world" meant for
Paul himself being an ancient Christian
a very serious indication of things happening.
Also "Christ" was in the thinking of
the ancient Christians
not the
same as Jesus, although very much related.
Also was used the word "Chrestos",
which means the Good one.
A difference was made between Jesous, Christos
and Nazorean.
At this point I should also mention the ancient
churches of Egypt and Ethiopia.
The Coptic church of Egypt and
the Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahedo
Church
are certainly very
important pre-Jesus churches.
The traditions and
scriptures of these churches
will be and has been
an inspiration for the Christian churches.
Appollonius
Apollonius was world famous.
He lived from 2 BC until 102 AD.
He was so famous that his life story was
written down on behalf of the Roman court.
This writing was well known in the time of the
New Testament writers.
Apollonius was a Samaritan and a pre-Jesus
Christian.
He was a therapist, a healer, a worker of
miracles.
His miracles are largely the same as the Jesus
miracles.
Even in Roman times it was already discussed,
whether elements of the life description of
Appollonius
could have given shape to the Jesus miracles in
the gospels.
(There are very precise and reliable analyses
word by word
how the
gospels were put together from other writings.)
Personally I think that the book about Apollonius
was used
in writing the New Testament.
For the New Testament writers the book about
Appolonius was available
since this book was written around 250 AD.
I think it is possible that the preacher
"Apollos"
in the Acts of the apostles is this same
Apollonius.
See the New Testament Acts 18:24
If not, then this Apollos is certainly
connected with the John the Baptist church.
The church of
the Nosairi
In Syria exists a small community
wich also seems to be a pre-Christian church.
They worship a female goddess and have services
on the top of a mountain.
They honor the Light by drinking sacramental
wine.
For this they use a holy chalice, which they
call the Holy Grail.
This should be researched more.
A title of John the Baptist the Nosairi church
uses, is High King of the Light.
Nag Hammadi
Scriptures
In my opinion a parts of the Nag Hammadi
sciptures
are originating from pre-Jesus times.
For example:
a beautiful text of the Nag hammadi
is number VI, 2 (which means Codex VI, second
writing)
with the intriguing name "Thunder: Perfect Intellect".
This text is absolutely giving us the words of
the Goddess.
The similarity with the words of the Goddess in
the Old Testament
is not a coincidence. The Goddess was much
honored
in the pre-Jesus churches.
See also my page about the Goddess in the Old
Testament.
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Updated May 05, 2010
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