Thursday, March 30, 2006
JESUS SURVIVED THE CRUCIFIXION
An article at Beliefnet, written by Michael Baigent and excerpted from "The Jesus Papers," claims that Christ survived the crucifixion and proceeds to describe how this was possible and what evidence is available to support the claim.
Clearly it would be difficult to survive a crucifixion, but it was not impossible. Josephus, for example, reports that he came upon three of his former colleagues among a large group of crucified captives. He went to Titus asking for mercy, begging that they might be taken down. Titus agreed, and the three men were brought down from the cross. Despite professional medical attention, two of them died, but the third survived.
Could Jesus have survived just like the survivor in Josephus's report? There are traditions in Islam that say so. The Koran's statement "They did not crucify him" could as well be translated as "They did not cause his death on the cross."
Baigent discusses the possibility that the wine (or vinegar) soaked sponge offered to Jesus when He said "I thirst" was really a sponge filled with a tranquilizer that made Him appear to be dead.
The article closes with a "statement of fact":
Again, it takes only a slight shift of perspective, a standing aside from the theological dogma, to see the crucifixion in a new way. That is, to see how Jesus could very well have survived.
My first reaction is to strike Beliefnet from my list of resources, but on further reflection, I suppose they have to air the views that are getting the attention of the public.
Baigent mentions an Islamic source
Could Jesus have survived just like the survivor in Josephus's report? There are traditions in Islam that say so. The Koran's statement "They did not crucify him" could as well be translated as "They did not cause his death on the cross." But the Koran is a very late text, even though it undoubtedly uses earlier documents and traditions. Perhaps more relevant for us is a statement by Irenaeus in the late second century; in a complaint about the beliefs of an Egyptian Gnostic, Basilides, he explains that this heretic taught that Jesus had been substituted during the journey to Golgotha and that this substitute, Simon of Cyrene, had died in Jesus' stead.
Baigent doesn't cite his source, however. Could it be the backers of the Tomb of Jesus website? The same argument that Baigent is making is presented at that linked page in the website.
Basilides is a favorite source of Gnostics and occultists, and Nicholas Roerich is another. According to the timeline at this link, Roerich was a Theosophist and a Russian. Roerich is mentioned in this webpage in the Tomb of Jesus website which describes the theories of Nicholas Notovich, another Russian.
Here is a list of the people, besides Notovitch, that he reveals visited Hemis and saw the documents, or who read other ancient Indian documents mentioning Jesus in India: Swami Abhedenanda (1922), Nicholas Roerich (1925), Madame Caspari (1939), Mrs. Clarence Gasque (1939) and Sri Bharati Krishna Tirtha. Mr. Aziz Kashmir, author of Christ in Kashmir, informs the staff of The Tomb of Jesus Christ Website that the following people either saw the documents, or heard an oral reference to the documents: Dr. R. Ravicz (1973), U. Eichstadt (1974), Edward Noack (1970's).
The Theos-Talk website mentions Notovich in association with Roerich, indicating that both of them visited the Hemis monastery and wrote about it, and both claim to have seen the same scrolls.
There is another source...Elizabeth Clare Prophet. In looking at some of her books at Amazon, it's easy to see that she is pursuing the Gnostic theories.
Prophet and her husband Mark Prophet are both channelers. They operate Summit Lighthouse a Gnostic type of church. Prophet describes Angels as messengers of light, and it is these angels that she channels.
Angels, of course, come in two varieties. We can pray to the good angels. Channeling the fallen angels is asking for trouble.
I've noticed more and more, in driving around, that lighthouses are starting to appear on church property, either as signs or as physical structures. And there was that light god in the hospital chapel that I blogged about a few weeks ago.
All of this adds up to just a bunch of coincidences (or synchronicity), of course, but it is worth keeping in mind.
