Jesus was many things, a carpenter, a prophet, a teacher and more, but we're fairly sure that he was not from Nazareth.
Why does it matter so much where Jesus lived? How can this knowledge help you in your life today?
From reading the Bible, we note that Jesus often spoke out against the Scribes and Pharisees; these were the people who, respectfully, wrote the laws and read the law for the Jews at the time. Jesus did not merely follow the law (the scriptures) blindly, as some people did; he maintained a healthy level of enquiry (not quite scepticism), and encouraged his followers to do the same.
Following laws blindly (religious laws or local laws), or following instructions without question, is precisely the excuse used by Nazi war criminals: "I was just following orders." This mindless excuse does not stand up in court. Despite having guidelines and laws, citizens are also occasionally encouraged or expected to mindfully think for themselves.
We are not suggesting that you question everything, all of the time, but, as the great man said, "Seek the truth, and the truth shall set you free."
When accused of violating God's laws by "working on the Sabbath" (healing the sick), Jesus responded to the ignorant or pedantic law-followers by reminding them that he was doing God's work, and put them firmly back in their place.
These Pharisees were being like petulant children, jealous that Jesus had more people surrounding him on a Sunday, crowded around to hear a wise word or to receive a healing touch, whilst in all probability, membership or attendance in the local synagogue were comparatively dwindling.
Jealousy is a low-level, ego-driven emotion, and those who could not do what Jesus did, (the Pharisees and Sadducees could not heal the sick, nor pull in eager crowds) were trying to stop him from doing it. Times have changed but people's motivations are often the same now: if small-minded people cannot do something, they will try to control it, stop others, insult, accuse, or try to discredit others without evidence (ever read the comments below a revolutionary blog post?).
To maintain intelligence and wisdom, to be more Christian and less Nazi, we need to read the Bible with intelligence, as if we are reading the newspaper, and keep an enquiring mind. Jesus himself kept an enquiring mind when he read the scriptures, and as he encouraged his followers to do the same. (When you read in the newspaper that American soldiers killed some insurgents in the Middle East, do you imagine that some murderous, gun-toting terrorists were caught in the act of violence and then eliminated, or do you consider that it could have been an "Occupy Gaza St" group of protesting students? Look up the word insurgent and then come back. You may find that, among others, Ghandi & Jesus were once considered insurgents.)
To understand Jesus better, you may have to do a little research into Judaism (click here, or read on, and we'll step you through the basics). Like Christianity today, the Jews were not all of one mind. In modern times, we have Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Catholics, Anglicans, Mormons and many others who all call themselves "Christians".
These different Christian denominations differ on many aspects of belief, custom and scriptural interpretation, (look them up here, we cannot discuss all of the various Christian churches due to space), but they would still consider themselves followers of Christ.
Similarly, today, there are Jewish sects such as Karaite, Rabbinic, and Sephardic Judaism, Hasidic Judaism (Freylechn, or the "happy ones" & Hasidim, or the "pious ones"), Haredi Judaism, and various smaller denominations, some large and some with under 700 members globally.
In Jesus' day, there were different denominations among the Jews, such as the Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, and Zealots (source). It is common knowledge that the author of John's gospel (sometimes suspected to be Mary Magdelene), was a Gnostic Jew. (It was recorded by the Roman writer Flavius Josephus, by the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and also in the biblical New Testament that at least four different Jewish sects existed simultaneously, differed strongly on some points and occasionally waged war amongst themselves due to the different interpretations of the same writings.)
Although many of us today cannot agree on the exact interpretation of a word or phrase (religious, spiritual, or natural; that's why we have lawyers), there are many things on which we can agree. If we are reading religious writings or following spiritual principles to make ourselves better and our world better, then hopefully we are among friends.
How much Hebrew scripture have you read? Why it matters
In Jesus' time, the scriptures could only be read by a Pharisee. These men were given the authority to read scrolls in the temple and the normal people in the congregation could listen but were not allowed to check the scriptures for themselves (average people of low birth were not taught to read or write, nor could they afford to have books at home). The fact that the majority of people were kept poor and ignorant allowed the church to keep tighter control. No-one was asking too many questions, as the masses were kept ignorant and they did not know what they did not know.
Even if you were fortunate enough to be taught to read, and even if you could get hold of a Jewish scripture, the Hebrew scriptures were also notoriously difficult to read. The Hebrew alphabet at the time consisted only of consonants with no vowels; for example, consider a word such as "lawyer" would be spelled as "LWR", which could mean "lawyer" or "lower", depending upon the context of the sentence.
A man could be described as having an "oval" face or as having an "evil" face, ("VL") depending upon the mood of the person who was doing the vowel-less reading. Discovering that each Pharisee may have had their own interpretation, based on their own mood, culture, background or family upbringing, we can understand why there were many different Jewish sects and doctrines. (Today, the English may say that Americans drive on the "wrong" side of the road, whilst the US may consider the English to drive on the "wrong" side. One side may consider that the sentence "aluminum is gray in color" contains three misspellings, the other side would attest that the sentence "aluminium is grey in colour" also contains three misspellings. Both views may be correct. It is dependent upon your upbringing and education as to which view you take.)
Wait, there's more! To add to the confusion caused by a lack of vowels, each Hebrew letter also represented a number, so the word "LWR" (lower or lawyer) could also be read as "504", and the word "VL" (oval or evil) could be interpreted as "85".
But wait, there's still more! As parchment and papyrus were so rare and expensive, to save room, the scholars wrote their scripture without double letters and without spaces: each scroll of writing was therefore written as one single long continuous word without spaces or punctuation in it at all.
Imagine if you were reading a book that had no punctuation or spaces in it: it would take more time, and there may be some passages which were open to interpretation. For example, the first sentence of the biblical Book Of Genesis could be written as "In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth", or it could have been written by early Jewish scholars as NTHBGNNGGDCRTDTHHVNSNDTHRTH".
When you look at the above letter sequence, you could translate it as the first sentence in the bible, or you could also feasibly translate the sentence, "On the bag, no-one good. I crated the haven, sand through the (hourglass)". Admittedly, we added the hourglass for fun, but understand that when there is no spaces or punctuation, it is not only words that become confusing; you are unable to tell when one sentence ends and another begins. (We won't even confuse the issue further by discussing silent letters (yes, the Hebrew alphabet had silent letters too), except to say that we find it interesting that there are three notably silent letters in English, these are to remain unspoken: the K in know, the G in gnosis and the B in lamb. The Russians had their secret society which was supposed to hold all secrets as unspoken, and they named it the silent letters, KGB. It's also fun to notice that, ignoring the silent G in the middle of the word, King Arthur's Knights and the Templar Knights could have their "KNIGHT" title reversed to say "THINK". Think for yourself, seek the truth.)
Meanwhile, back in Nazareth, a tiny town, six miles east of the also little-known town of Zebulun, nothing is happening. According to most bible scholars, Jesus, the son of Joseph the carpenter, was born in Bethlehem and spent most of his life in Galilee. The Roman ruler, Pontius Pilate, referred to Jesus as a Galilean. Why do we call him a Nazarene?
Putting it all together:
God may well be infallible, however, man is not. Occasionally some errors in translation may creep in, and even some grammatical errors. If you have read different versions of Shakespeare, you will see that they occasionally have different words and phrases, due to the hand copying process; ditto with some bibles.
It took a team of almost four dozen men to complete the King James Bible in 1611, and this was actually the third English version of the bible. Two earlier English versions were rejected by some scholars due to translation and for the third version, King James specifically asked the translators to guarantee that the book would adhere to the ideals of the Church of England, and its belief in an ordained clergy. Upholding the COE church was of first priority, upholding the rights of popes, bishops and priests was also important, and as for the exactness of the translation; well, the truth shall come to those who wait.
All 47 translators were the same denomination, solely from the Church of England (COE). Whilst these men all had lofty ideals of bringing the Greek, Latin and Hebrew texts to the masses, all of the men were still human. They were asked to do a task by the English King, and were paid by England to bring a translation to support the Church of England (COE) belief system (BS), and the importance of its clergy. (Hang on, is the ordained clergy the the same thing as the Pharisees and Sadducess?)
As you can imagine, if one scholar wanted to include a translation of the section of the bible where Jesus told his followers to avoid the temples, to meet each other outside in nature and to question all religious authority, then perhaps 46 other COE men would suggest that this particular translation was a bad idea. (Of course, Jesus did question all authority of his time, and did support being in nature over being in a temple or church building: the Sermon on the Mount was not the "sermon in the synagogue"! Jesus prayed in gardens and beaches, and preached on the streets, roads, hills and shores. There are perhaps only a handful of biblical instances of Jesus being found inside a temple: once at 8 days old, once at age ten, once to read and reinterpret scriptures that the Pharisees read, and once to kick out the profiteering money-changers; perhaps the fore-fathers of modern day evangelical profiteers.)
So, we can question some things, we do not need to question all things, and we must always use our own common sense as a guide. In the bible, it does not tell us to read the word without question or thought, it says "meditate upon the word" (Joshua 1:8, this verse on spiritual meditation is also a great scripture about having wealth and prosperity, not just in finances, but with money and with all other areas. Did your church teach you that you can choose not to pray, and that you can meditate and become healthy, wealthy and wise?)
Another ancient supporter of meditation, the prince Siddhartha Gauttauma, (also known as "Buddha", meaning, "awakened one", "one who is enlightened", or "illuminated"), was around 500 years before Jesus. He meditated every day and said many wise things to his followers. However, he also cautioned them against blindly following supposedly sage advice, even if it came from a wise man, a king, religious leader or even from the very mouth of Buddha himself.
One of Buddha's famous sayings was, "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter even if I (Buddha) have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense." Meditate and Think for yourselves!
(for more about meditation and the bible, see this link or follow this blog for updates)
Who was Jesus of Nazareth?
Well, actually, nobody. We believe that "Jesus of Nazareth" did not exist. Although Jesus the first century Jewish Rabbi was an historical figure and was written about in dozens of texts by Christians, Jews and the ruling Romans, we believe that Jesus was not from Nazareth.
So, do we believe that Jesus was a particularly enlightened, rebellious insurgent, authority-questioning, surprisingly literate carpenter from Nazareth? Well, yes and no.
Among other things, we believe that Jesus was a scholar and a daily meditator, who was enlightened or illumined (see "Illuminati" a plural term for the group of individuals who were "Illuminatus", or "awakened" or "enlightened").
Illuminati or Illuminatus was a term that would later be demonised by the early Christian or Catholic church, as they did not like anyone questioning their rule, the importance of church attendance, the church building itself, the church priests, or the god-like divine infallibility of the Pope. This illuminated rebellious questioning was almost exactly what Jesus did to the Jewish Pharisees and Pharisees in his day, causing thousands of people to leave the ruling Jewish church and start their own independent, free-thinking groups.
The new so-called Christian church also demonised any other religion as "pagan" (no matter how legitimate, any non-Christian religion was condemned under this title, including hundreds of English, European, American, Aboriginal, Greek, Roman, or Eastern traditions).
The new Catholic church also referred to any other non-Catholic Christian church as "protestant" and committed a vast number of sins against anyone who did not believe as they told them to believe, eg. the Crusades,where millions of Muslims and so-called heretics (those who did not support the Catholic form of Christianity, Christian or not), were slaughtered. The Catholics were also instrumental in the Spanish Inquisition, where Protestant Christians were imprisoned, properties of non-Catholics were seized and Jews and Muslims were tortured or killed.
If you follow the trail of who killed or tortured whom, who seized what property and from where, you will start to reason exactly why the ruling church did this.
Demonising the enemy, stripping them of their rights, taking their money and taking their possessions and lands seems more like Roman-inspired money-grabbing and empire-building than spiritual righteousness. Remember that the Catholic church was born from the early pagan Roman emperor Constantine, and it was called the Holy Roman Catholic Church.
The Romans were the most successful empire-builders of all time, and after the Romans conquered England, the British copied Roman methods of war and took on the mantle of creating a new world-wide empire.
The sun allegedly never set on the British empire until after 1918, and the sun still never sets on the Roman (Catholic) Empire.We are not supportive of Hitler and his Nazis, who used racism as an excuse to fleece billions of dollars from wealthy Jews; however, we understand that Hitler was raised a quasi-Christian and may have learned some bad habits about demonising your enemies before killing them and taking their wealth to enrich your own ignoble cause.
The murderous money-grubbing Nazis may have been broken up and eliminated, however the wealthiest group of world-wide blood-letters is still alive and well, even as it loudly purports to follow the ideals of Jesus the Christ. (Ever wonder why the church walls were so thick?)
Like "Nazareth", "Christ" is merely a word translated from the original Hebrew, and the original word could also be translated as "anointed one", "cleansed with oil" "Messiah", "holy", "sacred", "set apart for special use" and a myriad of other similar phrases. In modern times we have come to identify "Christ" as referring to one person (Jesus), in the same way as we use the word "Buddha" to refer to one person. However, the title Buddha was also given to as many as a dozen other enlightened men of the East (which explains why some statues of "Buddha" are thin & some are very fat).
The title "Christ" or "anointed one" was also used in the bible to describe several other historical characters, such as the future King David (who was set apart for special use, consecrated, made holy and anointed with oil by the prophet Samuel).
When translating, the original authors wanted to avoid confusion, so they called one man King David or David the shepherd, or David the minstrel and did not use his other title, David the Christ.
Many people see Siddhartha Gautama as the only "Buddha", despite there being many enlightened ones or buddhas throughout the ages. Most Christians now officially recognise only one "Christ", despite the fact that there were many christs, illuminati or anointed ones throughout time.
Many Christs, and no Nazarenes?
Nazareth was a small village nearby Zebulon in the greater region of Galilee. In modern times, we are more likely to say that a person comes from a particular state than from a particular town, as it is easier to recognise, characterise or stereotype a Texan or a Queenslander than a Dallasite or a Brisbanite.
Anyone who was from that small town Galilean town was supposedly called a "Nazarene". A similar word, "Nazirite", was applied to a small sub-group of Jews who followed a particular set of customs.
We believe that it is more likely that Jesus would have been called a Galilean than a Nazarene. We also believe that it is more likely that Jesus was identified by his outward appearance and attire as a Nazirite, than being recognisable as a representative of a small unknown town.
(The negative references to Nazareth in the Gospel of John suggest that ancient Jews did not connect the town's name with God or prophecy.)
Referring back to how the scriptures were written, as one long continuous word, without vowels or spaces, copied by hand by fallible men and translated by men who were also fallible, if not biased by their employers, one can see how the word "Nazirite" could be mistranslated as "Nazarene".
There is not much difference between the Hebrew "NZRT" and "NZRN", and any translator who knew where Jesus was from (a few kilometres from Nazareth), and was unfamiliar with little-known ancient radical Jewish sects (Nazirites), could be forgiven for making a correction to a text that simply, to him, appeared "wrong".
(The third-oldest English bible, the King James Version lists the word "Nazareth" twenty-nine times, however the place is only named twelve times in surviving Greek versions of the New Testament. In the Greek, the word which we believe that was mistranslated from Hebrew actually appears in several variant forms: Nazara, Nazaret, Nazareth, Nazarat, Nazarath. If one word can be translated in so many ways, we find it easy to deduce that a letter may have been altered, especially by the authors of the KJV bible.)
So, who were the Nazirites? Why does it matter?
The Nazirites were a group of Jews who took up vows and customs to honour God or to atone for past sins. Nazarites took vows that included
- not shaving or cutting the hair
- not drinking wine or vinegar, and
- not touching a dead body
Examples of famous Nazirites were Samson (famous for being very strong when his hair was long, and infamously weak when his hair was cut), and Samuel the prophet who anointed King David.
We will show you other Nazirites who were lesser-known, even among bible-believing Christians, and demonstrate why we believe that Jesus was a Nazirite, as were St Paul, John the Baptist and many others.
If you could possibly consider that the title "Buddha", "Christ" or "son of God" was not reserved solely for one man, then you may continue.
(Many religious people who are ignorant of spiritual power, or those with an axe to grind, will tell you that this Old Testament verse refers to demons or monsters, however, we find it easier to believe that anyone described as a "son of God" was not evil or demonic. Genesis 6:4 "The sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown." It sounds similar to prevailing Greek and Roman traditions, where the sons of various gods were born in human form and had superhuman powers, wisdom or strength, eg. Hercules the son of Zeus and a human female, was mortal yet superhuman. In a similar fashion, John writes in the New Testament, that Jesus was not an elitist, like the scribes and Pharisees. In fact, Jesus gave many others the same powers and title as that he had been given. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name". John 1:12. This transference of power goes a long way towards explaining why Jesus' disciples could do what he did: heal the sick, raise the dead, walk on water, etc., but not all of his followers could do it back then and precious few can do it now.)
If you believe that a meditating monk could become wiser than the average man, or an exercising woman could become fitter than a standard female, or if you could consider that a Nazirite could perform miraculous or super-human feats, then read on. We will show you more about how you can take steps to astonishing self-improvement, just as others before you have done.
What if it were true? What if you could simply learn some strategy and mindset to approach a new level of superhuman wisdom, strength or awareness? It is not going against God to become all that you can be, although it may upset those who wish to manipulate you, control you or blindly rule the worldly churches.
to be continued... new book "YOU are the Christ", coming soonpre-order your copy by ordering this BS Secret book here and putting the code "URTC" in the comments field. Inserting the code means that you will not receive the BS Secret book but will be sent a copy of "URTC" book ("YOU are the Christ") instead. Enquiries through main page
