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Date Posted: 10:32:57 06/19/03 Thu
Author: Keira
Subject: Come inside to read a little bit about the book I have just finished. Be careful, I went quite long>>>>>
In reply to: Keira 's message, "What Happened????????" on 09:49:06 06/19/03 Thu

I have just finished reading a book called "The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. It's a very interesting story of an old secret religios society that existed around the time of Leonardo Da Vinci. Anyway, there is a discussion of the bible and the life of Jesus Christ that I thought just provided a bit of food for thought. I'm not saying this is true or anything-it's just a different idea.

"The bible is a product of man, not of God. The bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book.

Jesus Christ was a historical figure of staggering influence, perhaps the most enigmatic and inspirational leader the world has ever seen. As the prophesized Messiah, Jesus toppled kings, inspired millions and founded new philosophies. As a descendant of the lines of King Solomon and King David, Jesus possessed a rightful claim to the throne of the King of the Jews. Understandably, His life was recorded by thousands of followers across the land. More than eighty gospels were considered for the New Testament, and yet only a relative few were chosen for inclusion-Matthew, Mark, Luke and John among them.
The bible, as we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great.
He was a life long pagan, who was baptized on his deathbed, too weak to protest.
In Constantine's day, Rome's official religion was sun worship-the cult of Sol Invictus, or the Invisible Sun-and Constantine was it's head priest.
Unfortunately for him, a growing religious turmoil was gripping Rome. Three centuries after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Christ's followers had multiplied expotentially. Christians and Pagans began warring, and the conflict grew to such proportions that it threatened to rend Rome in two. Constantine decided that something had to be done. In 325 A.D., he decided to unify Rome under a single religion, Christianity.
Constantine was a very good businessman. He could see that Christianity was on the rise and he simply backed the winning horse. Historians still marvel at the brilliance with which Constantine converted the sun worshipping pagans to Christianity. By fusing pagan symbols, dates and rituals into the growing Christian tradition, he created a kind of hybrid religion that was acceptable to both parties.
Transmorgrification-the vestiges of pagan religion in Christian symbology are undeniable. Egyptian sun disks became the halos of Christian saints. Pictograms of Isis nursing her miraculously conceived son Horus became the blueprint for our modern images of the Virgin Mary nursing Baby Jesus. And virually all the elements of the Catholic ritual-the mitre, the alter, the doxology, and communion, the act of "God-eating"-were taken directly from the earlier pagan mystery religions.
(The story goes on to compare many pagan/christian rituals)

During this fusion of religions, Constantine needed to strengthen the new Christian tradition, and held a famous ecumenical gathering known as the Council of Nicaea.
At this gathering many aspects of Christianity were debated and voted upon-the date of Easter, the role of the bishops, the administration of the sacraments, and of course, the divinity of Jesus.
Until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet...a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal.
Jesus' establishment as 'the Son of God' was officially propsed and voted on by the Council of Nicaea.
Establishing Christ's divinity was critical to the further unification of the Roman Empire and to the new Vatican pwer base. By officially endorsing Jesus as the Son of God, Constantine turned Jesus into a deity who existed beyond the scope of the human world, an entity whose power was unchallengeable. This not only precluded further pagan challenges to Christianity, but now the followers of Christ were able to redeem themselves only via the established sacred channel-the Roman Catholic Church.
It was all about power. Christ as Messiah was critical to the finctioning of Church and State. Many scholars claim that the early Church literally stole Jesus from His original followers, hijacking His human message, shrouding it in an imprenetrable cloak of divinity, and using it to expand their own power.
Nobody is saying Christ was a fraud, or denying that He walked the earth and inspired millions to better lives. All we are saying is that Constantine took advantage of Christ's substantial influence and importance. And in doing so, he shaped the face of Christianity as we know it today."

Now the book goes on to also portray Jesus as a very human man with human needs. They theorize that Mary Magdelene was in fact married to Jesus Christ. Jesus would have lived a very strict Jewish life and at that time in history, it was very important for a Jewish man to have been married. So, the theory goes that rather than just the twelve aposotles being present at the last supper, Mary Magdelene was also there, as Jesus' wife.

I just found this whole theroy interesting to consider and think about. It is obviously full of holes and such, after all it is only a novel, but it is an idea which we are not used to hearing.

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Replies:

[> [> Up to the part about Jesus being married, everything you have written here is easily found in Biblical scholarship. The paragraph about Jesus as a human is the only part of what you wrote here that is full of holes and speculation. The rest is easily found in historical documents of the time. The best scholarship is when many learned people who study every aspect of life during a certain time are able to get together and compare notes. It is my belief that the Power of the organized church has been sitting on the truth of things for far too long. We don't hear enough about what the Vatican has hidden in it's vast library. We don't get a balanced view of how the RC church has the traditions it ended up with. The Nicean Council is a fact that the church does not teach because then their infalibility can be called into question. Yes, I agree, these are all ideas that we are not used to hearing, but that doesn't mean that they are not true. Thank you so much for posting this *G* -- Lissa, 11:46:14 06/19/03 Thu


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[> [> A lot of that book was thoroughly researched, Iīve heard. I do believe it really was like that, because it was also researched that Satan and hell, the concept of guilt and sin, didnīt exist before Constantine. I have a book about angels that says spiritual guides were shown as christian angels very late, along with pictures of evil spirits, devils and demons. All that didnīt exist before. And that is a fact, not novel stuff. It makes sense to me anyway. I never read The Da Vinci Code, but I think now I will! Thanks Keira! -- Martina, 04:22:17 06/20/03 Fri


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