Jesus, the Man

The best way to start maybe is with a little anecdote. I had invited my older son John for a father’s day ‘horn and lump’. This we did last Tuesday at the St. James, a new pub on 1st St. and 13th Ave. Sw. Over this beer John asked how I had come to this talk’s topic of ‘Jesus the Man’. There is a short answer, a long and a very long answer. The last one starts in my youth, which I will skip at this time. The long answer started in 2006 and the short one about half a year ago. So, let us take a quick look at the short one first and the long one second.

About half a year ago I had a talk on the origins of Christianity. That was followed by talks on the Old Testament, the New Testament and then The Gospels. In all these I focussed on the historical aspects and processes that played a role in their formation. During these studies, as I came closer to the formation of the gospels, I encountered references to the Essenes more frequently. This tweaked my interests and as I pursued those in my readings and studies the possibility emerged that Jesus could have been close to the Essenes even though the teachings were very different. This raised the question as to how Jesus as a person of his time discovered his own insights and teachings. So far for the short answer.

For the long answer I have to go back to the spring of 2006 when I was preparing my talk entitled ‘In Search of the Sacred’; this one also for the Calgary Life Enrichment Centre. During that time of preparation I searched and wrestled with the need to find an answer to the question of my own existence as a person. I needed to find a meaning and purpose that was not defined by my social roles as man, father, professional or volunteer, but by a role that would also be valid when these tasks have been completed and were behind me. In my retirement I wanted a meaning and purpose to my life that was individual in nature. I searched for a personal purpose that was uniquely my own as an individual and would not define me as an appendage of a social justification. I was caught in the conflict between the interests of the community and those of the individual. Society is not really interested in the individual, if it has no immediate and definable social benefit.

I did get an answer in the form of an intuitive insight. It was the realisation that my purpose was and is to ‘become more conscious of being conscious’. This was not an entirely new notion to me and therefore it was more a confirmation of this purpose of my own existence. Immediately after that insight, a new more formidable question arose. It was: ‘...but why does existence exist?’ More struggle and searching followed. When in the end I decided to mentally and emotionally go to a place where no existence would exist, saying let me consider this ‘no-existence’. The moment I did so, I was stopped from going into that consideration by the imperative: ‘It is Existence Divine!’. And what is the meaning of that? That is for you to discover and find out, was the intuitive response I got to that question. It is in this direction and with that notion that I set out to study the revelations of Existence Divine in the various religious traditions and activities of humankind as these have come down to us.

This has led me to study Buddhism, Hinduism, the Chinese religions, Christianity and now the teachings of Jesus the man in particular. It is with these teachings that I grew up and with which I am most familiar as to their personal significance. This makes it the most appropriate place for me to look for an answer to the question as how Existence Divine is revealed in this existence in which we as humans are participating participants. That brings me to the title of this essay. The question implicit to the title is: How did Jesus as a man discover his teachings and how is this process of revelation relevant for us today? And in addition, how can I through this come to an understanding of the way ‘Existence Divine’ emerges in all of existence and in a human life in particular?

An aside on the natures of Jesus Christ:
The position of the Western Christian Churches on the person of Jesus Christ has been this: Jesus Christ is fully human and fully divine in nature, united in the one person. This position was held and still is by the Greek Orthodox, the Roman Catholics and by the Protestant churches. It is the classic, so called orthodox (ortho=right; doxus~doctrine) position. Half the Christian churches back in the early beginnings held differing positions on the nature and the person of Jesus Christ.

Now, our topic at hand addresses the question how Jesus found out what to teach, as the fully human person that he was as in accordance with this doctrine of the Orthodox Church. As a man he must have struggled with the conflicts of his time and the need to find a way to address them. If the teachings were simply revealed to him without such a discovery and growth process, then his human nature experience would not have been fully human. It is this humanness that I want to address here. In our modern times we can do this using the results research in the fields of scriptural scholarship, archaeology and the now fully disclosed writings of the Dead Sea scrolls. In doing so I want to accept as much of the tradition as possible, but take into account our modern knowledge with equal emphasis in a way that structures a sustainable picture.

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The influence of Hellenism needs a background explanation, because its influence is never really addressed or even considered in the literature that is focused on the so called ‘times of Jesus’. This is not as it should be, since Egypt, Palestine and Syria at that time had been exposed the Hellenic culture ever since Alexander the Great conquered these regions and those all the way to the river Indus in today’s Pakistan. This occurred ca. 320BC 3) and Hellenic culture dominated the region even after the Romans took control of Palestine in around 65BC.

The phenomenon of the God-fearers is evidence of such a contemporary influence on Jewish society. These God-fearers were non-Jews interested in the Jewish religion on account of its antiquity and its written books of law; that is the books ascribed to Moses, the Torah. Further evidence of the influence of Hellenism is the translation of the Jewish ‘Old Testament’ scrolls, the so called Tanak (Law, prophets and writings) into Greek. This translation was called the Septuagint; septa means seven. Septuagint refers to the seventy translators; there were 72 according to tradition, who ran simultaneously out into the streets of Alexandria, each having completed his translation with identical results. This occurred around 150BC and this translation mentions the God-fearers. So, it is clear that these God-fearers had a long standing tradition by the time Jesus was a student of the scrolls.

These God-fearers though not Jews, did attend the gatherings which were called synagogue. Synagogue is a Greek word for a coming together of people, just like our word church and ecclesia. There might be a building for this, but these were mainly located in the diaspora, except for one in Gamla (also Gamala) in eastern Galilee. In addition to these God-fearers there were also many Jews who had adopted the Hellenic culture and life style. These Jews were called ‘Hellenists’. The book of Acts of the New Testament, written in the ca. 90AD, mentions both groups. The gospels however, remain moot on them.

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The table above was used in my talk on the ‘Gospels’. It is an useful overview of the time in which the Jewish society was a part of the Hellenic and later Roman power structure and subject to the many influences of that time. In this table the line items 3, 4, 5 and 6 are the ones that concern us directly. From item 4 we see that Philo was alive through the time of Jesus teachings. Philo was the most important writer and theologian of that time. He lived and taught in Alexandria, the cultural centre of the world of antiquity all through the Greek and Roman times. Josephus, item 14, (c.37-c.100) was a Jewish priest and aristocrat as well as a Pharisee. At first he fought the Romans in Galilee at the start of the first revolt. Then he switched, siding with the Romans, becoming the most important historian of Jewish life at the time of our focus. Both are our major sources of historical information which are from outside the Jewish religious community at that time. Both wrote about the four main political and religious groups that dominated and shaped the local events during the life time of Jesus, providing background material and details not available from other sources. It is thanks them that we are fairly well informed about the Essenes as a community as well as a monastic group.

Modern archaeological findings are relevant to the question as to the town in which Jesus’ family would have lived. In “Excavating Jesus” i the authors report that during Jesus’ life time the town of Nazareth would not have existed even as a hamlet. Evidence of a town there is much later, around 200 or so. The in modern times discovered ruins of the town Gamla ii) (Gamala) reveal a synagogue building, an active Jewish community and a very steep cliff, which was a part of its strategic defence against the Roman attack of 67. To no avail, the town disappeared from history until it was dug up in the 20th century. Later, the synagogue and the hill were attributed to Nazareth by the gospel writers, but neither could be found there. Most likely Nazareth became a resettlement area after the destruction of Gamla, the nearby Jotapata and the subsequent destruction of Jerusalem in 70.

Even though no author draws the conclusion explicitly, it is my opinion that Jesus’ family lived in Gamla and that this was the town to which he later returned as a prophet and teacher. And maybe initially even as a former ‘overseer’ in the tradition of the Essene lay-communities. This possibility also fits the scenario that Jesus and his new teachings were rejected there and that he had to go to Tyre and Sidon in the Syria of those days and to Caesarea Philippi, which was a Romanised town. There is a general agreement among the scholars of the gospels that Jesus’ teachings were not well received in Galilee. This does not alter Jesus reputation as a healer, which was well known. There were numerous teachers and prophets at that time and it may indeed have been Jesus skills as a healer that made him exceptional. We will see below that the Therapeutics were a well known branch of the Essene (see Philo).

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Circumcision:

A male baby was circumcised on the eighth day of its life, even when that day would fall on a Sabbath day. The practice was wide spread in antiquity as far away as Africa and also in Egypt, and was therefore not unique to the Jews. However, it was essential for them in order to so have the new born accepted as a member of the community. First fruits were offered to Yahweh and for the firstborn male a substitute offering – recall the story of Abraham and Isaac in the OT - was made in the form of two pigeons and 5 shekels of silver, probably at the time of circumcision.

Naming:

This took place at this time as well. In a name, the word ben (Hebrew) or bar (Aramaic) or bin (Arabic) stands for ‘son of’. So, Jesus would have been named: Yeshua ben Joseph. Yeshua means ‘Yah is salvation’, where Yah stands in for Yahweh. There were nick names as well: Taman means ‘that is enough’. Mary is the Aramaic form of Miriam, which is Hebrew for ‘beloved of god’; Moses’ sister bore this name (OT). Maria means ‘The Lady’ in Greek, and has been handed down to us as: Ma-donna, Notre Dame and Our Lady. Half of the population had Greek names such as Philip and Andrew, but Judas was Hebrew. At an archaeological cemetery dig 175 Greek versus 32 Hebrew and Aramaic names were discovered. The common language then was Aramaic or ‘koine’, the colloquial form of Greek. These factors show the pervasive nature of Hellenic culture in Palestine at that time.

Education:

A contemporary rabbinic saying: ‘Let the sanctuary be destroyed before the school’, illustrates the importance that was attached to education. There was a school named as ‘beth ha-midrash’, meaning ‘house of the book’ in Jerusalem associated with the temple around year Zero. In 64 Rabbi ben Gamala legislated that schools for children be associated with synagogues. All children were to go to school, whether rich or poor; albeit mainly male and by exception female. There the Torah (Laws of Moses) was learned by heart through recitation. Classes of 25 or more had a dedicated teacher. The alphabet was taught as well. The Torah admonished: ‘Fatten the child with the Torah like an ox in his stall.’ Josephus, a Jewish historian of that time, claimed that he knew the Torah by heart at 14 years of age. This education then began at the age of 5 and at age 13 the whole law was to be known by the pupil. At the age of 15 and after, came the ‘perfection of knowledge’ for some. For most however, twelve or so was the age at which the boy became ‘bar Mitzvah, or a ‘son of Law.’ After that children learned a trade and were considered full members of society, where as few continued their studies.

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So, at the age of twelve, Jesus would have known the Torah and went on to learn a trade, which we assume was carpentry. Such a trade at that time could also be fisherman or farmer, as well as animal grower. A trade like carpentry was probably highly valued, because carpenters knew how to build dwellings, furniture and carts. The Jewish religious tradition of Jesus could have been Pharisee, Essenes or Hellene. Sadducee was not possible, because this group was in charge of the temple service with the priests in Jerusalem and Hellenic was obviously not the case. Jesus grew up in Galilee, a kind of Judean colony at that time. We know from the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS), that Essenes communities existed throughout Palestine and may be beyond according to historian of the time such as Philo and Josephus. In addition to these Essene lay communities there were also monastic Essenes groups possibly in Alexandria and Qumran. Therefore, it is quite possible that Jesus parents belonged to a lay Essenes community in Galilee.

On becoming an Essene:

Induction into the monastic group was not based on birth; it had to be the choice of the novice. And this could only be done at the age of twenty, the age of maturity or later. It involved a 2 to 3 year period of probation. At its conclusion the candidate merged his possession with those of the monastic group and subjected himself to the authority of the ‘Guardian’ or ‘overseer’. There were about 613 rules, regulations and commandments to follow. Transgressions were punished by the rationing of food from 10 days to one year with as most severe: ‘to leave and never return’.

A scroll dealing with the lay communities (camps) is the Damascus Scroll. It is concerned with the way these communities were governed. At 20 a person may assist in hearings iv and judgements, at 25 he may work in the congregation. At 30 he was considered fully mature and could take up positions among the higher ranks as chief over 1000, 100, 50 or 10 all under the supervision of a son of Aaron, which meant a priest. These communities had an overseer called a ‘mebaqqer'. The Greek ‘episcos’ means bishop or overseer. It translates directly across from Hebrew to Greek and is a striking equivalent of the overseers mentioned in Paul’s the New Testament letters. These Essene overseers were charged with respect to their community as follows:

“You shall love them as a father loves his children, and shall carry them in all their distress like a shepherd his sheep. He shall loosen all the fetters which bind them that in his congregation there may be none that are oppressed or broken.” (CD Xlll, 9-10) v).

This overseer also examined new comers as to their character, but not their religious devotion. He also ensured that there was no friendly contact between the community of the Essenes and the other Jews or outsiders. All exchanges with outsiders in the general community had to be paid for. Another Essene community rule was the compulsory retirement from all internal functions that at the age of 60.

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John the Baptist is a well documented figure from extra biblical sources. These sources report on his execution and as well as his life style. Why did he eat honey and locusts? Josephus reports on cases of Essenes , who banished from their former community, were nearly starving to death. These Essene ascetics were not allowed to accept food from anyone outside their former monastic community on account of such food being impure. Foods provided for by nature would have been at least border line since they were not touched by non-‘kosher’ hands. This rule still applies today.

Was John the Baptist such a banished former member if the Essene ascetic group? His teachings certainly did not fit the Essenes mould and for that matter, neither did Jesus’ teachings. It would have been grounds for expulsion, since even ‘murmuring against the leader’ was not tolerated. Yet, the organisation of Jesus’ disciples, his charges and travel instructions to them are Essene like. Jesus’ sayings and mannerism is alike the charge to the overseer of the Essenes community to look after his members as a father. Also the story of the rich young man is like that of a novice Essene who has to give up his belongings. It is possible that both John the Baptist and Jesus were members of the monastic Essene community and were banished when they disagreed with the accepted doctrine of that group. The followers of the Baptist were identified in their time as ‘followers of the way’. The followers of Jesus were named likewise in the very beginning.

Then, there are Jesus’ healings. The Dead Sea Scrolls report nothing about the well known group of Therapeutics, who were based in Alexandria. They were present throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and closely associated with the Essenes according to Philo of Alexandria. It raises the question whether Jesus might have spent at least some time with them in Alexandria or with some other Therapeutic group. That the Therapeutics practiced and lived in Alexandria fits the contemporary pattern. Egyptian healers were sought after throughout Antiquity and later. They were in the service of the Roman court and others who could afford to pay them. The Egyptian medical know how is thought to be the result of the age old embalming practice in that ancient ‘land of the black and red earth’.

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The groups that were active at this time within the Jewish nation under Roman rule were the:
I. Sadducees
II. Pharisees (6 000)
III. Essenes (4 000)
IV. Hellenists
V. John the Baptist’s followers
VI. Militants

The militants included the Zealots and Sicarii, both are left out of the discussion here. The first three groups held the teachings of Moses and the Torah as central to their tradition. It was from this basis that life at that time needed to be lived according to them. The Sadducees held in addition the temple service and sacrifice as essential aspects of their particular conviction. They were to the most traditional ones of these three. The Pharisees added their own oral interpretation to the Laws as attributed to Moses. They did not hold temple service, or sacrifice as requirements and moved among the people to teach them the laws that needed to be applied in daily life.

The Pharisees were a more contemporary movement than the Sadducees and are thought to have had roots in the preceding time of the Babylonian exile. Some sources even claim that the name ‘Pharisee’ means ‘from Pars’ or Persia. The Essenes formed two groups, a monastic or ascetic group possibly located in part in Qumran and a much larger lay group. These lay people lived in a family setting within their own communities among other Jews of different convictions throughout Palestine and beyond in Egypt and Syria.

The Hellenists, who were in the majority, were Jews who had adopted the life style of the Greek and Roman cultures. They participated in the baths and gyms and other cultural and social activities. In some cases this even led to a reversal operation for males to undo the effect of the circumcision of their childhood. This was of course vigorously debated! Such people were shunned by the three conservative groups.

John the Baptist taught a different message. To him a new kingdom was at hand, and people needed to repent from their sins and be baptised. This baptism is seen by some scholars as symbolic of a purification process. However, it must be kept in mind that ritual bathing and washing were very common among all the groups. The idea of conversion through repentance on the part of the individual was unique for the Baptist. No longer is fulfilment of the laws, rules and commandments the central requirement for sanctification. Awareness of one’s shortcomings and repentance is the central motive with John the Baptist.

Jesus extrapolates on this and he adds the healings, the teaching of compassion, including of the ordinary person in the process, inclusive of the shunned Hellenists. All this is demonstrated by Jesus’ behaviour. That is, he wines and dines with ordinary folk who are often in transgression of some of the many food purity laws and he shares food with these people. He was not acting like a ‘holy man’ in the traditional sense; even associating with impure people was considered inappropriate for a person trying to serve the Lord in the traditional way. Jesus’ behaviour demonstrates a shift in attitude, from one where the Law is defining of the person to one where personal judgement is called for. There are several stories handed down to us through the gospels of the New Testament that illustrate this. I will highlight three.

1. The adulterous woman.
2. The prodigal son.
3. The Samaritan.

In the first story, even though the Law of Moses called for the stoning of the person in such a case, Jesus does not challenge the case but moves beyond it. He says to the accusers: ‘Those without sin throw the first stone.’ That was it; no on threw a stone but they all faded away. Jesus, with this reply reaches over and beyond the law to the personal ethical experience of every individual. Implicitly he asks everyone to consult their own hearts and then make the judgement call. So the law is displaced from its apex and must share it with the individuals own judgmental skills and ability to decide on the right behaviour.

The prodigal son is accepted by the father on his return home in spite of his less than perfect behaviour. Here it is the son’s inner attitude of remorse and his humility that overcome the poor judgement on his part. And in the case of the Samaritan there is the lesson of the crossing of established ethnic boundaries that are shown as false barriers when it comes to helping a fellow human being in need. Also, in this case it is the personal judgement call that is shown to govern human behaviour rather than some absolute rule or convention. In the Essene lay communities mentioned above, the overseers would judge such cases. The New Testament stories show Jesus in such a role as people come to him for such judgements.

Bible scholars avoid writing about the teachings and ideas that Jesus would have studies and been exposed to as a young man, learning the ways of his Jewish tradition. People talk about Jesus as if he was a Christian from the day of his birth. This leads to a misunderstanding of how the process works through which a new truth may be discovered. This always starts with the handed down tradition which in turn is then modified and changed; expanded at times, but also contracted at other occasions. So, while Jesus was a student of the Jewish religion, he must have encountered Hellenic influences and considerations in the synagogue discussions and meetings.

One of the most outstanding features of Hellenism at the time is its validation of the emerging idea of the individual person. The questioning, exploring and reasoning individual made its appearance during those centuries. One of the most famous Jews of that time was Philo of Alexandria, an older contemporary of Jesus. He wrote and taught extensively, attempting to reconcile ideas of platonic philosophy with the teachings according to Moses. His ideas were current and of great influence throughout the Jewish community, because one third of the population of Alexandria was Jewish. Jesus may not have agreed with all those ideas, but it is inevitable that he heard and knew about them. Alexandrian Jews are mentioned by the Lucan scribe in the scroll of Acts. (N.T.), because Alexandria was the major cultural center in those days and Jerusalem was near it.

The Hellenic influence which was explained in section 2 (two) above, shows the way in which Jesus challenges the current concepts of his time that law and tradition must govern human behaviour. He combines the ethical genius of the Hebrew and Jewish religious tradition with the new insights that Hellenic culture offers. Jesus adjoins the newly emerging Hellenic notions of the individual with the ethical rules for human behaviour that are so typical of the Hebrew-Jewish tradition and teachings.

This way he formulates a new way of going forward into the world that was emerging in his time. In so doing, Jesus also gives expression to a new attitude and exemplifies this with his own life. It shows how current conflicts within his society can be addressed and possibly resolved. Examples of this are recorded all through gospels. The most outstanding ones are where he moves across societal taboos of eating, drinking and interacting with people from all layers of that society. This was not only new to the Jews in Palestine; it was new all through the world of antiquity even down to our own times! And in a look to the then still unknown future, we can see Paul extend these concepts into the world of the gentiles, which was to become ‘the way of the followers of Jesus Christ’.

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The words discovery and revelation have in common the making known of something new. In the case of revelation we associate the divine with the intuition so experienced. In the case of discovery we relate the experienced intuition to the effort and work of the maker of the discovery. However we know from many reports about discoveries that ‘the flash of insight’ often is the experience that steers the worker towards the ‘discovery’. A discovery in the area of religion is often called a revelation, but that experience is the result also of human effort and work for whatever reason. It is the drive and effort that comes before a new insight presents itself.

Such insights occur in response to a person looking to resolve a particular difficulty or problem relating to a certain situation in time, place, circumstance and people. Insights received by humans have been recorded throughout history in the various handed down traditions. Such received insights or discoveries are called revelations in the traditions, because they were thought to be revealed from ‘the divine on high’. In our times we accept that such a revelation experience can also be a revelation ‘from within’. Today we do not always externalise the experience of the divine, but accept that this can also be an inner experience. Independent of the way we describe the source and experience of the newly revealed knowledge, we can make the observation that time, place, conditions and the people are determining factors as to the form and the content of the so received insight.

From the above discussion we can conclude that the process and experience of revelation is not bound by time and place, but rather related to it. If we apply that to our own time, the question arises as to how we would recognise such a revelation. To answer this question we turn to our study and analysis of such a process at it took place at the time of Jesus and in which he and others were participants. First we observe that the Hellenic culture allowed for many religious traditions to come into contact with each other. These traditions had led a separate and isolated existence without much interaction. Just as the Hellenic civilization changed that then, we can say for today that through the process of globalisation all world religions and civilisations are in contact and interchange with each other.

Secondly we notice the amount of time that was involved. Up to the time of Jesus, that world then had been under the influence of Hellenic culture for three hundred years. In our own case, society, culture and religion have been influenced by the methods and discoveries of science since about 1700 (Newton). This has enabled us humans to understand and participate in our own world of existence. Such acquisitions need to be acknowledged and applied in a responsible manner. They are a gift and treasure of great significance to the future of humankind.

A third point of correspondence can be discovered in the reactions of the Jewish society at the time of Jesus. It was a situation that he experienced at that time and addressed in his teachings. We saw earlier these reactions in antiquity ranged from the complete adaptation to the Hellenic ways (the Hellenist Jews) to the complete and violent resistance (the Zealots) to these changes. Reactions in our own time range from attitudes of those embracing ‘globalisation’ to those of protesting anarchists and violent terrorists.

In an attempt to recognise a revelation for and in our own times, we first summarise the above three points of similarity between the time of antiquity around the year zero and our own time. First there was the interaction of many cultures and traditions in both situations then and now. The second effect was that of the new ideas of the Greeks then and our sciences now. And finally we noticed the similarity in the range of reactions taking place within the Jewish society then and those within the various societies on our planet today. Next we look at the discoveries and insights that Jesus brought to his society as discussed above under section six (6). Through his teachings he widened people’s horizons by including all those that made up his society. Later on Paul extrapolated on this even further.

It is clear for us today that we need to work towards the integration of the people on this planet such that we are able to share it equitably and in relative peace. The point of leverage, the fulcrum, is the common heritage we share as humankind as this goes back about sixty thousand years. This is a modern contribution that needs to be given a place of honour and respect. The other component that needs to equally acknowledged is that we humans also share a common tradition of society forming and building that involves religious experiences. This has been on the human record for as long as we know, also thanks to modern science. The latter shows that revelations have been a part of the human experience for many millennia. These too have contributed to our journey and brought us where we are today. This is a place of great diversity which needs to be recognised at the expression of the Mystery that I have come to call ‘Existence Divine’. In our world today we are conscious and knowledgeable human beings and in this newly acquired awareness we have become responsible for recognising what it is that is revealed to us as we journey along our way.

How then, does such a new revelation come about? Simple; we have to apply what we know as humans and use what has been handed down to us in our traditions as far as we can trace and infer them. A study of religions and of science both show that revelations occur regularly to those who are in the process of addressing and solving problems. It is a process that is inherent to us humans, it is the way we become conscious of new a new awareness and we have the responsibility to pursue this process.

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The scribal culture was preceded by an oral one. We know about it from stories, mythologies and anthropological research. The animals were the first teachers of humankind, be it about language or the hunt, animals were the way showers as humans became aware of their own humanness, while the shaman were the guides in trying times and the revealers of new truths. Animal masks with the emerging human face evidence the emergence of an awareness of the human identity away from the animal based one.

These processes were circumambulatory depending on time, place, conditions and people. Evidence for the animal based gods are found in the Ancient Egyptian, Roman, Greek, Mesopotamian and Persian god images of therianthropic [of animal and human form] nature. Slowly the fully human identity emerges from that early identification with the animal form. This is reflected in the god images that are becoming prevalent at the time of Antiquity. Some have dual, combined animal and human, forms and representation, followed later by an animal companion of some gods of human form; for example Freya and the hare in Germanic mythology. Animal figures in the stable of Jesus’ birth are a late such tradition in the European Medieval times. Even the army mascots are still such a left over as are the animal symbols accompanying the four gospels.

As god statues had to be replaced over time, the newly crafted figure was not yet the god until a proper ceremony had taken place. We know that the Egyptians had such a ceremony, it was called: ‘The opening of the mouth’ ceremony. It was only after this ceremony that the god was incarnate in its effigy as we call that today. Only then could the god speak and could the priest hear the words of the god and proclaim them. -(Think of our tradition of the unveiling of a public statute or sculpture!)- This then was the oral tradition in high form at around 3 000BC. At this time the written word starts to increase in importance, until eventually the revelations of the speaking god take the form of the written words of god, which now need to be interpreted. It is this tradition of the written word that we will take a closer look at below.

Over the last two centuries a wealth of discovered writings from Ancient Egypt and Babylonia, have been deciphered. They show that the near eastern scribal professionals constituted a community and this gives good grounds for assuming that the Hebrew society shared it, although not much archaeological material in Palestine has been uncovered to this date. This means that we will apply some of the Egyptian and Mesopotamian traditions and techniques to those of the Hebrew at that time. It does not imply that the contents in the writings were the same, although similar story structures and narrative techniques were practiced. It is this common cultural setting that forms the back ground for an understanding of the ancient scribal culture.

The Bible as we know it today, handed down to us through the centuries, was the end product of a preceding long term formation process. The earliest tradition was oral and probably had the form of songs and hymns. To these were added divinations and prophesies as well as laws. As writing became available through the use of the alphabet, a late invention, the oral tradition was written down by scribes. They were members of the social upper classes and had been trained for many years to acquire this skill. This process took place within the setting of a temple community that was made up of clergy, priests and scribes. The temple was the repository of the scrolls, knowledge and the centre of formal authority. For the Hebrew society this became the institutionalised setting during the years from 500 to 200 of the second temple period. It was closely linked to the Persian tradition with regard to interpretation and law. The scribes familiarised themselves also with the prophets and the writings as they were a part of the Hebrew tradition.

Authority and authorship:
The style of the writing was accumulative and was done for the purpose of preserving the oral tradition so as to consult it. The writing was not analytical, but repetitive as oral tradition is and it was therefore aimed at an audience of hearers. Since the scrolls were records of a still oral tradition and since the scribe was the recorder of this tradition authorship was not even an issue. The origins of these accumulated sayings and pronouncements lay with the gods who spoke these words and gave the instructions. This is where the authority rested at first, later on the writing or scroll was attributed to a famous ancestor, who lent it his authority. In the Old Testament Moses is an example of such a person of fame. It was the person who hears the word of god which no longer comes from an effigy and the Hebrew are told to destroy such an effigy such as the ‘golden calf’ was. An example of conflicting authority in the Old Testament is found in the Jeremiah scroll which calls the composite book of Deuteronomy a ‘fraud’. The first is about the law and was composed and edited by the scribes at that time. The prophet Jeremiah is not in agreement.

The textural history of the Babylonian Gilgamesh epic stretches for over two millennia and is an illustration of the various editorial techniques that can now be traced and identified. These consist of substitution, expansion, conflation, resumption and harmonization. For example in the scroll of Deuteronomy the earlier conflict with the Jeremiah scroll is harmonised later on. In this process the Law and the prophets are so brought into reasonable agreement. This editing process of the Hebrew law scrolls took place during the Babylonian exile. The writings, such as Daniel did not yet exist. They date from after 200BC. The scribes added interpretation, framework and expansion. Deuteronomy reaches its final form during the Persian period, but the Jeremiah scroll changes still during Hellenistic times (300 – 65). These editing processes remained in place even in the times of the New Testament, when Paul has letters attributed to him that he never wrote. It was the authority of the scroll and its name that were important such as Moses’ laws or David’s psalms for the Old Testament scrolls and Luke, Mark, Matthew and John for the later gospels. These names were posthumously given to those books to lend them greater authority. Knowing the name of the scribe who recorded that tradition on a scroll was not considered important.

Some of the earliest known human traditions relate to divination, oracular pronouncements, prophecy and revelations. This ancient tradition is also found in the oldest parts of the Old Testament. They are predated by the Ancient Egyptian and Babylonian records. This tradition was originally oral. Once writing became available these pronouncements were recorded for the purpose of reference and probably also for distribution. Over time the scribe became the revealer of the ‘divine intent’ through the applied interpretations that were incorporated via the editing process. This happened when scrolls had to be rewritten due to wear. Irrelevant text was replaced by more applicable interpretations as political and social conditions changed. This also happened during the oral period, but those changes are untraceable. Another way in which the written texts acquired authority was due to an emerging view that the god had dictated the words to the scribe who wrote them down. Hence, the written texts became the ‘words of god’. And even though the reference does not mention it, we must remember that written records originated as records for the caravan traders and must have been used in dispute settlements at earlier dates. This use preceded religious and law applications and gave an early practical authority to the written record. So, where the prophets were the hearer of god’s words, so eventually the scribes became the recorders of those words and in this way the revelation shifted from the oral words to the written words. The formula: ‘and the Lord said to Abram ...’ becomes the admonishment: ‘it is written ...’.

During the last two centuries before the year Zero and the two following it the newly established authority of the written revelation had an impact in several ways. First, the existing texts were now more widely copied and they also became more widely distributed. This resulted in the teachings becoming better known among the population in general. It was no longer necessary to make a visit in person to the place of worship to hear those teachings. A second new phenomenon appeared in the form of new writings. These new revelations, now in written form, were attributed to old authorities. For example ‘The Words of Moses’ [Wise et al] and the whole collection of scrolls appeared, labelled today as the ‘Enoch Literature’ from the first century BC. Also the Gnostic writings date from this same period. These new writings were not the product of the older edited scrolls, but were new writings. They illustrate that revelation by means of the written word is now fully accepted. In addition, these new writings also show that the process of revelation had not by any means come to an end.

As the editing processes of the various older scrolls became finalized and accepted, canonical lists were circulated as to which scrolls were of the proper authority. The problem of proper authority and authenticity became a new and central problem due to the proliferation of the new writings. It led to the need for canonisation of texts and scrolls of the sacred scriptures in the different religious traditions. This process would complete the authority of the written word, now in the bound form of the biblion, a book, as invented by the Greeks. And it is in this form of the ‘biblion’ or bible that these old scrolls have come to us with their handed down wisdoms and revealed insights, a recorded treasure of human experience.

End of Appendix.
End of document: Jesus the Man.docx

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