Did Jesus lie about his generation?

by Anony Mous 18 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Phizzy

  I will just Post this comment from Quora ( feeling lazy) and see what Sea Breeze has to say:

  " While there is a minority of historians who claim that there never was a Jesus, the vast majority believe there was a Jesus, but completely disagree to what extent all the tales about Jesus were actually discussing the same individual. This is primarily due to the scarcity of valid, reliable information regarding Jesus.

  • The author is unknown; sometime in the 2nd century CE, Papias of Hierapolis began saying that “Matthew collected the oracles in the Hebrew language, and each one interpreted them as best he could.”
  • The author of Matthew never claims to have been an eyewitness to events
  • Shows knowledge of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70CE, putting its writing several decades after the death of Jesus (while yes, this was a “prophesy”, it also says that Jesus would return on “clouds of glory” within the writer’s lifetime and lead his people into heaven…since that didn’t happen, it’s clearly a bit of “revisionist prophesy” on the part of the writer)
  • Much of Matthew is cribbed from the other three Gospels, but taking things a step further, accentuating the miracles throughout his life (the first Gospel written, Mark, shows Jesus performing very few miracles)
  • Many verifiable names are included in the Gospels, such as John the Baptist, Pontius Pilate, and Caiaphas, but these would be expected to be found in any document of the time." There is a lot more on Quora if you find the answers to this question on there : " Do credible historians agree that the man named Jesus, who the Christian Bible speaks of, walked the earth and was put to death on a cross by Pilate, Roman governor of Judea?". And even more in related questions on there.
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  Rocketman123

  Lets get the facts straight, the story of Jesus Christ (The Messiah) is one of ancient fictional mythology told by men to create a following and perhaps to empower themselves, the intent of these actions were real and had a purpose, which even today 2000 years later on we can still respect.
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  john.prestor

  Well said and well documented, Phizzy. Yeah, the earliest tradition we have about Matthew writing Matthew, and Mark writing Mark, is Papias. Wrote sometime in the early 2nd century. That's a long time between when the events of Jesus' life supposedly took place and when these writings appeared on the scene.
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  Anony Mous

  I agree with most of the notions above, the fact that a lot of the writings by Josephus and others were likely falsified later on by religious zealots. There was indeed a destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD, however the Jews themselves do not accept that as the end of worship and the complete destruction of the Temple. The fact there are (at least archaeologically dated) extant pieces of the Temple today (the walls of the Herodian temple predating Jesus can be seen today) shows that the “brick by brick” notion and complete destruction in 70AD was probably premature gloating by the Romans who had to come back a century later to get rid of those pesky Judeans.

  My point was actually that even Jesus didn’t properly predict the generation teaching, and although it was written after the fact to fit history, the writers didn’t even to seem to understand on when Jesus lived or agreed with the stories of the day.
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  TruthMatters

  Jesus said was speaking of the generation alive during the Great Tribulation.
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  BluesBrother

  I contend that Jesus did not say that the city and land would be entirely desolate and uninhabited, he said the Temple would be destroyed and a great tribulation. It would come in the lifetime of his close companions who were men around his own age.

  Accepted history records that this is what happened.
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  TruthMatters

  That is partially what happened, as Jesus foretell, but as MUCH greater time period was in his message..
• 

  pistolpete

  I contend that Jesus did not say that the city and land would be entirely desolate and uninhabited, he said the Temple would be destroyed and a great tribulation

  If that's true, then that would make Jesus God's prophet.

  I contend that THE WRITERS OF THE GOSPELS ---WROTE----THAT JESUS SAID ----A GREAT TRIBULATION...etc, etc.

  If Jesus was resurrected, he would read the Gospels and say----"

  Who the Fuc* wrote all this shit about things I never said?"
  
• 

  Anony Mous

  @BluesBrother: He said "this generation" - the original Jewish interpretation for generation was a timespan of 40 years (which is a pattern you can find repeatedly in the Bible). The first time the Romans came in 73CE, that time had just lapsed.

  In Mark Jesus predicts that "not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down" - that didn't happen at all in 73CE, yes they destroyed parts of the temple but according to archeology left it otherwise functional for another nearly 70 years to let the Jews worship, at which a more complete destruction was performed, excluding some of the major components which would've been infeasible in their time to destroy without wasting a ton of time and resources.

  Matter of fact, you can still find several "stone left on another" to date as the ancient walls of the Herodian temple still exist.