Jesus Caesar

Originally posted by ajmusicmedia
One could easily make a case for Mary Magdelene being none other than Cleopatra. She was the prostitute who loved Jesus.

Actually, the Bible doesn't say this. She was proclaimed a prostitute by Pope Gregory in the 6th century.

When Octavian defeated Marc Anthony, Cleopatra killed him,

Actually, he did kill himself. She didn't.

As to the issue of gods and so forth, the Jews never believed in Jesus and in the midrashes he occasionally shows up as some sort of insane street-corner preacher (these were later additions.) The Christian believe in him becoming a deity may be related to the popular act at that time of worshipping a popular leader after death. Caesar was worshipped, but Tiberius (very unpopular emperor) wasn't. Claudius was, but Caligua and Nero wasn't.

In terms of history, this practice went into decline in the West with the Roman emperors, some of whom (Caligula) declared themselves living gods. It was pretty easy to see that they weren't anything of the sort.

Christianity rose in a culture that was very tolerant of "foreign gods." Their practices were considered odd but not threatening until Nero needed a scapegoat.

Jesus would not be considered a messiah by the Jews because he was reportedly the son of a deity (the Jewish messiah is fully human.) Although Caesar might have been a candidate, he wasn't Jewish and wasn't of Jewish lineage and was not a war leader for the Jews. Caesar's worship (and temples) was pretty well established by 35 BC, long before the reported birth of Jesus. There's no evidence of mandated worship of Caesar, though some of the later emperors (after the rise of the Chrisitans) may have tried to enforce it.

Anyway, those of you who have the time and space to listen to podcasts (I listen to them in the car), check out the Berkeley series on Ancient Rome. It's a real delight!

Originally posted by ajmusicmedia
I never meant to imply that Caesar was Jesus. Only that Jesus' life, as reported by Christianity, was adapted from Caesar's life. By giving Romans a sense of comfort, they could make a Jewish saviour acceptable to them. Whether Jesus existed or not is not even relevant to this.

Maybe Caesar's life was mimicked by Jesus' life? But why? Hmmm, to make those who have any chance at salvation doubt Jesus (Yahshua) The savior is Hebrew and in fact celebrated certain feast and such as a Judaic.

Does anyone ever even stop to consider the mess of the people before the arrival of Yahshua in the flesh? God chose that point in time to manifest His Son/Word to proclaim the everlasting gospel of salvation and the coming Kingdom of God.

God did not choose His Son to come out of a Roman/Greek line, read the beginning of Matthew, Mark and Luke and the end of Revelation. God chose long before the manifestation of His Son, that He would be the root and offspring of David after the order of Melchisedec.
(Hebrews 5:6)
As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

Read Hebrews for better understanding. It's a good read, really. Caesar would love more than anything for people of today to think he's some sort of savior, he even wanted to be worshiped during his short lifetime, but we see where that went.

Also Yahshua was the light that went out to the Gentiles. Heathens worshiped anything and everything, so most of them were thrilled to know that there is a REAL living God to worship instead of stones and statues and figments of their imagination and emperors.

This is a great thread. The life of Jesus Christ is an archetype. You can find similarities between Jesus and all human beings, one at a time. That is one of the things that makes this story so powerful.

I've always felt a number of similarities between Jesus Christ and Socrates.

The Death of Socrates, from Plato's Phaedo

Not only did Socrates hold a very generous and humanitarian philosophy, preaching the immortality of the soul, but Socrates was willing to sacrifice his life rather than renounce his beliefs.

Plato's story of this predates the life of Jesus Christ by more than 300 years.