The Jesus Myth

I tend to doubt the historicity of Jesus. Why you might ask. To be honest I have not seen any compelling evidence anywhere. Particularly none to mention anywhere outside of the bible. I am well aware of the usual claim concerning the similarity to Mithras and other ancient myths. I don’t really want to address the myth from that side though. Of course I will look at it from outside the bible and as I did concerning the pious fraud in the sermon on the mount I will once again turn to the Jewish Talmud.

I often hear Christians [at least a few] claim that Jesus can be found in the Talmud. If that were true [but it isn’t], it would be another clear case of pious fraud by Christians. There are however a few mentions to a Yehsu or Yeshua in the Talmud but neither are in the correct timeframe to be the Christian Jesus. There is one in particular that I would like to address and that is the story in Sanhedrin 43a about Yeshu ben Pandera. There are two things I would like to mention before I get into the text and they are that this story took place in the 2nd century BCE and the name of Yeshu’s parents. Based on the name his father was Pandera, a Roman soldier. The really interesting part is his mother’s name was Miriam and her occupation was a hairdresser. Often that was used as a euphemism for “women of ill repute” and it is very interesting that her name in Aramaic is Miriam megdela neshaya which anyone can see is almost an exact translation of Mary Magdalene who oddly enough is the patron saint of hairdressers.

Before I get into the story, let me give you the text of Sanhedrin 43a

On the eve of Passover Yeshu was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, “He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Any one who can say anything in his favour, let him come forward and plead on his behalf.” But since nothing was brought forward in his favour he was hanged on the eve of the Passover! – Ulla retorted: Do you suppose that he was one for whom a defence could be made? Was he not a _Mesith_ [enticer], concerning him Scripture says, _Neither shalt though spare, neither shalt thou conceal him?_ With Yeshu however it was different, for he was connected with the government for royalty [i.e., influential]. Our Rabbis taught: Yeshu had five disciples, Matthai, Nakai, Nezer, Buni, and Todah.

Interesting story in it’s own right but immediately some really odd similarities pop out. First thing we see is that Yeshu ben Pandera was hung on a tree on the eve of Passover much like the gospels claim happened 200 years later with Jesus. I am not claiming the stories are exact duplicates but just extremely similar. So similar that all Christians really should be uncomfortable knowing about this. Next similarity is that where Yeshu had someone crying forth for 40 days looking for favorable witnesses, in the Jesus myth that was both condensed into hours and the Romans were witnesses to his innocence while the Jews cried for blood. The 40 days was retained in the story of Jesus temptation in the desert and the crying forth was done by John the baptist before Jesus even started his mythological ministry.

The last thing I want to look at are the names of Yeshu’s disciples. In specific I really want to examine three names. Those are Matthai, Nezer and Buni. It is clear to anyone not blind that Matthai and Matthew are similar names. Nezer isn’t too clear a similarity [I suspect some Christians are squirming uncomfortably right about know]. The similarity isn’t in name but what the Christian’s claim about Jesus. That is that he was a branch or Nazarene. Both are variations of the Hebrew Netzer. Last to examine is the name Buni [I bet lots of Christians are making loud sighs of relief]. In a name ben means son of. As a word, Beni means my son and the Christian myth corrupted that to Jesus being gods son.

I can certainly understand how others can see a similarity with many pagan gods. In the early Church people said the same thing so how can anyone find fault with people for seeing the same now? It’s apparent, at least to me, that the Jesus myth borrowed heavily from other myths that were circulating at the time but a few salient points of the Jesus myth were taken directly from the Talmud. In particular the name Yeshu was corrupted to Yeshua [which was a necessary change since yeshua as a word in Hebrew means salvation], Mary Magdalene is a fiction directly stolen from the Talmud and the names of three disciples are very damning evidence that this was used as a source for the myth.

Some further reading you might enjoy

• Pious Fraud
• Who Moved The Stone?
• Christian Fraud
• Genealogy And Stuff

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