RE: Birthday of Christ-Don't even look at this info if it bothers you

[bruce carlyon <Bruce_Carlyon@syncsoft.com.au>]

To Everyone,

So far so good, no heated debates on what is a throny issue.
My input is that its different strokes for different folks.
My comments are to be thought proviking, no warranty is supplied that I am
talking sense at all.

Regarding Jesus  they 'may' have everything recorded correctly in the
Gospels.
They may have got things very wrong inadvertantly.
They may purposely told a vary different story, to conceal other truths.
His opponents could have influenced the gospel accounts.

We just do not have a standard to measure them by.
And this leads us into all sorts of areas, each potentially as correct an
account as the others.
For example the Gospel of Thomas is sourced differently to the gospels.
Jesus being born on December 25th, unlikely...(if memory serves this was the
date of birth of the God if the Cult of Mithras)
Emperor Constantine decided to the weild the people by their minds; thereby
forging Mithras and Christains into his new State Religion.  According to
Barbara Theiring; she suggests first week of March as the more likely
date...(Doesn't really matter)

Now if Jesus actually walked on water - fine
If he walked along the water-shore - fine
If he symbolically mirrors Moses, controlling the seas - fine
If he did or didn't do it cannot really be argued or debated....
We have to find our own way with this stuff.

Last comment; if you try to understand something, you should start at the
beginning.  (Obviously)!
However, the Nativity stories are likely to be the last inserts into the
gospels.  Why?
Well, the gospels were written many years after the events of the life and
story of Jesus.
Now the big events were his public ministry, arrest and crucifixion.  I
think its safe to agree on that across the board.
Well after he is gone people want to know more about him. They know his
crucifixion and arrest, so you start to work back into his earlier life, and
this is where it gets hazy and less reliable.
His family are no where to be seen, Jerusalem has been destroyed and its
people gone.
Suddenly we have stories of a miraculous conception, birth, symbolic star,
Kings/wisemen acknowledging him etc.
And as some realise we have a mixed account of his birth that resembles;
Horus, Mazda, Dionyisis

If the accounts were written about a real man - fine
If they embrace a number of men who are told in tale as one peron - fine
(think of Robin Hood)
If the acccounts and events relate to astrological/comolgical events (people
and places)- fine
If all the people in the accounts are told about under alias names - fine
Is Moses = MOSES?  or is he RaMASES, TutMOSES, we just don't know.
Why quibble over the 25th of December?  
I revere it after having said all of the above, because I choose to, its not
a great reason, but what can I say about my own faith.

Kindest regards
Bruce Carlyon
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