by O.Grimstad

Created on: February 25, 2010   Last Updated: March 05, 2010

First of all I think it’s important to keep in our modern minds that communities of the classical antiquity didn’t apply the sharp divisions between disciplines and government that we today classify as religion, politics, history, philosophy, astrology etc. Explanations and expectations travelled orally across communities and through generations of mainly illiterate people, blending with existing views about the world and their place in it. The earth was mainly thought of as flat, in a ”hamburger universe”, with the divine eternal source of life up in the celestial realm and the opposites of darkness and deceased down underground.

Christianity has its origin in this time period among Jews in the Roman Empire with its Hellenized culture. The Jewish nation was occupied and their uniting faith was challenged. The Jewish people were mixed in preferences and attitudes about the international Greek influences in contrast to the more nationalistic and conservative sects of Jews. The different world views were reflected in a variety of expectations about the coming Jewish King or Messiah. Some saw him as warrior in the image of King David, or Daniel’s apocalyptic son of man; while others leaned towards the image of a spiritual master revealing wisdom of the divine realm for the coming age or “aeon”.

Whoever the historical Jesus was; his life and teachings were interpreted into a Messianic / Christological framework by the gospel writers of the orthodox Christian canon. A great leader of peace was expected to come from Galilee, for instance, and a Davidic Messiah had to be born in Bethlehem. The story about the people of the world travelling to the birth town of their forefathers thousand years ago, in order to be counted by Roman authorities, is obviously added later to meet such expectations (Where would you go?). The major Messianic expectations were to be matched throughout the gospels, which is important to keep in mind when trying to separate history from mythology about Jesus. There are countless theories and speculations about the historical Jesus, and it seems hard to get much closer to the historical person than the advanced Christology about him written Paul and the Gospel writers.

Paul's letters are the oldest scriptures we have about Jesus. He didn’t pay much attention to his historical life, but focused on the transforming spiritual force of the transcended and immanent Christ. It was their immanent

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