The Jesus Problem: A Restatement of the Myth TheoryRobertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
Religion
The Jesus Problem: A Restatement of the Myth Theory
Robertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
Jesus Christ
We know from their version of the Pentateuch that the later Samaritans,
being strong "monotheists" in one of the senses of that elastic and
misleading term, sought always to substitute angels for Elohim in
the old narratives of divine action (e. g. Gen. iii, 5; v, 1; v, 24;
xvii, 22), "lest a corporeal existence should be attributed to the
Deity." [553] And it is instructive to note how their theological
drift exhibits itself in early Christism. The doctrine of the "Logos"
is not merely Alexandrian-Christian, it is Judaic. Some of the Aramaic
paraphrasts of the Old Testament at times wrote "the Word of Jehovah"
instead of the angel of Jehovah, sometimes the "She-kin-ah," which
means "the abode of the Word of Jehovah." [554] On the other hand,
we know from the Gospel of Peter that one of the early Christian sects
regarded Jesus as having received his dynamis, his power, at baptism,
and yielded it up at crucifixion. Here we are close to Samaritanism,
in which the angels were regarded [555] as "uncreated influences
proceeding from God (dynameis, powers)," pretty much as Simon is
described in the Acts. Thus "Simon" for the Samaritans would just be
"Êl," which the Samaritan Justin, like the writer of "Peter," held
to mean "Power." And at the same time, be it observed, Simon was
"the Word."
But still the proof abounds. In Lucian's account of the Syrian
Goddess we are told [556] that in the temple at Byblos there was a
statue, apparently epicene or double-sexed, called by some Dionysos,
by others Deucalion, and by others Semiramis, but to which the Syrians
gave no specific name, calling it only Semeion, a word which in Greek
properly means "sign," but may mean image. There can be little doubt
that Movers [557] was right in surmising this statue to be just the
primordial Sem or Sem-on, the Great Sem of the Semitic race. The
two-sexed character is in perfect keeping with the ideal duality of
the old Assyrian Nature-Gods; [558] and the peculiar detail of the name
which was not a name brings us again to the Sem-on of the Samaritans.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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