Any Alternative Explanations of Jesus of Nazareth?

[cloudyday2]

I would need more details to understand how an Enochian account of the context of paasage in the NT is faith-weakening. It is not intuitively obvious why that would be the case.

Jesus seemed to believe that Mt. Hermon was the gate of hell where rebellious angels (who mated with human females) were imprisoned deep beneath the earth awaiting their final judgment. A Christian must explain how Jesus could be so ignorant. A Christian might say, "well Jesus knew better but he was using the mistaken beliefs of his listeners to communicate just as he was using the native language of his listeners". I don't think that explanation is persuasive, because Jesus readily ridiculed beliefs that he thought were incorrect. Why would Jesus pretend to share these beliefs about Mt. Hermon and the gate of hell? Another approach might be the adoptionist Christology where Jesus BECOMES God gradually through his life.

 

[hedrick]

Jesus seemed to believe that Mt. Hermon was the gate of hell where rebellious angels (who mated with human females)

What are you referring to here? Mt Hermon has been suggested both as the location of Jesus' temptations in the wilderness and the Transfiguration. But it's not named, and I wouldn't want to rest very much on the identification.

 

[cloudyday2]

What are you referring to here? Mt Hermon has been suggested both as the location of Jesus' temptations in the wilderness and the Transfiguration. But it's not named, and I wouldn't want to rest very much on the identification.

We are talking about the ideas of Michael S. Heiser. I had read his book "Reversing Hermon" recently. Heiser claims that when Jesus tells Peter that "upon this rock I will blah blah blah" he is speaking of Mt. Hermon and the gates of hell believed for centuries to be somewhere in Mt. Hermon.

Heiser is apparently an Evangelical bible-believing Christian, and I am puzzled at how he can reconcile Christianity with his other ideas.

Here is a review of the book:
Reversing Hermon: Enoch, the Watchers, and the Forgotten Mission of Jesus Christ by Michael S. Heiser

 

[Uber Genius]

Rather, his followers tell you who THEY think he is.

Since the majority of historical and biographical narratives from ancient times, shoot even modern times, are written by followers did you really want to destroy the majority of ancient and even much modern history by you false rubric above?


Nice stories. Prove any of them are true.

Rinse and repeat my above comment. Prove Plato existed, he never wrote anything. Prove that Livy's History of Rome, scholars have described it as " The traditions of what happened prior to the foundation of the City or whilst it was being built, are more fitted to adorn the creations of the poet than the authentic records of the historian."

Like all skepticism, special pleading seems to be occurring in the hope of excising data from consideration, but stopping the damage of applying your methods uniformly is a problem skeptics have not solved.

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain," seem the only defense for the skeptic who would artificially and anachronistically have us treat the data of scripture differently than the other data of history of the period.