"In Danger of the Judgment"
SECTION I: Contemporaneous Witnesses
There are two important witnesses in the first century on Jesus Christ and early Christians:
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Lucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca, or Seneca the Younger) (c. 4 BC – AD 65) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_the_Younger
Josephus (AD 37 – c. 100),[2] also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu (Joseph, son of Matthias) and, after he became a Roman citizen, as Titus Flavius Josephus,[3] was a first-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70[4]. His works give an important insight into first-century Judaism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus
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Both could have witnessed Jesus Christ himself or early Christians, including Peter and Paul, but they did not leave any such evidences.
Both were interestingly closely related to Emperor Nero, the first major oppressor of Christians in the Roman Empire.
If two intellectually excellent persons did not mention anything about the 9/11-Terror scale or the 9/15-Wall Street Crisis scale incident of their era, you would naturally think such an incident must not have happened.
Indeed, Seneca did not mention anything about Jesus Christ; Josephus did not mention anything about early Christians virtually.
SECTION II: Seneca
Seneca is actually a teacher for Shakespeare. When I read works of the latter decades ago, I felt it strange that nothing Christian was found in his works. And now I know it is because Seneca is actually a teacher for Shakespeare.
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Certainly, when the tragedies of Seneca were rediscovered in the 16th and 17th century, they were immensely influential on dramatists such as Shakespeare. That a lost drama could have inspired the gospel writers should surprise no one (and here you will find a reconstruction of the "Lost Gospel of Seneca").
In 65 AD, Seneca was accused of being a part of the Calpurnius Piso conspiracy to assassinate Nero, and was forced to commit suicide.
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/seneca.html
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Seneca might have been a teacher not only of Shakespeare but also of the Gospel writers, Mark, Luke, Matthew, and John.
Yet, there was a chance, though objectively remote, that Seneca visited Jerusalem around A.D. 31 when he travelled to Alexandria for study from Rome.
And, I think this remote possibility was a fact.
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Seneca: a "Great moral teacher"
"God is near you, he is with you, he is within you. This is what I mean, Lucilius: a holy spirit indwells within us, one who marks our good and bad deeds, and is our guardian. As we treat this spirit, so are we treated by it. Indeed, no man can be good without the help of God. Can one rise superior to fortune unless God helps him to rise? "
– Seneca, Epistle 41.
At the same time Philo was laying the foundations of Christian theology in Alexandria, in Rome, another educated aristocrat, Seneca, was articulating the highly developed morality and ethics of Stoicism. The two philosophers may even have met: Seneca took a long sojourn in Alexandria in 31 AD.
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/seneca.html
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Seneca might have even listened to Jesus Christ preaching in Jerusalem, taking into account the higher level of morality he expressed in his work, while he was behaving like an adviser to noble and royal families of the Roman Empire, including Emperor Nero.
This imbalance between his soul and the mind could be ascribed to a certain possibility of his listening to Jesus Christ as a matter of fact.
Yet, Seneca mentioned nothing about Jesus Christ and early Christians.
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As it happens, the life of Seneca, like that of Philo, was contemporaneous with the "Jesus" of legend. Yet though Seneca wrote extensively on many subjects and people, nothing relating to "Jesus" ever caught his attention, nor does he show any awareness of a "vast multitude" of Christians, supposedly, punished for the fire that ravaged Rome in 64 AD.
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/seneca.html
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Was Seneca blind? Or, Jesus Christ and early Christians were so fractional and frivolous players on the stage of the first century history? Is the Gospel full of exaggeration?
I think Seneca carefully avoided mentioning anything about Jesus Christ and early Christians.
It is because Seneca actually saw the God in Jesus Christ in Jerusalem to be extremely troubled and frightened.
With silence on Jesus Christ, Seneca lived his material life at a higher level of the high society of the Roman Empire, since he was extremely troubled and frightened by thinking about Jesus Christ.
His perfect silence on Jesus Christ and his having had a chance to travel through Jerusalem around A.D. 31 have brought me to the above conclusion.
In addition, Shakespeare never tried to depict or mention Jesus Christ, perfectly.
(That is why I would not be surprised if Saddam Hussein had ever met with Osama bin Laden, or Mr. Cheney or Mr. Rumsfeld had ever met with the bin Ladens, perfectly secretly)
Nonetheless, there is a theory that Seneca wrote a play on Jesus Christ, which influenced Mark. I might deal with the matter on this line later.
http://www.metrum.org/gosen/fromtraggospel.htm
SECTION III: Josephus
(To be continued...)
(Oh, pauvre fille, c'est tout pour aujourd'hui, since I like to hear "She Loves You," de jure...
http://www.geocities.com/neil2bn/shelovesyou-thebeatles.mid
Source: http://www.geocities.com/neil2bn/thesixties.htm)
Mat 5:21 Ye have heard that it was said of them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
Mat 5:22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.