"with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits" - The Gospel of Philip

Around Tokyo

The Gospel of Philip

It is interesting to read Gnostic Gospels, since it shows how people were influenced by early Christianity.

The Gospel of Philip is one of the Gnostic Gospels, a text of New Testament apocrypha, dated to around the 3rd century but lost in modern times until an Egyptian man rediscovered it by accident, buried in a cave near Nag Hammadi, in 1945. 

The text is not related to the canonical gospels and is not accepted as canonical by the Christian church. Although it may seem similar to the Gospel of Thomas, scholars are divided as to whether it is a single discourse or a collection of Valentinian sayings. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Philip 

Some interesting parts of the Gospel of Philip are as follows:

"Jesus" is a hidden name, "Christ" is a revealed name. For this reason "Jesus" is not particular to any language; rather he is always called by the name "Jesus". While as for "Christ", in Syriac it is "Messiah", in Greek it is "Christ". Certainly all the others have it according to their own language. "The Nazarene" is he who reveals what is hidden. Christ has everything in himself, whether man, or angel, or mystery, and the Father....

The apostles who were before us had these names for him: "Jesus, the Nazorean, Messiah", that is, "Jesus, the Nazorean, the Christ". The last name is "Christ", the first is "Jesus", that in the middle is "the Nazarene". "Messiah" has two meanings, both "the Christ" and "the measured". "Jesus" in Hebrew is "the redemption". "Nazara" is "the Truth". "The Nazarene" then, is "the Truth". "Christ" [...] has been measured. "The Nazarene" and "Jesus" are they who have been measured... 

The eucharist is Jesus. For he is called in Syriac "Pharisatha," which is "the one who is spread out," for Jesus came to crucify the world. 

http://gnosis.org/naghamm/gop.html

It did not have no relevance to His mission how he called himself, although it looks likely that Christ Jesus never called Himself God.  But someone in the second century wrote the Gospel of Philip arguing such a minor matter on the name of Christ Jesus. 

And it shows his ability to manipulate the fact: Jesus came to crucify the world.  But results of  Gnostic authors exercising their ability to manipulate interpretation of Christ Jesus' mission, His intention, His words, etc. always result in nonsense which, however, appeals to intellectual ability of readers.   

Gnostic authors presented their intellectual ability applied to the story of Christ Jesus.  Meaning of the teaching of God presented by Christ Jesus was not their concern.  But by presenting their versions of gospels, they might get followers or take some high positions in Christian organizations to be respected by people.  At least, it seems that the intention of Gnostic authors was not to help the poor and save the world.


**** **** ****


Mar 1:27 And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him.
Mar 1:28 And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.

"Thus hath the Lord dealt with me" - Water, Part of God

Around Tokyo

Water, Part of God

When a supernova, a big fixed star with huge mass, exploded, hydrogen and other elements in the star were discharged into the space.  In the process of this explosion, atoms of hydrogen and oxygen collide and get merged to produce water molecules.  This is the origin of water, including that in the earth.

One water molecule consists of one atom of oxygen and two atoms of hydrogen.  This composition never changes and is stable in any environment in the universe, although water can be decomposed by an electric current into hydrogen and oxygen.

Water can be ice, snow, sold, rain, liquid, vapor, gas, and their complexes depending on temperature and pressure, although its composition of two atoms of oxygen and one atom of hydrogen per water molecule does not change.

People are like water.  Although their internal composition never changes, they can be ice, water, and moisture vapor depending on environmental. social, and psychological environments.  People can be righteous and evil depending on external and internal conditions, while everyone of them has DNAs of the human race, which means all the human beings share the same traits.

But if water molecules are decomposed by an electric current into hydrogen and oxygen, and atoms of hydrogen were gathered to undergo nuclear fusion, a fixed star or another sun is formed, emitting light, heat, and energy.

Maybe God might create His Son Christ Jesus out of an ordinary man of Nazareth in this kind of process.

Looking back to the history, it is the 19th century that the mankind discovered that water consists of hydrogen and oxygen.  Before the discovery, people thought ice, water, and vapor are all different entities of different substance.  And, there are no records that any man before the discovery thought that water consists of hydrogen that makes up the sun and oxygen people breathe.  Especially it must have been out of the scope of imagination of ancient people, although people cannot live without drinking water.

But people of today might be likened to ancient people who could not see through water to understand that it is composed of hydrogen and oxygen.  It is so, because people cannot make a difference between God and the Son of God, since they still believe the creed that Christ Jesus is God, which the Vatican established 1600 years ago with a Roman emperor.

If hydrogen is part of God, water is substance made of parts of God, which is utmost remote part of God but not God Himself.




**** **** ****


Luk 1:24 And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying,
Luk 1:25 Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.
Luk 1:26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
Luk 1:27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.

"he had seen a vision in the temple" - All about Jesus, but How Can It be Proved?

Around Tokyo in Snowing

All about Jesus, but How Can It be Proved?

Today none doubts that Christ Jesus really existed 2000 years ago, although some scholars doubt existence of Moses and Abraham.

And, there is no reliable and objective way to verify the contents of the Gospels: Mark, Luke, Matthew, and John.  Even nobody can correctly name the authors or editors of these Gospels.  There are also no other historical documents written by Israelites, Greeks, Romans, or others to prove the believability or credibility of the Gospels.  Even the Vatican has no material to prove what is written in the Gospels is true.  None could show concrete evidence for Jesus' life and how the Gospels came to be written.

But with reference to some documents written by a Jewish author and Roman officials in the Roman Empire in the first century, it could be thought that it is true that a man called Jesus lived, preached, got arrested, and got executed by the Roman authority in a tie up with Jewish priests in Jerusalem in the first half of the first century.  And, it is a fact that many Jewish people and Roman citizens came to believe the teaching of God Jesus preached or the doctrine that Jesus was the Son of God.

Compared with what Christianity has achieved in these 2000 years, its origin and its founder are so vague.  What is more interesting is that after the fall of the Roman Emperor before 500, for almost 1,000 years ordinary Europeans and other people could not read the Gospels in their own languages.  During this dark period of 1000 years, the Vatican established itself.  However, it was after the English version of the Gospels were written in the 16th century that Shakespeare, Newton, and other geniuses could develop their talent and achieved excellent works.

The point at issue is that it is responsible for the Vatican that it has not fully and effectively studied and investigated the origin of Christianity and proof about life of Jesus in these 2000 years.

From a viewpoint of conspiracy, the Vatican has neglected the need to reveal historical truth of Christianity and Jesus, so that people could have no material with which to think about how Christianity was established, what the true life of Jesus was, and how the Gospels came to be made out.  Due to Vatican's negligence, people had to follow blindly the Vatican and still today many people rely on the Vatican.

Although it is not good to deny 100% the Vatican, the Vatican is not God so that it can make a mistake.  And, it seems that it made a big and fatal mistake.



**** **** ****


Luk 1:21 And the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that he tarried so long in the temple.
Luk 1:22 And when he came out, he could not speak unto them: and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple: for he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless.
Luk 1:23 And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house.

"astonished at his doctrine" - What was the Need for Writing the Gospels

North of Tokyo

What was the Need for Writing the Gospels

Christ Jesus had at least twelve disciples.  Each of them could contribute to establishment of a unique gospel, although most of them could not read and write.

As Christ Jesus acted for His missions in this world for three years, there must have been about 1,000 episodes.  Each disciple could choose any of them for his gospel.  So, such gospels should be vastly different from one another, if each gospel would have contained about 100 episodes.

If early churches had seen two different types of gospels, what would they have?  They would try to merge them but also discard minor episodes from both of them to make a new gospel concise.  As they had to respect both the disciples or authors, the resultant new gospel would not be biased to any of them.

But the common part among Mark, Luke, and Matthew constitutes 76% of Mark's contents, 46% of Matthew's contents, and 41% of Luke's contents.  The common parts between Matthew and Luke occupies 24% of Matthew's contents and 23% of Luke's contents.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synoptic_Gospels#Common_features)

They heavily depend on Mark.  In addition, it looks as if each of Luke and Matthew was made out first by merging each other into each and then by merging Mark into each.   Apparently Mark was positioned above Luke and Matthew.

Strangely, there are no other authentic gospels except John.   It looks as if there had been no other authentic synoptic gospels.  But because there were 12 candidate sources for gospels and 1,000 episodes of Christ Jesus, there must have been more synoptic gospels with different selection of episodes of Christ Jesus.

It means that there was a specific need for a disciple to write a gospel.  And special conditions were needed for a disciple to write a gospel.  But as only three synoptic gospels were authorized, the need must not have been related to existence and deployment of Christianity in general terms in the last half of the first century.

Put simply, the need was fist found by the author of Mark.  And then, Luke and Matthew realized it.  It also suggests that these authors must have been living in a specific location or a city.  Therefore, these gospels must have been established around Rome to avoid persecution of early Christians by the Roman authority.   

Yet, it is also apparent that these authors did not intend to have their gospels adopted as holy books of Christians on par with the Old Testament or the Jewish Bible.  For early Christians, their holy book was the Jewish Bible.  They could not claim that they had authority to write Christian bibles.  Nonetheless, there was a need for them to write gospels.  The reason must be related to the need to avoid the persecution of Christians by the Roman authority and, especially, the execution of St. Paul and St. Peter.

 
**** **** ****


Mar 1:22 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.