I guess people are extremely uninformed still even when this could all be cleared up by a quick NT refresher and a 5-min Wikipedia dive, lol, but: he didn’t “start” anything more than something close to a revivalist movement, as he was just a very vocal, very driven, very well-read and deep Jew. Then the Romans killed him and used his image for their own imperialistic objectives, establishing a new polytheistic religion with a “man-god” at its core (Jesus didn’t even want to be called “good”! All men of understanding know only the Father is truly good, everyone else has a bit of darkness and light in them), basically culturally appropriating Judaism and turning it into something bizarre and nonsensical (sorry to all my Trinitarian homies here). And the US, the new Rome, and every other Western empire in between has done the same.
I had a religious studies professor who reckons that Jesus, Buddha, and Muhammad had midlife crises that spurred them to start their ministries. I think they were all around 30 years old and life expectancy was shorter back then
To be fair. A historical Jesus person might have never existed. But, several authors of books in the Bible did. They were probably several con men who realized that they could collaborate to coalesce their respective cults by coopting the prophecies of Jewish religion. Thus gaining more power. The strategy took off and even today Christianity survives by pure syncretism. Absorbing groups and beliefs to stay palatable to the widest audience possible. Same strategy that has proven successful for mormoms, which are basically Christian fanfic.
As the old adage says, the difference between a cult and a religion is the number of members.
A historical Jesus person might have never existed. But, several authors of books in the Bible did. They were probably several con men who realized that they could collaborate to coalesce their respective cults by coopting the prophecies of Jewish religion.
That’s possible, but I think it’s far more likely that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John didn’t exist than that Jesus didn’t exist.
I really think the only difference between a religion and a cult is wether the founder is alive or not.
Iirc is defined by size.
If the biggest religions were only believed by a few hundred/thousand people they’d be treated like nothing more than the cults they are.
I have never heard anyone say Jones, Koresh or Hubbard were mentally ill. They were very talented con artists.
They go hand in hand. Narcissistic personality disorder plus antisocial personality disorder is what makes them so charismatic.
Probably not; he didn’t try to start a religion.
A better question would be around Moses.
Paul of Tarsus had a lot to say about appearing to be mentally ill because of what he believed, though.
Paul m, if I recall my Sunday school lessons, had a vision; mentally stable people don’t have visions without substances or fevers or the like. Also he was a bit of a bastard before that too.
Unfortunately, we know so little about the person whom the biblical Jesus is based on that it would be really hard to say. Keep in mind that the myths about him in the Christian bible were written well after he was claimed to have died.
The earliest written of the Gospels is likely Mark. And it may have been written by someone with either first or second hand knowledge of Jesus, around 70 CE. Which would be a few decades after the claimed death of Jesus. So, the author (or authors) were dealing with memories at least a few decades old. And they were likely an adherent to this messianic cult, which means they were not exactly objective in their writing.
There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus was a cult leader who pissed off the authorities and got himself into trouble. He tore families apart and caused great strife to those around him during those times.
Being charitable and assuming that much of what he did was good and has been misreported since, it is a shame that a genuine cult took over after his reported death. The fact that this became a worldwide religion is horrific and has set back human development by millennia.
I’d bet it’s safe to say the sumbitch doesn’t even exist!
Yup people hear a story of this fucker doing magic and his mother being a “virgin” yet people think he was real.
He’s as real as Gandalf is.
The Christos is whatever you want the Christos to be, just craft one to your preferences.
Marcion’s Christ different from gPhilip’s Christ, different from Qur’an Christ which is different from St Ignatias’ Christ and on it goes.
I’d avoid the novel mundane Markan derived Christology from peeps like Ernest Renan that’s gone viral in the US, Ehrmanism I think…the most pointless of all the Christos’ to choose from, better with Netflix Christology.
Well, your first two examples started sects of established religions. And they were also cults.
Scientology amounts to a religion in a sense, though it’s just a very large cult that barely fits the usual concept of religion.
But, yeah, if you buy into Jesus having done what’s said in the bible and/or believed by christians, dude was starting a sect at least. I’ve seen people debate if what he was teaching was really “just” a reformation of judaism, or an intentional schism intended to start something new-ish, but the story of the new testament is of a charismatic cult leader building a sect.
Regardless of one’s faith in said charismatic cult leader, he didn’t do much that Koresh didn’t try. Managed to do a bit better than koresh or jones in that there was no mass suicide (and waco was that to an extent).
Add to the list Joseph Smith. But I think he was possibly a merely a pedophilic sociopath rather than having eg schizophrenia.
From what I recall there were multiple fairly popular prophecies about what a diety or sign from the heavens were supposed to look like and Jesus recreated a number of them in the form of miracles. Doesn’t really speak to his mental status, he coulda been delusional in his insistance of his diety status or he could have been a grifter, or it could all be legit or whatever.
