Lower than the angels

 

For about a decade or so, I´ve been very sympathetic to Jesus Mythicism. But it´s possible that I´ve been in the wrong. Perhaps Jesus was a real historical person, after all. Richard Carrier´s version of Mythicism entails that the earliest Christians believed that Jesus was an angel crucified, buried and resurrected in an astral twin world to Earth. Evidence? None. Except maybe a cryptic reference in 1 Cor 2:8, where Jesus is said to have been crucified by “the archonts”. But the expression “arkontes” can refer both to demonic rulers of the spirit-world and earthly human rulers. So context is everything here. As we will see, the context is that Jesus lived and was killed here on Earth. The Ascension of Isaiah argues that Jesus descended all the way to the earthly realm, so an earlier version in which the descent stopped in the astral has to be postulated – in the same way as the Jesus Seminar had to postulate a Proto-Q without apocalypticism when Q was still too apocalyptic. And they could at least point to the Gospel of Thomas sounding a bit like Proto-Q was supposed to sound like. But there doesn´t seem to be any text at all confirming Carrier´s scenario.

The undisputable Pauline epistles says that Jesus, apart from being divine, also was human. He was a Jew of Davidic descent, associated with Zion (a hill in Jerusalem). Jesus was born of a woman. He was crucified, the cross being made of wood, this confirming a prophecy that a person hanged on wood is cursed. (Was it astral wood?) Jesus was killed by the Jews in the same way as the Jews killed their own prophets – which happened in the land of Israel, not in the astral world. Through a vision, Paul saw what Jesus did on the night he was betrayed: he celebrated the first eucharist with bread and wine. How can earth and wine be the body and blood of Christ, if Christ suffered and died in the astral world? Sure, I suppose it´s possible that they are symbols of astral body and blood, but in context (see below), that´s highly unlikely. 

Paul further states that Jesus died and rose “according to the Scriptures” and then made a number of resurrection appearances. But “the Scriptures” don´t prophecy a death of an angel in the astral world, not even an astral world that looks like a copy of Earth. No, they talk about earthly realities: the Suffering Servant, the virgin who shall conceive, the godly person persecuted by his enemies in the Wisdom of Solomon, the Anointed One who is cut off in association with a temple sacrilege and a foreign attack. As a side point, note that Jesus showed himself to Paul´s contemporaries, suggesting that Jesus must have lived shortly before – not one or two centuries earlier (as per other fringe theories). And yeah, James is called “the brother of the Lord”. So hit me.

The epistle to the Hebrews, probably an early work, says that Jesus was of the tribe of Judah and was crucified outside the city gates. He is compared to Melchizedek, who was a human (while also mysteriously being a god-man character). Melchizedek is associated with Jerusalem. Jesus is said to have cried out when faced with suffering, asking for God´s mercy. In the Gospels, he does this at Gethsemane. Could this be an early version of that Gospel tradition?

Note also the theology of both Paul and Hebrews. Christ is the first fruit of the resurrection. Just like Christ rose, so will Christians rise on Judgment Day. On Earth. Not in the astral. So Jesus lived on Earth. Baptism is said to be a baptism into the death of Christ. But water is a material element on Earth. So the death of Christ must have been on Earth. Jesus is the Second Adam. Just like all humans fell through Adam (who lived on Earth), so all humans will be made alive through Christ (who lived on Earth). I suppose it *could* be argued that early Christians viewed Adam as an archetype or perhaps did place him in an Edenic heaven-world, but this seems unlikely, since Paul says that the first man came from earth and was “earthy”. Jesus looked outwardly like a sinful human, so he could become a sin sacrifice on behalf of humans. Would an angel look like a sinful human in the astral world? 

Jesus was revived by the Spirit, the same Spirit that will revive dead humans. On Earth. Not in the astral. Christians are admonished to identify with Christ´ s sufferings. How is that possible, if Jesus was an angel who suffered in the astral? Paul rhetorically asks who can bring up Christ from the abyss, that is, the realm of the dead. Was this an astral ”abyss”? That´s unlikely. Of course it´s Hades.

In Hebrews, Jesus is explicitly said to be a human precisely because his salvific act wasn´t intended for the angels. Also, he is a human since a sacrificial priest is always appointed from among humans. Which makes sense, since humans can and must atone for their sins before God. So he simply *can´t have been an angel*, according to the early (pre-Gospel) theology of Hebrews.

But why don´t the earliest Christian sources contain more historical information on Jesus? Well, who´s asking? The historical-critical scholar? Paul´s epistles don´t even contain a full list of Old Testament prophecies applied to Jesus. Yet, it´s obvious that he *does* believe in such prophecies. “According to the Scriptures”, remember? Paul is preaching Christ crucified and resurrected, a Christ that will soon come back and make all things new. This may be awkward to us, or even to somewhat later generations of Christians, but there you go. 

There is another possibility, entertained by many historical-critical scholars: Paul was a “heretic”. He never met the earthly Jesus, indeed, if read carefully, his epistles seem to suggest that he never even visited Judea before being converted! So the Christians Paul persecuted during his zealous Jewish period must have lived elsewhere. There are obvious hints at conflicts between Paul on the one hand, and Peter and James on the other. This is confirmed even in Acts, since the purpose of this much later work is to harmonize the Pauline and Jewish-Christian strands of the movement. Paul is adamant that he is a true apostle, that Jesus is speaking to him through visions, and that he had some kind of resurrection appearance. He constantly complains about false brothers and fake apostles, preaching a different Christ. We are talking about a fractious movement! Perhaps Paul couldn´t tell the true story of Jesus´ life, since Jesus was more like James?