By Alan Torrance, Republished by Lewis Loflin
For the record, I do not consider Christianity a sect of Judaism, despite its claims to the authority of the Old Testament. As I’ve explored in pages like A Deist Critique of Anti-Christian Zealotry, Christianity may cloak itself in Jewish tradition, but under the influence of Paul and John, it became more akin to Gnosticism and Greek philosophy. This aligns with Alan Torrance’s argument below, which highlights how Pauline Christianity diverged sharply from Jesus’ Jewish teachings, adopting pagan elements and rejecting the Law. From my Deist perspective, as seen in Donna Lee Henry’s theology, this shift reflects a broader pattern of dogmatic control—whether religious or secular—that I critique, favoring instead a reasoned approach to faith.
Alan Torrance
Auckland, New Zealand
October 13, 1999
Various stories have been told to the world in the New Testament, as well as in numerous extracanonical texts, which for one reason or another have not been included in the New Testament. Many stories are contradictory, but some general facts do come through—and to Christian lay minds, they are not pleasant, though they are allegedly known and accepted by Christian ministers, according to the authors of the book mentioned at the end of this article.
I will not delve into the areas of so-called "proof texts," which are invariably based on mistranslations or taken out of context by Christian missionaries. Many good books have been written showing how these "proof texts" are in error. One example is The Jew and the Christian Missionary: A Jewish Response to Missionary Christianity by Gerald Sigal.
Jesus’ name in Hebrew was Y’hoshua (Joshua). "Jesus" is the Greek equivalent. He had brothers—Joseph, Simon, James, Jude, and Jude/Judah/Judas Thomas (Thomas means "twin," indicating Thomas was Jude’s twin). There is evidence there were at least two sisters. All were born and conceived in the normal manner. John the Baptist was a first cousin through Jesus’ mother’s family.
They were devout Jews, members of the Essenes and also of the anti-Roman resistance movement, variously called Lestai (brigands), Sicarii (dagger men, due to the curved daggers they used in political assassinations), Zadokites (after members of the priestly line), Zealots (those zealous for the Law), and Nazareans. This latter term has nothing to do with the town of Nazareth but refers to the "Nazarite" oath mentioned in Numbers 6.
Jesus was not the "meek and mild" person of Christian tradition. He was a warrior prince, a would-be king or prince messiah. He was not the messiah of Christian tradition but, to some, one of the two messiahs of Jewish expectation—a warrior leader who would hopefully lead the people out of the troubles and tribulation of the day. The other messiah, the "priestly messiah," would interpret and administer the Law. In that the troubles and strife continued, Jesus failed miserably in his quest.
He was born to a family claiming Davidic descent. King Herod knew this—that Jesus was a potential claimant to the throne he had usurped—hence Herod’s desire to kill all male infants to ensure he eliminated the rightful claimant. Even the "Three Wise Men" came seeking "the infant King of the Jews."
Later, Jesus neither admitted nor denied being a king (Luke 23:3). He wisely hedged the question, saying, "You are saying it," and for some reason, Pilate accepted this.
Jesus, besides being a warrior, was a devout Jew and preached Orthodox Judaism. He did not advocate "doing away with the laws," as many Christians claim. On the contrary, he preached Jewish Law and abided by it. Refer to Matthew 5:17–20. Every last bit of the Law was important to him—a fact strangely overlooked by those who later preached in his name.
Jesus was certainly the leader of a band of warriors. In Luke 22:36, we find him instructing his followers to buy a sword if they did not already have one, in preparation for a military action he anticipated—the confrontation with the Roman cohort (over 600 armed legionnaires) in the Garden of Gethsemane. As for Judas "betraying" him, Jesus instructed Judas (his brother) to do so in order that certain prophecies might be fulfilled.
Jesus was extremely aware of what the prophets had foretold. After all, he was a learned man—a biblical scholar who had studied "at the feet" of some of the ablest sages of the time. He took great care that his actions aligned with the prophecies, such as riding into Jerusalem on an ass to be greeted as a king.
The recorded fate of Jesus and the other two "brigands" who died with him was crucifixion, a punishment reserved by the Romans for those who took up arms against Roman rule.
Unfortunately, following Jesus’ death, Paul (the apostate Saul) started to preach a heresy—that Jesus was a god to be worshipped, something Jesus never asked for. In fact, Jesus would have been horrified at the thought. Paul also preached doing away with the Law—quite the opposite of what Jesus taught. Paul had apparently never met Jesus.
Regrettably, the Pauline tradition eventually held sway, perhaps partly due to the political and social upheavals of the period. With the gospels being written anywhere from 60 to 200 years or more after the events, much hearsay and corruption crept into what was recorded. A close examination of the gospels reveals many direct contradictions, a strange thing for what is supposed to be "truth."
Since then, especially with the Romanization of Pauline teaching, the world has a terribly perverted version of what Jesus preached. It is not recognizable as the same thing. Furthermore, it has assimilated numerous pagan elements and symbols—such as the virgin birth, mother and child, the cult of Astarte, and more—not the least of which is converting the Sabbath from the seventh day of the week to the first day (Sunday) in honor of the pagan sun god, Sol Invictus.
This change was one of Roman Emperor Constantine’s reforms, deliberately designed to further distance the new religion from its parent, Judaism.
If you want to know more, find and read The Messianic Legacy (ISBN 0-552-13182-2) by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. There is much about this topic in the first section of the book, along with a few other surprises in the second section. Their previous book was The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.
Acknowledgment: I’d like to thank Grok, an AI by xAI, for helping me draft and refine this article. The final edits and perspective are my own.
