Андрей Тихомиров
What did Jesus Christ really look like?
Christianity is impossible to imagine without its central figure – Jesus Christ, the Savior. Jesus is the Greek transcription of the Hebrew name Yeshua, abbreviated from Yehoshua, meaning "Jehovah's help", or "Savior". The word "Christ" is a translation into Greek of the Hebrew word "Mashiach" (anointed one), literally meaning "anointed with olive oil".
Being the Son of God, he was born of a mortal woman – the Virgin Mary – as a result, he called himself the Son of God, and – Human.
The Gospel /From Luke/ describes it this way: once upon a time there were (virgo) Maria and her husband Joseph, a carpenter, with whom she was only engaged (in the Talmud, a collection of Jewish laws, it is said that the betrothal is made by sexual intercourse and, by the way, can be carried out starting from the age of three, the same customs are among other peoples, for example, the Kazakhs – "zhastai-kudalasu" – the engagement in childhood of the bride and groom, the marriage of minors.
The famous Dutch film director Paul Verhoeven, who shot the film "Basic Instinct", wrote the book "Jesus of Nazareth: a Realistic Portrait", published in 2008, where he claims that Jesus was the son of Mary and a Roman legionnaire, and Judas did not betray Christ, but only followed his instructions.
And the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary (from Hebrew – "man of God"), and informed her that she would conceive from the Holy Spirit immaculately and her son would be the Savior. The Christian Church celebrates the Nativity of Christ exactly 9 months after the Annunciation – on March 25 (April 7), which leads to some suspicions that this is very similar to pregnancy and, judging by the icons, Jesus is extremely similar to Gabriel. A.S. Pushkin in his poem "Gavriiliada" gave a parody of this gospel story, for which he was subjected to reprisals by the tsarist authorities on denunciation.
Shepherds or magi (mentioned only in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke) who came to the manger (animal feeding place) where Jesus was, in fact, Mary was expelled by Joseph for adultery, so Jesus was in the manger, these are none other than agents of the Parthian kingdom (then called Persia, modern Iran), which It was at war with Rome, and Palestine was a territory for which an open and secret war was waged. The then King of the Jews, Herod, was a protege of Rome, and the Parthians tried to persuade him to cooperate, but they failed. Then they began to look for a new king among the children born. This ancient custom, for example, has been preserved in Buddhism, and Herod, having learned about it from the Magi (Matthew 2:2), sent to kill the babies (this is mentioned only in Matthew), and the "holy family" fled to Egypt. But if we proceed only from the logic of religious thinking, then how to explain why they went to him at all!? It was necessary to go straight to the destination!
The Virgin Mary in due time gave birth to a baby, who was named Jesus, and to whom the magi (Matthew 2,1-12), or shepherds (Luke 2,8-18), that is, agents of the Parthians in disguise, came to worship. Maria is a name not only from Mariam ("lady of the sea" is an Aramaic word, compare with the name of Latin origin – Marina – sea), but also from Mary – bitter, beloved, stubborn – of Hebrew origin, so the mourners were called in the East. For example, three Marys, that is, mourners, mourned the death of Christ. There is a very unloved by the church and, therefore, a little-known version of the events described, set forth by classical historians Justin, Tertullian, Kelsus (Celsus), Origen, as well as in the Talmud, according to which Jesus of Nazareth was the illegitimate son of a peasant woman Mary from a fugitive Roman soldier Panther, with whom her husband (Joseph) after that, in accordance with Jewish laws, he divorced. A modern Russian scientist, Doctor of Historical Sciences Boris Sapunov claims, based on the method of the theory of testimony, that Jesus Christ was a Greek by his father. He compiled a verbal portrait of Christ and sent it to various criminologists and anthropologists, their conclusion is the same – this man belongs to the Greek-Syrian type. There is a hint of this in the Gospel: when there is a completely principled dispute between Jesus and the Pharisees, who were distinguished by ostentatious piety, they, as if, by the way, declare to Jesus: "We were not born of fornication," after which, in the best traditions of kitchen squabbles, an instant transition to personality follows. He said to them, "Sons of the devil," they told him: "The devil is in you," with which they parted /John, 8, 41-52/. In principle, this is quite possible if we take into account some oddities: for example, Jesus did not allow the disciple to bury his father's body: "Leave the dead to bury their dead" /Matthew 8, 21-22/ (The Parthians had a religion of Zoroastrianism, where corpses were not buried in the ground, but placed in special towers of silence – dakmas, where they are eaten by birds, the cleaned bones are poured into a deep well in the center of the tower, so the "pure elements" – water, fire, earth, air, do not come into contact with the "unclean" corpse, similar elements of burials are found by archaeologists in the Sintashta-Arkaim culture in the Southern Urals). But what about the fifth commandment of Moses: "Honor your father and your mother…", which the Savior himself quotes a little later /Matthew, 19, 19/. Or "A live dog is better than a dead lion"? In the Avesta, the main book of Zoroastrianism, in the first book of the Vendidad, two chapters are devoted to a dog (a word of Iranian origin, in Slavic – dog) and various prescriptions on how to treat a dog, for killing a dog, a more severe punishment follows than for killing a person. The dog, apparently, was a totemic animal among the ancient Indo-Europeans.
In any case, it is quite possible that Jesus' childhood was far from cloudless. Partly, this is indicated by the famous "There is no prophet in his fatherland" /Matthew,13,57; Luke, 4, 24/, and partly by the unfriendly, to put it mildly, attitude towards his Mother and brothers (Jesus had brothers) /Matthew,12,46-50/. The thesis of the immaculate conception was adopted only at the Third Ecumenical Council in 431 .
Even the shadow of suspicion of illegitimacy could poison the life of a little Jew, and, in this case, the personality of Christ, being formed in an environment of general alienation, and, provided even a small hereditary predisposition.
Considering the fact that the Savior foresaw everything and selected twelve disciples-apostles for Himself, we can safely say that Judas Iscariot fulfilled not only and not so much the satanic will /Luke 22, 3/ as "the providence of God", and maybe human (in other words, a well-conceived provocation). Indirect indications of this: the phrase of Jesus: "What you do, do it quickly" /John, 13, 27/ – and the address "friend", when everything is already clear (although everything was clear to Him before), when Judas brought the people "with swords and stakes" and quite an obvious goal /Matthew, 26,50/. Perhaps this also includes the "kiss of Judas" and his subsequent suicide /Matthew, 27, 3-5/. That is, based on what has been said, Judas Iscariot may be a more tragic figure than is usually thought. True, it was also said by Jesus to the apostles: "One of you is the devil" (a liar and the father of lies) /John 6, 70/. Judas Iscariot (Judas – from the Hebrew idn or Adam – a man, Iscariot – from the Hebrew Ish Cariot – a man from a Cariot), "ish" – a husband, a man, "ishsha" – dosl. a peasant or a wife. One of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ, who, by a predetermined agreement, played the role of a traitor in order to create the appearance of persecution by the Roman authorities and Jewish priests against the sect of nascent Christians, (the psychological role of a "sufferer") and to excite Jews to fight against oppressors – the nobility and foreign conquerors. The sermons are interesting: "He who is not with me is against me" /Matthew, 12, 30/ "…Whoever is not against you is for you (to the apostles)" /Mark, 9,40/. On the one hand, "… it is more convenient for a camel to pass through the needle's ears than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God," and immediately "it is impossible for men, but everything is possible for God." /Matthew 19, 23-26/. "… everyone who is angry with his brother in vain is subject to judgment" /Matthew 522/, and to the apostles who fell under the hot hand: "O faithless and corrupt generation! How long will I be with you? how long will I put up with you?.."/Matthew, 17, 17/. Some commentators of the Gospel understand by the word "camel" a thick ship rope; others, literally understanding the word "camel", mean by needle ears one of the gates in the wall of Jerusalem, very narrow and low. Most likely, this expression is an ancient Jewish proverb showing the impossibility of achieving anything (G. Dyachenko, Complete Church Slavonic Dictionary, Moscow. 1900, p. 209).
