3.9 Earliest Christians I: Deciphering Jesus

History in the Bible

Garry Stevens

History, Christianity, Judaism, Bible, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 693 Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2021

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

The earliest Christians had three theological problems to tackle. First, what exactly happened at the resurrection of Jesus? Was his physical body brought back to life? Or was he transformed into an immortal spiritual body? Perhaps he never had a mortal body in the first place. Second, how was Jesus related to God? Perhaps he was a good man adopted by God. Eventually Christians came to believe he was no mere man, but an eternal divine being. Third, what happens to people after they die? Jews knew that nothing happened to them. They were not in heaven or hell because there was no heaven or hell. In the world to come, God would eventually resurrect the dead back on earth. After many years, Christians decided that people possessed immortal souls, that went to heaven or hell immediately after death. The idea of the resurrection of the dead faded into the background.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Giday, I'm Gary Stevens.
0:09.9	And welcome to the third season of the History in the Bible podcast.
0:15.2	In this final season, I explore how the Jews and the Christians constructed new religions when they were sent
0:23.9	spinning into the void after the destruction of the temple. All of the history, about all of the
0:31.4	books beyond the Bible.
0:39.6	Episode 3.9 Earliest Christians Part 1
0:42.6	Deciphering Jesus
0:44.6	In the last episode, I explored the earliest development
0:50.1	of the Jewish and Gentile Jesus clubs.
0:53.8	In the decades after the death of Jesus, the fans of of the Jewish and Gentile Jesus clubs.
0:56.7	In the decades after the death of Jesus,
1:02.1	the fans of Jesus had to re-evaluate their conceptions of their hero.
1:08.2	During his ministry, the disciples, and Jesus himself,
1:14.3	believed that Jesus was the predicted Messiah, the one to triumphantly rescue the Judeans from Roman bondage. Jesus was the new king of Israel. Jesus would rule over
1:23.6	Israel, installed by the divine son of man, descending from heaven after his triumph over
1:31.6	God's enemies in a cosmic battle. That claim led Pilate to crucify him. Jesus had also referred
1:41.6	to a mysterious paraclete. Not paracete, paraclete mysterious paraclete.
1:46.5	Not paracete, paraclete.
1:52.3	Paraclete is the English word of the Greek legal term proactlaton.
2:00.8	It means something like advocate, spokesman, mediator, helper, intercessor or consoler.
2:01.9	English language Bibles either use paraclete, advocate, helper or comforter.
2:09.0	Here the Gospel of John quotes Jesus.
	...

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