Criticism of Jesus
Encyclopedia
Jesus
is the central figure of Christianity
and Christian
s who believe that he was (and still is) divine
. Since the time in which he lived, a number of noted individuals have criticised Jesus, some of whom were themselves Christians.
and scribes
criticized Jesus and his disciples for not observing the Mosaic Law. They criticized his disciples for not washing their hands before eating (Mark 7:1- 23,Matthew 15:1-20). Jesus is also criticized for eating with the publicans. (Mark 2:15) The Pharisees also criticized Jesus' disciples for gathering grain on the Sabbath (Mark 2:23-3:6).
mounts a wide criticism against Jesus as the founder of the Christian faith
. He discounts or disparages Jesus' ancestry, conception, birth, childhood, ministry, death, resurrection
, and continuing influence. According to Celsus, Jesus' ancestors came from a Jewish village. His mother was a poor country girl who earned her living by spinning cloth. He worked his miracles by sorcery and was a small, homely man. This Rabbi Jesus kept all Jewish customs, including sacrifice at the Temple in Jerusalem
. He gathered only a few followers and taught them his worst habits, including begging for money. These disciples
, amounting to "ten boatmen and a couple of tax collectors" were not respectable. The reports of his resurrection
came from a hysterical female, and belief in the resurrection was the result of Jesus' sorcery and the crazed thinking of his followers, all for the purpose of impressing others and increasing the chance for others to become beggars.
Celsus stated that Jesus was the bastard child of the Roman soldier Panthera or Pantera. These charges of illegitimacy are the earliest datable statement of the Jewish charge that Jesus was conceived as the result of adultery (see Jesus in the Talmud
) and that his true father was a Roman soldier named Panthera. Panthera was a common name among Roman soldiers of that period. The name has some similarity to the Greek adjectiveparthenos, meaning "virgin." The tomb of a Roman soldier named Tiberius Iulius Abdes Pantera
, found in Bad Kreuznach
, Germany, is taken by some scholars as the Pantera named by Celsus.
According to Celsus, Jesus had no standing in the Hebrew Bible
prophecies and talk of his resurrection was foolishness.
, including Orthodox Judaism
, Hareidi Judaism, Reform Judaism
, Conservative Judaism
, and Reconstructionist Judaism
, rejects the idea of Jesus being God, or a person of a Trinity, or a mediator to God. Judaism also holds that Jesus is not the Messiah, arguing that he had not fulfilled the Messianic prophecies in the Tanakh
nor embodied the personal qualifications of the Messiah. According to Jewish tradition, there were no more prophets after Malachi
, who lived centuries before Jesus and delivered his prophesies about 420 BC/BCE.
The Mishneh Torah
, an authoritative work of Jewish law
, provides the last established consensus view of the Jewish community, in Hilkhot Melakhim 11:10–12 that Jesus is a "stumbling block" who makes "the majority of the world err to serve a divinity besides God".
wrote:
He then offered a response to his own objection, saying that Christ;
has many criticisms of Jesus and Christianity, even going so far as to style himself as "The Anti-Christ." In "Human, All Too Human
", and Twilight of the Idols
for example, Nietzsche accuses the Church' and Jesus's teachings as being anti-natural in their treatment of passions, in particularly sexuality; "There [In the Sermon on the Mount] it is said, for example, with particular reference to sexuality: "If thy eye offend thee, pluck it out." Fortunately, no Christian acts in accordance with this precept... the Christian who follows that advice and believes he has killed his sensuality is deceiving himself: it lives on in an uncanny vampire form and torments in repulsive disguises."
, Russell
pointed to parts of the gospel where Jesus seems to be saying that his second coming would occur in the lifetime of some of his listerners (Luke, 9:27). He concludes from this that Jesus' prediction was incorrect and thus that Jesus was " not so wise as some other people have been, and He was certainly not superlatively wise."
Regarding Jesus' moral teaching Russell has the following to say:
Russell also expresses doubt over the historical existence of Jesus
and questions the morality of religion: "I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world."
is very critical of Jesus and of religion in general. Regarding Jesus' teachings on hell, Hitchens wrote:
Hitchens is critical of Jesus' apparent inconsistency:
Hitchens is unimpressed by Jesus' treatment of his mother:
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
is the central figure of Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s who believe that he was (and still is) divine
Divinity
Divinity and divine are broadly applied but loosely defined terms, used variously within different faiths and belief systems — and even by different individuals within a given faith — to refer to some transcendent or transcendental power or deity, or its attributes or manifestations in...
. Since the time in which he lived, a number of noted individuals have criticised Jesus, some of whom were themselves Christians.
Pharisees and scribes
The PhariseesPharisees
The Pharisees were at various times a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews during the Second Temple period beginning under the Hasmonean dynasty in the wake of...
and scribes
Scribes
Scribes is a minimalist and extensible text editor for GNOME that combines simplicity with power. Scribes focuses on ways workflow and productivity can be intelligently automated and radically improved...
criticized Jesus and his disciples for not observing the Mosaic Law. They criticized his disciples for not washing their hands before eating (Mark 7:1- 23,Matthew 15:1-20). Jesus is also criticized for eating with the publicans. (Mark 2:15) The Pharisees also criticized Jesus' disciples for gathering grain on the Sabbath (Mark 2:23-3:6).
Magic and exorcism
In the latter half of the first century and into the second century, Jewish and pagan opponents of Christianity criticized argued that the miracles and exorcisms of Jesus and his followers were the result of magic.Celsus
CelsusCelsus
Celsus was a 2nd century Greek philosopher and opponent of Early Christianity. He is known for his literary work, The True Word , written about by Origen. This work, c. 177 is the earliest known comprehensive attack on Christianity.According to Origen, Celsus was the author of an...
mounts a wide criticism against Jesus as the founder of the Christian faith
Faith
Faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing, or a belief that is not based on proof. In religion, faith is a belief in a transcendent reality, a religious teacher, a set of teachings or a Supreme Being. Generally speaking, it is offered as a means by which the truth of the proposition,...
. He discounts or disparages Jesus' ancestry, conception, birth, childhood, ministry, death, resurrection
Resurrection
Resurrection refers to the literal coming back to life of the biologically dead. It is used both with respect to particular individuals or the belief in a General Resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The General Resurrection is featured prominently in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim...
, and continuing influence. According to Celsus, Jesus' ancestors came from a Jewish village. His mother was a poor country girl who earned her living by spinning cloth. He worked his miracles by sorcery and was a small, homely man. This Rabbi Jesus kept all Jewish customs, including sacrifice at the Temple in Jerusalem
Temple in Jerusalem
The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to one of a series of structures which were historically located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, the current site of the Dome of the Rock. Historically, these successive temples stood at this location and functioned as the centre of...
. He gathered only a few followers and taught them his worst habits, including begging for money. These disciples
Disciple (Christianity)
In Christianity, the disciples were the students of Jesus during his ministry. While Jesus attracted a large following, the term disciple is commonly used to refer specifically to "the Twelve", an inner circle of men whose number perhaps represented the twelve tribes of Israel...
, amounting to "ten boatmen and a couple of tax collectors" were not respectable. The reports of his resurrection
Resurrection appearances of Jesus
The major Resurrection appearances of Jesus in the Canonical gospels are reported to have occurred after his death, burial and resurrection, but prior to his Ascension. Among these primary sources, most scholars believe First Corinthians was written first, authored by Paul of Tarsus along with...
came from a hysterical female, and belief in the resurrection was the result of Jesus' sorcery and the crazed thinking of his followers, all for the purpose of impressing others and increasing the chance for others to become beggars.
Celsus stated that Jesus was the bastard child of the Roman soldier Panthera or Pantera. These charges of illegitimacy are the earliest datable statement of the Jewish charge that Jesus was conceived as the result of adultery (see Jesus in the Talmud
Jesus in the Talmud
The Talmud contains passages that some scholars have concluded are references to Christian traditions about Jesus.The history of textual transmission of these passages is complex and scholars are not agreed concerning which passages are original, and which were added later or removed later in...
) and that his true father was a Roman soldier named Panthera. Panthera was a common name among Roman soldiers of that period. The name has some similarity to the Greek adjectiveparthenos, meaning "virgin." The tomb of a Roman soldier named Tiberius Iulius Abdes Pantera
Tiberius Iulius Abdes Pantera
Tiberius Iulius Abdes Pantera was a Roman solder whose tombstone was found in Bingerbrück, Germany in 1859.Historically, the name Pantera is not an unusual name and had been in use among Roman soldiers in the second century....
, found in Bad Kreuznach
Bad Kreuznach
Bad Kreuznach is the capital of the district of Bad Kreuznach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is located on the Nahe river, a tributary of the Rhine...
, Germany, is taken by some scholars as the Pantera named by Celsus.
According to Celsus, Jesus had no standing in the Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
prophecies and talk of his resurrection was foolishness.
Judaism
JudaismJudaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, including Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
, Hareidi Judaism, Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
, Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...
, and Reconstructionist Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism is a modern American-based Jewish movement based on the ideas of Mordecai Kaplan . The movement views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization. It originated as a branch of Conservative Judaism, before it splintered...
, rejects the idea of Jesus being God, or a person of a Trinity, or a mediator to God. Judaism also holds that Jesus is not the Messiah, arguing that he had not fulfilled the Messianic prophecies in the Tanakh
Tanakh
The Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...
nor embodied the personal qualifications of the Messiah. According to Jewish tradition, there were no more prophets after Malachi
Malachi
Malachi, Malachias or Mal'achi was a Jewish prophet in the Hebrew Bible. He had two brothers, Nathaniel and Josiah. Malachi was the writer of the Book of Malachi, the last book of the Neviim section in the Jewish Tanakh...
, who lived centuries before Jesus and delivered his prophesies about 420 BC/BCE.
The Mishneh Torah
Mishneh Torah
The Mishneh Torah subtitled Sefer Yad ha-Hazaka is a code of Jewish religious law authored by Maimonides , one of history's foremost rabbis...
, an authoritative work of Jewish law
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
, provides the last established consensus view of the Jewish community, in Hilkhot Melakhim 11:10–12 that Jesus is a "stumbling block" who makes "the majority of the world err to serve a divinity besides God".
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas AquinasThomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, O.P. , also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis...
wrote:
Many sins have been committed since Christ's death, and are being committed daily. It seems that we were not delivered from sin by Christ's death.
He then offered a response to his own objection, saying that Christ;
by setting up the cause of our deliverance, from which cause all sins whatsoever, past, present, or to come, could be forgiven: just as if a doctor were to prepare a medicine by which all sicknesses can be cured even in future.
Friedrich Nietzsche
NietzscheFriedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
has many criticisms of Jesus and Christianity, even going so far as to style himself as "The Anti-Christ." In "Human, All Too Human
Human, All Too Human
Human, All Too Human , subtitled A Book for Free Spirits , is a book by 19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, originally published in 1878...
", and Twilight of the Idols
Twilight of the Idols
Twilight of the Idols, or, How to Philosophize with a Hammer is a book by Friedrich Nietzsche, written in 1888, and published in 1889.-Genesis:...
for example, Nietzsche accuses the Church' and Jesus's teachings as being anti-natural in their treatment of passions, in particularly sexuality; "There [In the Sermon on the Mount] it is said, for example, with particular reference to sexuality: "If thy eye offend thee, pluck it out." Fortunately, no Christian acts in accordance with this precept... the Christian who follows that advice and believes he has killed his sensuality is deceiving himself: it lives on in an uncanny vampire form and torments in repulsive disguises."
Bertrand Russell
In Why I Am Not a ChristianWhy I Am Not a Christian
Why I Am Not a Christian is a 1927 essay by the British philosopher Bertrand Russell hailed by The Independent as "devastating in its use of cold logic", and listed in the New York Public Library's list of the most influential books of the 20th century....
, Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
pointed to parts of the gospel where Jesus seems to be saying that his second coming would occur in the lifetime of some of his listerners (Luke, 9:27). He concludes from this that Jesus' prediction was incorrect and thus that Jesus was " not so wise as some other people have been, and He was certainly not superlatively wise."
Regarding Jesus' moral teaching Russell has the following to say:
There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ's moral character, and that is that He believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment. Christ certainly as depicted in the Gospels did believe in everlasting punishment, and one does find repeatedly a vindictive fury against those people who would not listen to His preaching -- an attitude which is not uncommon with preachers, but which does somewhat detract from superlative excellence. You do not, for instance find that attitude in Socrates. You find him quite bland and urbane toward the people who would not listen to him; and it is, to my mind, far more worthy of a sage to take that line than to take the line of indignation.
Russell also expresses doubt over the historical existence of Jesus
Historicity of Jesus
The historicity of Jesus concerns how much of what is written about Jesus of Nazareth is historically reliable, and whether the evidence supports the existence of such an historical figure...
and questions the morality of religion: "I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world."
Christopher Hitchens
HitchensChristopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...
is very critical of Jesus and of religion in general. Regarding Jesus' teachings on hell, Hitchens wrote:
The god of Moses would call for other tribes, including his favorite one, to suffer massacre and plague and even extirpation, but when the grave closed over his victims he was essentially finished with them unless he remembered to curse their succeeding progeny. Not until the advent of the Prince of Peace do we hear of the ghastly idea of further punishing and torturing the dead.
Hitchens is critical of Jesus' apparent inconsistency:
If Jesus could heal a blind person he happened to meet, then why not heal blindness?
Hitchens is unimpressed by Jesus' treatment of his mother:
Jesus makes large claims for his heavenly father but never mentions that his mother is or was a virgin, and is repeatedly very rude and coarse to her when she makes an appearance.
See also
- Criticism of ChristianityCriticism of ChristianityThroughout the history of Christianity, many have criticized Christianity, the church, and Christians themselves. Some criticism specifically addresses Christian beliefs, teachings and interpretation of scripture...
- Jesus as mythJesus as mythThe term Jesus myth theory in its broadest context refers to the idea that the person named Jesus referred in the Gospels is a myth....
- Rejection of JesusRejection of JesusThe Canonical Gospels of the New Testament include some accounts of the rejection of Jesus in the course of his ministry. Judaism's view of Jesus, Jesus in Islam, and the view of the Historical Jesus all differ from Christian views of Jesus.-Hometown rejection:...
- Historicity of the GospelsHistoricity of the GospelsThe historical reliability of the Gospels refers to the reliability and historic character of the four New Testament gospels as historical documents. These gospels, the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of John recount the life, ministry, crucifixion and...
Further reading
- Toledoth Yeshu, translation of Morris Goldstein (Jesus in the Jewish Tradition) and Alan Humm.