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Historical Jesus
Dear Member of Blavatsky Net, During this month of December, many minds and hearts will turn to their ideas of Jesus. Yet search as we may we do not find a single valid reference to Jesus in the contempory records of his time. Did he really exist? If so, what can we say of him? And why are there so few records of his existence? What did he "come here" for? Was he a son of God? Theosophy has answers to these questions, and more, about Jesus. I will be offering quotes from HPB to shed some light on these puzzles. JESUS OF THE SYNOTPIC GOSPELS Blavasky says the personality of Jesus "was distorted out of recognition" by the Biblical version. (SDii231) Again she says: But then she gives her explanation of the common story in the synoptic gospels: THE HISTORICAL JESUS In numerous other places Blavatsky makes statements that very definitely imply the reality of a very specific individual. In this next somewhat long, but very informative, quote she places the real Jesus within the structure of other existing groups of the time. "The oldest Nazarenes, who were the descendants of the Scripture nazars, and whose last prominent leader was John the Baptist, although never very orthodox in the sight of the scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem were, nevertheless, respected and left unmolested. Even Herod “feared the multitude” because they regarded John as a prophet (Matthew xiv. 5). But the followers of Jesus evidently adhered to a sect which became a still more exasperating thorn in their side. It appeared as a heresy within another heresy; for while the nazars of the olden times, the “Sons of the Prophets,” were Chaldean kabalists, the adepts of the new dissenting sect showed themselves reformers and innovators from the first. The great similitude traced by some critics between the rites and observances of the earliest Christians and those of the Essenes may be accounted for without the slightest difficulty. The Essenes, as we remarked just now, were the converts of Buddhist missionaries who had overrun Egypt, Greece, and even Judea at one time, since the reign of Asoka the zealous propagandist; and while it is evidently to the Essenes that belongs the honor of having had the Nazarene reformer, Jesus, as a pupil, still the latter is found disagreeing with his early teachers on several questions of formal observance. He cannot strictly be called an Essene, for reasons which we will indicate further on, neither was he a nazar, or Nazaria of the older sect. What Jesus was, may be found in the Codex Nazaraeus, in the unjust accusations of the Bardesanian Gnostics. “Jesu is Nebu, the false Messiah, the destroyer of the old orthodox religion,” says the Codex. He is the founder of the sect of the new nazars, and, as the words clearly imply, a follower of the Buddhist doctrine. In Hebrew the word naba means to speak of inspiration and [image] is nebo, a god of wisdom. But Nebo is also Mercury, and Mercury is Buddha in the Hindu monogram of planets. Moreover, we find the Talmudists holding that Jesus was inspired by the genius of Mercury.The Nazarene reformer had undoubtedly belonged to one of these sects; though, perhaps, it would be next to impossible to decide absolutely which. But what is self-evident is that he preached the philosophy of Buddha-Sakyamûni." (IUii132-3) JESUS OF THE MYSTERY SCHOOL The essential reason that Jesus was not noted by contemporary records is that he was the teacher of a mystery school. Blavatsky begins that explanation here. Elsewhere Blavatsky goes into more detail emphasizing the nature of that connection to the mystery schools. To elaborate on this she quotes from page 2 of “Eleusinian Mysteries”.“ "The profound or esoteric doctrines of the ancients were denominated wisdom, and afterward philosophy, and also the gnosis, or knowledge. They related to the human soul, its divine parentage, its supposed degradation from its high estate by becoming connected with “generation” or the physical world, its onward progress and restoration to God by regenerations or . . . transmigrations.” Then she locates for us a rare moment - Jerome, the Christian translator, squirms as he reveals the secret nature of some information. MOTIVE So what did Jesus teach? There are a variety of statements on this. Here are two. "There is quite enough in the four gospels to show what was the secret and most fervent hope of Jesus; the hope in which he began to teach, and in which he died. In his immense and unselfish love for humanity, he considers it unjust to deprive the many of the results of the knowledge acquired by the few. This result he accordingly preaches — the unity of a spiritual God, whose temple is within each of us, and in whom we live as He lives in us — in spirit. This knowledge was in the hands of the Jewish adepts of the school of Hillel and the kabalists. But the “scribes,” or lawyers, having gradually merged into the dogmatism of the dead letter, had long since separated themselves from the Tanaïm, the true spiritual teachers; and the practical kabalists were more or less persecuted by the Synagogue. Hence, we find Jesus exclaiming: “Woe unto you lawyers! For ye have taken away the key of knowledge [the Gnosis]: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering ye prevented” (Luke xi. 52). The meaning here is clear. They did take the key away, and could not even profit by it themselves, for the Masorah (tradition) had become a closed book to themselves as well as to others." (IUii561) THEOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE Perhaps the most inspiring quote in all this series is the next. It comes from BCW vol 8 p 401-2 and shows the Theosophical perspective on Jesus - placing him in a broader context. That section is headed with this note. “Have the adepts any secret records of his life?” “They must have,” she answered; “for they have records of the lives of all Initiates. Once I was in a great cave-temple in the Himalaya mountains, with my Master,” and she looked at the picture of the splendid Rajput; “there were many statues of adepts there; pointing to one of them, he said: ‘This is he whom you call Jesus. We count him to be one of the greatest among us.’" Hope you have found these quotes enlightening on a part of the Theosophical view of Jesus. Reed Carson |