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Bible from the Catholic version. The Protestant versions of the equivalent of being "engaged" in modern-day terminology. Bible are thinner by seven books than the Catholic version and the However, upon his return some months later, it was plainly appar- variant churches have never agreed on a uniform Bible. In their ent that Mary "was with child" (Luke 2:5) and it "could not be hid translation of | Peter 2:13, the revisers changed the phrase "the from Joseph". The Gospel of Matthew elaborated extensively emperor, as supreme” to "the king, as supreme". Because King upon the feelings of Joseph when he saw the violated condition of James's Bible was written to support the authority of a king, the his bride-to-be. He was uneasy, and being unwilling to defame later Church often referred to it as the one from "authority", and it her he privately discussed ending their engagement (Matt. 1:19). later came to be presented as if officially "authorised". In subse- From the description in the Gospels, it is clear that Joseph was not quent revisions, the word "authorised" found its way onto the title the biological father of Mary's child. So, who was? page and later still came to be printed on the cover, giving King James's new Bible a false sense of authenticity. The Evidence of the Rabbis The King James Bible is considered by many today to be the The Jewish records of the Rabbis are of extreme importance in "original" Bible and therefore "genuine", and all later revisions determining Gospel origins and the value of the Church presenta- simply counterfeits forged by "higher critics". Others think the tion of the virgin birth story of Jesus Christ. A common appella- King James Bible is "authentic" and "authorised" and presents the tion for Jesus in the Talmud is Yeshu'a ben Panthera, an allusion original words of the authors as trans- to the widespread Jewish belief during lated into English from the "original" the earliest centuries of the Christian Greek text. However, the "original" era that Jesus was the result of an ille- Greek text was not written until gitimate union between his mother and around the mid—fourth century and a Roman soldier named Tiberius Julius was a revised edition of writings com- A Abdes Panthera. piled decades earlier in Aramaic and the Bibles we have today The Talmud enshrines within its Hebrew. Those earlier documents no are five linguistic removes pages Jewish oral law. It is divided longer exist,’ and the Bibles we have A A A into two parts, the Mishna and the today are five linguistic removes from from the first Bibles written. Gemara. The first discusses such sub- the first Bibles written. What was jects as festivals and sacred things. written in the "original originals" is The Gemara is basically a commentary quite unknown. It is important to on these subjects. When the Talmud remember that the words "authorised" was written is not known. Some and "original", as applied to the Bible, authorities suggest a date of 150-160, do not mean "genuine", "authentic" or around the same time the Christian "true"... Gospels began to emerge, while others say 450. The Talmud writers mention Jesus' name 20 times and quite JUST WHO WERE THE PARENTS OF JESUS CHRIST? specifically documents that he was born an illegitimate son of a In the opening sentence of a New Testament parable, Jesus Roman soldier called Panthera, nicknamed "the Panther". stated: Panthera's existence was confirmed by the discovery of a mysteri- A man of noble birth was on a long journey abroad, to have ous tombstone at Bingerbriick in Germany. The engraving etched himself appointed king, and return. (Luke 19:12) in the headstone reads: Tiberius Julius Abdes Panthera, an archer, native of Sidon, Herein lies part of a profound Gospel truth revealing the sub- Phoenicia, who in 9 AD was transferred to service in stance of historical information that the Church hi i i Rhineland [Germany]."° ann al This a equivalent of being "engaged" in modern-day terminology. However, upon his return some months later, it was plainly appar- ent that Mary "was with child" (Luke 2:5) and it "could not be hid from Joseph". The Gospel of Matthew elaborated extensively upon the feelings of Joseph when he saw the violated condition of his bride-to-be. He was uneasy, and being unwilling to defame her he privately discussed ending their engagement (Matt. 1:19). From the description in the Gospels, it is clear that Joseph was not the biological father of Mary's child. So, who was? are five linguistic removes from the first Bibles written. JUST WHO WERE THE PARENTS OF JESUS CHRIST? In the opening sentence of a New Testament parable, Jesus stated: A man of noble birth was on a long journey abroad, to have himself appointed king, and return. (Luke 19:12) Herein lies part of a profound Gospel truth revealing the sub- stance of historical information that the Church has strived for 2,000 years to conceal. This tale of long-ago misconceptions and mistaken identities must be clarified so that the original story may be seen to rest upon a true and sure foundation. For this purpose, we begin with the examination of Church writings purporting to record the birth of Jesus Christ. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke state that Jesus Christ was the first-born of Mary and Joseph and that he had four younger brothers and at least two sisters (Mark 6:3). Roman Catholics are obliged to hold the opinion that the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ were the children of Joseph by a former marriage. This conclusion originally stemmed from the Gospel of James (the Protevanglium) which refers to the age of Joseph at the birth of Jesus. However, it is clearly recorded that Joseph had sexual rela- tions with Mary after the birth of Jesus. The statement in the Gospel of Matthew that Joseph "knew her not until she had born a son" (Matt. 1:25) eliminated the Church's claim that Mary was a perpetual virgin. From the statements in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew, it is clear that the brothers and sisters of Jesus were sub- sequent children of Mary in the fullest sense. Joseph returned to Galilee with the intention of marrying Mary. The Gospels according to Matthew and Luke clearly explain that they were "betrothed" before Joseph's departure. This was the This inscription adds fuel to the theory that Jesus was the illegitimate son of Mary and the soldier Panthera. Classical scholar Professor Morton Smith of Columbia University, USA, describes the tombstone as possibly "our only genuine relic of the holy family".'' In many Jewish references, Jesus is often referred to as "ben Panthera", ben meaning "son of". However cautious one ought to be in accepting anything about Jesus from Jewish sources, in the matter of Jesus ben Panthera the writers seem more consistent than the men we now call the Church fathers. Scholars over the centuries have discussed at length why Jesus was so regularly called ben Panthera. Adamantius Origen, an early Christian historian and Church father (185-251), recorded the following verses about Mary from the research records of a highly regarded second-century historian and author named Celsus (c. 178): Mary was turned out by her husband, a carpenter by profes - sion, after she had been convicted of unfaithfulness. Cut off by her spouse, she gave birth to Jesus, a bastard; that Jesus, on account of his poverty, was hired out to go to Egypt; that while there he acquired certain (magical) powers which Egyptians pride themselves on possessing."* NEXUS = 43 ... the Bibles we have today DECEMBER 2001 — JANUARY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com