FIRST THINGS FIRST, FROM THE BEGINNING
John Stone
The Christian bible, their New Testament (NT), opens with the alleged birth of
the Christian baby-god, called Jesus, starting with Matthew 1:18. What makes
this very curious is that Mark is generally regarded by modern Christian bible
scholarship as the very first gospel written. Why then, is Matthew placed first
in the NT? [NOTE:
All scripture references are from the 394 year old standard King James
Version.]
First a little background on Matthew, Mark and the other virgin birth writer,
Luke. Matthew Slick, a Christian apologetics and research ministry writes:
Matthew
“... Mark being considered by many to be the first written gospel ... Matthew
... may have used Mark as a map, adding and clarifying certain events as he
remembered them. But, this is not known for sure. The earliest quotation
of Matthew is found in Ignatius who died around 115 A.D.... Nevertheless, it is
generally believed that Matthew was written before A.D. 70 and as early as A.D.
50. 1
Mark
“Mark was not an eyewitness to the events of Jesus’ life. He was a
disciple of Peter and undoubtedly it was Peter who informed Mark of the life of
Christ and guided him in writing the Gospel known by his name. “Papias claimed that Mark, the Evangelist, who had never
heard Christ, was the interpreter of Peter, and that he carefully gave an
account of everything he remembered from the preaching of Peter.”
Generally, Mark is said to be the earliest gospel with an authorship of between
A.D. 55 to A.D. 70. 2
Luke
Luke was not an eyewitness of the life of Christ. He was a companion of
Paul who also was not an eyewitness of Christ’s life. 3
Now, back to my question;
why then, is Matthew placed first in the NT? The answer is very elementary; Mark does not contain a
virgin-birth account!
Wow you say! Yes, it is strange that the first gospel is totally silent about
this supposedly miraculous event. And even more so when you consider what the
Catholics write about this gospel called Mark.
“The Second Gospel, like
the other two Synoptics, deals chiefly with the Galilean ministry of Christ,
and the events of the last week at
Whoa, not so fast here, someone
is pulling a slick one on unsuspecting and trusting Christians. What? arranging the events in Jesus life, but forgetting the very first event -- his birth. A big oops for
Mark’s chronology; let alone being inspired by the “holy ghost” as Christians
claim. Ask yourself, why did Mark completely ignore the birth story? One thing
is sure, Mark never celebrated Christmas!
So, now you know why the first gospel is placed second in the NT. The Christian
bible “has to”
open with the origin, virgin birth of their man/child-god. Further scrutiny
reveals that Mark does not mention Joseph, Jesus step-father;
not even the word “virgin” or “birth.” There is only one scant mention
of Mary, in a round-about way.
Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon?
And are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. (Mark 6:3)
The son of Mary; like the brother
of Juda, big deal huh! That Mark doesn’t even
see fit to mention the carpenter (Joseph, Jesus’ father), is especially
strange considering Matthew’s claims Joseph had angelic visions about
the immaculate conception. Let’s see what Matthew
wrote about Joseph:
“But while he thought
on these things, behold, the
angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a dream,
saying, Joseph,
thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of
the Holy Ghost.”
(Matthew 1:20)
And this Mark didn’t
mention? Ask yourself, why not? If you were writing a gospel
, would you have forgotten this?
Compounding the problem of Mark’s omission of a man/child-god birth is the
generally accepted Christian notion that Mark was recording what Peter
(supposedly a disciple) revealed to him of Jesus and his life. The Catholics
claim (the same as Matthew Slick above):
“St. Mark wrote a work
based upon St. Peter’s preaching.” 5
So now you have both Mark
and Peter, neither knowing anything of a virgin birth; three wise men; Herod’s
slaughter and all the other hoopla surrounding this myth.
Oddly enough, the Christian’s man-god never wrote anything for posterity. And
now we find out the “holy ghost” did nothing to ensure the gospels were true.
Of the rest of the Christian NT, only Luke
has any account of the myth of the virgin and birth; and that differs entirely from Matthew’s story.
Then there is the no small matter of the deafening silence by the rest of the
NT books and authors. John? ─ Nothing! Paul, the author of 56% of the NT
books ─ Nada, nil, zip, zilch! And so on, through the rest of the NT ─
SILENCE!
One more small point, in all the red-letter quotes of Jesus in the NT, Jesus
himself, never mentions his conception or birth; nor did he even hint at it.
By now, one should realize
that the early Christians were only creating their religion from the stories of
mythological Gods from ancient Asia Minor ─ Assyria,
Attis: Born of the Virgin Nana on December
25th. 6
Mithras:
Every year in
Buddha: Born
of the Virgin Maya on December 25th, announced by a star and attended by wise
men presenting gifts. At birth angles sing heavenly songs 8
Dionysus: Born
of a Virgin on December 25th, placed in a manger 9
Heracles: Born
at the winter solstice of
a virgin who refrained from sex with her until her God-begotten child was born.
10
Osiris: Born
of the virgin Isis-Meri on December 25th in a cave /
manger, with his birth announced by a star and attended by three wise men. 12
Zoroaster: Born
of a virgin. 13
The bottom line is that
this virgin birth, child-god story is just that ─ a story, fiction! And
with this deceitful start, the Christian theologians, clergy and subsequent
apologists rolled out their little book of lies, the New Testament. As is said
so often in the real world; “Caveat Emptor.”
As that great American sage, George Constanza, once said: “Remember Jerry, it’s
not a lie if you really believe it’s true.”
Footnotes:
1. Matthew J. Slick, “When were the gospels written and by whom?;”[ http://www.carm.org/questions/gospels_written.htm ]
2. ibid
3. ibid
4. The Catholic
Encyclopedia, Volume IX, 1910, by Robert Appleton Company, Online Edition [ http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09674b.htm ]
5. ibid
6. The Pagan Origins
of the Christ Myth, [ http://home.earthlink.net/~pgwhacker/ChristianOrigins/ ]
7. ibid
8. ibid
9. ibid
10. ibid
11. ibid
12. ibid
13. ibid
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