So far this year there has been an unusual silence among those in mainstream media normally intent on creating titillating skepticism for Lent and Eastertide. It’s probably because Benedict’s resignation has overshadowed everything among editors.
Nonetheless the impulse is there. And this is the best of the season, so far: An article in LiveScience, Shape-Shifting Jesus Described in Ancient Egyptian Text. No, really, that is the title for the story:
A newly deciphered Egyptian text, dating back almost 1,200 years, tells part of the crucifixion story of Jesus with apocryphal plot twists, some of which have never been seen before.
Written in the Coptic language, the ancient text tells of Pontius Pilate, the judge who authorized Jesus’ crucifixion, having dinner with Jesus before his crucifixion and offering to sacrifice his own son in the place of Jesus. It also explains why Judas used a kiss, specifically, to betray Jesus — because Jesus had the ability to change shape, according to the text — and it puts the day of the arrest of Jesus on Tuesday evening rather than Thursday evening, something that contravenes the Easter timeline.
The discovery of the text doesn’t mean these events happened, but rather that some people living at the time appear to have believed in them, said Roelof van den Broek, of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, who published the translation in the book "Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem on the Life and the Passion of Christ"(Brill, 2013).
Just so you know that LiveScience is written for children between the ages of 4 and 8, I must repeat, “The discovery of the text doesn’t mean these events happened.”
Super-Shroud-of-Turin-Skeptic Antonio Lombatti picked up the story which he posted in his blog Archeologia Biblica e Storia della Chiesa. Super-Baptist-Pastor/Blogger Jim West picked it up from Antonio and reported it in his blog Zwinglius Redivivus with a posting entitled Oh Boy- More Nutbaggery From the Pseudo-’gospels’
In a set of back and forth mutual comments, Jim suggested that the History Channel would make a movie about it. Antonio speculated that it would be used as more evidence that the Shroud of Turin is authentic.
Given that the Rev. Thomas Reese, a Georgetown University professor of theology told Vatican Radio that the new pope would have to be someone who,”looks like Jesus Christ with an MBA,” one reader thought he meant “looks like” as in the Shroud of Turin thus ruling out Timothy Dolan or the authenticity of the shroud depending on what happens in conclave.
Quote : “Jesus. It also explains why Judas used a kiss, specifically, to betray Jesus — because Jesus had the ability to change shape, according to the text.”
Just by this transformation of the story, it is clearly a gnostic based Gospel and we know for a fact that no Gnostic text (that have all been written during the second century or after) should never be consider as being historically accurate in any way…
Another of those apocryphal texts that cannot be taken seriously.
Could somebody with more experience of magic than I explain how a kiss defends against shape-shifting?
As I understand it, there are fundamentally two characteristic types of magic (i) contagious magic involving contact (ii) imitative magic e.g. like this, ergo is this. Both originate from primal religious rituals but are seen to survive even in mature religious rituals and even every day social rituals. A topical example of a contagious ritual would be the pressing of a copy of the Shroud to the original with the intention that the mystique or power of the original would be imparted onto the copy. An example of imitative magic would be the creation of a doll, with recognisable features, perhaps using the hair of the intended victim, to do harm to an enemy. Imitative magic survives in some forms of emblems. It was widely used in medieval medicine by prescribing foods that had the appearance of the affected organ, e.g. walnuts for brain fever. The sign of the cross for instance might be technically classified as such by imitating the form of the cross.
A kiss might by a principle of contagious magic provide adequate defence against the power of the magician, or conversely inhibit the power of the magician. This explanation has been grossly simplified, merely to explain the basic principles involved. However once explained, several examples can come readily to mind, e.g. the finger of God reaching out to the finger of Adam in the Sistine Chapel Creation scene.
Touch is a fundamental principle in the Polynesian and Maori concepts of “tapu”. The head is particularly tapu. In the old days, Maori chiefs had sometimes to be fed by their womenfolk, as food is “noa” or common, and the chief might be in a state of tapu, and could not touch the food himself. Attendance at a Maori funeral makes one tapu, and so requires the eating of food at its conclusion to return everyone to a state of “noa”.