Transcription
Okay, good morning. Today, we are doing Jesus, the most famous man who has ever lived. There are about two billion people on this planet, about a quarter of the human race, who worship him. So, who is he? What does he believe? And why is he so important?
Okay, so let's look first at what we know about the historical Jesus. There was a man who lived, lived, um, and these are facts that scholars, most scholars, agree about him. He was born in the year 4 BC, um, in a place called Galilee. And this is important because Galilee, it is in Judea, um, Israel today. And Galilee is a meeting place of many different cultures, religions, and beliefs. Uh, this is part of the Roman Empire, and this is really a center of much of the world at that time.
Okay, then he, um, was a student of someone called John the Baptist. John the Baptist is a major Jewish religious leader who believed in baptism as a way of cleansing you of your sins, so that you prep, so that you may prepare for the Kingdom of Heaven. God is coming, but you must first cleanse your sins and restart yourself in order to be worthy of his arrival.
Okay, but then, um, after some time with John the Baptist, Jesus started to create his own following. And Jesus was preaching his own message that, um, was very attractive, and he developed a very large following. He was pretty well known for his healing powers. So, if you were sick, he could heal you, uh, through the power of faith and belief.
Then, what we also know is about the year 30 to 33, um, CE. So, it was like when he was like 34 or 37, he was crucified by the Romans. Okay, crucifixion. We don't know why they crucified him, but we believe he was crucified. And crucify, crucifixion was the worst way to die, um, and crucifixion was basically reserved only for two types of people: either, uh, bandits, pirates, or, uh, rebels, people who defied the Roman state. And it was really reserved for poor, illiterate individuals who had no status. Because crucification, um, you may not know this, but when they crucify you, okay, they na, um, they nail you to a cross and they put you up. Okay, you don't die because of bleeding or because of pain, you die because of suffocation. You suffocate to death. Um, so what happens? You're, you're on the cross, and eventually you start to lose power, and you start to, you can't even hold up your neck, okay? So you're suffocating to death because you can't breathe. It takes about three days to die. So it's really the worst way to die. Okay, and that's what happened to Jesus.
And historically, this is all that we know about him. Okay, this is what's been confirmed by scholars, by archaeologists, by researchers. Jesus is the most studied individual in human history. No one comes close. But we, we, we really don't know much about him. Okay.
All right, so now that we've looked at the historical Jesus, let's look at the biblical Jesus, because these are two very different individuals. So, Jesus in the Bible is the Son of God, okay, the Son of God, and he's in heaven enjoying his life. But he sees the world underneath him, and he pities us, and he wants to liberate us from our pain and our suffering. He wants to redeem us and to atone for our sins and our crimes. And he's born of a virgin mother named Mary. And from a very early age, he is a religious genius who attracts followers to him. And he developed, and he has 12 apostles, uh, 12 apostles, and he's determined to preach the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven. Okay, God is coming, and we must be ready for him.
He also preaches a religion of forgiveness and redemption and compassion and generosity and mercy. So he will say things like, "Do not judge others. Let those who are without fault, without sin, without mistakes, be the first to cast the stone." Okay, so we shouldn't judge others because we all have our own faults. We should be generous and open and compassionate to others.
Okay, so he was preaching that message. He was also, in many ways, a social revolutionary because he was upset with the religion of the times. At that time, uh, the Jewish religion was controlled very much by the priesthood. So you show your faith by making animal sacrifices, by basically paying a tribute to God. And Jesus thought that was wrong. You show your faith by being a good person, by being generous, by refusing materialism and greed and corruption. You don't do, you don't show your faith through animal sacrifice.
Okay, and as such, he angered the religious, uh, powers at that time, especially the priests of the temple in Jerusalem. So eventually, he was betrayed by his Apostle named Judas Iscariot. Okay, Judas Iscariot reported, uh, the crimes of Jesus to the religious. And in turn, the religious powers, the priests of the temple, turn them over to the Roman governor of that time. Okay, his name is Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate. And Pontius Pilate really didn't want to be involved. He didn't know what crime Jesus committed, but the priests insisted, the Jewish people insisted. And so, as a sacrifice, Pontius Pilate agreed to crucify Jesus.
Right, so Jesus was crucified. And after he was crucified and he died, he was resurrected. How do we know? Because he appeared before his apostles and told him, "Look, I've come, I've come to this earth in order to redeem and atone for the sins of men. I have now, I have now done so. Therefore, God will come and cleanse the Earth of all sin. Spread my message, spread my gospel." Gospel is Greek for good news. "And I will return to you." Okay, so there's a promise that there will be a second coming. And when, when Jesus returns, he will come, as prophesied, um, on top of clouds, and he will smite all of God's enemies, and they will build a paradise.
Okay, so that's what the Bible says. And by the way, um, what's really important for us to understand is there are contradictions in the Bible because all that we know about, about Jesus comes from four biographies in the Bible, okay, the Gospels. It's good news. And they're written by four different individuals who we name Mark, uh, Matthew, Luke, and John. And again, there are inconsistencies within their biographies. Okay, but if, if you put them, put them together, this is a story of, um, Jesus.
Now, when you hear the story, there's certain problems with the story. The biggest story is, sorry, the biggest problem is, if he is in fact the Son of God, if he is divine, how do we explain the crucifixion and the resurrection? Why does the Son of God have to die? And how does a Son of God die? Okay, and this is one of the most perplexing and confusing questions in Christianity, and it's been with us for about 2,000 years. Okay, so no one's really resolved this issue.
But the standard explanation is this: Why did Jesus have to come to Earth? The reason why is God and the children he created, us, are at war. There's a religious war going on. God created us and put us in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve. And God told us, "Listen, this is paradise. You can do whatever you want, but there's only one rule: you must not break. Do not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil." That's all we have to do. Don't eat that fruit. But we disobeyed him. And God, in his anger, exiled us from paradise. And in our stupidity, in our ignorance, in our, in our selfishness, we never came to recognize our own original sin, our own failings. And so we continue to make more and more mistakes, which has led to a, uh, more a corrupt and indecent world.
God up in heaven is waiting for us to to ask for forgiveness, to admit our mistakes. And we refuse to do so because we're kids, we're stupid. But God, even though he's merciful, even though he is wise, must be asked for forgiveness before he can forgive us. Okay? And Jesus, who is the Son of God, he recognizes this conflict, he recognizes this impasse, and he decides he will come to Earth, and he will sacrifice himself in order to atone for the sins of man and release us from our own stupidity and our ignorance and allow God to forgive us.
But you think about it, this is all the work of God because God is allowing us to forgive ourselves. Okay? And in many ways, what this is doing is solving the problem of Achilles. Remember we talked about The Iliad, right? And in The Iliad, there's a central conflict in the, in the Iliad, and it's a problem of Achilles. Remember that Achilles is this great warrior who refuses to fight for the Greeks because Agamemnon, the King, has insulted him. But he really wants to fight. Eventually, in his, uh, arrogance, he causes the death of his friend Patroclus. And when Patroclus dies, it makes Achilles even more angry, um, at himself. Okay? And that's why he takes out his anger on Hector. He, he doesn't recognize his own failings, he doesn't recognize his own sin. And it took Priam to release him from his anger. Remember, Priam forgave Achilles, and when Priam forgave Achilles, it released Achilles from his own guilt. Okay? The problem, though, is if Priam never forgave Achilles, then Achilles would have been stuck in his depression and his anger. Okay?
So this is Achilles' problem. If we can't forgive ourselves, who will forgive us? And the answer, of course, is Jesus will forgive you. Okay? And this is the fundamental idea of Christianity. Do not be angry at yourself. Do not hate yourself. Do not feel guilty because Jesus has forgiven you, which allows you to be a new you. You can now be whoever you want because Jesus has atoned, or taken away your sins and your guilt. Okay? If you believe in him, then you will become a new person. You can become whoever you want to be.
All right, so this is the idea of, um, Christianity. Jesus made his, made the sacrifice in order to release us from our own guilt and our own shame so we can be free to worship God in His glory. Okay, any questions?
Not only that, but because of the sacrifice of Jesus, everyone is now free to worship God. Because before, remember, God was a religion within Judaism. Only Jews had access to God. And even within the religion itself, really, only the high priest had access to God. So Jesus came to Earth to tell us, all humans, the entire human race, God is within all of us. You don't have to be a Jewish person to believe in God. You can just be a person who wants to believe in God.
Okay, and this is an idea that is beautifully, um, encapsulated in the Gospel of Mark. Okay, so let's read the section together, and this is when Jesus has been crucified and he has died.
"Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last." So the Son of God has died. He's completed his mission. "And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." Right, this is an extremely important sentence. The curtain is the door inside the temple, and the curtain is what protects the inner sanctum, the holiest room. It's called the Holy of Holies, okay, from everyone else. Only the high priest can enter there. Why? Because that room is where God is. Okay? So when the curtain is torn into two, what this is telling us is God is now released into the world. God was trapped inside the temple, but now that the curtain has been torn into two, because of the sacrifice of Jesus, God can now enter the world, and we can all have access to him. He's no longer trapped inside this curtain.
Does that make sense? And when the Centurion, the Centurion is the Roman, not, not the Jewish person, who stood facing him. Okay, so the Centurion was watching guard to make sure no one came to save, save Jesus. Saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, "Truly, this man was God's son." So the first person to recognize who Jesus really is are not his apostles, but a Roman who saw him die. So he, the Centurion, is history's first Christian because he sees himself, this man, this Jesus, was truly the Son of God, a divine figure who came to Earth in order to liberate us from our sins and to build a connection between us and God.
Okay, so this is the very basis of the Christian faith. You believe that Jesus came to Earth in order to atone for our sins and to liberate us from the corruption of religion in the world around us. Does this make sense, guys? Any questions so far before I continue?
Okay, so while this is a beautiful story and it's touched people for thousands of years and millions of people, it really doesn't make much sense. Okay, there are problems within the story. The biggest problem is the idea of atonement and original sin. Remember, before we studied the Bible, we studied this. We studied the story of Adam and Eve, and we said very clearly, what the Bible says is both God, Yahweh, and Adam and Eve were at fault. Okay, Adam and Eve did disobey God and did eat from from the tree. But God lied to them. And God, we also said, recognized his mistake. Also, remember, God already punished us for our disobedience. God said to Adam, "From now on, you have to work hard to grow food for your family." And he said to Eve, "From now on, you will suffer pain in your labor. When you give birth, you will suffer immense pain." Okay, so God has already punished us for our original sin. Right? Then the last problem is, God kicked us out of paradise because he feared that we would eat from the Tree of Life, which would give us eternal life. Right? So this idea of original sin and atonement doesn't make any sense. Also, why is God angry at us? If he's God, he's perfection. Why does he have to be angry at us? What do we do to piss him off? Would a father be angry at his children always? Is it the responsibility of the children to ask for forgiveness, or the responsibility of the father to forgive his children? Okay, so this is an extremely problematic story. It sounds beautiful when you start to think about it, it becomes extremely problematic.
Also, there are things in the story that are not historically accurate. All right, so the biggest problem is this: the Bible says very explicitly at times that it was the Jews who killed Jesus. And this is problematic because this has been used to justify anti-Semitic behavior and language throughout centuries. Okay, but historically, this is not what happened.
All right, so let me give you a few reasons why I do not believe this is what happened. The first reason is, um, what the Bible does not recognize is at this time in Jerusalem, there are many different religious authorities among the Jewish people, and they are in conflict with each other. The three major factions are called the, um, Sadducees, the Sad, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the Essenes. Okay, these are three major factions. The Sadducees are the aristocrats, they're the priests who are in charge of the temple. They, they're basically the central authority of the religion. But then you have the Pharisees, who argue that what matters is not animal sacrifice, but obedience to the law of God. Okay? And these are reformers, and eventually from them we emerge what we call the rabbis, basically the current leaders of the Jewish faith. And then you have the Essenes, who believe that there is, um, an apocalyptic coming, God is returning to Earth, and what's important is to deny the material reality, to live frugally, to live in peace, to live in harmony together. Okay? And guess what, guys? These three groups hate each other. They were always at conflict with each other, but they never went to war with each other because they believed that they were all God's people. Therefore, we should argue, we should kill each other. Okay? So the idea that these priests would send Jesus to his death doesn't really fit into the culture and the practice of people at that time. Okay, that's the first problem.
Second problem is the Bible makes Pontius Pilate look to be a reluctant. The Bible makes Pontius Pilate look to be very reluctant and even at times sympathetic towards Jesus. It's a very pro-Roman attitude. But we have a lot of information about Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea at this time. Okay, what we know about him is he was a violent thug, like most Roman, Romans. Okay, the Romans have a notorious attitude of being violent first. Okay, they're not very political, they're not very, um, strategic, they like to kill people. Okay? And at one time, Pontius Pilate had a major conflict with the Jews of Jerusalem. The Jews, the first law of the Ten Commandments is, "You shall not worship false idols." But Pontius Pilate represents the Roman Empire, and their false idol was their emperor. So the emperor, um, was the face of the emperor. Tiberius was in coins, and there were flags and posters around him. Okay? And Pontius Pilate wanted to bring the cult of Caesar to Jerusalem, which offended the Jews because the Jews are not allowed to have false idols inside their city, their holy city. And this created a lot of conflict between Pontius Pilate and the Jews. There were some circumstances where the Jews went to Pontius Pilate to complain, and Pontius Pilate says, "If you don't get out of my house, I'm going to kill all of you." And the Jews start to line up and say, "Come here, here's my neck, come, come kill me." Okay? And so Pontius Pilate had to relent. He had no face. The Jews were all willing to die to protect their religion. So Pontius Pilate was not a very political, not a very savvy individual. Okay, he continued to offend the Jews. So the idea that Pontius Pilate would be sympathetic towards Jesus makes no sense. If Pontius Pilate could kill a Jew, he would kill a Jew.
Okay, any questions so far?
Okay, so I'm going to make an argument. Okay, I'm going to explain to you that the Bible, what it says, isn't really accurate. Right? I'm going to reconstruct the historical Jesus, and I'm going to tell you, based on my reading of the history and of the Bible, what he really believed. Okay? And, um, just to be clear, I'm not a scholar. I really haven't studied the Bible that much. Okay? All I've done is a lot of independent research. So take my words with a grain of salt. Okay? And feel free to challenge me or question, uh, my argument at any time. Just raise your hand. All right.
So, um, before I talk about Jesus, I want to talk about the historical circumstance of Jerusalem and Judea at this time. Okay, so let's do a brief summary of what we learned so far. We've learned that, um, King David was the founder of the religion, okay, one of the main founders of the religion. And at this time in history, in about a thousand BCE, this is really the height and peak of the state of Israel, and they're very confident, very open, very generous. Okay? But after David dies, his son Solomon is not able to keep the kingdom together. Okay? And it splits into two, uh, the northern kingdom and, um, Judah. Over time, because Israel is in such a strategic location, right, the Levant is the center of the world, both of these places will be conquered by foreigners. The northern kingdom will become conquered by the Assyrians. Judah will be conquered by the Babylonians, and the elite are sent off into exile in Babylon, where they basically develop, uh, the religion of Judaism, uh, of its modern form. Okay? The Persians return the, um, Jews back to, uh, Judea, um, Israel, and there they write the Bible. Okay? And this comes about 444. And but then the Persians are conquered by the Greeks, by Alexander the Great, in 301. And now Ptolemy, the Greek general, is in charge of the area. And Ptolemy is in charge of Egypt, and Egypt is very wealthy. So Ptolemy prefers to use money to resolve disputes. So what he does is basically say to the Jewish elite, the priests, "Hey, your religion is really interesting. When are you guys come to Alexandria, the capital of Egypt, and translate your Hebrew Bible into the Greek Bible so that we can all appreciate the beauty and power of your words?" Okay? And we call this Bible the Septuagint. Septuagint. And it's a very important, you don't have to know this word, but like, remember this is the Greek Bible. It becomes the basis of Christianity because most people by the time Christianity comes won't read Hebrew, they'll be able to read Greek.
But then in, uh, 167 BC, Judea is conquered by the Seleucid Empire, Antiochus. And Antiochus is a thug. So he comes and he desecrates a temple by offering a sacrifice to Zeus, a pig sacrifice to Zeus in their temple. And this offends the Jews so much, they want, they launch a decades-long guerrilla warfare against the Seleucid Empire. In 63 BCE, the Romans conquer, um, Jerusalem. Pompey the Great, the Roman general, comes and conquers, lays siege to Jerusalem. He kills tens of thousands of Jews and enslaves others and sends us across the empire. Okay?
So at this point in history, and, and Jesus is born, um, a few decades later, at 4 BC, right? The Jews have become extremely fanatical about the religion. They need to explain, if they are the chosen people, if God, their Yahweh, is the best God in the world, why is this crap happening? Right? Why did their, uh, kingdom become dissolved and then conquered by foreigners? And not only that, but these foreign powers, the Babylonians, the, um, Greeks, the Romans, they come and they insult their God, they burn down the temple, they desecrate the temple, and they kill a lot of God's chosen people. So why is this happening? And the explanation, there's a twofold explanation. The first explanation is, we were not loyal enough to God. God sent these foreigners to conquer us because we disobeyed God, we worship foreign idols, and we refuse to follow God's commandments. Okay, that's the first explanation.
The second explanation is the idea of, um, apocalyptic eschatology. Apoc, sorry, apocalyptic eschatology. Okay, this is a very big term, and I need you guys to know it because it's important for future classes. Okay? So, let's look at what this means. Eschatology is Greek, comes from the Greek "eschaton," which means the end. Okay, the end, end of the world, end times. Apocalypse is Greek for revelation or unveiling, okay, revealing. So, apocalyptic eschatology means telling you how the world ends with the return of God. Okay? So all this crap is happening, is God is planning to make his return to smite all his enemies, to destroy all these empires who have defiled his name. All right? And this is what most Jews believed at this time of Jesus. When Jesus was born, it was assumed that God was about to return to the world and destroy all his enemies. And there were a lot of prophets running around preaching this message. Jesus, Jesus was one of them, but he was not unique in his message that the kingdom of heaven was returning. Okay? So any questions about this history? Are you guys clear? Okay, let's continue.
All right, so this is the history. Um, but at the same time, what's happening is because the Levant is really the center of the world, it's a meeting place of the world, every single major religion is in the Levant. And Jesus is absorbing and trying to understand these different religions. So let's talk about the major religions. You have, uh, the Greeks with Plato. Okay, so let's remind ourselves of what Platonic philosophy is. Plato believes God is called the Form of the Good. From the Good, and from the Form, the Good will emanate other ideas like reason, truth, beauty, justice. And then these will emanate physical manifestations called the Forms. Okay? So this is called the Realm of Forms. This is basically heaven. Okay? You can see this as heaven. We live in a shadow reality which, um, is just an imitation of the Form of the Good, and our objective in life is to study philosophy in order to return to the Form of the Good. Only mathematics will help us return to the Form of the Good. Plato got this idea from the Egyptians. Okay? And the Egyptians called this idea sacred geometry, mathematics, because sacred geometry is a language and thought of the gods. Okay? Does that make sense? That's why it's Plato.
Also, at this time, because of the influence of the Persians, you have Zoroastrianism. Okay, Zoroastrianism. Remember in Zoroastrianism, the creator is Ahura Mazda. He is the perfect God of Light, and he creates a perfect world where we humans are free to choose whatever we want. This world eventually became corrupted by an evil God who is equal to Ahura Mazda. Okay? And now we humans must fight for good. We can choose to fight for evil, but we fight for good that will allow good to win out in the end. Eventually, will emerge a savior, a Messiah, a hero who will lead the army of light into a final battle against the army of darkness. And in this battle, the army of light will triumph. And then will emerge a river, and then everyone who's ever died will be resurrected from the dead. And everyone will be forced to cross this river. If you have been a good person, if you have fought for the truth, if you've been compassionate, you will cross this river and you will feel cleansed of all your sins and your mistakes, and you will emerge as a perfect soul who will live in paradise forever. But if you've been a bad person, okay, you will burn in this river, and then you'll be condemned to suffering for eternity. Okay? This is Zoroastrianism.
Then you have Buddhism and Hinduism. Okay? And again, guys, um, remember this world is interconnected. So the Greeks know Buddhism very well, and, and the Buddhists know, uh, the Greeks very well. So, and Jesus will have access to Buddhist and Hindu teachings. In in the Buddhist and Hindu tradition, there's a true reality called Brahman. Okay? So it's like, think of this as a Form of the Good. We live in a false reality where we have to suffer in pain. But through our good works, through Dharma, we can achieve Moksha. What is Moksha? Moksha means liberation back into Brahman. Okay? So, uh, Hinduism is very similar to, uh, Platonism.
All right, at the same time, besides religions, there are also major philosophies that are roaming around this area. So you have Stoicism, which is what the Romans believe. You have, uh, Cynicism, and you have Epicureanism. Okay? So these are some of the major ones. Cynicism is what Jesus believed, which is a rejection of all material reality. Okay? Cynics believe that it's important to wear bad clothes and to beg for food because material reality is a lie, or it's evil.
At the same time, you also have these, um, what we call pagan religions or pagan rituals, usually around the cult of Dionysus. Okay, we will talk about this later on in our, in our class because this is very important. But all I want you to remember is these are pagan rituals where people come together, and they use psychedelics, they use drugs to get really high in order to increase their religious ecstasy. And this is to create, um, a feeling of oneness, interconnectedness. What's really important of the pagan rituals is to focus on egalitarianism. Okay? So you could be a slave, you could be a rich person, but once you enter these rituals, you're all one, the same, and they reject the social hierarchy of the real world. Not all, but many of these pagan rituals do that.
So as you can see, at this time, there's just tremendous religious fever in the world. Everyone's seeking truth, everyone's seeking a more peaceful, more interconnected, a more real world. Okay? And Jesus is operating within this major climate, and Jesus is a major religious, sorry, Jesus is a unique religious genius who is able to synthesize all these ideas into a new religion. But it's not called Christianity. Right? It's not called Christianity. Jesus is not the one who is the founder of Christianity. That person is named Paul. We'll do Paul next class. But Jesus founds a new religion that attracts major followers. Okay? And so what is this new religion called?
Okay, so, um, at that time, obviously, there was not, there was not a name for this new religion. But today, we call these new religions Gnosticism. Okay? Jesus was the founder of a religion called Gnosticism, not Christianity. Gnosticism. There's a difference.
All right, so what is Gnosticism? Okay, if you look at most religions, there are three major layers. There's a secret layer, okay, which is only available to the founder as well as his closest followers. There is an inner layer, okay, an inner layer, which is what he teaches his disciples. And there is a public layer, an outer layer, okay, which is what he preaches to the public. Do you understand? So most religions will have this three-layer system: a secret layer, which is the secret teachings; an inner layer, which is what the disciples are taught; and then there's a public layer.
So, and what's important first to understand is these three layers operate at different levels and they speak different truths, but they're all interconnected. They're coherent, and they're one and the same. All right.
So Jesus was a Gnostic. What does this mean? Let's look at the outer layer. Okay, what Jesus was preaching was a religion of compassion, of forgiveness, of mercy, of egalitarianism. So let's look at Matthew, the Gospel of Matthew. This is from the, uh, Sermon on the Mount. And this is what he says: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The people in this world who have value are not the rich, but the poor, because God favors them. If you're a poor person, you will find solace, you will find solace and comfort in this idea. You may be poor, you may not be able to eat enough, but God loves you the most. Okay? So this is what Jesus teaches the public.
But then the question then is, why would this be true? All right, why would this be true? And so for this to make sense, we need to understand the inner and the secret layer, which is not revealed to us in Matthew. But there's a secret Gospel called The Gospel of Thomas, which we recently discovered. Okay, uh, this was discovered in 1945 in a, in a town called Nag Hammadi. And this gospel is not in the Bible, but it reveals to us what Jesus thinks. Okay? So let's look at what he says: "There are two things. Okay, there is a light within a man of light, and he lights up the whole world. If he does not shine, he is darkness." What does this mean? It can mean many things. So, and as I explained to you, you can look at this quotation from three different layers.
At the public layer, "There is a light within a man of light, and he lights up the whole world. If he does not shine, he is darkness." In the public layer, it means we have to be good people. Okay? God favors people who do good things, who are generous, who are compassionate. Okay, that's a public layer.
Then there's an inner layer. Okay, the inner layer is what he's saying to his disciples is, "If you want to follow me, you must give up the world. If you're wealthy, give up your wealth. If you have, if you're poor, give up your children and your wife and follow me. Be an example to everyone else." Okay?
But there's also a secret layer. A secret layer, and to, and let's look at the secret layer. The secret layer is a secret knowledge about the world, a secret understanding of how the world works that only Jesus and his closest followers understand and recognize. Okay? And this is what we call Gnosticism. The idea is this, and it follows, it basically follows along the lines of Plato and Buddhism, Hinduism. Okay?
All right, in the beginning, there's a God, a perfect God called the Monad, or the One. And he's perfect. He is eternal, he is immutable, uh, and he's perfect. Okay? The, the God of Plato. The Monad creates diad, okay, pairs that are perfect. One of them is called Sophia, and then these pairs create, with the permission of the Monad, um, triads. Okay? And this is all a perfect world because perfection creates perfection. The problem is, one of these gods, named Sophia, which is knowledge, she decides she can be like a Monad. Remember, what makes Monad special is he creates new things out of his own thoughts. The diads are forced to couple with each other in order to create new things. So Sophia wants to create her own thing herself, without permission of her partner, without permission of the Monad. But when she did that, she's defying the rules of the universe, and therefore she creates a monster. Okay? This is a monster. And Sophia is ashamed by what she's done. Okay, she's like, "Oh my God, this was a mistake. This was a travesty." So what she does is she hides this monster in a different reality. Okay, she clouds up this reality. And this monster is ignorant of the true reality. So the monster doesn't know, um, that he's a monster, and he, and he thinks he's a God, and he's lonely. So he starts to create the world, us. Okay? In the Bible, the monster's name is Yahweh. And he creates Adam and Eve, and he creates the world. And the world is completely screwed up because it's all being created by a monster. Okay? And so this is the origin of sin and corruption and evil in this world because the, our God is a monster who is in defiance of the true God. Okay? And that's why "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Because if you're poor, you are defying the material reality. To win in this game created by a monster, you yourself have to become a monster. Therefore, the wealthy, the powerful are evil people. If you're poor, you don't participate in this evilness, and therefore you are blessed by God, and it was God who will, um, redeem you and reward you at the end of the world. Okay? And who is Jesus? Jesus is the son, or a, a son of the Monad, who's come to the world to reveal us this truth about our world. Okay? And this is what he says: "There is a light within a man of light, and he lights up the whole world. If he does not shine, he is darkness." Okay, we, our bodies are evil because we feel pain, we die. A perfect God would not make us alive because it makes no sense. Why would a perfect God condemn his children to the suffering we suffer every day? That makes no sense. Only a monster would do this. But even though the monster creates us, there is still a divine spark in us that comes from the Monad, and if we recognize this and we choose a life of goodness by seeking true knowledge, then this light will light the world. But we choose, but if we do not do this, then we'll continue to suffer in darkness. Okay? And this is what the secret teaching is, guys. In each of us, there's a divine spark of the Monad, and so we can defy or escape this reality created by a monster. But you have to recognize this. Okay? And this is a secret teaching of Jesus.
All right, let's look at one more quotation from the Gospel of Thomas to truly understand this idea: "When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside, and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one the same, so that the male not be male or female, and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye, then will you enter the kingdom." How can you escape this world? You can escape this world by seeing this world. Everything is interconnected. These categories, rich, poor, male, female, are created by the authorities in this world who worship a monster. We must recognize the connectedness of the humanity in each and every one of us. That's why it's important to show mercy, to be compassionate, because we're all stuck together. And it's only by recognizing our common humanity that will allow us to escape this world. Okay? "When you fashion your eyes in the place of eye." When you truly see, then you escape. You have eyes, and you think that what you see is true, but it's not true. It's all fake, it's all a lie. You have to see with your soul, with the divine spark that is in you, and then you will see the truth.
All right, in this religion, why did Jesus die? Well, I mean, he died because it's a good thing. Okay? If you die, you are able to escape back into the true reality. But also, he died in order to awaken us, to inspire us, to grab our attention. Okay? Because his death was so tragic that it allowed us to focus our attention into Jesus. And when we focus on Jesus, we focus on his teachings. And slowly, over time, for our own self-discovery process, we're able to recognize the true teaching, the secret teaching of Jesus. And once we recognize the true teaching of Jesus, we're able to practice a compassionate, generous, and merciful life. We're able to bring light onto the world. And in our death, we're able to escape back into the true reality. Okay? And that's the, the true teaching of Jesus. Okay? So does that make sense, guys?
All right, so now that we've reconstructed his true belief, let's look at his life. What happened? Okay, so Jesus at some point, he's able to develop his theory of the world, his religion. And if you, if you believe in your theory, you want to spread it out. Okay? You want people to know your theory. So he goes to Jerusalem, which is the religious capital of the Jews. Okay? If you want people to pay attention to you, and you want people to recognize you're speaking the truth, you have to go to Jerusalem. The problem is this: first of all, the Romans are in Jerusalem, and they want to kill prophets because they see Jewish prophets as problematic. Second problem is, when you go to Jerusalem, you're competing against other religious authorities. You're now threatening the authority of the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the Essenes. But Jesus doesn't have protectors. He doesn't have like a powerful political faction protecting him. So the Romans saw an opportunity to teach the Jews a lesson. So they arrested him, and then they crucified him. Okay? Does that make sense?
But after did so, what they didn't recognize is this would turn him into a hero. Okay? Because at this time, everyone is thinking about apocalyptic eschatology. They're thinking the world is ending, the Messiah is coming. And they are so shocked by the death of their prophet, of Jesus, that they start to talk about him. Let's do a thought experiment. Let's just say I'm a king, and everyone hates me. Everyone hates me. I'm a king, but everyone hates me. And there are three prophets who speak, like, speak up against me. Okay? The first prophet, Prophet A, says, "I am a son of a, uh, my mother was a prostitute." Prophet B is, "I killed my brother to use up the throne." Okay, that's what Prophet B says. Prophet C says, "I steal from the army." Okay, the money not supposed to go to the army, I steal all right. So these are three prophets who talk trash about me. And the people are confused as to who to believe, who do I follow? Prophet A, Prophet B, or Prophet C? Right? So how do you know someone's speaking the truth? Well, you know when the king kills someone, right? Is that make sense? If I kill Prophet B, it means Prophet B must be speaking the truth, and therefore you will start to follow the teachings of Prophet B. Okay? So in this time, because the Romans killed Jesus, they turned Jesus into a hero, and people are now interested in the teachings of Jesus. And that's why he became so famous. Okay? And also, if you think about it, Gnosticism is really appealing to people. It makes a lot of sense.
But then comes the most important question in Christianity, which is this: If Jesus himself was a Gnostic, if this is what he taught, that there is a light in us and we must constantly work hard to let, let the world, to shine the world with our lightness, how do we go from here, Gnosticism, to the Bible, modern-day Christianity, which teaches us that Jesus came to the world to redeem us from our sins and that he will return to save the world? How did we get from here to here? And these are like two radically different conceptions of the world. In fact, if Jesus were alive today and he saw that we worshiped him as a redeemer, he would be appalled by our, by, by what he'd seen. He'd be appalled by Christianity.
And so this is what we will discuss next class. What I'll show you next class is the true founder of Christianity. The person who developed this religion is not Jesus, but Paul. Okay? Paul. All right, so Christianity, the religion about Jesus, is very different from Jesus and what he really taught. Okay? All right, was this clear to you guys? Any questions? Do you have any questions?
Okay, so next class, we will look at Paul.