Jesus Apocalyptic Prophet notes

Jesus preached the apocalypse coming in his time

thesis: Jesus preached the apocalypse coming during his generation (within 40 years) and later Christian writers and early church fathers watered down his original teaching and reinterpreted his message.

both Paul and Jesus expected the apocalypse to come in their lifetimes. apocalypticism was a view common to many Palestinian Jews during that time. see the dead sea scrolls and contemporary prophets mentioned by Josephus. see the following verses:

matt24:34-35: Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

matt16:28: Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.

Matt10:23: When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. Truly I tell you, you will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. 

Matt 26:64: You have said so,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.

mark9:1: And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”

mark13:30: Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 

mark 1:15: The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

thess 4:16-18: For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

or just read all of 1Corinthians 15. 

why do you think the resurrection of Christ is so important to Christianity? didn't Jesus raise others from the dead and perform dozens of other miracles? he could have and did (according to the bible) demonstrated his divinity 10,000 other ways so why is this miracle the most important part?

the reason is because Paul was a pharisee and pharisees believed during the near coming apocalypse all the dead would come back and be judged by God and the wicked would be destroyed and the righteous would live on earth with God forever. thus, Jesus resurrection was the "first fruit". farmers reap the first fruit and know that the general harvest will follow soon after. this would also explain the odd verse in matt 27:52 where all the dead of the earth rose from their tombs, which somehow was missed by the other 3 gospels and all other living writers at the time.

and in both the epistles I quote Paul talks about "those who are asleep" and "we who are awake" referring to the dead and the living. he never says "those who are awake" but "we who are awake”

this is also why you so often hear Jesus talking about the son of man in the 3rd person, because in the older text and likely in his original message, the son of man was the judge sent from heaven spoken of in Daniel 7:13-14 and Enoch 46:2-4; 48:2-7; all of 62; etc ... he was not referring to himself.

 put into this context, radical forgiveness and completely abandoning your property and family also make sense. there isn't even time to bury the dead or say goodbye to your family (Luke 9:59-62) the end is nigh. this was never intended to be the morality of a just society or a reasonable way to live your life.

Jesus ministry begins with his baptism by John, who preached a near apocalypse, see Luke 3:7-9. and the earliest Christian writer, Paul also preached a near apocalypse. the only link between the apocalyptic John and the apocalyptic Paul is Jesus. the apocalyptic sayings have a high probability of being authentic because they make sense in context, in other words apocalypticism was a common view in that time and place. there is multiple attestation. many of these predictions would have been both dissimilar to teachings and embarrassing to slightly later christians who would not be likely to make up these sayings.

this has been a mainstream view among scholars for the last century. the older Christian texts are the more apocalyptic they are and it gets gradually watered down. compare mark 9:1 to Luke 9:27 where Luke drops the words "in power" because he still believes the end is near but is writing by the time that the first disciples are dead.

compare mark 14:62 to Luke 22:69. Jesus originally predicted the high priest condemning him would see the end times but this prediction is changed in Luke.

this happens gradually until we get to the gospel of John, written over 50 years after Jesus' death (Jews considered a generation to be exactly 40 years). the church interpreted all of this as a spiritual resurrection and judgment at the point of death. see John 11:23-26 where Jesus corrects Mary (sister of Lazarus) for saying her brother will be "raised on the last day" and says that "though he die yet shall live" through faith in him.

Jesus was a Jew. most Jews didn't even have a concept of the after life and they certainly didn't expect the messiah to be crucified, much less be God incarnate/ the son of god. the messiah was to be king of the earth during a time of global peace. the charge that Jesus claimed to be king of the Jews makes sense if he had claimed that he would be king after this resurrection. there was no king of the Jews so long as Rome ruled them, it wasn't a metaphorical title it was a literal title held by previous Jewish kings thought to be chosen by God.

–&$*$*#;"*%

Another clue to all of this, which takes a bit of a scholarly eye to catch, is that the newer gospels tend to walk back these apocalyptic claims. Compare Mark 9:1 (quoted above) to 

Luke 9:27 But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”

Luke, writing at a later time than Mark (considered the earliest gospel) had to drop the words "in power" because by the time he was writing, the first disciples would have been dead.

Compare again:

Mark 14:62 Jesus said, “ I Am . And you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Luke 22:66-69 At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and scribes, met together. They led Jesus into their Sanhedring and said, “If You are the Christ, tell us.” Jesus answered, If I tell you, you will not believe. And if I ask you a question, you will not answer. But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.”

Jesus originally predicted the high priest condemning him would see the end times but this prediction is changed in Luke. Again, because he was writing after the priest would have died.

This happens gradually until we get to the last arrival, the gospel of John, written over 50 years after Jesus' death. The church reinterpreted these references to the kingdom of god and resurrection as metaphysical events and places. 

John 11:23-25 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give You whatever You ask of Him.” "Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her. Martha replied, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.

Here is an explicit contradiction from the belief in a physical resurrection that never came. The same sort of ad hoc rationalization is seen in every failed doomsday prediction. They have to recalculate the dates, or perhaps the change did happen in some sort of energetic/ spiritual shift. It's common for believers in these doomsday cults to double down on their beliefs when the predictions do not come to pass.