Is Jesus A Myth?

BY: KSHAMABUDDHI DASA

May 12, HIGH SPRINGS, FLORIDA, USA (SUN) — In response to some recent Internet chatter about the subject of “Christian bashing”, I would like to submit to the devotees and all thinking people a resource of scholarly research that exposes the Jesus myth in no uncertain terms.

This is not about Christian bashing so much as it is about a scholarly look at the actual historical evidence that Jesus was an actual historical personage. One does not have to be of the mindset of wanting to bash Christians in order to take an objective look at the historical evidence or lack thereof regarding the claims that Jesus Christ was an actual historical figure.

In my search for materials on the issue of the Jesus myth, I found a very nicely researched, scholarly and detailed work by R.G Price. As far as we know, Mr. Price has no affiliation with the Hare Krishna movement.

I will offer the link to some webpages that contain some essential portions of the work of Mr. Price. Anyone interested in understanding the arguments against a historical Jesus will profit much by going through the material or purchasing the book by R.G Price.

Here is the web site link and here is where you can purchase the book.



Of course, there are many references in the books and preaching of Srila Prabhupada that seem to acknowledge Christ as a shaktyavesha avatar, Son of God, and devotee of the Lord. In order to address that matter and those concerns, I need to try and explain how this can be so if in fact, Jesus Christ is actually a Jewish myth.

My personal belief on the issue is that Srila Prabhupada came from India to preach in western Christian societies and was not about to get into questioning the historical position of Christ, the faith of Christian people, or the Christian religion. Some devotees will certainly take issue with my assertion that Srila Prabhupada's position on Jesus Christ was a diplomatic approach based on practicality rather than a genuine faith and belief in Jesus Christ as a factual historical personality.

I believe that Srila Prabhupada considered that coming to the Western countries and preaching against Jesus Christ and vilifying the Christian faith would be counter-productive to his mission and in fact, might just get him assassinated. Srila Prabhupada was much too wise to get caught in that trap. So, being a very wise, prudent, and in fact shrewd preacher, Srila Prabhupada opted to just acknowledge Jesus Christ and preach as though Christ was, in fact, an actual figure of middle-eastern history.

Again, many devotees will find such a claim to be preposterous and unthinkable that Srila Prabhupada could have been so diplomatic and shrewd in his preaching work. The bottom line is that I do not consider that Srila Prabhupada was in illusion about the Jesus myth, but that he simply played along with it rather than challenge 1,700 years of the Christian religion.



Homepage


| The Sun | News | Editorials | Features | Sun Blogs | Classifieds | Events | Recipes | PodCasts |

| About | Submit an Article | Contact Us | Advertise | HareKrsna.com |

Copyright 2005, HareKrsna.com. All rights reserved.