4Q529
02-27-2010, 02:43 PM
One passage from the Gospel of Matthew would, if understood clearly, result in the complete and irreversible collapse of Christian theology:
"...the tombs opened and the bodies of many holy men rose from the dead, and these, after his resurrection, came out of the tombs, entered the Holy City and appeared to a number of people." (Matthew 27:52-53)
Now, clearly, this event did not occur within the space-time reality--people did not come out of graveyards--or there would have been some historical record of such an event; which there was not.
Rather, these statements are to be understood as a cryptic and metaphorical description that at least some of the followers of Jesus received the revelation of the memories of previous lives at the time of the crucifixion. (The symbolism is more complicated than that; but that is the gist of what is being described.)
What must then be understood, of course, is that this receiving of the revelation of the memories of previous lives is specifically contradicted by the Pharisee, Paul--who believed in a physical raising of a dead body from the grave--in 2 Timothy 2:18; where he writes with contempt about those who teach that the "resurrection has already taken place".
These passages, in a nutshell, describe the differences between the Doctrine taught by Jesus and his closest followers, as opposed to the doctrines taught by the Pharisee, Paul.
"...the tombs opened and the bodies of many holy men rose from the dead, and these, after his resurrection, came out of the tombs, entered the Holy City and appeared to a number of people." (Matthew 27:52-53)
Now, clearly, this event did not occur within the space-time reality--people did not come out of graveyards--or there would have been some historical record of such an event; which there was not.
Rather, these statements are to be understood as a cryptic and metaphorical description that at least some of the followers of Jesus received the revelation of the memories of previous lives at the time of the crucifixion. (The symbolism is more complicated than that; but that is the gist of what is being described.)
What must then be understood, of course, is that this receiving of the revelation of the memories of previous lives is specifically contradicted by the Pharisee, Paul--who believed in a physical raising of a dead body from the grave--in 2 Timothy 2:18; where he writes with contempt about those who teach that the "resurrection has already taken place".
These passages, in a nutshell, describe the differences between the Doctrine taught by Jesus and his closest followers, as opposed to the doctrines taught by the Pharisee, Paul.