Judaism, Christianity and Islam
Chapter 3 Another Biblical Absurdity----Miracle records of Jesus
Certain purposeful narrations in the new testament have been treated as the miracle records of Jesus in the old effort to promote his claims as son of god.
According to new testament, Jesus resurrected one Jairus’ daughter. This is far from true, however. The word of her death is in Matthew 9:18. Accordingly, one of the synagogue rulers approached Jesus and told him that his “daughter is this moment dead.”
The man asked Jesus to accompany him and bring the girl back to life. The same meeting figures at John 4:49-51. But here Jairus says his daughter is alive. “Come with me before my child dies.”
According to Matthew, the girl was already dead when Jairus met Jesus. But according to John, she was alive at the above instant. As one contradicts the other, the miracle stands disproved.
Again in the story of Lazarus, John 11:43-44 reads: “And with that he cried in a loud voice, Come out, Lazarus, to my side. Whereupon the dead man came out, his feet and hands tied with linen strips, and his face muffled in a veil. Loose him, said Jesus, and let him go free.”
It is impossible for a man buried in a cave to come out of it with his hands and feet bound like that and his face muffled! Another biblical absurdity.
Yet another miracle attributed to Jesus is walking on the sea. However, Matthew 14:22-33 together with John 6:16-22 go to show the hollowness of this claim too.
According to the account by Matthew, Jesus’ alleged walking on the sea occurred when the disciples were travelling by boat immediately after the so-called feast of 5000.
Jesus himself stayed behind. The boat was half-way across the sea when the wind turned against them. Then Jesus came to them, walking on the sea.
The disciples were sent on their way by Jesus from the place at which the feasting concoctedly took place. The place is even identified by name at Luke 9:10: “And when the apostles returned, they recounted to him what things they had done. With that he took them along and withdrew to privacy into a city called Bethsaida.”
Jesus carried out the reported feasting at Bethsaida. The place where the disciples were sent by him just afterwards is also identified by name. This is in Mark 6:45: “As soon as this (feeding of the 5000) was done, he prevailed upon his disciples to take ship and cross to Bethsaida, on the other side, before him, leaving him to send the multitude home.”
The alleged voyage during which Jesus performed the famous walk on the sea is thus from Bethsaida to Bethsaida. In the final analysis it is from nowhere to nowhere.
Perhaps the most sensational miracle of Jesus is the abundant feasting of a huge gathering of men with five loaves and two fishes. We are informed that men by themselves numbered 5000 and besides there were women and children, altogether estimated to number some 15000 mouths.
According to Luke 9:10 it took place at Bethsaida. But this is directly negatived by Mark. The text at Mark 6:45 declares in so many words: as soon as the feeding was done, he prevailed upon his disciples to take ship and cross to Bethsaida. There are thus two mutually contradictory versions of the very site of the alleged miracle, one saying it was performed at Bethsaida and the other saying with equal authority that it was only after the “miracle” that Jesus set out for Bethsaida.
Luke even lacks consistency. He says at 9:10 that the miracle was performed “at a city called Bethsaida.” But at 9:12 Luke describes the selfsame city as “a lonely place.”
Luke 9:16-17 reads: “Then taking the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, blessed them and broke them up and began to give them to the disciples to set before the crowd. So they all ate and were satisfied and the surplus that they had was taken up, twelve baskets of fragments.”
Jesus did not multiply the loaves and fishes. He only broke them up into tiniest bits. There were only fragments in the surplus that was gathered, not whole loaves and fishes. It is impossible to divide five loaves and two fishes and still get enough fragments to fill twelve baskets.
Besides, how can the writer be sure that Jesus looked up to heaven? All he can write is that Jesus looked up.
War against Hinduism. By Stephen Knapp
Aryan invasion a laughing stock. By David Frawley