Did Jesus Consider Himself Sinless? (Part One)

Did Jesus Consider Himself Sinless?

(Part One)

Brett A. Todd

For decades I have had this question lurking in the back of my mind unanswered, “Did Jesus consider himself sinless?  This is a very different question from “Does the Bible consider Jesus sinless.”  Certainly, there are passages in the Bible that express his sinlessness.  A couple that comes to mind are 2 Corinthians 5:21 where the author states, “For our sake God made the one who knew no sin to be sin…” and Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.”  But neither of these verses is a statement from the lips of Jesus.  

More interesting is when we look at the Gospel of Mark, the earliest of the four Gospels, where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist whose baptism was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin.  If Jesus was sinless, why was he baptized by John the Baptist?  

Certainly, I am not the only person who has asked this question, in fact, as we begin to compare the other three later Gospels with the Gospel of Mark, we can see where they made some additional statements to eliminate the need for such a question.  For example, in the Gospel of John, he adds the words to the story of Jesus' Baptism by calling Jesus, the Lamb of God (a lamb without a spot or wrinkle?), “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). 

John is not the only one of the four Gospels to make these kinds of changes.  In Matthew, the author adds these words to also eliminate the need to question Jesus’ sinlessness.  This is what he said, “John [the Baptist] would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’  But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.’”  In other words, for the author of Matthew, he wanted his readers to understand that Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist was not a baptism of repentance from sin, but to fulfill all righteousness (God’s plan).

What about the Gospel of Luke?  The author of Luke stays pretty true to the Gospel of Mark except for Jesus' birth story.  The author of Luke tells his readers that the angel Gabriel told Mary that Jesus would be called “holy”.  Of course, one could surmise that if Jesus was holy, he would also be sinless.  I’m not so certain this is really a strong argument.  Nevertheless, again, this is not Jesus speaking, it is only a narration.  Jesus never said that he was sinless.

Did Jesus consider himself sinless? More than likely not.  But does the Bible consider Jesus to be sinless?  Yes.  Most certainly, early on, the belief that Jesus was sinless became a very important feature of early Christian doctrine.

In our next study, we continue to look at the question, “Did Jesus consider himself to be sinless?”

Graffiti And The Foolishness Of The Cross

 

Graffiti And The Foolishness Of The Cross

Brett A. Todd

Far off in Palatine Hill of Rome is the famous “Alexamenos Graffito” which is dated late 2nd to early 3rd century that gives us context and meaning to the words of the Apostle Paul, “but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,” (1 Corinthians 1:23). Yes, there was graffiti way back then.  In fact, the word graffiti dates all the way back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire and is derived from the Italian word which means to scratch. (Note the graffiti photo below).

 

           

The Alexamenos Graffito is a picture of a young man throwing a ritual kiss towards a cross from which a man (Jesus) with a horse or donkey's head hangs.  Below this image are the words, “Alexamenos worships [his] God”.  The meaning behind these words is that Christians worship an ass.  Yes, you read correctly, an ass.  Clearly, this is nothing more than ridicule toward early Christians in Rome. 

Though Paul was not in Rome, he was keenly aware of Christians who were persecuted around the Roman Empire.  In one of Paul’s letters he tells his readers that for these Gentile pagans, the crucifixion of Jesus was a “scandal” (σκάνδαλον, Galatians 5:11).  In fact, these early Christians were called atheists because they refused to adore any of the Greek-Roman gods that every Roman citizen was expected to worship.  How dare these Christian atheists not worship Jupiter, Mars, and Neptune.  As Paul said, for these Romans, Christianity was a scandal.  As one author states, “Not respecting the state cults meant that you did not want the Roman Empire to prosper.  For Rome, atheism was equivalent to treason…” 

The famous Alexamenos Graffito is certainly not flattering, but it does leave strong evidence of Christian life and how Christianity spread throughout the known world.  Remember, this graffiti was from a non-Christian admitting there were those Christians in Rome who were worshiping a man who was crucified on a cross.  Though this is not refutable evidence of the existence of a man called Jesus, it should give one pause.

In our next study, we will ask the question, “Did Jesus consider himself to be sinless?”

Which Lord’s Prayer?

 Which Lord’s Prayer?

Brett A. Todd

Most church-going people know there is a difference in how you say the Lord’s Prayer depending on what church you attend.  In one church you will hear, “forgive us our trespasses”  and in another church, you will hear, “forgive us our debts”.  It is really not a big deal, but again, most churchgoers are aware of this difference. However, many don’t know that in the Bible, there are two different Lord’s Prayers, one in Mathew and one in Luke.

In Matthew 6:9-13 we read:              In Luke 11:2-4 we read:

Our Father in heaven, Father, may your name be revered as holy

may your name be revered as holy. May your kingdom come.

May your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread.

May your will be done        And forgive us our sins,

on earth as it is in heaven. for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.

Give us today our daily bread. And do not bring us to the time of trial.

And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And do not bring us to the time of trial,

but rescue us from the evil one.

As you can see, Matthew’s version is longer than Luke’s,  and as you compare them, you will see some differences.  Most scholars today believe that both Matthew and Luke were using an ancient writing called “Q” as their source for this prayer. In the past we have talked about “Q”, so if you are relatively new to this study, you can refer back to this article, titled, “The Gospel With No Name”.  Other scholars believe it is also possible that Mathew or Luke had access to the other’s Gospel and used it as their source for writing the Lord’s prayer.  

The first question you might have if you are a Protestant is, where are the concluding words (the doxology) to the Lord’s Prayer, “For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.”)?  Interestingly, the translators of the 1611 King James Bible “assumed” they had a very ancient and trustworthy Greek manuscript that contained these words.  They were wrong, nevertheless, this added doxology has remained a part of Protestant tradition, even to this day.  But this doxology is not a part of the Lord’s Prayer in the Bible.  They were added.

So, which Lord’s prayer is the correct one?  This is difficult to answer.  Is Matthew’s version of the Lord’s prayer more authentic than Luke’s, or did Matthew decide that Jesus' prayer was too short and needed additional elements to make this a better prayer?  Whatever the correct answer may be, it is clear that Matthew’s version won out in the church for liturgical purposes.  Either way, one can be fairly confident that we do have the prayer of Jesus.  The very prayer Jesus taught to his disciples to pray.

In our next study, we will look at the words of the Apostle Paul in which he tells his readers that the crucifixion of Jesus was foolishness to the gentiles and a stumbling block to the Jews, as well as take a look at an interesting piece of ancient graffiti.

The Eye Of A Needle

The Eye Of A Needle

Brett A. Todd

Most are familiar, even non-Bible readers, with the passage found in the Bible, Mark 10:25, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”  What, a camel through the eye of a needle?  It’s a stretch of one’s imagination, and kind of humorous when you think of it, isn’t it?  Is this what Jesus really said?

There are some scholars who question whether Jesus really said these words, nonetheless, there were those in ancient times who believe he did, and frankly, when you look at the rest of Jesus’ teaching, they do fit his teaching style.  It was normal for Jesus to embellish his sayings in order to influence his listeners.  

That being said, it is interesting to note that in some later Greek New Testament manuscripts, instead of using the word κάμηλον (Camel), they use the word κάμιλον (rope).  The only difference between these two words is one letter. Κάμηλον (Camel) used the letter “η” and κάμιλον (rope) used the letter “ι”.   Moreover, both words were pronounced the same (B. Metzger).  So, as one can see, it would have been easy to confuse one word for the other.

It does not end here, rather, the plot thickens.  Not only are these two Greek words above similar and pronounced the same, but in Aramaic, the language Jesus and his followers spoke, the words for camel and rope are identical.

You may say to yourself, well if the two words in Aramaic are identical then maybe they did get the two words mixed up and it really should have read, “It is easier for a rope to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”  A rope through an eye of a needle seems more suitable.  But if this is true, why do the great majority of Bible translations read “camel” instead of “rope”?

Simply, the word “rope'' is only used in a few later manuscripts, while all the early manuscripts read “camel”. For Bible scholars, in almost all circumstances, the earliest reading is the best and most reliable reading.  This is most certainly the situation here.  More than likely what happened, some later scribes who struggled with the idea that Jesus would use such exaggerated decided that the word “rope” made more sense, so they changed the word “camel” to “rope”. 

In our next study, we will discuss, we will talk about the Lord’s Prayer, But which Lord’s Prayer are we talking about?