Николай,
2.
Read the Acts of the Apostles and you will find out who the first Christians were.
The author of the Acts scarcely knew who the first Christians were, nor did he know apostle Paul, for he represents Paul as wearing his hair long, having taken on the (Nazirite) vow before his hair was cut (Acts 18:18), yet Paul in his epistle (1 Cor. 11:14) claims it was unnatural for a man to wear his hair long. So which view is more correct? Also, the ancient sages and the indigenous peoples instinctively wore their hair long. Apollonios of Tyana cautioned that no sage should allow their hair be touched by a razor.
It is now well known from history, of course, presumably, after all, it was a long time ago
Среди библейских и светских ученых/историков существует странное единодушие в том, что Библию следует рассматривать как историческое произведение и толковать в историческом свете (отвергая при этом трансфизический аспект, умаляя значение дел Иисуса).
И христиане не оказывают сопротивления ученым, которые приходят к тем же выводам, что и скептики (О, Иисус был просто благочестивым человеком, но он не был божественным, он не имел ничего нового, чему мог бы научить человечество), а аплодируют им за их усилия. Христиане не сосредотачиваются ни на жизни Иисуса, ни на его делах, а только его смерть имеет значение.
[original English]
There is a strange unanimity among biblical and secular scholars/historians that the Bible should be treated as a historical work and should be interpreted in a historical light (while rejecting the transphysical aspect, diminishing Jesus' works).
And Christians offer no resistance to the scholars who arrive at the same agenda as skeptics (O, Jesus was just a pious man but he was not divine, he had nothing new to teach mankind), but applaud them for their efforts. Christians neither focus on the life of Jesus nor his works, but only his death has meaning.
For instance, Daniel H. Shubin places emphasis on its historical value. In an email he wrote to me, he said, «I would use that [Gospel of Mark] as it is more the gospel
in its historical setting and without the embellishments of too many miracles and parables of Matthew and Luke.» The scholar expresses his antipathy for the Gospel of John and even Paul's letters: «Even a lot of Apostle Paul is gnostic as his portrayal of Jesus is often far from Jesus
in his historical setting and role as anointed or messiah.»
«Personally, I find the Gospel of John of gnostic origin, not by the apostle or anyone of Jewish derivation and informed of Jesus' ministry and background.
If this gospel was removed in its entirety it would be best for the New Testament as it portrays a mystic or esoteric Jesus not conforming to the Jewish concept of Messiah, but gnostic.»
Они придумывают сложные объяснения тому, почему Евангелия практически не содержат исторического содержания. Им никогда не приходит в голову, что Евангелия в их первоначальном виде были в основном сборником эзотерических/символических формулировок, как в Апокалипсисе Иоанна, который занимает центральное место в эсхатологии Андреева.
[English]
They contrive to come up with complex explanations to account for how the Gospels hardly contain any historical content. It never occurs to them that the Gospels in their original form were largely a compilation of esotericisms/symbolic formulations, like in John's Apocalypse, which is central to Andreev's eschatology.
Вот почему в моем сборнике «Очищение христианства» я постарался представить взгляды тех мистиков, святых и свободомыслящих людей, которые отреклись от религиозной мании утверждать христианскую историю как фактическую и вместо этого предпочли подчеркнуть дела Иисуса и значение его жизни. Правда это или нет, не имеет значения, главное, чтобы каждый нашел применение христианским учениям.
[English]
That's why in my «Purifying Christianity» compiliation, I've endeavored to represent the views of those mystics, saints, and freethinkers, who had divorced themselves from a religious mania of establishing Christian history as factual and instead opting to emphasized the works of Jesus and the significance of his life. Whether it's true or not doesn't matter, provided everyone finds an application for Christian teachings.
Теологи и ученые говорят, что убавлять или добавлять что-либо к Библии неправильно, но я говорю,
что убавлять что-либо из дел Иисуса – это серьезная ошибка, в которой виновны теологи. Общее послание Евангелий заключается в том, что стремящиеся к истине и ищущие ее будут продолжать совершать и даже превосходить подвиги Иисуса!
[English]
The theologians and scholars say that to take away or add to the Bible is wrong, but I say to take away from the works of Jesus is the serious error theologians are guilty of. The overall message of the Gospels is that the aspirants and seekers of truth would go on to perform and even surpass the feats of Jesus!
***
На протяжении всей истории христианства можно найти следы неуклюжих попыток, вопиющих подделок и явных вставков древних теологов, которые пытались создать миф о христианских корнях в первых трех веках.
[English]
Throughout Christian history, one finds traces of clumsy attempts, blatant forgeries and obvious interpolations by ancient theologians, who were trying to establish the myth of Christian roots in the first three centuries. When pointing out how none of the ancient pagan writers who were supposedly contemporary witnesses mention Jesus, the Christians accused the pagans of trying to systematically eliminate traces of their religion from history, when in reality, it was the Christians who burned libraries and destroyed manuscripts.
Из своих исследований я установил, что Епифаний Саламинский и Евсевий, которые путают происхождение ранних христиан, стремились привести историю в соответствие с Никейским собором, переработав сохранившиеся рукописи по какому-то заказу. Даниил Андреев почувствовал, что происходит нечто подобное, когда указал:
Чувствуется, что «Исайя, ликуй!» создавалось каким-нибудь чернецом по приказу высших иерархов.
[English]
From my studies, I ascertained that Epiphanius of Salamis and Eusebios, who confound the origins of early Christians, strove to bring history into harmony with the Council of Nicaea, by rehashing the extant manuscripts under some sort of commission. Daniil Andreev had sensed something like this was going on when he pointed out: «It should come as no surprise that the verbalization of the sacrament of marriage proved to be somewhat contrived and dry.
It feels that “Rejoice, O Isaiah!” was inserted by some friar as ordered by higher religious hierarchs».
***
To conclude, I quote Simone Weil, who traces the liberal poisons within Christianity and the secular ideal of progress (for progress' sake) to an obsessive urge to translate Christian history into reality, which is to falsify reality:
Christianity wanted to look for a harmony in history. This is the germ of Hegel and Marx. The notion of history as a directed continuity is a Christian notion. It seems to me that few ideas could be more utterly mistaken. Looking for harmony in the future, in what is contrary to eternity.
(About Karl Marx, she said, he «was determined to make this tradition go back to the remotest times by making class-war the one and only principle by which to explain history»)
For comparison, Daniil Andreev wrote: «... The moral aspect of historical events was wholly ignored when the events were subjected to scrutiny or evaluation; verdicts were passed based only on consideration of the overall progressive or reactionary orientation of the given event.» And we see how this logic of «all means are fair» leads to despotism, atrocities committed in the name of history. Andreev has warned how humanity's longing for absolute freedom gives rise to the Antichrist himself:
«Under the pressure from radical left circles of society, the remaining bans, howsoever restricting freedom of speech, those prohibiting the breaching of the norms of social decorum and profanity, will be ultimately lifted.
Precisely this will open the floodgates to human hearts for the precursors of the great spawn of darkness.»
И в Нём воплотилось всё на свете...