The Urantia Book
PAPER 121
THE TIMES OF MICHAEL'S BESTOWAL
121:8.14
While I,
with the collaboration of my eleven associate fellow midwayers and
under the supervision of the Melchizedek of record, have portrayed
this narrative in accordance with my concept of its effective
arrangement and in response to my choice of immediate expression,
nevertheless, the majority of the ideas and even some of the
effective expressions which I have thus utilized had their origin
in the minds of the men of many races who have lived on earth
during the intervening generations, right on down to those who are
still alive at the time of this undertaking. In many ways I have
served more as a collector and editor than as an original
narrator. I have unhesitatingly appropriated those ideas and
concepts, preferably human, which would enable me to create the
most effective portraiture of Jesus' life, and which would qualify
me to restate his matchless teachings in the most strikingly
helpful and universally uplifting phraseology. In behalf of the
Brotherhood of the United Midwayers of Urantia, I most gratefully
acknowledge our indebtedness to all sources of record and concept
which have been hereinafter utilized in the further elaboration of
our restatement of Jesus' life on earth.
121:0.1 ACTING under the supervision of a
commission of twelve members of the United Brotherhood of Urantia
Midwayers, conjointly sponsored by the presiding head of our order
and the Melchizedek of record, I am the secondary midwayer of
onetime attachment to the Apostle Andrew, and I am authorized to
place on record the narrative of the life transactions of Jesus of
Nazareth as they were observed by my order of earth creatures, and
as they were subsequently partially recorded by the human subject
of my temporal guardianship. Knowing how his Master so
scrupulously avoided leaving written records behind him, Andrew
steadfastly refused to multiply copies of his written narrative. A
similar attitude on the part of the other apostles of Jesus
greatly delayed the writing of the Gospels.
1. THE OCCIDENT OF THE FIRST CENTURY AFTER
CHRIST
121:1.1 Jesus did not come to this world during
an age of spiritual decadence; at the time of his birth Urantia
was experiencing such a revival of spiritual thinking and
religious living as it had not known in all its previous
post-Adamic history nor has experienced in any era since. When
Michael incarnated on Urantia, the world presented the most
favorable condition for the Creator Son's bestowal that had ever
previously prevailed or has since obtained. In the centuries just
prior to these times Greek culture and the Greek language had
spread over Occident and near Orient, and the Jews, being a
Levantine race, in nature part Occidental and part Oriental, were
eminently fitted to utilize such cultural and linguistic settings
for the effective spread of a new religion to both East and West.
These most favorable circumstances were further enhanced by the
tolerant political rule of the Mediterranean world by the Romans.
121:1.2 This entire combination of world
influences is well illustrated by the activities of Paul, who,
being in religious culture a Hebrew of the Hebrews, proclaimed the
gospel of a Jewish Messiah in the Greek tongue, while he himself
was a Roman citizen.
121:1.3 Nothing like the civilization of the
times of Jesus has been seen in the Occident before or since those
days. European civilization was unified and co-ordinated under an
extraordinary threefold influence:
1. The Roman political and social
systems.
2. The Grecian language and culture --
and philosophy to a certain extent.
3. The rapidly spreading influence of
Jewish religious and moral teachings.
121:1.4 When Jesus was born, the entire
Mediterranean world was a unified empire. Good roads, for the
first time in the world's history, interconnected many major
centers. The seas were cleared of pirates, and a great era of
trade and travel was rapidly advancing. Europe did not again enjoy
another such period of travel and trade until the nineteenth
century after Christ.
121:1.5 Notwithstanding the internal peace and
superficial prosperity of the Greco-Roman world, a majority of the
inhabitants of the empire languished in squalor and poverty. The
small upper class was rich; a miserable and impoverished lower
class embraced the rank and file of humanity. There was no happy
and prosperous middle class in those days; it had just begun to
make its appearance in Roman society.
121:1.6 The first struggles between the
expanding Roman and Parthian states had been concluded in the then
recent past, leaving Syria in the hands of the Romans. In the
times of Jesus, Palestine and Syria were enjoying a period of
prosperity, relative peace, and extensive commercial intercourse
with the lands to both the East and the West.
2. THE JEWISH PEOPLE
121:2.1 The Jews were a part of the older
Semitic race, which also included the Babylonians, the
Phoenicians, and the more recent enemies of Rome, the
Carthaginians. During the fore part of the first century after
Christ, the Jews were the most influential group of the Semitic
peoples, and they happened to occupy a peculiarly strategic
geographic position in the world as it was at that time ruled and
organized for trade.
121:2.2 Many of the great highways joining the
nations of antiquity passed through Palestine, which thus became
the meeting place, or crossroads, of three continents. The travel,
trade, and armies of Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt, Syria, Greece,
Parthia, and Rome successively swept over Palestine. From time
immemorial, many caravan routes from the Orient passed through
some part of this region to the few good seaports of the eastern
end of the Mediterranean, whence ships carried their cargoes to
all the maritime Occident. And more than half of this caravan
traffic passed through or near the little town of Nazareth in
Galilee.
121:2.3 Although Palestine was the home of
Jewish religious culture and the birthplace of Christianity, the
Jews were abroad in the world, dwelling in many nations and
trading in every province of the Roman and Parthian states.
121:2.4 Greece provided a language and a
culture, Rome built the roads and unified an empire, but the
dispersion of the Jews, with their more than two hundred
synagogues and well-organized religious communities scattered
hither and yon throughout the Roman world, provided the cultural
centers in which the new gospel of the kingdom of heaven found
initial reception, and from which it subsequently spread to the
uttermost parts of the world.
121:2.5 Each Jewish synagogue tolerated a fringe
of gentile believers, "devout" or "God-fearing" men, and it was
among this fringe of proselytes that Paul made the bulk of his
early converts to Christianity. Even the temple at Jerusalem
possessed its ornate court of the gentiles. There was very close
connection between the culture, commerce, and worship of Jerusalem
and Antioch. In Antioch Paul's disciples were first called
"Christians."
121:2.6 The centralization of the Jewish temple
worship at Jerusalem constituted alike the secret of the survival
of their monotheism and the promise of the nurture and sending
forth to the world of a new and enlarged concept of that one God
of all nations and Father of all mortals. The temple service at
Jerusalem represented the survival of a religious cultural concept
in the face of the downfall of a succession of gentile national
overlords and racial persecutors.
121:2.7 The Jewish people of this time, although
under Roman suzerainty, enjoyed a considerable degree of
self-government and, remembering the then only recent heroic
exploits of deliverance executed by Judas Maccabee and his
immediate successors, were vibrant with the expectation of the
immediate appearance of a still greater deliverer, the
long-expected Messiah.
121:2.8 The secret of the survival of Palestine,
the kingdom of the Jews, as a semi-independent state was wrapped
up in the foreign policy of the Roman government, which desired to
maintain control of the Palestinian highway of travel between
Syria and Egypt as well as the western terminals of the caravan
routes between the Orient and the Occident. Rome did not wish any
power to arise in the Levant which might curb her future expansion
in these regions. The policy of intrigue which had for its object
the pitting of Seleucid Syria and Ptolemaic Egypt against each
other necessitated fostering Palestine as a separate and
independent state. Roman policy, the degeneration of Egypt, and
the progressive weakening of the Seleucids before the rising power
of Parthia, explain why it was that for several generations a
small and unpowerful group of Jews was able to maintain its
independence against both Seleucidae to the north and Ptolemies to
the south. This fortuitous liberty and independence of the
political rule of surrounding and more powerful peoples the Jews
attributed to the fact that they were the "chosen people," to the
direct interposition of Yahweh. Such an attitude of racial
superiority made it all the harder for them to endure Roman
suzerainty when it finally fell upon their land. But even in that
sad hour the Jews refused to learn that their world mission was
spiritual, not political.
121:2.9 The Jews were unusually apprehensive and
suspicious during the times of Jesus because they were then ruled
by an outsider, Herod the Idumean, who had seized the overlordship
of Judea by cleverly ingratiating himself with the Roman rulers.
And though Herod professed loyalty to the Hebrew ceremonial
observances, he proceeded to build temples for many strange gods.
121:2.10 The friendly relations of Herod with
the Roman rulers made the world safe for Jewish travel and thus
opened the way for increased Jewish penetration even of distant
portions of the Roman Empire and of foreign treaty nations with
the new gospel of the kingdom of heaven. Herod's reign also
contributed much toward the further blending of Hebrew and
Hellenistic philosophies.
121:2.11 Herod built the harbor of Caesarea,
which further aided in making Palestine the crossroads of the
civilized world. He died in 4 B.C., and his son Herod Antipas
governed Galilee and Perea during Jesus' youth and ministry to
A.D. 39. Antipas, like his father, was a great builder. He rebuilt
many of the cities of Galilee, including the important trade
center of Sepphoris.
121:2.12 The Galileans were not regarded with
full favor by the Jerusalem religious leaders and rabbinical
teachers. Galilee was more gentile than Jewish when Jesus was
born.
3. AMONG THE GENTILES
121:3.1 Although the social and economic
condition of the Roman state was not of the highest order, the
widespread domestic peace and prosperity was propitious for the
bestowal of Michael. In the first century after Christ the society
of the Mediterranean world consisted of five well-defined strata:
121:3.2 1. The aristocracy. The upper
classes with money and official power, the privileged and ruling
groups.
121:3.3 2. The business groups. The
merchant princes and the bankers, the traders -- the big importers
and exporters -- the international merchants.
121:3.4 3. The small middle class.
Although this group was indeed small, it was very influential and
provided the moral backbone of the early Christian church, which
encouraged these groups to continue in their various crafts and
trades. Among the Jews many of the Pharisees belonged to this
class of tradesmen.
121:3.5 4. The free proletariat. This
group had little or no social standing. Though proud of their
freedom, they were placed at great disadvantage because they were
forced to compete with slave labor. The upper classes regarded
them disdainfully, allowing that they were useless except for
"breeding purposes."
121:3.6 5. The slaves. Half the
population of the Roman state were slaves; many were superior
individuals and quickly made their way up among the free
proletariat and even among the tradesmen. The majority were either
mediocre or very inferior.
121:3.7 Slavery, even of superior peoples, was a
feature of Roman military conquest. The power of the master over
his slave was unqualified. The early Christian church was largely
composed of the lower classes and these slaves.
121:3.8 Superior slaves often received wages and
by saving their earnings were able to purchase their freedom. Many
such emancipated slaves rose to high positions in state, church,
and the business world. And it was just such possibilities that
made the early Christian church so tolerant of this modified form
of slavery.
121:3.9 There was no widespread social problem
in the Roman Empire in the first century after Christ. The major
portion of the populace regarded themselves as belonging in that
group into which they chanced to be born. There was always the
open door through which talented and able individuals could ascend
from the lower to the higher strata of Roman society, but the
people were generally content with their social rank. They were
not class conscious, neither did they look upon these class
distinctions as being unjust or wrong. Christianity was in no
sense an economic movement having for its purpose the amelioration
of the miseries of the depressed classes.
121:3.10 Although woman enjoyed more freedom
throughout the Roman Empire than in her restricted position in
Palestine, the family devotion and natural affection of the Jews
far transcended that of the gentile world.
4. GENTILE PHILOSOPHY
121:4.1 The gentiles were, from a moral
standpoint, somewhat inferior to the Jews, but there was present
in the hearts of the nobler gentiles abundant soil of natural
goodness and potential human affection in which it was possible
for the seed of Christianity to sprout and bring forth an abundant
harvest of moral character and spiritual achievement. The gentile
world was then dominated by four great philosophies, all more or
less derived from the earlier Platonism of the Greeks. These
schools of philosophy were:
121:4.2 1. The Epicurean. This school of
thought was dedicated to the pursuit of happiness. The better
Epicureans were not given to sensual excesses. At least this
doctrine helped to deliver the Romans from a more deadly form of
fatalism; it taught that men could do something to improve their
terrestrial status. It did effectually combat ignorant
superstition.
121:4.3 2. The Stoic. Stoicism was the
superior philosophy of the better classes. The Stoics believed
that a controlling Reason-Fate dominated all nature. They taught
that the soul of man was divine; that it was imprisoned in the
evil body of physical nature. Man's soul achieved liberty by
living in harmony with nature, with God; thus virtue came to be
its own reward. Stoicism ascended to a sublime morality, ideals
never since transcended by any purely human system of philosophy.
While the Stoics professed to be the "offspring of God," they
failed to know him and therefore failed to find him. Stoicism
remained a philosophy; it never became a religion. Its followers
sought to attune their minds to the harmony of the Universal Mind,
but they failed to envisage themselves as the children of a loving
Father. Paul leaned heavily toward Stoicism when he wrote, "I have
learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."
121:4.4 3. The Cynic. Although the Cynics
traced their philosophy to Diogenes of Athens, they derived much
of their doctrine from the remnants of the teachings of Machiventa
Melchizedek. Cynicism had formerly been more of a religion than a
philosophy. At least the Cynics made their religio-philosophy
democratic. In the fields and in the market places they
continually preached their doctrine that "man could save himself
if he would." They preached simplicity and virtue and urged men to
meet death fearlessly. These wandering Cynic preachers did much to
prepare the spiritually hungry populace for the later Christian
missionaries. Their plan of popular preaching was much after the
pattern, and in accordance with the style, of Paul's Epistles.
121:4.5 4. The Skeptic. Skepticism
asserted that knowledge was fallacious, and that conviction and
assurance were impossible. It was a purely negative attitude and
never became widespread.
121:4.6 These philosophies were semireligious;
they were often invigorating, ethical, and ennobling but were
usually above the common people. With the possible exception of
Cynicism, they were philosophies for the strong and the wise, not
religions of salvation for even the poor and the weak.
5. THE GENTILE RELIGIONS
121:5.1 Throughout preceding ages religion had
chiefly been an affair of the tribe or nation; it had not often
been a matter of concern to the individual. Gods were tribal or
national, not personal. Such religious systems afforded little
satisfaction for the individual spiritual longings of the average
person.
121:5.2 In the times of Jesus the religions of
the Occident included:
121:5.3 1. The pagan cults. These were a
combination of Hellenic and Latin mythology, patriotism, and
tradition.
121:5.4 2. Emperor worship. This
deification of man as the symbol of the state was very seriously
resented by the Jews and the early Christians and led directly to
the bitter persecutions of both churches by the Roman government.
121:5.5 3. Astrology. This pseudo science
of Babylon developed into a religion throughout the Greco-Roman
Empire. Even in the twentieth century man has not been fully
delivered from this superstitious belief.
121:5.6 4. The mystery religions. Upon
such a spiritually hungry world a flood of mystery cults had
broken, new and strange religions from the Levant, which had
enamored the common people and had promised them individual
salvation. These religions rapidly became the accepted belief of
the lower classes of the Greco-Roman world. And they did much to
prepare the way for the rapid spread of the vastly superior
Christian teachings, which presented a majestic concept of Deity,
associated with an intriguing theology for the intelligent and a
profound proffer of salvation for all, including the ignorant but
spiritually hungry average man of those days.
121:5.7 The mystery religions spelled the end of
national beliefs and resulted in the birth of the numerous
personal cults. The mysteries were many but were all characterized
by:
121:5.8 1. Some mythical legend, a mystery --
whence their name. As a rule this mystery pertained to the story
of some god's life and death and return to life, as illustrated by
the teachings of Mithraism, which, for a time, were contemporary
with, and a competitor of, Paul's rising cult of Christianity.
121:5.9 2. The mysteries were nonnational and
interracial. They were personal and fraternal, giving rise to
religious brotherhoods and numerous sectarian societies.
121:5.10 3. They were, in their services,
characterized by elaborate ceremonies of initiation and impressive
sacraments of worship. Their secret rites and rituals were
sometimes gruesome and revolting.
121:5.11 4. But no matter what the nature of
their ceremonies or the degree of their excesses, these mysteries
invariably promised their devotees salvation, "deliverance
from evil, survival after death, and enduring life in blissful
realms beyond this world of sorrow and slavery."
121:5.12 But do not make the mistake of
confusing the teachings of Jesus with the mysteries. The
popularity of the mysteries reveals man's quest for survival, thus
portraying a real hunger and thirst for personal religion and
individual righteousness. Although the mysteries failed adequately
to satisfy this longing, they did prepare the way for the
subsequent appearance of Jesus, who truly brought to this world
the bread of life and the water thereof.
121:5.13 Paul, in an effort to utilize the
widespread adherence to the better types of the mystery religions,
made certain adaptations of the teachings of Jesus so as to render
them more acceptable to a larger number of prospective converts.
But even Paul's compromise of Jesus' teachings (Christianity) was
superior to the best in the mysteries in that:
121:5.14 1. Paul taught a moral redemption, an
ethical salvation. Christianity pointed to a new life and
proclaimed a new ideal. Paul forsook magic rites and ceremonial
enchantments.
121:5.15 2. Christianity presented a religion
which grappled with final solutions of the human problem, for it
not only offered salvation from sorrow and even from death, but it
also promised deliverance from sin followed by the endowment of a
righteous character of eternal survival qualities.
121:5.16 3. The mysteries were built upon myths.
Christianity, as Paul preached it, was founded upon a historic
fact: the bestowal of Michael, the Son of God, upon mankind.
121:5.17 Morality among the gentiles was not
necessarily related to either philosophy or religion. Outside of
Palestine it not always occurred to people that a priest of
religion was supposed to lead a moral life. Jewish religion and
subsequently the teachings of Jesus and later the evolving
Christianity of Paul were the first European religions to lay one
hand upon morals and the other upon ethics, insisting that
religionists pay some attention to both.
121:5.18 Into such a generation of men,
dominated by such incomplete systems of philosophy and perplexed
by such complex cults of religion, Jesus was born in Palestine.
And to this same generation he subsequently gave his gospel of
personal religion -- sonship with God.
6. THE HEBREW RELIGION
121:6.1 By the close of the first century before
Christ the religious thought of Jerusalem had been tremendously
influenced and somewhat modified by Greek cultural teachings and
even by Greek philosophy. In the long contest between the views of
the Eastern and Western schools of Hebrew thought, Jerusalem and
the rest of the Occident and the Levant in general adopted the
Western Jewish or modified Hellenistic viewpoint.
121:6.2 In the days of Jesus three languages
prevailed in Palestine: The common people spoke some dialect of
Aramaic; the priests and rabbis spoke Hebrew; the educated classes
and the better strata of Jews in general spoke Greek. The early
translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek at Alexandria was
responsible in no small measure for the subsequent predominance of
the Greek wing of Jewish culture and theology. And the writings of
the Christian teachers were soon to appear in the same language.
The renaissance of Judaism dates from the Greek translation of the
Hebrew scriptures. This was a vital influence which later
determined the drift of Paul's Christian cult toward the West
instead of toward the East.
121:6.3 Though the Hellenized Jewish beliefs
were very little influenced by the teachings of the Epicureans,
they were very materially affected by the philosophy of Plato and
the self-abnegation doctrines of the Stoics. The great inroad of
Stoicism is exemplified by the Fourth Book of the Maccabees; the
penetration of both Platonic philosophy and Stoic doctrines is
exhibited in the Wisdom of Solomon. The Hellenized Jews brought to
the Hebrew scriptures such an allegorical interpretation that they
found no difficulty in conforming Hebrew theology with their
revered Aristotelian philosophy. But this all led to disastrous
confusion until these problems were taken in hand by Philo of
Alexandria, who proceeded to harmonize and systemize Greek
philosophy and Hebrew theology into a compact and fairly
consistent system of religious belief and practice. And it was
this later teaching of combined Greek philosophy and Hebrew
theology that prevailed in Palestine when Jesus lived and taught,
and which Paul utilized as the foundation on which to build his
more advanced and enlightening cult of Christianity.
121:6.4 Philo was a great teacher; not since
Moses had there lived a man who exerted such a profound influence
on the ethical and religious thought of the Occidental world. In
the matter of the combination of the better elements in
contemporaneous systems of ethical and religious teachings, there
have been seven outstanding human teachers: Sethard, Moses,
Zoroaster, Lao-tse, Buddha, Philo, and Paul.
121:6.5 Many, but not all, of Philo's
inconsistencies resulting from an effort to combine Greek mystical
philosophy and Roman Stoic doctrines with the legalistic theology
of the Hebrews, Paul recognized and wisely eliminated from his
pre-Christian basic theology. Philo led the way for Paul more
fully to restore the concept of the Paradise Trinity, which had
long been dormant in Jewish theology. In only one matter did Paul
fail to keep pace with Philo or to transcend the teachings of this
wealthy and educated Jew of Alexandria, and that was the doctrine
of the atonement; Philo taught deliverance from the doctrine of
forgiveness only by the shedding of blood. He also possibly
glimpsed the reality and presence of the Thought Adjusters more
clearly than did Paul. But Paul's theory of original sin, the
doctrines of hereditary guilt and innate evil and redemption
therefrom, was partially Mithraic in origin, having little in
common with Hebrew theology, Philo's philosophy, or Jesus'
teachings. Some phases of Paul's teachings regarding original sin
and the atonement were original with himself.
121:6.6 The Gospel of John, the last of the
narratives of Jesus' earth life, was addressed to the Western
peoples and presents its story much in the light of the viewpoint
of the later Alexandrian Christians, who were also disciples of
the teachings of Philo.
121:6.7 At about the time of Christ a strange
reversion of feeling toward the Jews occurred in Alexandria, and
from this former Jewish stronghold there went forth a virulent
wave of persecution, extending even to Rome, from which many
thousands were banished. But such a campaign of misrepresentation
was short-lived; very soon the imperial government fully restored
the curtailed liberties of the Jews throughout the empire.
121:6.8 Throughout the whole wide world, no
matter where the Jews found themselves dispersed by commerce or
oppression, all with one accord kept their hearts centered on the
holy temple at Jerusalem. Jewish theology did survive as it was
interpreted and practiced at Jerusalem, notwithstanding that it
was several times saved from oblivion by the timely intervention
of certain Babylonian teachers.
121:6.9 As many as two and one-half million of
these dispersed Jews used to come to Jerusalem for the celebration
of their national religious festivals. And no matter what the
theologic or philosophic differences of the Eastern (Babylonian)
and the Western (Hellenic) Jews, they were all agreed on Jerusalem
as the center of their worship and in ever looking forward to the
coming of the Messiah.
7. JEWS AND GENTILES
121:7.1 By the times of Jesus the Jews had
arrived at a settled concept of their origin, history, and
destiny. They had built up a rigid wall of separation between
themselves and the gentile world; they looked upon all gentile
ways with utter contempt. They worshiped the letter of the law and
indulged a form of self-righteousness based upon the false pride
of descent. They had formed preconceived notions regarding the
promised Messiah, and most of these expectations envisaged a
Messiah who would come as a part of their national and racial
history. To the Hebrews of those days Jewish theology was
irrevocably settled, forever fixed.
121:7.2 The teachings and practices of Jesus
regarding tolerance and kindness ran counter to the long-standing
attitude of the Jews toward other peoples whom they considered
heathen. For generations the Jews had nourished an attitude toward
the outside world which made it impossible for them to accept the
Master's teachings about the spiritual brotherhood of man. They
were unwilling to share Yahweh on equal terms with the gentiles
and were likewise unwilling to accept as the Son of God one who
taught such new and strange doctrines.
121:7.3 The scribes, the Pharisees, and the
priesthood held the Jews in a terrible bondage of ritualism and
legalism, a bondage far more real than that of the Roman political
rule. The Jews of Jesus' time were not only held in subjugation to
the law but were equally bound by the slavish demands of
the traditions, which involved and invaded every domain of
personal and social life. These minute regulations of conduct
pursued and dominated every loyal Jew, and it is not strange that
they promptly rejected one of their number who presumed to ignore
their sacred traditions, and who dared to flout their long-honored
regulations of social conduct. They could hardly regard with favor
the teachings of one who did not hestitate to clash with dogmas
which they regarded as having been ordained by Father Abraham
himself. Moses had given them their law and they would not
compromise.
121:7.4 By the time of the first century after
Christ the spoken interpretation of the law by the recognized
teachers, the scribes, had become a higher authority than the
written law itself. And all this made it easier for certain
religious leaders of the Jews to array the people against the
acceptance of a new gospel.
121:7.5 These circumstances rendered it
impossible for the Jews to fulfill their divine destiny as
messengers of the new gospel of religious freedom and spiritual
liberty. They could not break the fetters of tradition. Jeremiah
had told of the "law to be written in men's hearts," Ezekiel had
spoken of a "new spirit to live in man's soul," and the Psalmist
had prayed that God would "create a clean heart within and renew a
right spirit." But when the Jewish religion of good works and
slavery to law fell victim to the stagnation of traditionalistic
inertia, the motion of religious evolution passed westward to the
European peoples.
121:7.6 And so a different people were called
upon to carry an advancing theology to the world, a system of
teaching embodying the philosophy of the Greeks, the law of the
Romans, the morality of the Hebrews, and the gospel of personality
sanctity and spiritual liberty formulated by Paul and based on the
teachings of Jesus.
121:7.7 Paul's cult of Christianity exhibited
its morality as a Jewish birthmark. The Jews viewed history as the
providence of God -- Yahweh at work. The Greeks brought to the new
teaching clearer concepts of the eternal life. Paul's doctrines
were influenced in theology and philosophy not only by Jesus'
teachings but also by Plato and Philo. In ethics he was inspired
not only by Christ but also by the Stoics.
121:7.8 The gospel of Jesus, as it was embodied
in Paul's cult of Antioch Christianity, became blended with the
following teachings:
1. The philosophic reasoning of the
Greek proselytes to Judaism, including some of their concepts of
the eternal life.
2. The appealing teachings of the
prevailing mystery cults, especially the Mithraic doctrines of
redemption, atonement, and salvation by the sacrifice made by some
god.
3. The sturdy morality of the
established Jewish religion.
121:7.9 The Mediterranean Roman Empire, the
Parthian kingdom, and the adjacent peoples of Jesus' time all held
crude and primitive ideas regarding the geography of the world,
astronomy, health, and disease; and naturally they were amazed by
the new and startling pronouncements of the carpenter of Nazareth.
The ideas of spirit possession, good and bad, applied not merely
to human beings, but every rock and tree was viewed by many as
being spirit possessed. This was an enchanted age, and everybody
believed in miracles as commonplace occurrences.
8. PREVIOUS WRITTEN RECORDS
121:8.1 As far as possible, consistent with our
mandate, we have endeavored to utilize and to some extent
co-ordinate the existing records having to do with the life of
Jesus on Urantia. Although we have enjoyed access to the lost
record of the Apostle Andrew and have benefited from the
collaboration of a vast host of celestial beings who were on earth
during the times of Michael's bestowal (notably his now
Personalized Adjuster), it has been our purpose also to make use
of the so-called Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
121:8.2 These New Testament records had their
origin in the following circumstances:
121:8.3 1. The Gospel by Mark. John Mark
wrote the earliest (excepting the notes of Andrew), briefest, and
most simple record of Jesus' life. He presented the Master as a
minister, as man among men. Although Mark was a lad lingering
about many of the scenes which he depicts, his record is in
reality the Gospel according to Simon Peter. He was early
associated with Peter; later with Paul. Mark wrote this record at
the instigation of Peter and on the earnest petition of the church
at Rome. Knowing how consistently the Master refused to write out
his teachings when on earth and in the flesh, Mark, like the
apostles and other leading disciples, was hesitant to put them in
writing. But Peter felt the church at Rome required the assistance
of such a written narrative, and Mark consented to undertake its
preparation. He made many notes before Peter died in A.D. 67, and
in accordance with the outline approved by Peter and for the
church at Rome, he began his writing soon after Peter's death. The
Gospel was completed near the end of A.D. 68. Mark wrote entirely
from his own memory and Peter's memory. The record has since been
considerably changed, numerous passages having been taken out and
some later matter added at the end to replace the latter one fifth
of the original Gospel, which was lost from the first manuscript
before it was ever copied. This record by Mark, in conjunction
with Andrew's and Matthew's notes, was the written basis of all
subsequent Gospel narratives which sought to portray the life and
teachings of Jesus.
121:8.4 2. The Gospel of Matthew. The
so-called Gospel according to Matthew is the record of the
Master's life which was written for the edification of Jewish
Christians. The author of this record constantly seeks to show in
Jesus' life that much which he did was that "it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the prophet." Matthew's Gospel portrays Jesus
as a son of David, picturing him as showing great respect for the
law and the prophets.
121:8.5 The Apostle Matthew did not write this
Gospel. It was written by Isador, one of his disciples, who had as
a help in his work not only Matthew's personal remembrance of
these events but also a certain record which the latter had made
of the sayings of Jesus directly after the crucifixion. This
record by Matthew was written in Aramaic; Isador wrote in Greek.
There was no intent to deceive in accrediting the production to
Matthew. It was the custom in those days for pupils thus to honor
their teachers.
121:8.6 Matthew's original record was edited and
added to in A.D. 40 just before he left Jerusalem to engage in
evangelistic preaching. It was a private record, the last copy
having been destroyed in the burning of a Syrian monastery in A.D.
416.
121:8.7 Isador escaped from Jerusalem in A.D. 70
after the investment of the city by the armies of Titus, taking
with him to Pella a copy of Matthew's notes. In the year 71, while
living at Pella, Isador wrote the Gospel according to Matthew. He
also had with him the first four fifths of Mark's narrative.
121:8.8 3. The Gospel by Luke. Luke, the
physician of Antioch in Pisidia, was a gentile convert of Paul,
and he wrote quite a different story of the Master's life. He
began to follow Paul and learn of the life and teachings of Jesus
in A.D. 47. Luke preserves much of the "grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ" in his record as he gathered up these facts from Paul and
others. Luke presents the Master as "the friend of publicans and
sinners." He did not formulate his many notes into the Gospel
until after Paul's death. Luke wrote in the year 82 in Achaia. He
planned three books dealing with the history of Christ and
Christianity but died in A.D. 90 just before he finished the
second of these works, the "Acts of the Apostles."
121:8.9 As material for the compilation of his
Gospel, Luke first depended upon the story of Jesus' life as Paul
had related it to him. Luke's Gospel is, therefore, in some ways
the Gospel according to Paul. But Luke had other sources of
information. He not only interviewed scores of eyewitnesses to the
numerous episodes of Jesus' life which he records, but he also had
with him a copy of Mark's Gospel, that is, the first four fifths,
Isador's narrative, and a brief record made in the year A.D. 78 at
Antioch by a believer named Cedes. Luke also had a mutilated and
much-edited copy of some notes purported to have been made by the
Apostle Andrew.
121:8.10 4. The Gospel of John. The
Gospel according to John relates much of Jesus' work in Judea and
around Jerusalem which is not contained in the other records. This
is the so-called Gospel according to John the son of Zebedee, and
though John did not write it, he did inspire it. Since its first
writing it has several times been edited to make it appear to have
been written by John himself. When this record was made, John had
the other Gospels, and he saw that much had been omitted;
accordingly, in the year A.D. 101 he encouraged his associate,
Nathan, a Greek Jew from Caesarea, to begin the writing. John
supplied his material from memory and by reference to the three
records already in existence. He had no written records of his
own. The Epistle known as "First John" was written by John himself
as a covering letter for the work which Nathan executed under his
direction.
121:8.11 All these writers presented honest
pictures of Jesus as they saw, remembered, or had learned of him,
and as their concepts of these distant events were affected by
their subsequent espousal of Paul's theology of Christianity. And
these records, imperfect as they are, have been sufficient to
change the course of the history of Urantia for almost two
thousand years.
121:8.12
Acknowledgment: In carrying out my commission to restate the
teachings and retell the doings of Jesus of Nazareth, I have drawn
freely upon all sources of record and planetary information. My
ruling motive has been to prepare a record which will not only be
enlightening to the generation of men now living, but which may
also be helpful to all future generations. From the vast store of
information made available to me, I have chosen that which is best
suited to the accomplishment of this purpose. As far as possible I
have derived my information from purely human sources. Only when
such sources failed, have I resorted to those records which are
superhuman. When ideas and concepts of Jesus' life and teachings
have been acceptably expressed by a human mind, I invariably gave
preference to such apparently human thought patterns. Although I
have sought to adjust the verbal expression the better to conform
to our concept of the real meaning and the true import of the
Master's life and teachings, as far as possible, I have adhered to
the actual human concept and thought pattern in all my narratives.
I well know that those concepts which have had origin in the human
mind will prove more acceptable and helpful to all other human
minds. When unable to find the necessary concepts in the human
records or in human expressions, I have next resorted to the
memory resources of my own order of earth creatures, the
midwayers. And when that secondary source of information proved
inadequate, I have unhesitatingly resorted to the superplanetary
sources of information.
121:8.13
The memoranda which I have collected, and from which I have
prepared this narrative of the life and teachings of Jesus --
aside from the memory of the record of the Apostle Andrew --
embrace thought gems and superior concepts of Jesus' teachings
assembled from more than two thousand human beings who have lived
on earth from the days of Jesus down to the time of the inditing
of these revelations, more correctly restatements. The revelatory
permission has been utilized only when the human record and human
concepts failed to supply an adequate thought pattern. My
revelatory commission forbade me to resort to extrahuman sources
of either information or expression until such a time as I could
testify that I had failed in my efforts to find the required
conceptual expression in purely human sources.
121:8.14
While I, with the collaboration of my eleven associate fellow
midwayers and under the supervision of the Melchizedek of record,
have portrayed this narrative in accordance with my concept of its
effective arrangement and in response to my choice of immediate
expression, nevertheless, the majority of the ideas and even some
of the effective expressions which I have thus utilized had their
origin in the minds of the men of many races who have lived on
earth during the intervening generations, right on down to those
who are still alive at the time of this undertaking. In many ways
I have served more as a collector and editor than as an original
narrator. I have unhesitatingly appropriated those ideas and
concepts, preferably human, which would enable me to create the
most effective portraiture of Jesus' life, and which would qualify
me to restate his matchless teachings in the most strikingly
helpful and universally uplifting phraseology. In behalf of the
Brotherhood of the United Midwayers of Urantia, I most gratefully
acknowledge our indebtedness to all sources of record and concept
which have been hereinafter utilized in the further elaboration of
our restatement of Jesus' life on earth.
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