Rivals of the carpenter
They didn't show anything about the Knights Templar today on National Geographic as promised. &#%#!!
But they did have another program going on, about the rivals of Jesus.
They focused on different people who lived around that time.. one was a guy whose name begins with A, but I forgot the whole name. What I do remember is that he is said to have raised to life the dead daughter of a Roman official, just like Jesus is reported to have done.
Another one was Simeon something, who challenged the spread of Christianity by performing 'miracles'. He's even mentioned in the New Testament in the Acts of the Apostles. He gets angry with the apostle Peter who refuses to bless him with the Holy Spirit after Simeon offers him some money to do it. He believes himself to be God's son and levitates to prove it, but Peter prays to Jesus to bring him back down and poor Simeon falls to the ground and breaks his legs. As if that isn't enough, the crowd that was watching the whole thing, in it his own followers, stone him. Talk about a bad day!
The Roman man-god Mithras was another one. His story: born of a virgin mother on December 25th, he believed in cutting off from the wordly pleasures and gains.. apparently his new religion was very popular in Rome and there were more Mithraeans than Christians at one time. He died and was resurrected. The fundemental question: Who came first - Jesus or Mithras?
The Egyptian goddess Isis was the only female rival of Jesus it seems. Her worship was adopted by Roman women and was very flowery and gay. Her portrayal in statues and heiroglyphics is very similar to that of the Virgin Mary by the Catholic Church - holding a baby, mother-goddess figure. Both were called Mother of God. When Christianity was established as the Roman Empire's religion, Isis' temples were turned into churches where the worship of the Virgin Mary was emphasized.
One of the Jewish rivals of Jesus was Simon bar-Kokhba [Simon, son of the Star] who led a revolt against the Roman occupiers of Judea. He was the complete opposite of the peaceful, serene Jesus - he believed in redeeming the Jews from the Romans through revolt and violence. Surprisingly, he succeeded in defeating the Romans in Judea but his movement and supporters were horribly crushed later when the Roman emperor sent some party-pooping Roman legions to Jerusalem to get rid of him. He was considered the Messiah because he got things done, unlike Jesus who simply delivered sermons on mountains and scolded Pharisees.
Lastly, even John the Baptist was an unintentional rival of Jesus. While most followers of John the Baptist accepted Jesus as the Messiah that he had promised would come, some refused to accept it and formed the Mandaean religion whose followers moved to Iraq and secretly practised their religion there. It has survived till today and is probably the only movement rivaling Christianity to do so.
But they did have another program going on, about the rivals of Jesus.
They focused on different people who lived around that time.. one was a guy whose name begins with A, but I forgot the whole name. What I do remember is that he is said to have raised to life the dead daughter of a Roman official, just like Jesus is reported to have done.
Another one was Simeon something, who challenged the spread of Christianity by performing 'miracles'. He's even mentioned in the New Testament in the Acts of the Apostles. He gets angry with the apostle Peter who refuses to bless him with the Holy Spirit after Simeon offers him some money to do it. He believes himself to be God's son and levitates to prove it, but Peter prays to Jesus to bring him back down and poor Simeon falls to the ground and breaks his legs. As if that isn't enough, the crowd that was watching the whole thing, in it his own followers, stone him. Talk about a bad day!
The Roman man-god Mithras was another one. His story: born of a virgin mother on December 25th, he believed in cutting off from the wordly pleasures and gains.. apparently his new religion was very popular in Rome and there were more Mithraeans than Christians at one time. He died and was resurrected. The fundemental question: Who came first - Jesus or Mithras?
The Egyptian goddess Isis was the only female rival of Jesus it seems. Her worship was adopted by Roman women and was very flowery and gay. Her portrayal in statues and heiroglyphics is very similar to that of the Virgin Mary by the Catholic Church - holding a baby, mother-goddess figure. Both were called Mother of God. When Christianity was established as the Roman Empire's religion, Isis' temples were turned into churches where the worship of the Virgin Mary was emphasized.
One of the Jewish rivals of Jesus was Simon bar-Kokhba [Simon, son of the Star] who led a revolt against the Roman occupiers of Judea. He was the complete opposite of the peaceful, serene Jesus - he believed in redeeming the Jews from the Romans through revolt and violence. Surprisingly, he succeeded in defeating the Romans in Judea but his movement and supporters were horribly crushed later when the Roman emperor sent some party-pooping Roman legions to Jerusalem to get rid of him. He was considered the Messiah because he got things done, unlike Jesus who simply delivered sermons on mountains and scolded Pharisees.
Lastly, even John the Baptist was an unintentional rival of Jesus. While most followers of John the Baptist accepted Jesus as the Messiah that he had promised would come, some refused to accept it and formed the Mandaean religion whose followers moved to Iraq and secretly practised their religion there. It has survived till today and is probably the only movement rivaling Christianity to do so.