Did the founders of Christianity have anything to gain politically by making Jesus into a martyr?

Question

I don't mean this as a loaded question. I'm trying to see if there may have been a political motivation could have swayed some of the Gospel-writers to fabricate/embellish their accounts.

(Christians, please be gentle! I'm a nice guy - really, I am!)

Thanks for all the responses I've gotten so far. I enjoy reading the different viewpoints.

Answer 1

Position # 1: There was nobody named Jesus.

In this scenario, the Gospels were written between 100CE and 400 CE, by adapting various myths to suit the theology.of the writers.

Christ was crucified, because the myth that the authors of the story used as their backdrop, called for a resurrected God.

[There are several versions of this position, but they all follow the same basic pattern.]

Position # 2: There was a person named Jesus

* Version 1:
This Jesus lived, and died between 150 BCE and 50 BCE. He was not ressurected. Around 50 CE, the guy Paul has an inspiration, and starts writing about him. Around 200 CE, other people get into the act, changing the time of Jesus, and adding a resurrection story, because their basic myth requires one. [They used the myth of Isis and Horus for their story.]

* Version 2:
This Jesus lived and died between 10 BCE and 40 CE.
He doesn't die on the cross. Rather, he gets somebody else to take his place. The resurrection is him coming out of hiding for a couple of hours. After 40 days, he goes to India, because things have gotten to hot for him stay there.

Some political gain by a crucification. In specific, he makes both the Romans, and Jews a laughing stock, becuase they crucified the wrong person.

* Version # 3:
This Jesus lived and died between 10 BCE and 40 CE.
He doesn't die on the cross, but goes into a coma. After he is taken down, he revives himself, and goes to India.

The resurrection appearances are simply him saying goodbye to people, prior to his deprture.

Some political gain by a crucification:
* He makes both the Romans, and Jews a laughing stock, because they did not make sure he was dead, before bringing him down from the cross.
* The Christians can gain converts, because he is practical example of how to overcome death;

* Version # 4:
This Jesus lived and died between 10 BCE and 40 CE.
He does die on the cross. He is not resurrected. His disciples make up a story of him being resurrected, in an attempt to win converts. this story can very easily backfire, as all the political leaders have to do, is show people the body.

If the story works, they might gain enough converts to control the political process. If it fails, they might also find themselves strung up on a cross.

* Version # 5
This Jesus lived and died between 10 BCE and 40 CE.
He does die on the cross. He is ressurrected. His disciples use the story to win more converts.

No reason to fabricate anything, since the ressurection shows the divine nature of Jesus.

On the one hand, they show up the political leadership that their God can't be killed. OTOH, publiclly proclaiming that is very likely to push that political leadership into stringing more of them up on a cross, as an example.

All Positions and Versions:

Fast forward to 300 CE.

Both Christianity and Judaism are battling it out, trying to become the official religion of the Roman Empire.

By this time the facts don't matter. Perceptions are the only thing that matter. To that end, Christianity will do anything to win that political battle. it has everything to gain, and nothing to lose, by using Jesus as a Martyr.

Since 300 CE, Christianity has used the crucification of Christ, as an example during periods of persecution. For that purpose, it can be used for political gain.

Answer 2

It seems that they had very little to gain. It is true that by making Jesus into a martyr, they might have had an easier time converting followers. I can't think of any other area in which it would have helped them since it made both the Jews and the Romans quite upset with them. But using reason and evidence, it seems unlikely they would have done this, even to gain followers. First, there's the fact that they were all brutally persecuted for it. Second, if they were doing it to gain political power, they probably wouldn't have decided to spend the rest of their lives as impoverished missionaries. Third, their only gain was in the number of followers, but then they didn't use those increased numbers to do anything. And finally, even if this were somehow a grab for politcal gain that went wrong, they wouldn't have stuck through with it until the end. Several of them were given the choice of death or renouncing the whole Christ-as-Messiah thing. If they were just doing it for political gain, it wouldn't make sense for them to have chosen death. Thus it seems clear that regardless of the actual veracity of the Gospels, their writers must have believed in what they said.

Answer 3

Early Christians were persecuted by being a follower of Christ. Not exactly a political gain. The Romans outlawed Christianity and the penalty was death. The political machinations didn't start until later when the Catholic Church had gained a foothold and had enough followers to wield power.

Answer 4

Of course.. also economic. Messianic 'salvation cults' were a big business in the time of the supposed 'Jesus'. There were 'saviors' running around all over the place, trying to attract followers. The epistles of Paul, and Acts are quite telling in this regard. Paul tells the disciples in Corinth of their responsibility to provide food, shelter and money for him. In Acts, the Apostles tell the believers of their responsibility to sell all their land and their worldly possessions, and lay all the proceeds at the feet of the Apostles. In one instance, a man and his wife held back some of the funds, and were struck dead by 'the Holy Spirit', dragged outside, and buried. Very powerful marketing tool, that.

Essentially, early Christianity was a criminal conspiracy to dupe people and extract money from them. It is the world's longest running and most successful MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) scam. Of course, he political patronage of Constantine didn't hurt them any. With the power of the emperor behind them, they were able to take care of the vompetition by killing them and burning all their marketing materials. So, yes... political power was a large component of the busness. It was powerful enough to drag humanity into the Dark Ages, after all.

Today... well, I can't see that it has changed much. Still a criminal conspiracy, one third of the world's population (the most gullible)sucked up into it... and now bent on changing the USA into a theocracy.

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"Selling eternal life is an unbeatable business, with no customers ever asking for their money back after the goods are not delivered." ~ Victor J. Stenger

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"Businesses may come and go, but religion will last forever, for in no other endeavor does the consumer blame himself for product failure."  ~ Harvard Lamphoon, "Doon" (paraphrase)

Answer 5

The founders of Christianity had nothing to gain politically by their faith. At that time the gospel writers were under the authority of Rome and were highly persecuted and murdered for their belief that Christ was the son of god. When Paul (a highly respected relies authority came to Christ he was persecuted and had to flee his own town. I am a Christian have done extensive research on the subject of christ and the early church because it's what I base my entire life on.

Answer 6

First of all the plan was from God. It was Jesus' idea to volunteer, He wanted to do it. The Scriptures were written as the writers were "carried along by the Holy Spirit." Jesus had to die this way, His blood had to atone for our sins. He died in your place.
Political? If it were this, they were committing political suicide, as the religious and political leaders hated Jesus. They were jealous of Him, so wanted Him to die. The religious leaders were afraid of losing their people and their money, if the people worshiped Jesus, politically they didn't like Him either, because His teachings were of love, gentleness, kindness,fairness, something in that day was not being done. Laws were harsh, strict, and set.

Answer 7

I don't believe that they did. He died upon the cross the forgive us of all of our sins and the only reasons for why he was nailed to the cross was that Ponctius Pilot was afraid that he would try to take power as king of Rome and the vast majority of the Romans wanted him to be crucified because they thought he was trying to start a cult. The Christians benefited spiritually because the gateway to heaven had been reopened, but I don't believe they had any political benefits.

Answer 8

Jesus was the founder of Christianity, not the men who wrote the Gospels.

You have no proof that the Gospels are fabricated. Of course, you have no proof that they are accurate either. That's all a matter of faith.

Answer 9

Before the crucifixion, there were several occassions when the Jewish people were ready to crown Jesus king and help him overthrow the Romans. If they were after political gain, they wouldn't have waited until he died.

Answer 10

Jesus is the founder of Christianity. In hindsight you can see that Jesus Christ is Jehovah God in a visible body. The visible body is what is new, not God and scripture.

http://www.mechanicsburgnewchurch.org