do you think that Jesus Christ could have been a paranoid scitzophrenic and had delusions of grandeur?

Question

this is not really what i think...this is a research related question only.

Answer 1

Actually, if you try to read the Gospel of John objectively, Jesus does come off as somewhat paranoid. He says things seemingly out of the blue like "Why are you trying to kill me?"

And he did tell a large crowd of Israelites, who would have abhorred cannibalism, to eat his body and drink his blood. Without an explanation, that sounds totally crazy.

Addendum: I'm bothered by the believers here that couldn't, or wouldn't, begin to put themselves into the shoes of a nonbeliever, or even the shoes of a first-century Israelite seeing Jesus for the first time, and imagining how Jesus might appear to them. You take it for granted that everyone should just believe without question. Don't you realize how shallow that kind of "faith" is? If we're just to believe whatever we're told, how can we discern truth from falsehood? Don't you realize that the same message doesn't reach everyone in the exact same way?

Answer 2

No I don't think Jesus would have been mentally ill in any way. I think that Jesus' word is just misinterpreted. I believe that Jesus was a philosopher and preached to people about being better people and ways to do that. But I don't think he was really claiming that he was a son of a God and had been created through divine conception. I think along the way and through all the re-writings of the Bible that the truth got mixed up and lost in the translation. Like for example, I find it really hard to believe that Mary and Joesph were a married couple and NEVER got it on?! I think Jesus was just an enlightened man, who went against the grain of the norm for that period of time and was punished for it as so many people were before him and since him.

Answer 3

It's possible, but not likely. I think, if Jesus had any form of what is now considered mental illness, it would have been PTSD. To research this, look at all the times in the Gospels where they said of Jesus, "he has a demon". Usually they say this right after he has said or done something that we would now consider a sign of mental illness.
It's always interesting to consider historical figures in light of modern beliefs about the mind and its functions and dysfunctions. (eg, was Lincoln bipolar? did Mozart have Aspergers?) But no conclusions can be drawn for certain because
1. only a doctor can diagnose disease; a layperson can only guess
2. even if one were a doctor, one could diagnose a disease only after a personal examination of the patient.

Answer 4

That would be a logical explaination for "His" behaviour, if we could be certain He was a single real person. But it seems more likely that "Jesus Christ" is a legendary character created as a composite of a large number of 'charismatics' that lived in that era, and earned their livings by preaching a system of monotheism. This composite was created by the 55 or so men who wrote the bible as a political or governmental tool.

Answer 5

In the first place, there is no scientific evidence that the person of Jesus Christ ever existed. So any speculations about his character are just that and could hardly be called "research". He might have been mad, he might have been a fast-talking carpenter, he might have smoked things which did not agree with him, or he might be entirely fictional.

Answer 6

"If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me..." (John 10:37 RSV)

Isn't that amazing? Jesus said, "Do not believe me just because of my words, my claims. If God does not confirm what I say by works then you do not have to believe me."

"...but if I do them [the works of God], even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand [the most vital truth in all the universe] that the Father is in me and I am in the Father." (John 10:38 RSV)

What a startling claim! "Either Jesus is a totally mad person, on a par," as C. S. Lewis put it, "with a man who claims to be a poached egg -- out of his mind, uttering meaningless, garbled, rambling, megalomaniacal statements -- or he is telling the truth. And if he is telling the truth he is the most important Being in the universe. He is at the center of everything: He is the center of life, the giver of truth. Jesus of Nazareth is the center of everything. To ignore him is to grope in darkness, to live in rebellion, to miss out on joy, peace and love, and end at last as part of the world's fiery judgment."

Answer 7

I think Jesus was a very pious and good man, who taught the Jewish faith, as it should be lived. Then, he died. It was the ones who followed him who had the delusions of grandeur.

Answer 8

How would delusions of grandeur allow a person to calm the sea? walk on water? heal lepers and the blind? multiply food five thousand fold? raise the dead? change water into wine?
.

Answer 9

No. Jesus Christ was the son of God, sent to live a perfect life, and die on the cross for our sins, so that we could be reconciled with Him.

Answer 10

No. If he was mentally handicapped, then how did he perform the wonderful miracles. How could he tell the intelligent parables?? however, i must admit, if He was born in this generation-He would be admitted in a mental hospital with these being His diagnosis!