Bible Interpretation and History

I think it's a very interesting topic, but as I am neither a Christian nor a bibical scholar I've been waiting to see what folks say.I'll toss this out as an alternate viewpoint possibly hinted at but not supported by New Testatement books. If Paul was not talking about a spiritual Christ in a spirit realm but was in some way basing his ideas on the teachings of an actual person, then I hold that it is just possible a devout Jew experienced awakening and tried to convey his consciousness "the kingdom of Heaven is within" but was killed before he had a chance to develop his followers understanding.If this were the case then he, Jesus, would be what Hindus call an avatar and Buddhist call a Buddha. That is he was an actual human being with a functioning human nervous system and all that entails but he had lost the sense of himself as a separate individual and experienced the wholeness that he was part of and thus is. There are a number of sayings attribute to Jesus that point to this such as those where he says he does nothing but it's the father doing through him. This is because awakening involves the loss of the sense of being a separate doer and instead experiencing oneself as just one node that the whole chain of causation as it were were happening through.This idea is of course neither Jewish or Christian. To me it is the best explanation of what it means to be human and divine and what it means to say that "Christ lives not me".My objection is to the political tyranny of insisting that Jesus and especially if not exclusively the particular political party (church) that I belong to is the sole authority. So I think it's possible that Jesus is an avatar or Buddha. If that is the case his unfortunate early death cut short his teachings. The Buddha and Ramana for example had decades to work with people and deliver their understanding.lfen

Well, the early Christians interpreted the Old Testament to support their religion. Seems only turn about is fair play if modern Christians do that to their own testament! lfen

Good point!lfen

I'm not sure actually. Interpretation can cover a lot of ground. The Jews and Early Christians and contemporaneously on this very forum Iano among others all practised Midrash so that has a venerable tradition.lfen