B
BenYosef
Guest
I’m Jewish, a Reconstructionist at that, who neither believes that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah nor believes in supernatural miracles.
However, it should be noted that I totally accept Jesus of Nazareth as a sage of God, providential to the unfolding of the human historical experience, and thus definitely not some mistake or out of purpose with that historical providence.
That being said, the argument that Jesus could not have experienced a true human life merely because he was able to perform human miracles that could ease even his own personal pain (which, I know from my own reading of the Gospels in the Temptation in the Wilderness, Jesus demonstrated that he refused to use his abilities to do–see Matthew 4.1-11; Luke 4.1-13) is totally illogical.
ALL HUMANS can change the experience of a suffering human, even at times halt death and bring another person to life, and this doesn’t keep them from truly experience humanity.
Take for example doctors, nurses, and other trained personnel who heal and rescue people everyday. For your argument to apply to Jesus, this would mean that doctors, nurses, and even laypersons who bring healing, ease suffering, and from time to time stop death from occurring and even through some miracle or resuscitation bring another back to life do not truly experience humanity. Now we know that such is not true.
Consider many of the Jewish sages and prophets of Bible times, and even common people through whom God allowed to perform sometimes even one miracle to save the life of another in Scripture narratives. Your argument would mean that people like Moses, Elijah, Elisha, King David, and even the simple act of the prostitute and pagan Rahab would exclude them from living lives that would could them from truly experiencing humanity. And this is not to mention many, many others mentioned in Jewish Scripture. Some of these resurrected humans and even fed themselves through miracles.
In Christian Scripture, Peter and Paul perform similar miracles to Jesus, even resurrections. So I guess they are not human either.
Now again, to bring home the point, I don’t believe Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. But I don’t necessarily doubt he did the works of God or the things reported of him. I also don’t believe that the ability to perform miracles would rob anyone of a truly human experience. That is truly an idiot’s argument. Each time you eased someone’s pain or chanced the situation of things going wrong, that would mean you were no longer human too.
However, it should be noted that I totally accept Jesus of Nazareth as a sage of God, providential to the unfolding of the human historical experience, and thus definitely not some mistake or out of purpose with that historical providence.
That being said, the argument that Jesus could not have experienced a true human life merely because he was able to perform human miracles that could ease even his own personal pain (which, I know from my own reading of the Gospels in the Temptation in the Wilderness, Jesus demonstrated that he refused to use his abilities to do–see Matthew 4.1-11; Luke 4.1-13) is totally illogical.
ALL HUMANS can change the experience of a suffering human, even at times halt death and bring another person to life, and this doesn’t keep them from truly experience humanity.
Take for example doctors, nurses, and other trained personnel who heal and rescue people everyday. For your argument to apply to Jesus, this would mean that doctors, nurses, and even laypersons who bring healing, ease suffering, and from time to time stop death from occurring and even through some miracle or resuscitation bring another back to life do not truly experience humanity. Now we know that such is not true.
Consider many of the Jewish sages and prophets of Bible times, and even common people through whom God allowed to perform sometimes even one miracle to save the life of another in Scripture narratives. Your argument would mean that people like Moses, Elijah, Elisha, King David, and even the simple act of the prostitute and pagan Rahab would exclude them from living lives that would could them from truly experiencing humanity. And this is not to mention many, many others mentioned in Jewish Scripture. Some of these resurrected humans and even fed themselves through miracles.
In Christian Scripture, Peter and Paul perform similar miracles to Jesus, even resurrections. So I guess they are not human either.
Now again, to bring home the point, I don’t believe Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. But I don’t necessarily doubt he did the works of God or the things reported of him. I also don’t believe that the ability to perform miracles would rob anyone of a truly human experience. That is truly an idiot’s argument. Each time you eased someone’s pain or chanced the situation of things going wrong, that would mean you were no longer human too.