In a deviation from our regular focus on this website, today we will look at what I think is a case worthy of exception. The video "10 Myths About Jesus" has over 126,000 views and is by popular the YouTube channel "Alltime 10s", who have 5.64 million subscribers as of the 1st of July 2021. I could not believe my eyes or ears hearing this crude, shockingly ahistorical and conspiratorial video about alleged myths of Jesus hosted by a man called Sam who also runs his own YouTube channel. While what he says is Snarky, I don't believe Sam has any negative intentions and much of the blame may fall on the script writers but I cannot speculate and as Sam is the person presenting it, it is also his burden to make sure what he is presenting is appropriate and he evidently didn't protest to the tone or content of the video.
It is sad that such a large audience has been privy to such obvious garbage and it’s disheartening that such a large channel wouldn’t take more care with their research rather than consulting fringe sources and taking their claims without questioning them or validating them despite their aim to ‘bring you the most informative, fascinating and engaging top 10 videos on YouTube’. Sounds like blind faith. As a disclaimer, when quoting the 10 points, I’ve cut out any snarky commentary or general filler comments as it adds nothing to the weight of the points. The only times I’ve left snarky comments in is if I have something in particular to say about it aside from bemoaning it in general. The video is at the top of the article so I would encourage you watch each point before you read. In part one we will cover the first five points, numbers 10-6 of the countdown. 10. ‘Identity Crisis’. “Historians now mostly agree that the man we call Jesus was most likely known by the name Yeshua. So, why do we worship Jesus and not Yeshua? When early Christian texts were being translated into Greek, [Jesus] was called the nearest possible name, that name; Iesous. While that is the nearest correct translation into Greek, the Greek name Iesous translates into English as Jesus but the Hebrew name Yeshua translates into English as Joshua. Admittedly, these names are considered very similar by historians but still, it’s weird to think of people [worshipping Joshua].” It is true that some scholars, such as Michael Brown, say the name that Yeshua comes from, yehōshu'a, can be translated to Joshua but, as the video states, the name Jesus comes from translation and is a legitimate representation of His name in the English language. They even concede that even historians acknowledge the names are very similar, showing they’ve interacted with this view. When it is a legitimate translation of His name, it is hard to see where the myth is. Furthermore, the idea that people who worship Jesus aren’t worshipping Yeshua is illegitimate; Christians today are worshipping Yeshua. Interestingly, as a side note, the article Alltime 10s likely got all this information from [1] affirms that people who call Him Jesus are worshipping the same man as those who call him Yeshua, so the claim they don’t by Alltime 10s doesn’t look like an innocent mistake, it rather looks like they are picking and choosing what they want to hear. 9. ‘His Childhood’. “While the modern Bible has 27 official books, far more than that were originally written. One of the Bible’s deleted scenes, shall we say, is the Gospel of Infancy Thomas [Infancy Gospel of Thomas] which gives us an unprecedented and kind of mental look at Jesus’ childhood. Things get weird right at the start when a hoard of dragons come out of a cave to attack Mary and a two year old Jesus but upon seeing the Son of God in all His glory, the dragons are instantly tamed. Other incredible scenes from the Gospel of Infancy Thomas include …blowing up a snake and even killing another child for brushing up against Him. For instance, and I quote: “Jesus was provoked and said unto him; Thou shalt not finish thy course. And immediately, he fell down and died.”” There are reasons it wasn’t accepted as canonical and he cannot cite this as evidence pertaining to the Christian worldview. It’s just unreliable, false literature and irrelevant to the real Jesus. For the regular accounts of Jesus to be a myth, Sam would have to affirm that this narrative account is in fact true or reliable, which he doesn’t, so how is the regular story of Jesus a myth because of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas? 8. ‘An Only Child’. “It’s a strangely overlooked fact that Jesus was actually part of a large family and we’re not even taking this from apocrypha either. The books of Mark and Matthew both mention Joseph and Mary having four sons; Jesus, James, Judas and Simon. Jesus had sisters too and though they were never named, they were also frequently mentioned in the Bible. For example, in this passage from Mark: “Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon? Aren’t His sisters here with us as well?”” As a preface, it’s amusing that this time, Sam says “and we’re not even taking this from apocrypha either”, as if he’s trying to communicate that this time, it’s not so silly to bring up. Addressing the claim, brother doesn’t mean biological brother as it is taken in the video. The reason its ‘overlooked’ as meaning this is because it is well established what it actually means; the Greek ‘adelphos’ (ἀδελφός) doesn’t always mean blood brothers born of the same parents. It was used to denote half-brothers, step-brothers, cousins, nephews, uncles and so on. An example of this is in Genesis, where Abraham and Lot, uncle and nephew, are described as such. 14. Now when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were born in his own house, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. 15. He divided his forces against them by night, and he and his servants attacked them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus. 16. So he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the people. Genesis 14:14-16 (NKJV) The same is true for the meaning of sister if we take the word literally, used in 1 Chronicles, where cousins are described as sisters. 21. The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli were Eleazar and Kish. 22. And Eleazar died, and had no sons, but only daughters; and their brethren, the sons of Kish, took them as wives. 23. The sons of Mushi were Mahli, Eder, and Jeremoth—three in all. 1 Chronicles 23:21-23 (NKJV) This occurs because there are no distinct words for cousin, nephew or aunt, half-brother or half-sister, or step-brother or step-sister in Hebrew or Aramaic. Even without these distinctions, the Gospels are clear on the true lineage of Jesus’ brothers. James and Joseph were the sons of Mary of Cleophas. 40. Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome. Mark 15:40 (NKJV) As Mary of Cleophas is described as Mary’s sister, she must have been a cousin and hence James and Joseph are Jesus’ cousins. Judas was the son of James. 16. Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot who also became a traitor. Luke 6:16 (NKJV) Finally, just to put the nail in the coffin, Mary was obviously a virgin at Jesus’ birth and could not have been the biological mother of all these alleged biological brothers. 7. ‘The Carpenter’. “Most of us think that before He started preaching His sermons, …he worked as a carpenter and yeah, He may have.” So, not a myth? “But there is some ambiguity as to what specifically His job was. You see, we know from the Greek text of the Bible that He and His father both worked as a tektōn [τέκτων]. Thing is, that job title is kind of vague meaning something along the lines of artisan or craftsman. That obviously could cover carpentry but it also means that Jesus was a stonemason, a woodworker, a builder or a teacher engineer. Basically, we don’t know the specifics of Jesus’ job but what we do know is that He was good with His hands. Some even claim that tektōn could mean architect and that Joseph’s work actually meant Jesus grew up in the equivalent of a middle-class household.” Ambiguity doesn’t mean it’s a myth; a myth isn’t presented here as it isn’t inconsistent with the regular narrative. The architect idea is pure speculation and there is no evidence or good reason to assume this is true even without the idea of Jesus being in a middle-class household being contradictory to what else we know. However, even if we found that tektōn absolutely could not mean carpenter, it wouldn’t mean the original texts are inaccurate or mythical, it would just mean we didn’t understand them as well as we could have. The accounts wouldn’t be damaged because it’s the accounts he is appealing to in order to provide the alleged myth. 6. ‘12 Disciples’. “He had His core 12; He had Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Thomas, James, Andrew, [Peter], …Bartholomew, Simon…, Judas Iscariot and [the twelfth]. But actually, Jesus had a crew of as many as 70 disciples constantly following Him around listening to His teachings. Luke the evangelist mentions Jesus picking a crowd of 72 people to travel ahead of Him and make sure the locals were ready for His arrival, saying in Luke 10: “After this, the Lord appointed 70 others, and sent them ahead of Him two by two into every town and place where He Himself was about to go.” The main twelve were actually His apostles and ironically, they would have spent very little time with Jesus. Their job, after all, was to go out and spread the teachings of Jesus to other areas of the world.” Firstly, Sam gets the 12 disciples wrong. Mark and Luke aren’t Jesus’ apostles and he fails to name Philip (although this may be at the expense of a joke), he leaves out Judas, son of James, even though he had earlier referred to him in point number 8, and finally James, son of Alphaeus, or James the Younger. He also fails to mention that the 12 changed when Matthias replaced Judas Iscariot, which affects the premise of the video that the regular held Christian belief is that there were only 12 ever. Overall, the point doesn’t contravene the Gospel account because he is taking the 70 from the Gospel account, so it isn’t a myth. The 12 disciples were distinct from the 70; the 12 disciples were His core group and inner circle, constantly with Him, while the 70 were sent out after one period. I’m struggling to understand how he can use the Bible to show a secret to prove the Bible is a myth. There’s nothing new or inconsistent with the narrative, he’s literally using the narrative! Finally, while the apostles weren’t restricted to the 12 disciples, there were more who were apostles, this doesn’t mean they spent very little time with Jesus and worldly travels is a bit of an exaggeration as during Jesus’ time on earth, they were mostly travelling with Jesus and only after the Great Commission did they travel and spread out for extended periods of time as much as it is implied here. We will continue with the top 5 points in part two, where Alltime 10s really ramps up the falsehoods. References. [1] Hannah Preston, ‘Was Jesus’s Real Name Yeshua or Joshua and Is There A ‘Right’ Way to Identify the Son of God?’, https://www.newsweek.com/jesus-yeshua-joshua-there-right-way-identify-son-god-1270917.
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